So pervasive games and alternate reality games are game are games that over lap into real world and to no single location such as when playing a board game it is only to the board, or when playing on console or pc it is kept to a single room, whilst the games I will be talking about today are amazing in the fact they break down this wall of single focus, as the game is played outside and sometimes even all over the world.
Let's start with Pervasive games, and look at the example given in the lesson we had on it, A game known as "Killer/Assassin".
Killer/Assassin is a funny game much like all pervasive games as it requests a certain amount of thinking as you play , you are an undercover assassin, using tools like weapons, bombs or even poison to find your target and eliminate them, but this elimination can take place anywhere other then sanctums and if you are skilled enough you can get them without them knowing in till the last second.
To play Killer you have ton give some basic information before you start like photo, name, possible and address and if the game is ran in studies such as college or university, then possibly even the course you are in. This info is past on to the one hunting you down, (other than things like phone numbers) so the hunter has a starting point in finding and killing you.
Your target can be anyone and the person hunting you could be anyone too!
"Killer/Assassin" is a popular and well know pervasive game that strongly breaks the wall of play from in a single location to anywhere, meaning the game can take days, months, even years with skilled players. The game probably derives from a short story called "The Seventh Victim" with a simile themes to the game.
The game has many different rules however a book was published called "Killer: The Game of Assassination" and is the main used rule set for this pervasive game. Whilst I could talk about Killer all day, some would like to more about this Alternate reality games topic I spoke about at the top of this blog and by god I need to speak about this so let's jump into alternate reality games!
Alternate reality games are a hidden game between the worlds of business, technology and life, the three worlds for a day, month, maybe three months, will merge together to make a game which will bring in millions of people with all sorts of skills, mathematics, language, medical skills, sporting fitness, and computer coders.
...but the game never has any rules, and never states it's a game.
To quote extra credits's Dan "...Because they never admit to a game, they can get away with offer up puzzles that would be considered by most designers as far too difficult to ask of a standard game audience..." This opens a world we have never seen before in till you see it, and even till you play it, I have spent too long searching down forms and websites and all the clues just to find someone already found that, but the rush of trying to find new things or the next link or a bridge across a problem that the players are having, is marvellous.
So let's type up some named examples and leave you to explore, cause this topic i don't want to spoil but i want to enlighten you on how many games you have missed over the years, that you could have joined into, for free, just by using you computer and a lot of time.
Augmented reality games list: The Beast, Year Zero, I love Bees , Why So Serious , Slusho!, Camdrome (A still running ARG that nobody can truly understand,) ,Cloud Chamber , Escape from god of the New world, World without Oil, and last but not least one I will have to spoil as no official name was given but "Portal 2's ARG" however I normally call this one Potatos = Potato + DOS
Ingress is another good one to look at but only if you have time as this links an ARG to a smart phone game.
I will recommend diving into forums or wikis searching up the names or info and seeing if you can find what some of them are linked to, you would be surprised on the amount of stories there are online.
And now I jump onto the sad news, ARG's are rare and far, but the pervasive games are even rarer, if you don't have a group to play with or the knowledge of the game, you can never play, in August 2010 a game by the name of StreetWars in london was halted and stop due to the use of water guns, and possible threat the game could have caused to the public, being called "irresponsible" however this is why the games are becoming not only rarer, but also more and more hidden and cryptic.
But diving down is just so fun!
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Have fun!
Bibliography:
Andersen, M. (2015). ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network. [online] ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network. Available at: http://www.argn.com/ [Accessed 24 Jan. 2015].
reddit, (2008). Alternate Reality Games • /r/ARG. [online] Available at: http://www.reddit.com/r/ARG/ [Accessed 24 Jan. 2015].
Whysoseriousredux.com, (2015). Why So Serious? Redux. [online] Available at: http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/ [Accessed 24 Jan. 2015].
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