Advertising through Alternate Reality Games
Imagine a world of mystery and excitement, adventure and fantasy, waiting for you to explore. A world that reacts to your every move, with characters and companies that talk to you, send you messages, and even give you items to help you in your quest. A world so immersive that you can no longer tell where the reality ends and the fiction begins. Welcome to the world of Alternate Reality Gaming.
www.immersivegaming.com
Definition:
According to the definition of Wikipedia, an Alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.
In other words, it is the fact that participants are interacting with the fictional world using things that you use every day to interact with the real world. That is to say, one may visit websites, send or receive emails, give or receive phone calls, as well as using newspapers as support or places in cities. The most common supports of real life used in the games are the following:
Emails
Websites
Phone calls
Mails
Press articles
Postings in newspapers
Chat or Instant messages
Forums
Objects of the real world linked to the game in play
Events of the real world involving actors, interacting with player that are assisting the representation
Among the terms essential to understand ARGs are:
Puppetmaster: the individual involved in designing and/or running an ARG (but here in our case of advertising, it refers more to the company that is promoting its product). Puppetmasters are simultaneously allies and adversaries to the player base, creating ob ...