Play to Pay

Where to From Here?

While the media has embraced alternate reality gaming, many genre experts realized the term itself had morphed into a kicky catch phrase for any online entertainment experience that didn't belong in another category, and over the past year the community has been working to redefine the term "ARG," or at least describe it better. There's yet to be any consensus, but new terminology, like late 2006's "chaotic fiction," has become popular. This state of affairs has led to a growing split in development focus; however, that is seen as a positive trend. ARGs with a heavy gameply emphasis and less narrative are steadily increasing, and some narrative ARGs are taking approaches with fewer puzzles to solve.

ARG designers are also recognizing the need to expand the genre and are encouraging new developers to get into the field, as well as trying to make the creation process more open to the casual observer. Adrian and Dan Hon recently launched "Let's Change the Game," a competition specifically created to design an ARG to raise awareness for Cancer Research UK's work.

As the genre grows, it's getting too big for its advertising-based britches. Freelance ARG writer Brooke Thompson says, "We're close to finding that Holy Grail of the self-sufficient alternate reality game, where instead of being tacked on to an advertising campaign, the game experience will be able to support sponsors. Companies are paying a ton of money to get a piece of a movie that might be in theaters for a month or two and, more importantly, people [are] in the seats for only two to three hours at a time. They could be paying to support a game that's going on that long with people immersed in the experience for a much longer time."

And Thompson's right; people are coming to ARGs in droves. New companies like Aporia Cross-Media Entertainment, VirtuQuest, nDreams, Studio Cypher and GMD Studios have added their names to the growing list of ARG developers.

ARG aficionados have a full menu from which to select heading into 2008, including the continuation of Dark Knight (based on the upcoming Batman film), 1-18-08/Cloverfield (film), Tom Tooman (television, Jericho), the long running Eldrich Errors and recently launched Silver Ladder. The ARG industry provides exciting directions to explore for player, creator and potential investor alike. The future is bright for the genre that started within the shadows.

Nova Barlow is the Research Manager for The Escapist, Tap Interactive and is a fan of studying ARGs.