ARG Newbie – Blog entry 2
I am so happy and so frustrated with the Continuum ARG.
I am beginning to wonder if you need a degree in ancient codes and ciphers in order to have a chance.
I have painstakingly gone through every catch up session, read every blog and started to figure out which “players” are actually “casted”.
I have learned that 1 blog, the show episodes and two forums are not enough information to follow, but the Twitter of at least three characters is required too.
in these last 7 hours ( yes I can’t believe it either) I have been introduced to more Ciphers and code:
( I am on the fence as to if the creators are brilliant or sociopaths… at the very least they are organized and highly creative – I DO appreciate that)
##XX
binary decode
Bacon cipher
anagrams
Sebald code ( I liked this one even if i did not decode it correctly)
hexadecimal color codes
the term “Steganography” – and it is not so plain , believe me
A Spectrograph from a audio clip (and I still do not really know what i deciphered)
French characters
keyed Ciphers
historical quotes/ significance
fictional novel quotes
hacking into gmail accounts
sending messages to unknown characters……….
AND ALL THIS DEDICATION
because I was in both VANCOUVER and CALGARY on the days of the live drops but I had simply fallen behind and was unaware until it was too late to take part, and that would have been very cool.
I have worked about as hard as I can and thought I had discovered the 8 character codes.
of the “14?” that I am suppose to have located to my dismay only 5 were correct.
Is it me?
I am wondering how the designers have keep people – me – engaged?
OR is this the trick…. the higher the difficulty the better chance of loyalty?
lets see what google has to say about it.
via http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/166972/cognitive_flow_the_psychology_of_.php?print=1
“Flow breaks down when a player doesn’t know what their goals are, how they’re expected to accomplish them, or which new game techniques they’re supposed to use to solve a puzzle. When this happens, gamers disengage and are more likely to stop playing.”
OR MAYBE it is me
“An addictive personality refers to … an individual predisposed to… psychological dependency that negatively impacts the quality of life.[1] …also highly at risk of becoming addicted to gambling… work, and codependency.” – Wikipedia
I’ll re-visit this with some much needed sleep.
- NOTE TO SELF- HOW COMPLICATED ARE YOUR DESIGNS-IS ENGAGEMENT SUFFERING-
Love this post about the Continuum ARG. I’m one of the designers. Would love to talk to you about it more. Our goal was definitely to create a tiered experience across all the Continuum extensions (main website, social media, forums, game etc.) and in that way hopefully capture the full spectrum of fans.
Ryan, thank you for the comment. I really love the series, so much so that I will lobby to get a Continuum season two given the opportunity.
There is also so much I learned and didn’t learn abut the ARG process, and so much I would love to talk to about. If you live/ work in the Vancouver area I would like to treat you to a coffee. If not Skype is a backup. I will be adding another blog entry 3 after the next episode.
Cheers, Stephanie