The Beast (game) An ARG is a game which deliberately blurs the line between the game and the real world. Players investigate the world of the game using the same tools with which they interact with the real world such as websites, email, telephone conversations and even in-person discussions with actors playing game characters. The mantra of The Beast, and most other ARGs, is "This is not a game. " When a player reads a character's blog, or looks at his employer's website, or even speaks to him on the phone, the character never indicates that he is anything but what the game says he is, whether that's a professor of biology, a kidnapped child, a DP artist, or a robot bounty hunter.
The Beast was set in the year 2142, 50 years after the events chronicled in A.I. There were three overlapping entry points to the game, or "rabbit holes" in ARG parlance. First, some trailers and posters for A.I. had a credit for Jeanine Salla as Sentient Machine Therapist hidden among the credits for Spielberg and the actors. The Beast. On January 2-4, 2001, a small and very secret team met in the offices of Microsoft's Game Group to plan and design a massive, web-based scavenger-hunt/soap opera. For years Jordan Weisman had been thinking about doing a game that would be sort of like the Beatles Paul-Is-Dead mystery--an elaborate web of clues and possible conspiracies to be investigated by a huge group of fans. The internet supplied the medium--a place where you could deliver a ton of content, and be assured that players would talk about it with one another.
As for the message, the games group had been given the challenge of creating a virtual world to stand behind the new Spielberg movie, A.I.. Spielberg and his producer, Kathy Kennedy, felt that A.I.'s themes made it only natural that the movie's life should expand not in sequels, but on computer. So far, so good. Jordan's vision was based on a series of assumptions. 1. 2. 3. 4. Not only would that make it cool, it would make it more real. (Thoughtfully). Ha. "Sean? " ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network. Home | Glitch.