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.