The Esoteric Beat: Sin ARGs, Advergaming, 3D Monitoring

"The Esoteric Beat" takes a look at some of the offbeat issues that will redefine our understanding of gaming, and this week’s column includes developments in alternate reality gaming, the uncertain relationship between games and advertising, and the 3D dream that refuses to die. - Gaming is probably one of the ‘leakiest’ concepts we have to deal with. Innovative ideas about new modes of interaction, expression and technology all merge and diverge. Here’s a good example: who would have thought that the idea of Alternate Reality Games (puzzle-based games that use websites, real-life happenings, and other media to tell a story) would result in more than a fairly good David Fincher film? The scene is now booming – as we reported last week, Audi’s latest ARG has come to completion with an impressive finale, merging puzzles with live action, leaving the world in no doubt that ARGs are now capable of enviable complexity. But these things are seldom games in their own right. They are currently being seen as marketing tools – like LegionPharma, the website which is actually a puzzle, which might be even be part of the alternate reality game which is in turn part of the larger advertising campaign for SiN 2, Ritual’s reborn shooter. SiN 2, incidentally, is managing to create little esoteric history of its own, thanks to the announcement in this month’s PC Gamer UK that the series is to be reborn as an episodic game delivered via Steam. - So advertising begets yet another gray area for gaming. Where does the game world end and the real-world advertising begin? In ARGs, the boundaries are crossed as gamers are asked to look outside the games themselves, but for old-fashioned advertising it is the games themselves who are being intruded upon. For U.S. publisher Midway, reality and game are now inseparable thanks to a deal with MTV, in which the music television broadcaster is tied into forthcoming Midway publications such as LA Rush. Companies like Massive Inc have touted this kind of deal with increasing regularity in the last year, but the often anticipated ‘flood’ of in game advertising has yet to materialize. You have to wonder whether the best option might not be some clever product placement, in the vein of Hollywood. Rather than having game companies invent their own soft drinks (as with CCP’s absurd reverse-marketing of the Quafe energy drink), shouldn’t Tommy Vercetti be reaching for a Dr Pepper? - Finally, this week sees another boundary being crossed: 2D into 3D. The New York Times details the story [free reg. req.] of a San Francisco start-up, Deep Light, that wants to bring us a 3D screen. This kind of tech will definitely have implications for gaming, if it can ever find a footing. "Your kid sprawls on the floor, happily splattering the virtual walls of Quake 3-D, while you sit on the couch watching the news and your spouse beside you talks with friends in a virtual chat room - all on the same TV, all at the same time, and all in 3-D." The ambitions are bold, but it has to be taken with a teaspoon of salt – this is the kind of idea that intermittently raises its head from the murk like the Loch Ness monster, only to disappear again without a trace. Last year Hitachi unveiled their impressive 'Transpost' 3D interface (apparently designed for both games and advertising) but we’ve yet to see any kind of application, in bustling Roppongi arcades or otherwise. When these technologies finally do make an impact, we'll probably find that it is video gaming, and not more casual TV and film viewing, that drives it forward. [Jim Rossignol is a freelance journalist based in the UK – his progressive games journalism has appeared in PC Gamer UK, Edge and The London Times, to name but a few.]