Post by Morreion on Feb 21, 2013 13:15:40 GMT -5
Majestic (Wikipedia)
Majestic is one of the first alternate reality games (ARGs), a type of game that blurs the line between in-game and out-of-game experiences. It debuted on July 31, 2001. While noted for its unusual concept, it did not fare well commercially.
Majestic was a science fiction thriller based on a Majestic 12 shadow government conspiracy theory. As an ARG, the game was played by phone, email, AOL Instant Messenger, BlackBerry messages, fax, and by visiting special websites. Gameplay frequently involved the player receiving clues that they would use to solve puzzles and unravel the story. All the messages were automated, with limited dialogue options, but AIM provided some interactive conversations. As an option to warn unsuspecting members in the same house you could enable a warning at the beginning of each phone call, and a small message on the top of all faxes. When this option was enabled, each phone call would begin with a woman saying "This is a phone call from the video game Majestic", before the regular, prerecorded message.
The game's tagline, "It plays you", emphasized the nature of ARGs and the game's suspense. One of the first things the player experienced in Majestic was news that the game had stopped, yet they would receive messages suggesting that there was a conspiracy behind the stoppage. Majestic was said to have been inspired by The Game, a 1997 movie that featured something like an ARG and repeatedly confused the main character into thinking he was not playing. This game was also inspired by the "Area 51 caller" on Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM.[1]
Some of the clues were videos featuring the game's cast. One of the more widely recognized actors was Joe Pantoliano, who portrayed Tim Pritchard in the game's final episode.
The Game Archaeologist: EA's Majestic (Massively)
EA enticed players with the following description of Majestic: "The suspense thriller that infiltrates your life through the Internet, telephone and fax, then leaves you guessing where the game ends and reality begins." Or more simply, "It plays you." For some, however, the game didn't go far enough in blurring these lines, as the phone calls came from California and were prefaced with a statement that this was part of the game.
Conspiracy story aside, the core of Majestic's gameplay was a series of relatively simple tasks and puzzle-solving. Only so much could be done on a given day before progress was halted until a new day rolled around. During this downtime, players could read up on the game's backstory from a variety of angles depending on one's interest: alien conspiracies, science conspiracies, political intrigue, and so on.
...Majestic's first episode released in August of 2001. It suffered from some of the worst timing ever as the second episode came out just days before the September 11th attacks. Due to some of the game's themes and its heavy use of the telephone network, EA decided to suspend service of the game for a period of time.
