The Beast Alternate reality game

in 2001, in order market movie a.i.: artificial intelligence directed steven spielberg , based on stanley kubrick s unfinished project planned series of microsoft computer games based on film, microsoft s creative director jordan weisman , microsoft game designer, elan lee, conceived of elaborate murder mystery played out across hundreds of websites, email messages, faxes, fake ads, , voicemail messages. hired sean stewart, award-winning science fiction/fantasy author, write story , pete fenlon, experienced adventure game world builder, serve developer , content lead. game, dubbed citizen kane of online entertainment internet life, runaway success involved on 3 million active participants on world during run , become seminal example of nascent arg genre. asset list project contained 666 files, prompting game s puppetmasters dub beast , name later adopted players. large , extremely active fan community called cloudmakers formed analyze , participate in solving game, , combined intellect, tenacity , engagement of group forced puppetmasters create new subplots, devise new puzzles, , alter elements of design keep ahead of player base. unusual computer-based game, production drew players wide spectrum of age groups , backgrounds.

although beast ran 3 months, prompted formation of highly organized , intensely engaged community remains active years after game concluded. perhaps more significantly, inspired number of participants create games adapting , expanding model, extending anomalous one-time occurrence new genre of entertainment , allowing community grow after beast concluded. members of cloudmakers group went on form argn, primary news source genre, , unfiction, central community hub, designing first successful , played indie args, such lockjaw , metacortechs, , corporate efforts such perplex city.