In the second season finale of Castle, Castle and his NYPD homicide friends investigate the murder of a possible spy. It’s seems too crazy to believe and, of course, it turns out that it is. The victim was actually playing a game put on by a company very much akin to Consumer Recreation Services, the crazy ARG-like company in The Game (the 1997 Michael Douglas movie). I don’t want to spoil the entire plot, if you haven’t seen it, but the episode title is “A Deadly Game.” (watch it on Hulu – available at the time of posting)

This is not the first time that a television show has had an episode plot revolving around an ARG.

• Numb3rs had an episode, Primacy, in their fourth season which, again, focused on players dying while playing an alternate reality game. Of course, it turns out that an overly obsessed player wants to win the large prize money offered and so he starts killing off his competition. The show also included a fun & thematic little side ARG which was created by Area/Code. and gave us the terribly addictive casual game Chain Factor (aka Drop7).

• In the 2006 CSI:NY episode, Hung Out to Dry, the killer creates t-shirts for his victims which have code words that unlock videos explaining his motives… the set-up, minus the killings, is all very similar to EDOC Laundry which not only inspired the episode but also provided the four t-shirts used in the story (available at the time as a special edition purchase, of course!).

Anyone else see the common thread here? Spoiler: playing an alternate reality game may kill you!

I’m not suggesting that the writers are making a statement against games or ARGs. If, anything, it might suggest that the writers are a bit lazy and wanting to play with a hip new thing… “oh! look! there are these funky sorts of mystery games and we write a murder mystery show! let’s play with this idea!” But on a whole, I have to admit, it does irk me a bit. After all, I want my passion and my career to be portrayed in a good light.

So, my question to y’all is… what am I missing?

What other shows out there have had ARG related plots? Do any of them not revolve around murder? These are all US Network shows (I’m based in the US), are other countries handling is similarly (or at all)? What about cable shows? What do you think of the portrayal of ARGs in television?

Note: It probably wouldn’t be fair to not point out that the writers of Numb3rs got major props at the time for their correct use of jargon & their understanding of the gamer mind – heck, they even call it an alternate reality game, which was fairly advanced terminology for mainstream media in 2007.  It’s also probably not fair for me to use them as an example of ARGs on tv when, at the time, I argued that they didn’t show an ARG… But they called themselves an ARG and people think of it as an ARG and I lost that battle a loooong time ago, heh.