So, it looks like Iron Man 2 is joining the ARG movement.  The rabbithole for this appears to have been a Stark Industries recruiter wandering around Comic-con.  Here’s a link to what was on the business cards she was handing out.  This will take you to the website: www.starkindustriesnow.com which has a letter from “Tony” and a link to apply for employment with Stark Industries.  Some of the questions are fairly stereotypical like employment history, but others like this: “What term describes the superposition of two or more waves resulting in a new wave pattern?” are a little trickier.  I applied, but have yet to receive anything, maybe I didn’t get the physics questions rights… In addition, several ‘news articles’ have been released: link and here.  The best people can do is look at what words are darkened, and the clipping below of the man walking on air.  Is it related?  This is definitely generating some buzz, but from an ARG perspective, a LOT of people are scratching their heads trying to figure what the clues mean and what to do with them. If anybody has any clue please drop me a line, in the meantime we can memorize what’s been released and hopefully a new clue will emerge that we will lead us in the right direction besides in circles…?

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I just had a great phone conversation about Alternate Reality Gaming with Jake Kahle.  In it we discussed that the majority of ARGs are being used to market video games, movies, tv, et cetera. But I’ve been thinking what else can we use them for?  And since most of these ARGs are being run very large scale, can small businesses possibly get in on this new… tool? game? technique? life?  So I thought of two different scenarios in which ARGs could be used to 1.) build community and ties 2.) be implemented by a small business

1.) The Secrets of the Omega Society:Where do most people today build a significant number of their life long connections? Colleges! So I thought why couldn’t a college especially during orientation, begin and run an ARG.  The plot could surround a secret society (the Omega Society) known for having the best dorms, best seats at sport’s events, private galas, the top students, etc. (all kinds of good rumors to get students involved).  The rabbit hole could be something like a clue in the orientation pamphlet (perhaps the secret societies’ symbol is a greek character Omega?) or perhaps, there is a website for students to log into to create a social profile for the university and located at the bottom is a link a la the Net. Maybe a short ‘home video’ style runs on campus tv at 1 am that is a student hiding in the omege societies lair (he gives his name which if payers look up takes them either to his facebook page, or to an article he wrote for the university 4 years ago on the society). Either way, the game should leave clues that require a range of different types of students to complete.  There should be math clues to encourage those students to become involved, items placed near sporting equipment so those s inclined would see them.  In addition, bury the various clues in the different orientation events in order to drive new students to these to build up attendance and traditional ice breaker techniques.  Recruit different RAs, tourguides, freshman advisors, an even professors to act as puppet masters.  The ARG would culminate in an initiation ceremony involving the winning team, and prizes awarded in the form of box seats to sporting events, a nice quad for Omega Society members.  The nice thing about this one is that it could be possible to recruit one year’s winners to be the next year’s puppetmasters!

2. Secret of the Stolen Recipe: For this one we’ll go back to my first post about a small restaurant here in Missoula, MT.  Here is a way for a small business to possibly run an ARG on their own.  The rabbit hole for this one would be to place a new item on the restaurant menu, but have a piece of tape or something to look last minute placed over the item with a note saying: “due to unforeseen circumstances this menu item has been pulled”.  Waiters/waitresses acting as puppetmasters if asked could vaguely reference someone trying to buy out the restaurant which if looked up would send to a social profile or perhaps a few fake ‘news’ sites talking about th same guy buying up buildings in the area, maybe there is a clue written in the bathrooms saying: “I know who has the recipe” with some some numbers scrawled below (the numbers lead to a GPS coordinate AND a google maps location both with a new clue of some kind).  The idea is that this gentlemen is stole this prize winning (another hook!) recipe in order to keep the restaurant from earning a bunch more money so he could buy it for some nefarious purpose (perhaps to get to the hidden prohibition-era treasure hidden in the building?) The key here would be try and keep as many of the clues in the restaurant thus driving customers back to find out the next clue, and to involve LOCAL scenery and people as much as possible.   The goal would be to generate more community feelings around the restaurant, increase brand awareness, and bring in new customers.  Many of the clues would require man hours but little cost. Maybe paying for a po box to drive someone there, some URLS to create dummy pages, maybe a two day ad in the local paper, but that would be about it. And even those if done write could be cut out all together.  The culmination of the game could be a date and time, along with the gps coordinates of the restaurant.  The time would be for when the restaurant is not open, and whoever shows up with the correct password could be treated to a free sampling of the ‘stolen recipe’.

These are just two of the many different ways in which ARGs could be used in ways other than for tv, movies, and video games.  The key is that people have fun. If you have any other ideas for innovative ways to use ARGs please, pass them along.

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