This video is sponsored by Raycon.
Brew: Alright, Howard, how’s that code going?
Howard: Analysis - code starting point is 01.
Entries beginning with 0 proceed to 06.
Additional details: numerals beginning
with 1 are limited to 11, 12, and 13.
Numerals beginning with 2 are 21, 22, and 23.
Hypothesis: Zeroes are vowels, additional numbers represent
consonants based on their position between vowels.
That would make 11 B, 12 C, and 21 F.
Brew: Good, good!
Are you getting this, Bean?
KKSL: Great job Chill, you win!
Chill: Hey Brew, check this out—
uhhhh…
Brew: Oh! Hey Chill, don’t mind me, just relaxing a bit.
Chill: Should I leave you alone?
Brew: Oh this?
No, no, no no this is a game!
It’s fun, right?
Doesn’t it look fun?
Hahaha.
Chill: Uh, yeah, sure.
So what are you doing?
Brew: Well, solving mysteries!
Specifically, trying to get to the next level of this ARG!
Chill: A-R-G?
I don’t follow.
Brew: Alright then, I’ll just have to show you in the
only way I know how to…
So, what exactly are these ARGs,
how did they create a massive campaign rally
to elect Harvey Dent as Gotham’s DA, and how did one
leave a man standing in the pathway of a hurricane?
Chill: Wait, wait wha-
So is it like when Grill stubs his toe
real bad and says “arg” but like real loud?
Brew: Haha, good guess, but no, they’re-
xXDied_DeathXx: ARGs, or “Augmented Reality Games” are—
Brew: Alternate.
xXDied_DeathXx: What?
Brew: Alternate Reality Games.
xXDied_DeathXx: Oh… You’re not talking about augmented reality?
Brew: Nope.
xXDied_DeathXx: Oh, um… Sorry.
I’ll uh… let someone better suited take
the reins here… Uh just give me one second.
Niche: Did someone say Alternate Reality Games?
Brew: Sure did, are they one of
your niche interests… um… Niche?
Niche: They sure are!
Alternate Reality Games, also known as ARGs, pervasive
games, or transmedia narratives, are a form of interactive
media that combine digital and real life gameplay elements.
This results in real life activities
being linked to and tracked by the game.
Chill: Also, hi Niche!
Niche: Oh! Hi!
Sorry, got so excited to be here that I forgot to say hello!
Chill: That’s alright!
So like, you play the game online and in real life?
Ooh, is it like the Matrix?
If you die in the game do you die in real life?
Niche: Oh no, nothing that dramatic!
In fact, many ARGs don’t even have real fail states.
Playing one is mostly like finding clues and using
them to solve puzzles that are hidden throughout both
the real and digital world, like a scavenger hunt!
Really the only way to fail is to not solve puzzles.
Brew: A good example here would be “In Memoriam”.
Or “Missing Since January” if you live in North
America, where we get worse names for things.
The game is framed as a missing persons case that
delves into a cold case involving mysterious deaths,
and you as a player were a consultant brought on to
help solve the mystery and uncover who The Phoenix is.
Chill: That’s right up your alley, isn’t it?
Brew: Oh yes, sometimes I replay it just to get motivation!
Niche: Throughout the game you get e-mails from other
characters in the game about your investigation.
Brew: Including the main antagonist.
Chill: That sounds terrifying.
Brew2: Want to see something TRULY terrifying?
Brew: Future me!?
I haven’t seen you in..
Well..
Like a month?
Brew2: For YOU, perhaps.
It has taken us YEARS to secure a new Quantum Temporal Gate.
The future needs you two..
Chill, why don’t you fill them in?
Brew: Oh my goodness-
Chill2: WE SEEK OUR RAYCONS.
OURS WERE LOST DURING THE UPRISING.
Brew2: Yeeaah, we lost a few things during that ordeal.
Chill: Our everyday E25 earbuds?
The ones with seamless Bluetooth
pairing, a noise isolating fit and a-
Chill2: -6 HOUR BATTERY LIFE YES.
THOSE ONES!
WE HAVE WAITED YEARS TO SAMPLE THEIR
BASS BLASTING TECHNOLOGY ONCE MORE.
QUICK, THROW THEM THROUGH THE QT GATE.
WE REQUIRE SICK BEATS.
Chill: Hold up, Avo-chill-do!
These are my only pair!
I love their stylish and compact design!
How am I supposed to go beast mode at yoga without them!?
Brew: It’s okay, Chill, we’ll get another pair.
Despite their ability to match or even outperform the top
earbud brands on the market, they sell at half the price.
Heck, we could even get another 15% off if we click the
link in our video's description or go to buyraycon.com/brew.
Chill2: QUICK, PAST ME, YOUR
FUTURE VIBES DEPEND ON THIS MOMENT.
Brew2: They got eyes on us, we gotta move quick.
Brew: Hmm.
Do you think there are multiple timelines or just the one—
Niche: Hello? Are you there?
I swear I saw a portal...
Brew: AAH! I mean, uhhh, YES!
“In Memoriam” was certainly unique, But there
are other instances of ARGs where players had the
opportunity to interact with actors throughout the
story’s progression in real time, either through
social media, outside in “real life”, or in both.
Niche: Which is something that the hit
Xbox ARG “ilovebees” did through payphones!
Brew: That’s right, but we’ll get to that later.
Cast of The Slenderman web series Everyman HYBRID during
its eight-year run, interacted with players through
Twitter, real life tasks they could opt into, through mailed
packages that contained series lore, and actual meetups.
Niche: The series’ big bad, HABIT, even visited and
“killed” some of the trials players, or Rabbits as he
called them, in videos that were a part of the series!
That whole series was such a wild ride!
Chill: That sounds horrifying.
Brew: Well, I mean, Slenderman is
kind of a horror thing in general.
I’d be more surprised if a series
connected to it wasn’t scary.
Chill: So like, why are all these ARG things so dark and grim?
Niche: Oh! Not all of them are!
In fact, ARGs have become popular
amongst marketing campaigns too!
Chill: Wait, actually?
Niche: Oh yes! For example, the hit Batman film—
Brew: I love that guy!
Niche: —The Dark Knight had an ARG attached to it called
“Why So Serious?” which included a full campaign site for
Harvey Dent running for Gotham’s District Attorney.
There was even a campaign slogan, “I believe in Harvey Dent!”.
Brew: Classic mistake.
Harvey Dent’s the kind of guy who’s
good, right up until he’s bad.
Usually after a coin flip.
The game was kicked off at 2007’s San Diego Comic-con
with dollar bills sporting a Joker-esque visage drawn
on George Washington’s face with the phrase
“Why So Serious?” and a website that led potential recruits to
a location where they were instructed to “look up” and
see airplanes skywriting “Ha Ha Ha” and a phone number.
The game was on.
Players took part in scavenger hunts and staged fake
campaign rallies for a year, with prizes such as Joker
henchmen masks and free tickets to see The Dark Knight early.
Some involved, like Jonathan Waite from
ARG.net even got freebies sent to them
like campaign t-shirts and bumper stickers.
The game was so successful that it earned a
place in a Guinness Book of World Records.
Niche: The band Nine Inch Nails also had one
called Year Zero to promote one of their albums!
A fan noticed an encoded message
on the back of his concert shirt.
When decoded, the message read “I AM TRYING
TO BELIEVE”, which led to the ARG’s website.
Brew: There have been other marketing campaigns
for everything from McDonalds to the Olympics.
And I cannot tell you how excited I have
been to have additional mysteries to solve.
Chill: But, like, why?
I don’t get how that kind of stuff would
get picked up as a marketing technique.
Niche: Well, Chill, ARGs entice
their audience with gamification.
Chill: Gamifica-what-now?
Brew: Gamification.
It describes the addition of game
elements to non-game activities.
As a feature, it has grown increasingly popular as a
way to keep people engaged with various forms of media.
Like how productivity apps have daily streaks and gives you
the ability to level up and unlock features and wallpapers.
Chill: Or like how I get a reward when I
log into KittyKat Sunshine Land every day?
I’m at a thirty day streak!
Niche: Those are rookie numbers, get on my level.
Chill: What?
Niche: Yes, exactly!
So, in using puzzles and missions, ARGs become a great
way to get audiences invested in the story and interact.
Chill: But couldn’t that lead to like, real life problems?
Brew: Well, you might be onto something there...
Marketing campaigns can go horribly awry,
whether that’s in mild or spicy flavours.
Niche: On the mild end of the spectrum,
we can look at The Binding of Isaac.
In order to unlock new game features, creator Edmund McMillen
hid an ARG within the game leading fans on a scavenger hunt
in-game and in the real world, deciphering clues left for them
across images, hidden packages, and social media accounts.
Now, this ARG went pretty much without a hitch,
though McMillen did have to warn fans not
to do anything illegal, it’s a good warning
when you’re sending people to dig up clues.
Literally.
Brew: But things can get darker,
especially if you don’t take precautions.
In March, 2018, Christian and Tyler Poro were
arrested on charges of conspiracy and manufacturing
and possession of an unlawful explosive
device after being raided by the FBI and NYPD.
Among their possessions was a note that read, “under
the full moon, the small ones will know t—or” which
was linked to a conspiracy-themed ARG known as PK17.
In response, the creator of the ARG, Äma
Amon of Portland, shut the game down, saying,
“I have no desire to waste the authorities’ time
on what was essentially an art project with the
added intention of bringing attention to a truly
lecherous internet fad,” according to Bronx Times.
Niche: Oh, but big marketing campaigns can get a bit
too ambitious with their interactive advertising.
Brew: You’ve got that right, and in a marketing stunt
that certainly made the legal team go “Arg!”, Ubisoft
most certainly stepped over that line with an interactive
marketing stunt carried out for Splinter Cell, a game
where you play a not-Snake sneaky creepy lurking around
and using literal spy gadgets to accomplish your mission.
Chill: Oh, I got a sneaking
suspicion this is going to get bad.
Niche: A marketing firm thought it would be a good idea
to hire an actor to play an armed “bad guy” that would
go into a New Zealand pub and point a gun at people.
Apparently this was supposed to end with a
second actor who would save the day and stir
up excitement for Splinter Cell: Conviction.
Somehow.
Chill: Did that not happen?
Brew: Well, there was a man threatening a pub
with a prop gun, of course the cops got called.
Chill: Well, at least they learned their lesson?
Brew: They sure didn’t.
Instead, in 2014 Ubisoft sent a safe to a Sydney,
Australia based media staff member that, when played
with, started beeping and resulted in the police
being called again, and the building being evacuated.
This time it was a review copy of WATCH_DOGS.
Niche: Guess you could say that the game was the bomb?
Brew: Nice one.
Oh, Ubisoft.
Chill: Ok, but, well, what’s this thing
about a guy being caught out in a storm?
Brew: I’ll give you a hint, it has a little
something to do with honey, Halo, and a hurricane.
Chill: Umm I know I know, umm… Angels caused a hurricane
to spew honey everywhere and make everyone happy, right?
Niche: Um, what?
Brew: Yeah.
He doesn’t really play anything beyond Kitty Kat.
Chill: And YogaBuddy!
Niche: Called “ilovebees”, the campaign for the Halo
2 release was based around the website ilovebees.com,
which on its surface looked innocent enough.
A blog run by a beekeeper who was encountering
technical issues that were really signals from the far
off year of 2552, the time in which Halo takes place.
Brew: Payphones in real life would be called by the
game masters acting as characters at specific times.
When picked up, players were presented with an audio clip
from the AI from Halo that asked questions about a character.
Niche: Yup! If these questions were answered correctly, a new 30-second
audio clip would be released, and a number added to the blog.
When all of the audio clips were released, they
could be stitched together into a full narrative.
This drove fans rabid, and players were
determined to get to the payphones in time.
Brew: Which was the issue, when one of those payphones
just so happened to be in the path of hurricane Ivan.
Niche: And when the player who braved the storm picked
up the phone, the staff member on the other end broke
character and replied with: "Dude, it's a hurricane.
Put the phone down."
Brew: The payphone booth was destroyed
by the hurricane shortly after.
Far be it from me to question how one gets
lost in the thrill of solving mysteries.
After all, I’ve been known to enjoy puzzling
over a good caper myself from time to time.
Chill: You mean always?
Brew: Always is a time!
But it’s important to keep in mind for both players
and organizers that it is possible to reach a point
where the game stops, and the danger becomes real.
So as long as you keep your own safety in
mind, go forth, suspend your disbelief,
and enjoy your alternate reality of choice.
Just make sure not to break any laws,
or you’ll be the one getting stung.
Niche: Ha! Like bees!
Grill: HEY. DON’T ENCOURAGE HIM!
Brew: Woops, gotta cut back in for a second,
turns out that this is our show's 100th episode!
Pretty buck wild, huh?
Folks, we really couldn’t do this show without you.
Whether you like, comment, watch or share our content,
your support is the reason any of this is possible.
So, whether this is your 1st cup
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