Community and genre growth Alternate reality game

1 community , genre growth

1.1 grassroots development
1.2 community development
1.3 first experience in video games

community , genre growth

the years after beast saw independent developers had played extend form one-time occurrence new genre of gaming, , formation of ever-growing community devoted playing, designing , discussing args.

grassroots development

influenced heavily beast , enthusiastic power of collaboration, several cloudmakers came idea create similar game. first effort make independent beast-like game, ravenwatchers, failed, team assembled , met greater success. little experience behind them, group managed, after 9 months of development, create viable game seized upon eagerly cloudmakers group , featured in wired magazine. players of beast, members of lockjaw development team extremely aware of community playing game , took steps encourage tight bonding of player base through highly collaborative puzzles, weekly euchre games, , inclusion of player personas in game. while numbers never rivaled of beast, game proved both possible developers create these games without corporate funding or promotion, , there interest in arg form beyond one-time audience production on beast s scale. lockjaw marked start of arg genre of gaming, rather one-time occurrence.

shortly before lockjaw s conclusion, players discovered game seemed revolve around movie minority report. despite speculation contrary, game (known exocog) not official promotion film, experiment in interactive storytelling jim miller. inspired independent lockjaw effort, dave szulborski introduced changeagents, spinoff of ea s failed majestic arg, argn audience, followed 2 additional installments. during time, szulborski created successful grassroots game not based on majestic universe, called chasing wish. before release of third , final matrix movie, team developed lockjaw launched metacortechs, arg based on universe. fan fiction effort successful, reached larger , more active player base many professionally produced games, , @ first assumed many officially sanctioned promotion movie. metacortechs followed ever-increasing number of grassroots args.

in wake of these successful, low-budget independent args, active grassroots development community began evolve within genre. while quality of grassroots games varies wildly, amateur storytellers, web designers, , puzzle creators continue provide independently developed args active player community.

community development

the term alternate reality gaming first used sean stacey, 1 of moderators of lockjaw player community, in trail game. stacey , steve peters, of moderators, created 2 websites have become central hub of arg community: argn , unfiction. due efforts, when lockjaw ended, players had new community resource allowing them assemble play games follow. unfiction boasts on 32,000 members, , argn employs staff of 15 volunteer writers report on new games , other topics of interest community, producing weekly netcast.

a first experience in video games

although not considered pure alternate reality game, missing since january ( in memoriam in europe) video game based on same principles appear in arg: online enquiry, game entering players real life environment, willingly confusing reality , fiction (real fact-based sites, emails...). developed 1999 onwards french studio lexis numérique, missing since january launched ubisoft in europe in october 2003 , dreamcatcher in in january 2004. in missing since january, using internet, player must attempt decode mysterious cd rom broadcast police in order find 2 missing people abducted serial killer. more hundred sites created purpose. , large, player advances in enquiry, contacted different characters send emails. follow-up, appeared in 2006 under title evidence: last ritual ( in memoriam 2, last ritual in europe) allowed players receive text messages , speak on phone characters in game.