Feature: 'The Rise Of ARGs'

In today's main feature article, Adrian Hon, co-creator of the new Perplex City ARG, provides a short introduction to alternate reality games for video game developers, looking at their short history and promising future, from Majestic through ilovebees.com and beyond. Adrian comments, in the introduction to his feature: "In the last four years, alternate reality games (ARGs) have emerged as one of the most promising new gaming genres, fueled by a number of high profile games including "The Beast" (a promotion for the movie A.I.), Majestic, "Push Nevada" and most recently, "I Love Bees". These ARGs have immersed millions of players in complex and involving "alternate reality" storylines that takes place not only on the Internet, but through every conceivable media including phone calls, newspapers, radio, television, movies, and real life actors. With the notable exception of EA's Majestic, all major ARGs to date have been promotions for other products. While they have demonstrated their use as a cost-effective and entertaining way to promote a product many times, ARGs deserve serious consideration - especially from independent developers - as a way to grow and distribute unique intellectual property. In the increasingly crowded gaming market, anything that makes a game stand out is essential, and alternate reality games can fulfill that goal in myriad ways." You can now read the full Gamasutra feature on the subject, and free registration is not required for this feature, making it easily linkable.