Hearts hammering, 40 blue-tagged runners raced through the night, darting frenetically through hotel lobbies, weaving down increasingly empty streets and crawling, Ninja-style, through Golden Gate Park to flee an ever-escalating number of pursuers.

From Online to offline. Engagement and engagement marketing can take many forms, even moving form virtual worlds to the real one.

The story goes like this Gamers finding adrenaline rush offline

This magical world emerged five years ago, when some creative game designers challenged folks obsessed by videogames such as "Doom" to get up off the couch and go outside.

Using online instructions, the so-called "puppetmasters" conjured up physical challenges and insane puzzles that no one could solve alone, and wrapped up the package in a compelling narrative arc.

Suddenly there was a new genre that encouraged intellectual collaboration and creativity, and built far-flung but tight-knit communities. And it did so using nearly every recent tech trend, from wireless communication to global positioning technology, social networking and You Tube.

For example

Instead of creating fictional superheroes, the game turned its players into fantastic versions of themselves and built communities of shared interests.

"We tried to create a really exciting experience for participants, and what they fantasize about doing," says Lavigne. "Like being in a movie where you're running away from strangers, and you don't know why. The city turns into kind of a playground."

San Francisco's "Journey to the End of the Night" was so vivid that weeks after being chased through the night by purple-ribboned taggers -- the fulfillment of every scary movie fantasy -- players said their hearts still raced every time they saw the color purple.

During the past year, Kizu-Blair and his team have crafted hundreds of other missions

6 Years ago collective intelligence was built into a gaming experience

Back in 2001, Microsoft embarked on a marketing-game project to pique public interest in the movie "A.I." The Spielberg movie didn't exactly dazzle at the box office, but Lee's game, nicknamed "The Beast," unleashed a completely new type of alternate reality play.

"Everyone who played it felt it was the start of something new, this massively collaborative game," McGonigal said. "When the game was over, you wanted to keep playing in real life."

The game lasted for 12 weeks and used 30 different Web sites, real-world rallies and events, and online discussion boards that sizzled as tens of thousands of players around the world worked together to solve the mystery.

It was the first game, says McGonigal, to tap into the concept of collaborative intelligence. No individual could solve all of the game's arcane codes and puzzles -- one puzzle required knowledge of lute tablature, for example -- but thousands of people pooling their intellectual resources could solve anything.

So if you want to play?

SFZERO A free, noncommercial, collaborative game that sends its members out on quirky, creative missions ranging from last summer's epic "Journey to the End of the Night" -- a wild chase through the streets of San Francisco, Brooklyn and Manhattan -- to flattery brigades, art projects and strange postal challenges, including "The Beautiful Letter" task.

CRUEL 2 B KIND A free, experimental game of benevolent assassination -- players are attacked with random acts of kindness, so you can be "killed" with a flower or effusive praise. The game is played in public spaces and coordinated via text messages. Hundreds of people played the game in Manhattan during New York's Come Out and Play Festival. The next Bay Area game is scheduled for early March. Visit www.CruelGame.com for details.

PERPLEX CITY This commercial, alternate reality game involves a real-world treasure hunt set in a mythical metropolis. Clues are conveyed via Web sites, game cards (which must be purchased), telephone calls and events. Last summer's San Francisco rally included games, discussions and a few moments of rampant paranoia when gamers received text messages telling them to race outside, where they were promptly buzzed by real helicopters searching for a fictitious mole. Join the game at www.PerplexCity.com.

EDOC LAUNDRY This Seattle-based alternate reality/sportswear company sells clothing whose vivid graphics obscure the cryptic messages and codes imbedded in the design. When the code is typed online, the Web site reveals clues to the next chapter of a mystery about a band called Poor Richard. Join the game at www.edoclaundry.com.

CATHY'S BOOK. Another product of 42 Entertainment , the Emeryville alternate reality game company that created "ILoveBees" and "Last Call Poker" and is also affiliated with edoc laundry. This controversial book is a multimedia hybrid aimed at teen readers who must solve the mystery by delving into takeout menus and other slips of paper packaged with the book, and by checking out the Web sites and mysterious phone numbers jotted onto the book's pages. The book can be purchased through local bookstores and www.Amazon.com. For information on the concept, visit www.42Entertainment.com.

Makes me feel like joining in. Its gotta be better than watching the Television.

Comments

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