via Kotaku

Here’s a tip: If recipients of your alternate reality game materials think they’ve been sent anthrax, you’ve done something wrong.

The new ARG for EA’s Crysis is definitely getting some attention, but there are ways of doing ARGs right, and there are ways of doing them wrong:

“The contents were weird and scary-looking: a photocopied military report of some sort with a small brown envelope stapled to it. She looked at me: “ugh! What’s in the envelope!? Anthrax?”"

I love this comment by David of Functional Autonomy at the Wonderland post:

“Yeah, it’s a Crysis viral, and it seems to be generating a universal meh along with a dab of scorn for the appalling writing.”

That kind of reaction is what we call a bad sign.

Another choice quote, this time by Clushje on Kotaku:

“It appears viral marketing stops being effective when people actually think the package does contain a virus.”

I’ll endeavor to follow up on the story, as the ARG appears to be making something of a splash online.

Or perhaps that’s a flop.