After Shock: earthquake alternate reality game

Today, Jason Tester, my colleague at Institute for the Future, and Art Center College of Design launched a fascinating new alternate reality game that simulates public response to a massive earthquake. After Shock asks the key question: What will you do when the big one hits? The game runs for three weeks. Jump in anytime! From Wired News:

Aftershock, run by the Institute for the Future and Art Center College of Design, is based on a 300-page U.S. Geological Survey scenario report that details the extensive damage that Southern California could experience in the aftermath of a 7.8-magnitude quake on the San Andreas Fault. The game began on Thursday and will run for three weeks, prompting users to complete real-world missions — and submit content based on them to the gaming community.

"Disaster preparedness was at the point where the messaging had hit the limit. You can give people this really elegantly designed flyer, and they stick it in a drawer and it hits them in the head during the earthquake," said Jason Tester, the lead game designer at the IFTF. "[The game] says, 'You are experiencing a real earthquake.' We're trying to make it feel visceral."

Play After Shock (aftershock.net), "LA Preps for the Big One With Massively Multiplayer Earthquake" (Wired)

Previously on BB:
• Jason Tester: Case for Human-Future Interaction
• Aftifacts from the Future at IFTF

[#1 posted by Oren Beck , November 13, 2008 10:43 PM]

Disasterville monograph 6?

[#2 posted by Crawford Tillinghast , November 13, 2008 11:31 PM]

That game is racist against Californians...

[#3 posted by Wirelizard , November 14, 2008 2:00 AM]

Both links that the bottom of the article go to the Wired article - first is supposed to go to aftershock.net, I think...

[#4 posted by CJ , November 14, 2008 3:09 AM]

Darn, I thought it was a sequal to Quake!

[#5 posted by Anonymous , November 14, 2008 5:41 AM]

Agreed - the link to aftershock.net is fooked.

Also, the site itself is error'ing out - lots of links that are dead. Contact, FAQ, etc. are all throwing errors.

Maybe a malfunctioning website is due to the server being located in a tarpaper shack in Huntington Beach?

[#6 posted by Anonymous , November 14, 2008 6:30 AM]

I think this is going to be just as bad as Superstruct.

Here's the thing. I LOVE ARGs. LOVE them. I wanted to love Superstruct. Only, it wasn't really an ARG. It was a discussion forum with a few bells and whistles and a theme. Their "missions" consisted of:

-Sign up!
-Make friends!
-Talk about the future!

...right.

The sad thing is, there ARE amazing things that can be done with games. The collective power of our idleness can be harnessed for great good! But without some kind of plot, some kind of REAL goals, the whole exercise turns boring quickly.

I'm not looking for a definite endgame, a way to BEAT my opponents. I love co-operative games. But Superstruct didn't deliver.

And I'm sad that, most likely, neither will Aftershock.

[#7 posted by David Pescovitz , November 14, 2008 9:34 AM]

WIRELIZARD@3, Yes! Fixed it. Thank you!

[#8 posted by NjRConcepts , November 14, 2008 10:13 AM]

www.EarthquakeLA.com

The Big One is coming ...

[#9 posted by Anonymous , November 14, 2008 11:27 AM]

Is there an option for the people who have supplies but they are buried when their apartment house collapses?

[#10 posted by ripplepoppy , November 14, 2008 11:53 AM]

I enjoy that this post, with this title, came right after the White House photo post. I