BoingBoing reports on a new Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG; defined on wikipedia) from the U.K. called Operation: Sleeper Cell. It’s unique in that it’s purpose isn’t just entertainment, but also raising money for charity:

In the game, teams of players work together to solve ‘puzzle cells’ in a grid. By donating money to the game, they can unlock extra cells for all players, and also advance the story, which takes place over websites, blogs, Twitter and even in real life.

There are many ARGs that help raise awareness of issues, like the excellent World Without Oil or the British Red Cross’ new Traces of Hope ARG, but with Operation: Sleeper Cell, we want to show that these games can produce a concrete, measurable good – cold, hard cash to help cure cancer. Since launch, we’ve already raised almost $2000.

ARG here stands for "Alternate Reality Game," an interesting subset of online gaming. Large online role playing games like World of Warcraft boast millions of players interacting in an entirely fictional simulated context, but those aren’t considered alternate reality games. Alternate reality games, though their name might suggest otherwise, are very much embedded in reality. These games are organized around a story that is playing out across multiple contexts, as though the events were taking place "in real life." They’re not, of course, but the multiple windows into the "alternate" reality gives a certain sense of real-ness (more explanation on wikipedia).

What’s interesting in this particular example is how the value created by the game is being leveraged and how that compares with other examples. Many ARGs (probably most of the well funded ones) are promotional tools–novel ways of advertising. A recent successful example is The Lost Experience: an elaborate ARG set up by ABC to promote the TV show Lost. In this case, clues were included in the show itself that led curious viewers to the websites of (non-existent) businesses and groups that are part of the show’s plot. Because Lost is a mystery, there’s an incentive for viewers to become participants and navigate their way through these clues in order to learn more about the world of the show

In the case of The Lost Experience, the goal is to create more loyal viewers and buzz around the show (there were also ads for other products embedded in the game, a pretty interesting type of marketing). In the case of Operation: Sleeper Cell, the goal is to raise money for cancer research. For these very different agendas, the same motivating mechanism is used: the creation of an alternate world in which a player becomes invested–often because there’s a mystery or puzzle to be solved.

Neither of these things would be possible without the web. Operation: Sleeper Cell in particular makes use of new social media technology in order to create a participatory, multifaceted game. By taking advantage of how easy it is to put material up on the web, the innovators behind these games are able to create a layer of content implying the reality of fictional events, at least to those willing to suspend disbelief for the sake of playing. Using that artificial reality as a way to help fund a very real charitable cause is an interesting proposition, to say the least.

Like twitter, ARGs may be a bit difficult to make sense of from the outside. That they’re starting to incorporate new, still evolving tools such as twitter doesn’t make it any easier. However, as a new type of user participation there’s good reason to keep an eye on how these games and things like them are developing, which we’ll continue to do here.