“The Trail” was an alternate reality game designed to create a playful and immersive narrative both online and offline as part of the players’ daily lives. The techniques used, typical of the genre, included creating fake websites, sending emails to players, and interacting with game agents to create a context in which a fictional scenario could unfold and, for the duration of the game’s play, become the players’ alternate reality.
The Trail lasted a week, was a low, almost zero budget project that managed to create a sense of competition and rivalry and a strong desire for the players to go all the way.
Storyline
The story of “The Trail” focuses on the research work of a distinguished scientist, Dr. Melissandros Mandragora. After observing some abnormal activities in the ecosystem of the village where he grew up, he gathered some of his colleagues to investigate whether the chemtrails detected over the area were having a negative impact on the environment. His investigations led him to Erevosky, an aerial spraying company that was responsible for spraying a chemical that could allegedly cause violent outbursts and aggressive behavior. The scientist and his colleagues were able to uncover the conspiracy of some powerful people, including members of the government, journalists and other prominent members of society. This group had the secret aim of making people reach a state of anger that would trigger all kinds of rivalries, conflicts and antagonisms. Such a state of rage was intended to serve as a distraction to hide their even more sinister efforts to awaken the Grand Old Man, Cthulhu.
Despite their efforts to hide their plans, they made a fatal mistake. The sudden disappearance of the lead investigator, Dr. Melissander Madragora, was the catalyst that finally brought together a determined group of people (the “Shujaa” meaning hero in Swahili) who had to act in unison to solve the mystery and stop the plan of the evil group and their associates (the “Waliochaguliwa” meaning chosen ones in Swahili) to bring about the end of the world.
Publication
Roinioti E., Pandia E., Skarpelos Y. (2017) Sociability by design in an Alternate Reality Game: The case of The Trail, in Anter Garcia and Greg Niemeyer (eds), Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay, Bloomsbury Academic.