ARG! There Be Puzzles Here!
Product: Perplex City
A huge buzzword and relatively new style of gaming that was on every one's lips was the ARG. Want an experience that is a game, but doesn't tie you into a chair for hours while you drool and mouth the words "must reach level 60..." over and over? Well then we have the thing for you. ARG... No I didn't just challenge you to a pirate's duel or hand you the black spot, I am talking about Augmented Reality Games, or ARG's for short.
There are two directions that the word ARG takes us. For the interest of this piece, I am steering away from Augmented Reality where you superimpose computer aided graphics into the real world and interact with them. Instead, I am sticking with the more social ARG's which involve the solving of puzzles both in the virtual world and the real world (feel free to argue the term "real world"). This could be going to events sponsored by the game to get the information you need to solve the puzzle. There are others like PerplexCity where you purchase cards, solve them, and then answer them online for their point value. Members are ranked and you compete for top spots.
ARG's such as these got their start from massive marketing campaigns like I Love Bees that was a huge national advertisement in the HALO franchise. Players followed clues and met in the real world to solve puzzles. Face it folks, you are going to be advertised to. If you said I had a choice between in game advertising and playing an ARG, I would always go with the ARG. Head over to the PerplexCity site today and try a warm up puzzle or two. I see many more of these popping up soon and to many different walks of life.
-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd
Related Links: Perplex City
And the Oscar Goes to...ME! Will Wright at the Helm of SPORE