As the Watchmen ARG (and for the purposes of this article I will assume it’s still an ARG) neared the movie’s release date, it became clear to the players that this was not necessarily an alternate reality game with something for them to do. It was more of a story, promoting the movie by giving the players a look into the world of the Watchmen before the premiere. After all, this was to be expected when an ARG deals with a story that is concrete and already clearly defined.
An interactive story seems clearly to be an acceptable way of generating marketing buzz around a product. But when the crowd of seasoned ARG players takes notice, there seems to be a desire from the player perspective for something more. When a player commits their time it should be for more something more than merely the act of lurking a site or subscribing to a YouTube profile.
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