week8

Alternate reality games - 'The Beast'

(from wikipedia)

In 2001, in order to market the movie A.I.: Artificial Intelligence directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Stanley Kubrick's unfinished project but also a planned series of Microsoft computer games based on the film, Microsoft's Creative Director, Jordan Weisman, and another Microsoft game designer, Elan Lee, conceived of an elaborate murder mystery played out across hundreds of websites, email messages, faxes, fake ads, and voicemail messages. They hired Sean Stewart, an award-winning science fiction/fantasy author, to write the story. The game, dubbed "the Citizen Kane of online entertainment" by Internet Life,^[8] was a runaway success^[9] that involved over three million active participants ^[10] from all over the world during its run and would become the seminal example of the nascent ARG genre. An early asset list for the project contained 666 files, prompting the game's puppetmasters to dub it "the Beast," a name which was later adopted by players.^[11] A large and extremely active fan community called the Cloudmakers formed to analyze and participate in solving the game,^[12] and the combined intellect, tenacity and engagement of the group soon forced the puppetmasters to create new subplots, devise new puzzles, and alter elements of the design to keep ahead of the player base.^[13] Somewhat unusual for a computer-based game, the production engaged equal numbers of male and female participants,^[14] and drew players from a wide spectrum of age groups and backgrounds.

Although the Beast ran for only three months, it prompted the formation of a highly organized and intensely engaged community that remains active^[15] years after the game concluded. Perhaps more significantly, it inspired a number of its participants to create games adapting and expanding the model, extending it from an anomalous one-time occurrence to a new genre of entertainment and allowing the community to grow even after the Beast itself concluded. Members of the Cloudmakers group went on to form ARGN, the primary news source for the genre, and Unfiction, its central community hub, as well as designing the first successful and widely-played indie ARGs, such as LockJaw and Metacortechs, and corporate efforts such as Perplex City.