Nine Inch Nails ARG

I wonder how long it's going to take marketing reps across the world to grab onto this most powerful medium of Alternate Reality Games for marketing products? Just read a post about NIN using an ARG by 42 Entertainment to market their new album coming out.

Like a few others who've commented on the site, this got me thinking about a few opportunities that I have to design/develop args. My initial thought is of entry into a game. Most people voluntarily choose to enter into a game with full knowledge that they are going to play a game which subsequently affects their expectations of the ensuing experience. I have run some social applications at various virtual presentations where I set up the participants with an activity where I didn't tell them that it was a game, but rather a requested action which forced them into a game structure. When it was all said and done, a majority of people found that it was either significantly more real and impactful to them. A few participants were somewhat annoyed that I hadn't exposed my expectations prior to starting the activity, siting instructional design models. I found that the element of surprise in social gaming is a huge factor that not only motivates, it gets people to get much more involved with others than if they knew it was a game. Wish I had research numbers to back that up. One day.

Open for biz

So, I'm working towards getting my ideas out into the metaverse. Many people have shown interest in following what I'm doing. Twitter just doesn't capture enough of what I'm thinking. We'll see how well I can pesist here.