So years (like 10 years) ago I followed the Year Zero ARG by Nine Inch Nails… I don’t wanna say it was one of the first, but it was a pretty big thing, with all sorts of fun events… But it looks like they/Trent is up to something again following this tweet and image:
There are also a few similarities with this and Waking Titan, but as far as saying they are linked? meh, I wouldn’t know where to start, but its pretty neat none the less with talk of simulations and subroutines…
Oh and the first video used footage of Jeff Minters Polybius which is toats rad:
My first ARG was ilovebees for Halo 2 which predates it but I’m pretty sure even that’s not the very first ARG. Late 90’s I think may have been when the first few kicked about, hell they could even predate the internet era… I keep meaning to visit an ARG history page or wiki or something but then forget to.
Thanks for sharing this, had no idea this was happening
I’d say late 90s is indeed correct, with ‘The Beast’ in 2001, to market the movie A.I. and games based on it, being one of the first big ARGs akin to the ARGs we are familiar with nowadays. More info about the history of ARGs can be found here:
An interesting talk by Sean Steward, who worked on ‘The Beast’:
