Halo, the first-person shooter game from Bungie Studios on the XBOX and XBOX 360 is arguably one of the most popular game franchises of the last decade - if not THE most popular.
With only three games in the series its phenomenal success has eclipsed the offerings of its direct competitors and locked-in the success of the XBOX as viable console and market leader.
Halo also did something else, it cemented ARGs as a viable marketing tool. I love bees or I heart bees, a viral marketing game created promote Halo 2 was created by 42 Entertainment, a Seattle-based marketing company that creates ARGs or Alternative Reality Games to generate buzz for products.
While it could be reasonably argued that Halo, after Combat Evolved (Halo 1.0), really only marketed itself as a formality to appease Microsoft shareholders the MASSIVE increase in sales between Halo and Halo 2 shows the success of the I Love Bees campaign among others.
ARGs, for those a little fuzzy on the topic, are games that use real-world media and devices to communicate in-game content and interact with players. Instead of delivering the game wholesale on a console and simulating the use of cell phones to talk to shadowy informants, figure out cryptic puzzles on websites and the like - the ARG designers (known as Puppetmasters in the vernacular) use real phones, fax machines, text messages, websites and even commercials and news broadcasts.
Cloverfield is probably the biggest ARG coming our way - culminating in the movie hitting theatres next summer. Essentially the narrative for the movie is extended out, so players of the game will be uncovering aspects of the story in real-time so the events in the movie literally pickup where the game leaves off.
The potential this has as a teaching tool is phenomenal and as-yet untapped. Since ARGs often require extensive and obscure knowledge to be dredged up to solve some of the puzzles in the game the challenges could be contrived to relate to course material pretty readily. If one thinks of the success of The Da Vinci Code, which amounted to the retelling of the playing of a very high-production value ARG one can imagine how compelling such an adventure would be to kids. It combines trivia, puzzles, scavenger hunts, technology and (hopefully) a strong narrative into a single experience.
If you get students compelled you’ll have them learning without knowing it - especially if you don’t break character. In ARG is there is “ting” philosophy, this is not a game - the ARG must function, for all likely intents and purposes, like real life. There shouldn’t be reference to it as a “game,” the items, pages, clues and artifacts have to be treated as real. Moreover, all information should be applicable and usable - phone numbers should work, email addresses can’t bounce, URLs need to work.
This relates to my earlier post regarding the future of MMOs. ARGs with gameplay interaction between players such as a roleplaying game where you are your character, and you engage in combat via your game console rather than literally attacking fellow players - but your missions, quests etc would all be communicated using normal real-world communications system.
As games become more like jobs (like World of Warcraft) people’s tolerance for outrageously high work/fun ratios is on the rise - so long as the media stimulation is high enough. This is a very good thing for educators.