Marketing of Video Games - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 52

so many products on the market today that they have to make their
choices. If we don't convince them that we are aiming for an AAA
title, for instance, then we are going to have less of a chance of being
on their shelves.
NON-TRADITIONAL APPROACHES
Although most promotion activities follow a standard setup there have
been instances where this industry has used innovative and new promo-
tion strategies, as when Halo 2 was promoted using an Alternative Reality
Game (ARG; see McGonigal 2007; Zackariasson and Wilson 2010). ARG
is a genre in which participants are encouraged to collectively solve dif er-
ent kinds of puzzles. It has similarities with other video game genres. Just
like any other game, in the production of an ARG the developer plans in
detail the dif erent parts of the game and its plot. When the game goes live,
though, “puppet masters” direct the events as they unfold. Actors many
times also interact in real time with participants to increase the realism
of the ARG. The goal of a successful ARG is the blurring of the bound-
ary between what is part of the game and what is not part of the game;
somewhat similar to what Michael Douglas's character experienced in the
fi lm The Game (distributed by PolyGram and Buena Vista International,
1997). It also made it a pervasive game, a game that is played both in the
digital as well as in the physical space, and blurred the boundary of online
and ol ine.
It is com mon prac t ic e t hat t he element s of a n A RG a re d isp ersed t h roug h-
out both the physical and digital worlds. Also among these elements are
active agents, in the sense of initiating interaction with the gamer. Physi-
cal elements serve as clues; they can be just about anything—locations or
objects. GPS, for example, is many times used to direct attention to a spe-
cifi c location. Objects such as phones, faxes, newspapers, ads or scribbling
in a subway station can also be used as elements of the game. Digital ele-
ments are mostly on the Web where web pages can be used to hide chal-
lenges, but technology such as SMS and GPS also fi nd their way into the
action. Although the Internet can be used in other ways, web pages, fake
databases, web cameras or other media based on Internet technology fi nd
their way into the mix. A successful ARG has the capacity to lure in gam-
ers into the plot of the game and make the gamer drive the game forward
through their actions.
In 2004 the ARG The Haunted Apiary, or I Love Bees (McGonigal 2007)
was launched by 42 Entertainment. This game had the aim of promoting
the video game Halo 2 , which was scheduled to be released later that same
year. Learning from their previous ARG the developer this time had cre-
ated a game that was more elaborate than previous games and incorporated
more physical puzzles to solve, as well as prerecorded and/or live messages