Games that appeal to Mensans - Alternate Reality Games
I used to program computer games for a living, 20 years ago. CBM-64 and ZX Spectrum games. And I had a year at Microprose ( famous for Sid Meier's Civilization) in the early 90s as a game designer. But the internet seems to me to offer so many more possibilities. Not just games that you play on a board, or on a computer but that can affect your life. If you have seen the film 'The Game' you'll have an inkling of what A.R.G.s are like.Majestic by Electronic Arts was one step in this direction but it was a bit too ahead of its time, didn't do well financially and was dropped.
The name for this game genre is "Alternate Reality Games". It is still early days but I think this will become a major feature of game splay in years to come. Mind you that was said about Virtual Reality games 15 years ago and we're not quite there yet!
one comment:
Yes this is a very interesting area. I play Runescape a lot, which is an MMORPG (massively multi-player online role playing game, for those not ‘in the know’). Essentially your avatar goes around and kills monsters, and you do other things like mine and fish and do quests. When you log in from your home computer, you are playing with thousands of other people (mainly 14 year old kids, but there are a few older people in among the mix).
Now my point is, the key thing that makes people come back and play this game for hours and hours, is the ‘gameplay’. There’s always something to do. In fact, it’s very repetitive. You get your mining skills up, by example, by continually clicking the mouse, again and again, as your mine a single rock for hours and hours and hours.
So these AVGs are a great idea, but there must be SOME element of ‘gameplay’ involved. In other words, providing the alternate reality in technical terms is just one part of the equation. There must be ‘something to do’.
Otherwise, you are not talking about a ‘game’, but a virtual reality ‘social’ world. These are already here and doing well (e.g. the world ‘THERE’).
You might be interested in this link, although it mainly deals with social worlds.
http://www.virtualworldsreview.com/info/
Breen from London - 25 06 06 - 15:49
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