Alt+Games is a blog about games by a couple of gamers. Role-playing
games , computer and console games , board games etc. Focus on games that
enable playing together , whether in the same room or over the net. We
try to feature interesting stuff you don't hear from elsewhere.
Evoke, the new serious alternate reality game by Jane McGonigal, kicks off on March 3rd. That's next Wednesday, folks. I'm interested about experiencing and dissecting the game and I hope that you are too.
So, what's in the genre definition serious alternate reality game? Alternate reality games (Wikipedia) or ARGs use real world as a platform and leverage multiple media to mix fictional elements with the real world elements. Serious games are essentially games for other purposes than pure entertainment. McGonigal puts Evoke in her 'Invent the Future' category of games. The previous major gamein the similar vein McGonigal was involved with was World Without Oil (Wikipedia), which received wide media coverage, but contrasting reviews about its effectiveness of actually fixing the world.That's what I thought, at least, but turns out that I can't find the reviews I seem to remember. Here's one example of a review of World Without Oil calling the game basically a bore.
Anyhow, when I've discussed this game and similar games with people (there was a discussion on Ropecon and we had a reading group session last Autumn in Helsinki that included a lot of talkabout this matter) and read other discussions, such as this on on Story Games that have included critical viewpoints of the ability on these kinds of games to have an effect of fixing the real world.
This is why I'm particularly interested in exploring the game. I'm interested in discussing the game with other people with a critical
eye on the effectiveness, impact or the idea of this game. What does it
do well, what does it lack, what is it made of and so on. I've already signed up for the game and I hope you do as well if you want to discuss it with me.
The discussion I'm proposing can take place in blogs, forums or even face to face when possible. I really think that McGonigal's views on games changing the world are valuable and worthwhile, however I'm not sure that World Without Oil or Evoke represent the pinnacle of this frame of thinking. And I'd like to leverage people to think about what direction the pinnacle might lie.
Are you interested? Please sign up to the game and let me know!
There's really not that much info on what the players will actually do in the game, even what kinds of elements they will interact with. Here are some resources to Evoke (see the web site too) and McGonigal's thinking about world-fixing games in general:
