Games: normally we think of giant space marines punching aliens, military strategists fuelling their megalomania or Italian plumbers munching on ‘shrooms. They aren’t normally used to deliver a serious message.
However, the British Red Cross reckons it can give players a good time as well as raising social and political awareness. It has hooked up with Enable Interactive to launch the first ever charity online Alternative Reality Game (ARG), called Traces of Hope.
Alternative Reality Games have become popular as promotional tools over the last few years. Famous examples have included ‘i love bees’ that preceded Halo 2, and there’s has been a recent Resistance 2 promotion called ‘Project Abraham’.
They take place in real time, with players being encouraged to cooperate to solve the various puzzles and to discover the story.
Although a few thousand people are already registered, Traces of Hope kicks off properly today, and you can still enter registration details onto the website that will let you know when the game is afoot.
It is set in Northern Uganda in the aftermath of the civil war and will tell the story of 16-year-old Joseph Mukasa in his efforts to trace his missing mother.
Although not much is being given away – that’s really the fun of an ARG after all – the game will include treasure hunting and detective work, with sites like LinkedIn, Yahoo! Answers, Reuter’s and Penguin’s Spinebreakers all getting involved.
The developer behind it, Enable Interactive, has been involved in a range of online promotional activities for the likes of the BBC, WWF and War Child. This ARG is also being scripted by one of the creators of online interactive drama, KateModern.
Out now | £free | Traces of Hope
