Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

November 18, 2008

Gene Koo of TechPresident describes his experience with the reality game play of campaign site/ARG My.BarackObama.com:

It featured minimal graphics, no sound effects, and deeply flawed gameplay. Yet one of the most important game titles of 2008 was played by thousands and helped change the face of American politics...

MyBO awarded Obama supporters with points for taking real-world actions that would likely help the candidate win the primaries and the general election: making phone calls to voters, hosting gatherings, and donating money... MyBO was the first serious ARG deployed by a political campaign...

 

For most supporters, the points likely functioned as a curiosity. Still, the point system helped signal what kinds of activities really mattered, and it probably had something to do with the over 200,000 events hosted and 27,000 groups created on MyBO – an impressive number even after you discount some set of bogus ones put on to game the system...

Comments

Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

That's actually quite impressive. See, this is the future of campaigning folks. I'd love to see republicans and even independents get this sort of thing going too.

Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG


Impressive...

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Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

 Hmmm, perhaps this is why Barack won; he is a man of the people and their medium.

Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

I'd be surprised if he wasn't.

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"Game on, brothers and sisters." -Leet Gamer Jargon

Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

Is there a meaning for, "ARG", that I'm not aware of?  The only meaning I know for it is, "Alternate Reality Game", and there's nothing "alternate reality" about this, unless you're really stretching the term.  It's more like Folding@Home meets viral marketing meets cold-call fundraising.

By the definition of ARG used here, several training supplement companies have been running ARGs for years by allowing amateur athletes to earn credits and products as rewards for attracting customers.  Conversely, by my definition, an ARG is a set of unfolding, dramatic circumstances that people can participate in, but that has no bearing on actual reality.

Edit:  OK, so the author of the article is altering it to "augmented reality game" because he's apparently a bit of a kook.  That term doesn't even make any sense.

Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

I've always heard it as "augmented" reality game.  Never heard it as alternate.  Makes more sense that way anyway, in that its like an add-on to reality, as opposed to be another one entirely.

Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

I just thought 'ARG' was the sound you made when you found out they'd installed an explorer bar without bothering to tell you ;)

Re: Supporter Looks Back at the Success of Obama's ARG

I like how they abbreviate the game as MyBO. Did degree sponsor its development?

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/07/09 at 04:27pm
ZippyDSMlee: man I got alot of junk and dup files too >< god I need orginization...and no not the knee capping media mafia kind :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:26pm
ZippyDSMlee: replaced :P
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:23pm
ZippyDSMlee: beemoh:hey its like 60GB porn,400GB anime 100GB games and crap I have took from all my DVDs, I hate waiting on dvds to install stuff..... oh and 40GB of my porn was in the found.000 folder...mostly corrupted.... least I got names of wut needs to be repa
Posted 11/07/09 at 04:18pm
beemoh: @Zip: ...and you'd have to spend all that time re-downloading that porn?
Posted 11/07/09 at 03:34pm
ZippyDSMlee: ggrrrrr......vista lost one of my hard drives and I had a heart attack thinking I lost 1TB of data....
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:58am
JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:56am
Austin_Lewis: JDKJ: You forgot C) the fact that, for some reason, every time he did something that would suggest he shouldn't be in the military, let alone an officer, higher ups ignored it or let it slide.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:51am
JDKJ: Part of the problem is, I believe, that (a) the Army had a lot of time and money already invested in him and which they were unwilling to simply write-off and (b) an increasing need for the type of skills and services he provided.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:11am
JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
ZippyDSMlee: *noms on his feet*..nomnomnomnom*droooll* ...wuuutttttt uuu looking at?
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:05am
JDKJ: I'm no psychologist, but I'm told that crazy people have a tendency to do crazy things.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:03am
chadachada321: Whoops, was out of the convo for awhile. I do wonder what type of ammo he used etc, but the real issue is WHY he did it, not HOW
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:56am
JDKJ: But if it turns out that they actually did, they'll have Hell to pay.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:45am
JDKJ: And I'd tend to rule out the possibilty of FN Herstal supplying restricted ammunition to someone merely because they're ordering it from a military base.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:37am
JDKJ: I know you don't leave your gated community and get around much in dark alleys, so you may be surprised to learn that there's this thing called "the black market" where, if you've got enough money, ain't too much of anything which can't be bought.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:36am
Austin_Lewis: Or, maybe he or someone else at the base ordered the SS190 from FN Herstal.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:32am
Austin_Lewis: the hands of private owners. They run about 300 dollars minimum for a box of 50, and boxes of AP 5.7 are extremely scarce, mainly residing in the hands of Class III stores or individuals who for one reason or another got a demo box of it.
Posted 11/07/09 at 09:30am
Austin_Lewis: There are other firearms that fire the 5.7. However, I too would like to know where he got the ammo and what kind was used. Maybe Hasan, planning not to live through this, went out and bought one the boxes of SS190 that are floating around in
Posted 11/07/09 at 08:44am
JDKJ: And it isn't yet clear what type of ammunition Hasan used. It's strange that he purchased a gun but didn't purchase ammunition for it at the same place and time. Especially because the calibre required is peculiar to the actual gun.
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