<![CDATA[Kotaku: Args]]> http://cache.kotaku.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/kotaku.com.png <![CDATA[Kotaku: Args]]> http://kotaku.com/tag/args http://kotaku.com/tag/args <![CDATA[Red Cross Offers Traces Of Hope]]> The Red Cross has launched a charity Alternate Reality Game called Traces Of Hope. Set in Uganda, the game lets you use real-world internet resources like email, Facebook and search engines to help guide a sixteen year old refugee - Joseph - back to his mother. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5065381&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA['Performative Play': Games and the 'Real World']]> Ian Bogost has an interesting essay up on Gamasutra, this one on the performative aspects of video games. The beloved word of anthropologists and linguists the world over, the concept of something being 'performative' is when something has the ability to do something itself when it is thrown out in the big bad world. So, what does this have to do with games?: More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5022278&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Building Another World - The Year Zero ARG]]> Wired's Frank Rose takes an interesting look at the world of alternate reality games, tracking Trent Reznor's Year Zero ARG, in which he creates a future world ruled by Christian dictatorship, besieged by terrorists and wracked by climate change. The article explores the work that goes into creating a successful ARG and tracks the Nine Inch Nails game from start to finish. He speaks to 42 Entertainment's Jordan Weisman, who neatly sums up the appeal of games that go beyond the consoles and computers into the real world.
"Games are about engaging with the most entertaining thing on the planet," he says, sipping coffee in his guesthouse, "which is other people."
How much fun is it to pull off a good April Fools prank? Now imagine doing that to thousands of people at once. Seems pretty damn entertaining to me. More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=338245&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Weird ARG Mail Not Welcome]]> Alice at Wonderland reports on some weird mail she got recently.
Yesterday, I received a package at work, addressed to me. My assistant opened it - a standard brown-paper photographs envelope - and looked worried. The contents were weird and scary-looking: a photocopied military report of some sort with a small brown envelope stapled to it. She looked at me: "ugh! What's in the envelope!? Anthrax?" ... I'm not going to find out: it's going straight in the bin. Nearly gave poor Carys a heart attack, and we both felt compelled to wash our hands after handling this stupid thing.
Having heard from another colleague who got a similar package, she suspects it might be parts of an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) — and one of the comments on Wonderland suggests it might be an ARG for the forthcoming EA title Crysis. As a still-fledgling genre of "big game" with only a few examples that are not promotions (mostly for other videogames!), is this the best way to spread interest in the form? More »
]]> http://kotaku.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=322047&view=rss&microfeed=true