November 05, 2004
Alternate Reality Games
Two “alternate reality games” are in the news today. Gamers play via SMS, voice messages, Web sites, WAP, moblogs, MMS, ringtones…
The International Herald Tribune reports on a game called I love bees - “an immersive, endlessly intricate hybrid of scavenger hunts and role-playing adventures”.
And near near future reports on “Vienen por ellas” (They come for them), “a Chilean ARG game (game of alternative reality), created for Telefonica, that mixes the real world with the game world”.
According to the The IHT, the genre began with “The Beast,” an online mystery loosely connected to the 2001 Steven Spielberg film “A.I.”
“I Love Bees,” which comes to an end Thursday, has become far more popular than any of its predecessors, with Internet traffic 10 times that of “The Beast.” More than a quarter-million visitors went to ilovebees.com on the day it was launched in August. As many as 500,000 gamers returned to the site every time the game was updated, about once a week, according to Jim Stewartson, 4orty2wo Entertainment’s chief technology officer.”
