Alternate Reality Games

ARG

Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG)

New genre of gaming (since about 2000) that combines real world events with the virtual experience. Built around solving puzzles or mysteries rather than killing enemies and has many emergent properties created by users rather than simple linear story-lines

ARG
Alternate Reality Gaming is, according to CNET, "...an obsession-inspiring genre that blends real-life treasure hunting, interactive storytelling, video games and online community...
"These games are an intensely complicated series of puzzles involving coded Web sites, real-world clues like the newspaper advertisements, phone calls in the middle of the night from game characters and more. That blend of real-world activities and a dramatic storyline has proven irresistible to many." These games often have a specific goal of not only involving the player with the story and/or fictional characters but of connecting them to the real world and to each other. Many game puzzles can be solved only by the collaborative efforts of multiple players, sometimes requiring one or more players to get up from their computers to go outside to find clues or other planted assets in the real world.

Traditional GAMES

DEFINED RULES DEFINED SPACE GIVEN SET OF COMPONENTS

SET OF VICTORY CONDITIONS

is the next stage in the game evolution.

EMERGENT PROPERTIES
IMMERSIVE REAL WORLD ELEMENTS COLLABORATIVE INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING SELF ORGANIZING STRUCTURE
(OF THE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORK)

The Beast (the first mainstream ARG)

This much we were told from the beginning: Evan Chan was murdered. A web of clues was spun through the datasphere, and the Cloudmakers meticulously pored over each and every puzzle and detail. The Cloudmakers brought together diverse skills ranging from cutting edge spectral analysis to a unique and unrivaled knowledge of historical events and world literature . . . and a whole lot more. Two heads may be better than one, but seven thousand combined to form the ultimate crime fighting syndicate. -www.cloudmakers.org

A complicated promo for the movie AI. Began in 2000, ended in 2001 with over a million players.

A crafty way to self promote comic books. Ran for 3 years in 2 forms.

A complicated advertisement to increase interest for the TV series Fallen. Began and ended in 2006.

The first mainstream non-promo ARG. Very linear storyline. Simplistic card based puzzles. 3 years for season one, and sadly season two never happened.

www.argn.com

(www.unfiction.com/forums) www.unforums.com

despoiler taking the spoiler out of, um, spoilers

www.despoiler.org

www.argology.org

[Source: http://www.42entertainment.com/see]

PART II

The Brackin Circular Model of ARG Development For Alternate Reality Games

[Source: http://www.42entertainment.com/see]

Deus City Player Statistics

Player Path to Level 3, Enthusiastic Status

A Hypothetical Square Model of Alternate Reality Games

The Brackin Circular Model of ARG Development

Two Adjacent ARGs with Shared Game Elements

A Theoretical ARG Cluster of Adjacent ARGs

A Theoretical Inclusive ARG

The Brackin Circular Model of ARG Development

Takes the proven 42 model of player participation to the next level Is the much needed descriptive model of ARG development Allows for a multi-sided ARG with multiple points of entry and player paths Enables proper Illustration of Adjacent ARGs Allows for new theoretical ARG designs, such as the ARG Cluster and the Inclusive ARG