The Beast 2001, A.I. Movie poster:

What is an ARG? An immersive storytelling experience Multimedia:  Blogs, youtube, forums, phone calls, text messages, audio, GPS, IM, games-within-games, puzzles, discussions, twitter, facebook, apps, collaboration, meetups, text, secret ops… The real world is the publishing medium Collaborative  “No one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity” Pierre Levy, Collective Intelligence

Why this kind of game? “All my game career I’ve been looking for ways to make game stories more immersive, and a key way to do this is to reduce the number or the height of the leaps of abstraction between the player and the story. By leaps of abstraction I mean “things you have to do different because it’s a game.” Using a controller is an abstractive leap, using button combos is another, and so on. Each leap makes the game less immersive and leaves potential players behind as a result. So when I came to Alternate Reality Games in late 2004, it was like coming home. There’s no controller, no avatar, nothing between you and the game. So I just knew I had to start working in that area.” -Ken Eklund

Example: I Love Bees 2004, promoted Halo 2

Example: The Dark Knight 2008, al-recap-the-dark-knights-why-so-serious- campaign/ al-recap-the-dark-knights-why-so-serious- campaign/

Vocabulary “Rabbit Hole”: The method of an ARG’s launch “Puppet Master” (PM): A person running an ARG “This is not a game”: Many ARGs don’t explicitly admit they are games.

Tiers of play Source:

Real-world crossover

Anatomy of a puzzle Mysterious audio file:

One spectrograph later…

Anatomy of a live event

Synchronous vs. Asychronous Players can come together Players can collaborate apart OR

‘Viral’ vs. ‘Experience’ vs. ‘Game’ Same tools used in all three ‘Viral’ is often a one-time event or production ‘Experience’ is a trail of puzzles & interactions, linear, repeatable ‘Game’ is more collaborative, longer term

Why participate? Swag! Recognition Immersion ‘Wow’ factor Interesting stories

Community

ARGfest:

Serious Game: Year Zero 2007, Nine Inch Nails Civil Resistance

Serious Game: World Without Oil 2007, non-promotional Asychronous, collaborative, explicitly educational Worked on a limited budget Lesson plans:

Serious game: Skeleton Chase IU Bloomington, Fall 2008 Structured around physical fitness

Serious Game: Ghosts of a Chance Smithsonian, Final report: ce_Report2.pdf

Serious Game: Should Brandon and Nicole get Engaged? UNC, 2010 moviestar2b.blogspot.com/ /user/ShBANGE /user/ShBANGE More info: FTOKEN= FTOKEN=

Serious Game: Urgent Evoke Online,  Repeatable!  Story?

Experience Vs. Story

Tangential Learning Expose a player to new ideas and potential for learning, without forcing it on them  (source: ) ARGs can take it even further: learn new skills along the way

So you want to play an ARG… Brief Experience:  Community:  Unforums: 

So you want to make an ARG... Allow far more time than you think Complete everything in advance Target a core audience to start Structure around the tiers of play Story is key Monitor your community of players