thread of alternate reality games (ARGs) and sundry fiction/real world crossover "transmedia" type things

these always seem like they will be fun and then become unfun for me. i like the idea, but in practice it seems to always turn out to be either unsatisfying/pointless in execution (whats up cloverfield ARG) or totally impossible - i do think the collaborative crowdsourced model is interesting, like the fact that for every dude that can geolocate shit or do an ip backwards search there is a different dude that can find patterns in jpg codes or whatever (most recent example of that being the crazy valve portal ARG with all the hidden pictures in soundfiles)

always think i'll be into these until i realise i'll have to deal with nerds irl

These days, ARGnet is run by Michael Andersen, who first started playing ARGs in 2004 after noticing a group of people standing in the crowd holding posters of bees during one of the US presidential debates on television.

^ lol @ this

I actually work in this industry kindasorta! it is my professional opinion that they are a giant waste of time and money (fun fact: the Flynn Lives ARG for last year's Tron movie cost FIVE FUCKING MILLION DOLLHAIRS).

that being said, they're a really smart move if you're looking to launch a franchise since they create a shitton of organic media for future googlers to stumble over. and when they're done right (QED: basically anything done by 42Entertainment, who must have the greatest jobs on the planet), they're really cool.

yeah i mean i basically just love any excuse to use my internet skillz in the service of something fun and the v expensive (holy fuck!) flynn lives game did not rly deliver for me

my favorite one currently going on is probably the Test Subjects Needed one if only because I can't believe they're doing an ARG for gum

There was a recent Half Life 2 update changed the language to Korean which was largely considered a bug. Then Surgery Simulator released a DLC that contained some Korean text. Troll, or Valve's next ARG?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=606131

take 2

There was a recent Half Life 2 update that changed the language to Korean. It was largely considered a bug. Today, Surgeon Simulator released a Team Fortress 2-themed update that contained some Korean text. Troll, or Valve's next ARG?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=606131

Some sort of ARG in the kickstarter for Frog Fractions 2

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=39801

surely this is a rabbit hole

i was sort of skimming the thread but apparently once you'd compiled the brainf--- code and entered the instructions that spat out into the text adventure in frog fractions and followed the link that gave you to the youtube video and realised the sound on the video was a c64 loading from a cassette and reverse engineered that into c64 code what you got was a picture of rick astley and a bar of 'never gonna give you up'?

jesus christ

Do you remember the way that you felt off the coast of Er0da? Did you get yourself a new hairstyle?

hi so i just got an ad on twitter for a place that, as far as i can tell, straight up DOES NOT EXIST (thread)

— Austin 🎡🏳️‍🌈 (@TheBrotographer) November 21, 2019

No idea if this is an ARG but it has that kind of feel.

There's a Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/Eroda/comments/e0dt2t/eroda_no_land_quite_like_it/

twitter thinks this is new hairstyle = new harry styles, weird promo for his upcoming record

I thought that was a crap joke but nope
"Fun" while it lasted I guess