Rovers Return: reinventing the ARG with Extrasolar

[wraggster]

I have a confession to make. I've found a free-to-play game with a cooldown system that I love. Usually, these artificial barriers to progress make me climb the walls in despair (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-05-dungeon-keeper-review). InExtrasolar (https://extrasolar.com/), a narrative browser game from Lazy 8 Studios, I actively look forward to being made to wait for the next bit of gameplay.The difference is context. In Extrasolar, you sign up with XRI, a private space agency exploring an alien world, Epsilon Prime. You're not playing as a character, you're you. And you're not on Epsilon Prime, you're a volunteer controlling a robotic rover on the planet's surface from your home PC. Accessing XRI's systems via your web browser, you click-and-drag on a map of the small island that is your designated research area, and tell your rover where to go next. You'll have missions to complete, directing you to certain spots or in search of certain samples, but once you're past a short introductory section you have the freedom to tackle tasks in whatever order you want, or simply explore under your own steam. Once a waypoint has been set, the rover trundles off, takes a photo of the map location you sent it to, and you receive the image.Just as this is a game that comes to you via your inbox and browser and is experienced in real life, so too does the whole experience play out in real time. Epsilon Prime has its own lunar cycle, your rover has limited range and speed, and so if you want a photo in the daylight - or in the dark - you may need to tell it to wait for the appropriate time. And you'll have to wait as well.Once a photo arrives back, rendered in the cloud with almost photo-real precision, your job is to study it and tag up to three points of interest, which then get analysed by XRI. The more things you find, the more the database on Epsilon Prime fills up. It's an ingenious concept, and one that turns the countdown mechanic into a period of anticipation, entirely justified by the narrative, rather than a crude interruption against your will.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-24-rovers-return-reinventing-the-arg-with-extrasolar