Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Discussion of the out-of-game, real-world aspects of the Iris Alternate Reality Game.

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3of9
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Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by 3of9 »

Considering that some of the primary aspects of an ARG are that the line between fiction and fact is blurred so much that you can't tell the difference... that you're having to go out of your way to solve critical aspects of the plot line... that your actions can potentially alter the final outcome...
None of these appear to be true in the case of IRIS.

From what I'm seeing... this is little more than a Web-Drama.
bovine politics
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by bovine politics »

3of9 wrote:Considering that some of the primary aspects of an ARG are that the line between fiction and fact is blurred so much that you can't tell the difference... that you're having to go out of your way to solve critical aspects of the plot line... that your actions can potentially alter the final outcome...
None of these appear to be true in the case of IRIS.

From what I'm seeing... this is little more than a Web-Drama.
This is supposed to run throughout the summer.

It's been a little over a week. I think we need to give it time.


EDIT: What do you mean by "that the line between fiction and fact is blurred so much that you can't tell the difference"? Because I don't think that anyone really thought that ilovebees.com was actually being taken over by an AI from the future named Melissa.
theteal1
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by theteal1 »

bovine politics wrote:
3of9 wrote:Considering that some of the primary aspects of an ARG are that the line between fiction and fact is blurred so much that you can't tell the difference... that you're having to go out of your way to solve critical aspects of the plot line... that your actions can potentially alter the final outcome...
None of these appear to be true in the case of IRIS.

From what I'm seeing... this is little more than a Web-Drama.
This is supposed to run throughout the summer.

It's been a little over a week. I think we need to give it time.


EDIT: What do you mean by "that the line between fiction and fact is blurred so much that you can't tell the difference"? Because I don't think that anyone really thought that ilovebees.com was actually being taken over by an AI from the future named Melissa.

But lots of people thought the Sleeping Princess was a kidnapped girl, and that Dana was in danger...
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by bovine politics »

theteal1 wrote:
bovine politics wrote:
3of9 wrote:Considering that some of the primary aspects of an ARG are that the line between fiction and fact is blurred so much that you can't tell the difference... that you're having to go out of your way to solve critical aspects of the plot line... that your actions can potentially alter the final outcome...
None of these appear to be true in the case of IRIS.

From what I'm seeing... this is little more than a Web-Drama.
This is supposed to run throughout the summer.

It's been a little over a week. I think we need to give it time.


EDIT: What do you mean by "that the line between fiction and fact is blurred so much that you can't tell the difference"? Because I don't think that anyone really thought that ilovebees.com was actually being taken over by an AI from the future named Melissa.

But lots of people thought the Sleeping Princess was a kidnapped girl, and that Dana was in danger...
within the game.
theteal1
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by theteal1 »

No... outside of the game, as well...
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Mariachi
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by Mariachi »

I was thinking about this earlier, and I have to agree with 3of 9. Typical ARGs have puzzles to solve, and generally real life activities for the participants to do, such as answering the pay phones in ILoveBees. So far, this has not had any puzzles or real life activites. I feel that all the information we have that is conclusively part of the story has been dropped in our laps, i.e. the comic, the server, AR's messages. Granted, we have loads of discussion going on about what all the information we have so far could mean, but so far, the story seems to be progressing with little to no effort on our part. With ILB, we had to dig for information, solve clues to find stuff, and the story's ability to continue was dependent on our ability to solve the riddles and puzzles. That being said, I have high hopes that this will grow into a more interactive ARG, but at the moment It just doesn't seem so.
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by theteal1 »

Mariachi wrote:I was thinking about this earlier, and I have to agree with 3of 9. Typical ARGs have puzzles to solve, and generally real life activities for the participants to do, such as answering the pay phones in ILoveBees. So far, this has not had any puzzles or real life activites. I feel that all the information we have that is conclusively part of the story has been dropped in our laps, i.e. the comic, the server, AR's messages. Granted, we have loads of discussion going on about what all the information we have so far could mean, but so far, the story seems to be progressing with little to no effort on our part. With ILB, we had to dig for information, solve clues to find stuff, and the story's ability to continue was dependent on our ability to solve the riddles and puzzles. That being said, I have high hopes that this will grow into a more interactive ARG, but at the moment It just doesn't seem so.
I think we'll have to work a little harder to unlock the next four servers. Knowing Bungie, they're not gonna give us a set date and time and let us wait patiently for it to unlock, spewing all its information into our receiving laps...
AI23
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by AI23 »

All of the activities with the phones and such in ILB was after the game had been running for over a month. In this case patience is virtue. Part of the point is that we are supposed to learn more about the haloverse. At this stage we are gathering all the pieces, towards the end we'll have the frantic putting things together and running around discovering things. You can't have the climactic ending in the first act.
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by shamanistcrage »

AI23 wrote:All of the activities with the phones and such in ILB was after the game had been running for over a month. In this case patience is virtue. Part of the point is that we are supposed to learn more about the haloverse. At this stage we are gathering all the pieces, towards the end we'll have the frantic putting things together and running around discovering things. You can't have the climactic ending in the first act.
very well said.

i agree that this may be more of a Web Based Halo oriented soap opera than a game, but given time, we may, hopefully, be proven wrong. as marketing this is definatley working though, they have sold plenty of the zunes, i went out yesterday and bought every halo novel (so far, i am almost finished with The Fall of Reach) so i would have more insight to offert if this is a game, and i am sure others have bought the books as well because of this. the point is, game or not, bungie is letting us dive deeper into the haloverse, though disappointing as it may be if it isnt a game, it is still Halo, and i enjoy the hell out of it.
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Re: Calling IRIS an ARG wrong?

Unread post by zgl »

AI23 wrote:All of the activities with the phones and such in ILB was after the game had been running for over a month. In this case patience is virtue. Part of the point is that we are supposed to learn more about the haloverse. At this stage we are gathering all the pieces, towards the end we'll have the frantic putting things together and running around discovering things. You can't have the climactic ending in the first act.
I agree with this. At this point in the game we could be very wrong on alot of speculations we have. Some of the AR stuff has been informative, but we have no use for it other than to drive us crazy about what we don't know. Anyone who has played in ARG's before would understand that there is a certain amount of info you need before they can try to confuse you. It would be like watching the movie The Prestige but you don't come in until half way through the movie.
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