Using Alternate-Reality Game Elements in OSMO
Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2009 4:26 pmHey, everybody. I'm pretty new here. Name's Dr. Worm. I've been thinking about how interesting storylines could be used in OSMO, and I thought of something recently. Why not use ARG plot devices?
For anyone who doesn't know what an ARG is (these are hard to describe, so bear with me):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
An Alternate Reality Game is a form of interactive game that uses multiple media to create a sense that the game is real. For example, a game about an artificial intelligence stuck in the Internet could have the "AI" make telephone calls to certain players in the game and have phone conversations with them that advance the plot. These games usually revolve around solving mysteries, so Uru would be perfect for this.
Here's a quote from the Wikipedia article about one of the earliest successful ARGs:
These games use websites, email messages, telephone numbers, phone conversations, actors on location in the real world, and (this is only for the big-budget professional ones) even ads on TV and in other places to create the illusion that the game is taking place in the real world.
Uru is already an ARG on some level. IC blogs abound. The DRC website looks like a legitimate corporate site at first glance. My question is: does anyone have interest in expanding on this and having part of the game take place "on the surface?" Would anyone be interested in, say, finding clues in a storyline in Uru that lead you to the personal blog of one of the story's characters, which in turn contains hidden clues to solve the mysteries of the story? I think it could potentially add to the intrigue in certain storylines. Any opinions?
For anyone who doesn't know what an ARG is (these are hard to describe, so bear with me):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
An Alternate Reality Game is a form of interactive game that uses multiple media to create a sense that the game is real. For example, a game about an artificial intelligence stuck in the Internet could have the "AI" make telephone calls to certain players in the game and have phone conversations with them that advance the plot. These games usually revolve around solving mysteries, so Uru would be perfect for this.
Here's a quote from the Wikipedia article about one of the earliest successful ARGs:
In 2001, in order to market the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Stanley Kubrick's unfinished project but also a planned series of Microsoft computer games based on the film, Microsoft's Creative Director Jordan Weisman and another Microsoft game designer, Elan Lee, conceived of an elaborate murder mystery played out across hundreds of websites, email messages, faxes, fake ads, and voicemail messages. They hired Sean Stewart, an award-winning science fiction/fantasy author, to write the story. The game, dubbed "the Citizen Kane of online entertainment" by Internet Life,[9] was a runaway success[10] that involved over three million active participants [11] from all over the world during its run and would become the seminal example of the nascent ARG genre.
These games use websites, email messages, telephone numbers, phone conversations, actors on location in the real world, and (this is only for the big-budget professional ones) even ads on TV and in other places to create the illusion that the game is taking place in the real world.
Uru is already an ARG on some level. IC blogs abound. The DRC website looks like a legitimate corporate site at first glance. My question is: does anyone have interest in expanding on this and having part of the game take place "on the surface?" Would anyone be interested in, say, finding clues in a storyline in Uru that lead you to the personal blog of one of the story's characters, which in turn contains hidden clues to solve the mysteries of the story? I think it could potentially add to the intrigue in certain storylines. Any opinions?
