ARG Playing and Making

Students Reflecting on the Future of ARGs

ARG Futures by Caden Adam

Important Aspects in ARG Design and Deployment:

ARG Design and Deployment offer are the most valuable and important aspects for an ARG. For the Design, the aspects would include the look and style of the layout and overall game. From the interfaces used for the devices in game, to what the game looks like out in the real world and in the virtual world. Keeping a strong consistency between them blending the two reality and makes the game more realistic for the players.

Atmosphere is created in the real world to enhance the game-play, whether it be; serious and dark and on a countdown and time limit, or light-hearted and fun. It is a required aspect for game-play for it to be successful. However it’s not all just about design that would make an ARG, the deployment of the game is also crucial. Deployment of tasks, clues, items and other things, is a crucial point and can make or break an ARG. The team has to develop a balance between giving tasks and clues, if the clues are too hard and to many while the tasks are too easy and far between clues. It’ll render the game useless and the players would get annoyed however you can’t make it all easy and have a tonne of them which makes the game to slow and under stimulating. The key to this is, dumb it down (A LOT) The team that developed the game is so used to the ideas, designs, game-play and story, they forget that the players have no clue what is going to happen. A lot of the games get dragged down because it becomes too complex and tough for the players to understand or complete.

Response on the field and future of ARGs:

ARGs will grow continuously into a fun way of doing events, in a small or large scale. Whether it’s casual, a community project, for an event or marketing used by corporate companies, ARGs will expand into something everyone has heard of and at least played once. I think it’ll evolve into something big and companies would use it as a creative instrument for their marketing in the future.

What opportunities would ARGs hold in the future:

Opportunities given to ARGs in the future would both be that of social skills and problem solving to prizes given or a way to create jobs or attract people to various companies and campaigns. Opportunities like creating an ARG for a new product, is that it not only showcases the company but also the product and create a “buzz” for it to make sales. This can be more effective if the sole campaign is focused on the ARG. Opportunities given on a personal level helps develop skills from team work, problem solving to social skills.

Limitations on ARGs:

Even though eventually ARGs will become successful, limitations on ARGs would come down to the scale of the ARGs, the players on participation, and Design and Deployment of the game itself. The scale could become too big and just too hard to play, or to small and complex. If the game is becoming too hard, players will give up and become bored, this can also be said if it is too easy. There is also a focus on the design and deployment of this game that, if done correctly can positively impact the success of the game itself.

Learning potentials in ARG Design:

People should pool inspiration, concepts and ideas from other ARG Designs to learn how to create potentially successful Designs to implement into their own ARG. Without drawing any inspirations or ideas, the person’s ARG could struggle and fail to bridge the virtual and real world game-play gap. This would critically damage the integrity and overall performance of the game itself. It is potential that people draw on inspirations for their games in order to make it successful. Especially if the team doesn’t have a full grasp of Designs and issues that could occur with the game, without knowing until the game is play-tested.