This Is Not a Game, Again
by Ryan FreitasAn internal AP mailing list has been buzzing since Amanda Willoughby asked, “What are the top 10 books, papers, websites, or objects had the most influence on your work, inspired you, or made you a better person?” I knew that as soon as I answered, I’d end up kicking myself for forgetting to include someone or something that I’d be mortified not to have mentioned.
Wouldn’t you know, I forgot to list Jane McGonigal’s This Is Not A Game: Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play, her seminal paper on the alternate reality game (or ARG) known as The Beast, it’s “players” and their methods of collaboration. It’s a delightful read, and it was at the front of my mind this weekend when I learned about something that can only be the emergence of another full-fledged ARG.
It seems that as both a political statement and a promotion for the upcoming Nine Inch Nails album “Year Zero”, Trent Reznor has orchestrated a full-fledged immersive game that spans from encoded messages on T-shirts to dozens of microsites to thumb drives with leaked tracks. It’s complex, potentially controversial and gaining a significant amount of press attention only two weeks after it first came to light.
I’ve already spent a couple hours perusing the 360+ pages of threaded posts on the message boards at Echoing the Sound, where (much like the original Cloudmakers group board) the game is being discussed and dissected as it unfolds. It’s all rather impressive, both in scope and in its message, which is strongly anti-establishment (these links come with a strong content warning: the game kicks off with audio from an alleged “sniper shooting”). As the Year Zero approaches its puzzles will be tackled, and I’m excited to see how this group of players works together to solve and experience the whole thing.
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February 28th, 2007 at 2:20 am
Interesting to see a post about this because I was going to do the same a few days ago. I’m a big NIN fan, and it surprised me (maybe it shouldn’t have?) to see them go the ARG route for an album promotion.
The whole experience so far has been so meticulously crafted that it’s pretty hard not to go look for new stuff about it every day. I need to read this paper, too, thanks for bringing it to our (the readers) attention.
February 28th, 2007 at 5:06 am
You might like to attend the Argfestocon ARG conference which is being held in SF this weekend. Only $10 to register. The folks from 42Entertainment who ran the Beast and Jan McG are talking. Details are here http://www.argfestocon.com/
Jane is also running a game of Cruel2BKind right before the Adapative Path party on Friday night in SOMA if you were looking for something to do prior to the party.
February 28th, 2007 at 10:16 am
@ Fred - the Year Zero ARG has been very well put together up to this point. We’ll see if its creators display the same flexibility as the Beast’s did once player inertia starts increasing the rates of solution generation. I do hope you enjoy Jane’s paper, it’s a personal favorite.
@ Ben - Thank you for letting me know about ARGfestocon! I just got registered for Saturday. Here’s hoping I’m not too worse for wear after our Anniversary Party on Friday night. Oh, and thanks for the invite for Cruel2BKind, but I’ll be busy getting the office ready for having everyone over. Hope to see you at the party or the con.