Editing Alternate reality game (section)

=== ''The Beast'' ===
{{main|The Beast (game)}}
In 2001, in order to market the movie ''[[A.I. Artificial Intelligence]]'' directed by [[Steven Spielberg]] that finished [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s unfinished project to adapt [[Brian Aldiss]]'s short story "[[Supertoys Last All Summer Long]]", and also a planned series of [[Xbox Game Studios|Microsoft computer games]] based on the film, Microsoft's Creative Director [[Jordan Weisman]] and another Microsoft game designer, [[Elan Lee]], conceived of an elaborate murder mystery played out across hundreds of websites, email messages, faxes, fake ads, and voicemail messages. They hired [[Sean Stewart]], an award-winning science fiction/[[fantasy]] author, to write the story and [[Pete Fenlon]], an experienced adventure game "[[worldbuilding|worldbuilder]]", to serve as developer and content lead. The game, dubbed "the Citizen Kane of online entertainment" by [[Yahoo! Internet Life|Internet Life]],<ref name="Dena1">{{cite web |url=http://www.lamp.edu.au/media/pdf/dena_LAMP3.pdf |date=22 May 2006 |access-date=13 February 2007 |title=Designing Cross-Media Entertainment |page=27 |first=Christy |last=Dena |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822111653/http://www.lamp.edu.au/media/pdf/dena_LAMP3.pdf |archive-date=22 August 2006}}</ref> was a runaway success<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Time Best & Worst of 2001 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001509,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930135857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1001509,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=24 December 2001 |access-date=13 February 2007}}</ref> that involved over three million active participants<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com/index.php/2006/03/04/top-args-with-stats/ |title=Top ARGs, With Stats |access-date=13 February 2007 |first=Christy |last=Dena |date=20 April 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070128120857/http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com/index.php/2006/03/04/top-args-with-stats/ |archive-date=28 January 2007 <!--None--> |url-status=live}}</ref> from all over the world during its run and would become the seminal example of the nascent ARG genre.<ref name="firstmonday">{{cite web |last=Kim |first=Jeffrey |title=Storytelling in new media: The case of Alternate Reality Games, 2001–2009 |url=http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2484@article/2199 |access-date=11 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120617032134/http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2484@article/2199 |archive-date=2012-06-17 |url-status=dead}}</ref> An early asset list for the project contained 666 files, prompting the game's puppet-masters to dub it "[[the Beast (game)|the Beast]]", a name which was later adopted by players.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Buzzmakers |url=http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2005-05-18/news/the-buzzmakers/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070407060201/http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2005-05-18/news/the-buzzmakers/ |archive-date=7 April 2007 |work=East Bay Express |date=18 May 2005 |access-date=13 February 2007}}</ref> A large and extremely active fan community called the Cloudmakers formed to analyze and participate in solving the game,<ref>{{cite news |title=Signs of Intelligent Life: A.I.'s mysterious and masterful promotional campaign |url=http://www.slate.com/id/106028/ |work=Slate |date=15 May 2001 |access-date=13 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070321053932/http://www.slate.com/id/106028/ |archive-date=21 March 2007 <!--None--> |url-status=live}}</ref> and the combined intellect, tenacity and engagement of the group soon forced the puppet-masters to create new subplots, devise new puzzles, and alter elements of the design to keep ahead of the player base.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.seanstewart.org/interactive/aiintro/ |title=The A.I. Web Game |access-date=13 February 2007 |first=Sean |last=Stewart |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070322025024/http://www.seanstewart.org/interactive/aiintro/ |archive-date=22 March 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Somewhat unusual for a computer-based game, the production drew players from a wide spectrum of age groups and backgrounds.

Although the Beast ran for only three months, it prompted the formation of a highly organized and intensely engaged community that remained active<ref name="Cloudmakers">{{cite web |url=http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/cloudmakers/ |title=Cloudmakers Yahoo! List |access-date=13 February 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070119182550/http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/cloudmakers/ |archive-date=19 January 2007 <!--None--> |url-status=dead}}</ref> years after the game concluded. Perhaps more significantly, it inspired a number of its participants to create games adapting and expanding the model, extending it from an anomalous one-time occurrence to a new genre of entertainment and allowing the community to grow even after the Beast itself concluded. Members of the Cloudmakers group went on to form ARGN, the primary news source for the genre, and Unfiction, its central community hub, as well as designing the first successful and widely played indie ARGs, such as LockJaw and Metacortechs, and corporate efforts such as Perplex City.