Lemme tell y'all, i have been in the ARG space for some time, and the best ones don't tell this crazy story that happens to be a game and everyone is comforted and happy. That's not how you do it.
That's not how you grab your audience.
You make an ARG matter because it starts as normal as it can be.
A normal youtube channel, a normal video game.
A normal show.
And slowly, you start messing with your audience. Not at the beginning and not blatantly.
You adress your core audience, and install small things meant to destabilize them. The ones who binge-watch, the ones who will look at every detail and beyond. The ones who call your show home.
A faux-raccord, a strange cut, objects changing colors in a show where color is part or its core.
You slowly make them lose grip on what they think they know.
And because they will start to notice something is wrong in a very familiar environment, that's when they get scared. Because nothing is scarier than a home you don't quite recognize.
When the elements, all lined up do not make any sense, in a way that seems almost by design.
But no one can truly put their finger on the thing that's odd. On the missing piece, the purpose, the real ending... The master theory.
That's where they will start to dig your ARG mystery.
That's when you grab their guts, basically.
And all they gotta do, is believe in the story hard enough and with sufficient faith to play along.
Even in the dark. Surrounded by silence.
Guys, believe.
This is an ARG.
