Of course, the more people take the survey, the better the results will be, so please take the survey now, and tell other ARG players and developers about it, too. It should only take a few minutes and the results should be interesting all around. The survey will close to responses on March 11, 2010.

Thanks for your cooperation!

Congratulations to all the attendees of the 2009 argfestocon in Portland Oregon.  After much debating and sharing, the writers, web designers, artists, academics, film producers, directors, puppet-masters, and players have created a 26 bullet point list that clearly defines the ARG genre as a whole.

Beginning Monday, July 20th, 2009, all ARG designers must adhere to the aforementioned bullet-point list before “going live” with their work.  All present ARGs are excluded from the bulleted list adherence requirement, except unless “beginning a new chapter”.  In such case, the new work will be required to comply.

Read the rest at Friartech — it’s definitely worth the click.

To be fair, what you describe is the same here in the US market (but I don’t think it is innovation they fear, it is perceived riskiness.) Over the years, I’ve found a few techniques that can be helpful in making that case.

1. Lead with measurement. An ARG (or other innovation) shouldn’t be something that’s unmeasureable, or means buying into some alternate metrics schema. Find out what bell the client wants to ring (perception, awareness, sales, etc.) and show how you’ll show them you’re ringing that bell.

2. No ARG is an island. No one should be pitching to an agency doing an ARG instead of an advertising campaign: focus on how the ARG element of a campaign to help every other channel produce more results. After all, that media spend is where you’re going to build your audience.

3. Explain away the chaos. Help an agency understand that they’ll be able to manage you managing the chaos, show them the kinds of documents you’ll use to do that.

4. Evangelize the power of iteration. Help an agency understand that unlike traditional campaigns, those metrics and processes will allow you to improve the chances of success from direct audience feedback.

None of those things necessarily solve all the problems for every agency and client and market, but if I go in anticipating those kinds of concerns I find I can derail a lot of the more common fear-based objections. And, to be honest, that advice is more general than ARGs (as similar rules work for other places where you’re helping an agency innovate outside of their core practice.)

We recently completed the final pilot of the European Union funded education project ARGuing for Multilingual Motivation in Web 2.0..  This project has built an ARG to promote language learning in secondary school students called ‘The Tower of Babel’…We will be presenting academic papers on the project at the forthcoming  European Association for Games in Education conference in October, Graz, Austria and will be placing documentation on the project website as well.

Check out the ARGuing summary video if you’re interested in ARGs in education, or ARGs in Europe, or ARGs in general!

Future-Making Serious Games has more ARGuing coverage.

Aside from organizing information about an ongoing game, these websites also serve as archives when the games are finished.  The experience, the process of playing the game is often captured.  In fact, there are also sites dedicated to archiving information about ARGs past (although, curiously, none of them ever seemed to get past the planning stage).

Here are some sites organizing information about ongoing and, possibly, past games:

• Despoiler
• Wikibruce
• Unfiction Unforums (check the Archive section down at the end in particular)

A couple intended as “ARG archives”:

• ARGhive
• ARGdb

And, just for fun, check out one very detailed and specific website: The Metaurchins Book Project.  (Also available in a high-quality book form, buy it to support Unfiction today!)

Part 1 of the interview
Part 2 of the interview

Part 2 is particularly interesting (for us) for its mention of ARGs, including the question “As you note, there is now a rush towards corporate sponsorship of Alternate Reality Games. What factors should a company consider before entering this space?”.  There’s some weighing in by Jordan Weisman, and later on in the interview is a mention of Superstruct.  So, check out the interview and see if you’re interested in the book!

With sessions and panels by leading ARG designers, academics and educators in the field, this conference is an exceptional introduction to ’serious ARGs’. For developers and commissioners of ARGs, it’s a great chance to learn about recent games and developments in the UK and around the world, and to network with key players.

• ARG Definition by mez and J. James Bono
• ARG Design Links by Christy Dena
• ARG Developers by Michelle Senderhauf, and Jan Libby
• ARG FAQs by Wendy Despain
• ARGs in Education & Training by Alex Moseley, Bryan Alexander & J. James Bono
• Awarded ARGs by Christy Dena
• History of ARGs by Michelle Senderhauf
• How to Play ARGs (links) by Christy Dena
• What are ARGs to You?
• ARGology logo: Marc Williams (logo will be up soon!)
• Website Management and Hosting generously provided by John Evans

Send us your feedback, ideas and contributions, through comments or by emailing any of the current contributors. Welcome to ARGology!