

Abusing IP: the story behind one studio's Portal 2 ARG adventure - abraham
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/abusing-ip-the-story-behind-one-studios-portal-2-arg-adventure.ars

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jbermudes
ARGs and similar types of viral marketing can be a novel way to engage
customers into your brand, but at the same time you run the risk of it leaving
a worse impression of your brand if at the end they feel it was a waste of
time and nothing more than a roundabout way to say "Be sure to drink your
Ovaltine".

People immediately cried foul citing contractual agreements with retailers not
to break the street date and thus saying that Valve cannot release no earlier
than midnight on original launch date, and once users had data about the fill
rate of the progress bars, it was calculated that at best a 6am Tuesday
release would be shorted by a few hours. It felt like an unwinnable situation
to those in the know.

While Valve is a company known for experimenting on its customer base, and
everyone that complained still bought the game anyway, it does seem a bit
cruel to lead your fanbase on a wild goose chase that ended in essentially a
ransom to release the game. In the end it boiled down to "Pay us $X or else
you'll have to wait to play the game you've already paid for, oh, and you'll
still have to wait 90% of the time anyway."

~~~
wccrawford
I remember when the first couple games were 'complete' and I said to my friend
'2 games are done and they've only shaved over 1.5 hours. Seriously? Why
bother?'

I didn't have the Steam version pre-ordered (I ordered the PS3 one, which had
a code for the Steam one in it for free) so I didn't have any stake in the
matter, but if I had, and I had bought the Potato Pack, I'd have been a little
upset at them.

But then, I remember thinking that about almost every ARG I've ever seen. When
you try to mix reality with a game, you almost always end up with a very thin
game with very thin rewards. You rarely get more out of it than just enjoying
the ARG itself, even though they present it as a chance to get something
better.

In short, I think the expectations were set wrong. Had they presented it
merely as an ARG with no 'reward' at the end, I'd be less disappointed with
it.

