marfig
No ROM battery
Anyone else annoyed at Deus Ex ARG?
When Valve created the Potato Sack Pack and GLaDOS@Home ARG I was one of the critics of this form of advertisement. Not just because it end up becoming one big flop. I was criticizing it even before its conclusion... and players learned that all they got was the ability to get the game only a couple of hours before schedule. Others didn't even got that.
Granted, my major criticism was the model "buy this stuff, so you can buy that stuff sooner". I felt that through careful planning, Valve was able to exploit its user base at a minimum cost and for no tangible benefit to users. While some might consider this commendable (good on them!), I found the whole ARG thing strangely scary and not something that spoke well of a user base I wished more critic and aware -- for our own benefit.
...
So, the acronym is now again being seen, this time on Valve's forums, since when this past week Square Enix started publishing a series of ciphers in the main screen of their new title, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I fear this might become a trend and it won't take long for ARG to become a verb.
The point was to decipher the text and eventually find a website address where we are expected to get more "clues" this weekend.
In the end, what this will all amount to is quite possibly just the announcement of a DLC. It's just a hook for users to spend money. And yet, users seem to be thankful of this "exploitation" of their time and resources without any benefit in return (the DLC will be launched regardless of whether there's an ARG ot not). The technique seems to strike a chord with users, who -- in my opinion -- cannot seem to see past the supposed "entertainment" factor and look at it from a bird's eye view. After all, it's not that gamers are lacking on the entertainment factor. We have plenty of that, thanks to one of the largest industries on the planet. Yet, they seem to get so hooked to it, so dependent on it that they can easily overlook when they are "getting nothing for something".
These are my worries about this ARG trend that I hope won't become one. I'd rather see gamers largely critic of marketing ploys. I admit nothing of this affects me personally. I either choose or not to participate. But that doesn't invalidate my feeling that these techniques are just plain fishy and abusive. It also, in my opinion reflects a direction I wished publishers didn't take and that I fear the most; moving away from traditional advertisement and into direct social engineering.
When Valve created the Potato Sack Pack and GLaDOS@Home ARG I was one of the critics of this form of advertisement. Not just because it end up becoming one big flop. I was criticizing it even before its conclusion... and players learned that all they got was the ability to get the game only a couple of hours before schedule. Others didn't even got that.
Granted, my major criticism was the model "buy this stuff, so you can buy that stuff sooner". I felt that through careful planning, Valve was able to exploit its user base at a minimum cost and for no tangible benefit to users. While some might consider this commendable (good on them!), I found the whole ARG thing strangely scary and not something that spoke well of a user base I wished more critic and aware -- for our own benefit.
...
So, the acronym is now again being seen, this time on Valve's forums, since when this past week Square Enix started publishing a series of ciphers in the main screen of their new title, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I fear this might become a trend and it won't take long for ARG to become a verb.
The point was to decipher the text and eventually find a website address where we are expected to get more "clues" this weekend.
In the end, what this will all amount to is quite possibly just the announcement of a DLC. It's just a hook for users to spend money. And yet, users seem to be thankful of this "exploitation" of their time and resources without any benefit in return (the DLC will be launched regardless of whether there's an ARG ot not). The technique seems to strike a chord with users, who -- in my opinion -- cannot seem to see past the supposed "entertainment" factor and look at it from a bird's eye view. After all, it's not that gamers are lacking on the entertainment factor. We have plenty of that, thanks to one of the largest industries on the planet. Yet, they seem to get so hooked to it, so dependent on it that they can easily overlook when they are "getting nothing for something".
These are my worries about this ARG trend that I hope won't become one. I'd rather see gamers largely critic of marketing ploys. I admit nothing of this affects me personally. I either choose or not to participate. But that doesn't invalidate my feeling that these techniques are just plain fishy and abusive. It also, in my opinion reflects a direction I wished publishers didn't take and that I fear the most; moving away from traditional advertisement and into direct social engineering.
