SLARG: Second Life Alternate Reality Gaming

Alternate reality gaming in Second Life, or Andy Havens and I share a brainwave: how about publishing some ARG content in Second Life?

On one level, consider SL to be yet another venue for pushing or finding content, like the Web, email messages, phone calls, etc.  On another level, SL is a venue for hosting ARG communications, as part of the set email/discussion forum/Web page/IRC/phone/etc.

Using SL to access traditional forms of ARG content, like Web pages, isn't that interesting on the face of it.  But it might be a nice reward to find ARG content from a surprising place, like a tv screen showing a video clip, revealed on a certain spot of a specific wall.

What ARG implementations would maximize SL's attributes?  Emotional bandwidth is a key selling point, according to the Lindenii, so interaction with an avatar could be powerful.  This applies to characters and other players.  Virtual environments, socially experienced, would make for fine clue-hunting grounds.

How about altering the SL experience?  We could imagine a version of theiLoveBees HTML source code weirdness in, say, the recent grey goo attacks.  This does lead to classic ARG ethical questions, a la the Wikipedia content editing topic.

Lag might be a problem, since it makes publishing some content uneven.  Will we be misled in trying to read text on an object or avatar, looking for clues, when the text is only the result of a rendering error? 

A related potential problem: the difficulty in exporting content from SL. This is in part a preservation issue, one which the ARG world needs to solve - i.e., what happens to our virtual spaces if SL goes dark?

Thoughts? suggestions?

Comments

[Steve Peters]

While an interesting concept, in reality this would be no different than your typical computer game, in that the reality you're playing in is taking place on your computer, through a game-like interface. There's quite a distinction between something like this and Alternate Reality Gaming.

To put an ARG in SL would defeat the purpose, imo. SL, while fun for a lot of people, is not a real-life communication interface like a payphone, fax, email, etc.

Playing an ARG in SL would be like watching a TV program that's showing another TV screen which is showing the program you're wanting to watch. You'd be *adding* another layer between real life and fiction, which is counter to a large part of what ARGs are all about: Removing interfaces.

Now sure, I could see using SL as a conduit to push information as a small part of a larger game, but to have an entire ARG occur inside Second Life misses the point of Alternate Reality Gaming. It'd actually be kind of the Anti-ARG. :)

[susmi]

great

[Tony Walsh]

There are plans underway to discuss ARGs and virtual worlds at an upcoming SL Future Salon. Initial proposal here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/slfuture/message/151
An official announcement about the date and guests will hopefully be made this week.

Hope you can make it to the in-world discussion!

[Michael Buckbee]

We did a very weak form of an ARG as a promotion for the Second411 search service. There were "riddle boxes" strewn around the SL World and you'd get a riddle at each one, answering it correctly would get you a landmark to the the next one.

What I don't think has been said yet is that you could do some really cool stuff like 3 dimensional puzzles and things that people could work on in SL, different objects that they could combine to form answers, puzzle pieces that changed shape according to the time of day, it's pretty much limitless.

Also, if you're interested in RL/SL crossover projects, checkout my Fabjectory - http://www.fabjectory.com service.

Thanks!

[Gary Hayes]

My article "Alternate Reality Games in Virtual Spaces" an article/post from May of this year covers this precise area and is on the Wikipedia ARG page ;-) - Tony W and I have a comment-off at the end too - of course it (my ideas/practise) has moved on considerably since them and indeed have learnt a great deal from doing a few ;-) Think I will do a follow up post in a few days. Also designing a tool in world to develop A/ERG's.

You can find the original post here.

http://www.personalizemedia.com/index.php/2006/05/27/alternate-reality-games-in-virtual-spaces/

Best Gary

[Gary Hayes]

URL again

Link to ARGS in Virtual Spaces

Gary

[Alan Levine]

Funny you should mention it Bryan-- I thought I had hinted at this idea via an email to you a few months ago. However, the bits I have scanned here (and Gary Hayes truly has bitten well into this early, great work there), seem to focus IMHO on sinking an ARG totally in SL.

I think it would be much more interesting, and true to the ARG concept (in that it is played out trans-media, across different spaces), if it crossed space from SL to RL and back, and lots of grey in between.