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 games: alternate reality gaming
Get perplexed. Alongside the more traditional forms of gaming that involve sticking discs in your console or computer, an intriguing new approach has emerged lately which offers a very different type of experience: alternate reality gaming. This is gaming that involves an elaborate network of websites, emails and other information where the real and the fictional are blended. The genre's earlier, best know examples were The Beast and I Love Bees, which were viral marketing campaigns for the film A.I. and the game Halo 2. Today, however, the games aren't necessarily marketing tools; one key example is Perplex City, developed by Michael Smith and Adrian Hon of British company Mind Candy.CEO Michael Smith has a background in games – in the wider sense – inventing modern variants on chess and jigsaw puzzles before initiating Perplex City itself. "I had the original idea in 1999 but it took another four years before I felt ready to launch Mind Candy and begin developing Perplex City," he says. But what is Perplex City, and what sort of experience can it offer the player?  "It's not an easy concept to describe!" says Smith. "Perplex City is a global treasure hunt that is played simultaneously by thousands of people via email, web, mobile, print and a wide range of other media. It's part story, part game and part puzzle." As such, despite such a game being thoroughly contemporary in its realisation – and in its reliance on HTML, MMS and the like – its origins arguably lie in older cultural activities, like the classic treasure hunt book Masquerade by Kit Williams ("I was a big fan of Masquerade and felt that it was high time someone updated that concept," says Smith), or even experimental TV like The Adventure Game. "We've taken inspiration from a wide range of sources while developing the concept," says Smith. "Some examples include The Matrix, Masquerade, The Nokia Game, Alice in Wonderland, MMOs, The Blair Witch Project, Ghostwatch, [William Gibson’s] Pattern Recognition and, dare I say, even the Da Vinci Code!"  People can get involved with Perplex City by visiting its site, which provides backstory and the starting point clues. ARGs tend to be collaborative experiences, so Smith says the next step for newbies is to "visit one of the many community sites that are following the game." Everyone can have a different experience, though. Smith says some players want “immerse themselves in every aspect, spending countless hours a day analysing all the tiny details. Conversely, other players are happy to simply work on the puzzle cards without ever visiting an in-game website or chatting to another player." Most of all, however, such an ARG "offers an incredibly immersive entertainment experience." ARGs are certainly a fascinating new development in gaming culture. As Smith says, "the genre is still in its infancy, but has I think a hugely exciting future. We've barely scratched the surface of what can be achieved with this new form of storytelling and gameplay."
Daniel Etherington
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 playstation 2 games #133 xbox 360games #132  call of duty 2 games #131 20 years of mario games #130 gaming awardsgames #129 books  books and comics archive Author interviews and reviews from 2002 to 2008. |
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