Bianca Bartz
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The Lost Ring is an alternative reality game (ARG) based on the Beijing Olympics which is a fascinating concept in itself, but it was the guerrilla marketing behind the game that makes it even more intriguing. To kick off the project, select gamers received parcels in the mail containing balls of string which, when unraveled by the recipients, revealed a hidden piece of paper with a URL to a a web address for The Lost Ring. Quickly, word spread, and now 15,000 people in China alone are playing the game. The Lost Ring brings people into an alternative reality which beijingolympicsblog describes as “Lord of the Rings meets ancient Greece.” Collaboration is key to winning, as The Lost Ring revolves around international characters, each in possession of a magical power and mysterious background who can only get to the next level by working together. The characters have an important mission and its the gamer’s job to find out what it is Each of the eight characters represents their country, with one each from the US, Brazil, the UK, Germany, Spain, France, China and Japan. The game is available in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese and Chinese, but as previously mentioned, gamers must find a way to bridge the language gap to correspond in order to progress in the game.
 A number of issues face Chinese players, including language (much of the content is user generated, and so not necessarily provided in Chinese) cultural (Chinese gamers aren’t used to this kind of collaboration) and political (the Great Firewall prevents access to some resources that the players use, including The Lost Ring’s very own wiki). However Lyn observes:
“What seems to be happening, however, is that the translation problem is becoming a feature of the game, not a bug, which is perfect. The community is self-organizing to deal with the communication problems, which appear to be most acute with the Chinese language materials.”
(beijingolympicsblog.wordpress)References: thelostring, beijingolympicsblog.wordpress Filed In: |
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