1. The Beast 2001, A.I. Movie poster:

3. 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

4. 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

5. Example: I Love Bees 2004, promoted Halo 2

6. Example: The Dark Knight 2008, http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/02/26/vir al-recap-the-dark-knights-why-so-serious- campaign/ http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/02/26/vir al-recap-the-dark-knights-why-so-serious- campaign/

7. 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.

8. Tiers of play Source: http://42entertainment.com/see.htmlhttp://42entertainment.com/see.html

9. Real-world crossover

10. Anatomy of a puzzle Mysterious audio file:

11. One spectrograph later…

12. Anatomy of a live event

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

16. ‘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

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

18. Community

19. ARGfest: http://2011.argfestocon.com/http://2011.argfestocon.com/

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

21. Serious Game: World Without Oil 2007, non-promotional http://worldwithoutoil.org/ Asychronous, collaborative, explicitly educational Worked on a limited budget Lesson plans: http://worldwithoutoil.org/metateachers.htm http://worldwithoutoil.org/metateachers.htm

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

23. Serious Game: Ghosts of a Chance Smithsonian, 2008 www.GhostsofaChance.com Final report: http://ghostsofachance.com/GhostsofaChan ce_Report2.pdf

24. Serious Game: Should Brandon and Nicole get Engaged? UNC, 2010 moviestar2b.blogspot.com/ http://www.youtube.com /user/ShBANGE http://www.youtube.com /user/ShBANGE More info: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1878335.1878376&coll=DL&dl=GUIDE&CFID=15009796&C FTOKEN=80479239 http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1878335.1878376&coll=DL&dl=GUIDE&CFID=15009796&C FTOKEN=80479239

25. Serious Game: Urgent Evoke Online, 2010 http://www.urgentevoke.com  Repeatable!  Story?

26. Experience Vs. Story

27. Tangential Learning Expose a player to new ideas and potential for learning, without forcing it on them  (source: http://www.edge-online.com/blogs/the-power-tangential-learning )http://www.edge-online.com/blogs/the-power-tangential-learning ARGs can take it even further: learn new skills along the way

28. So you want to play an ARG… Brief Experience:  www.Love-Resurrected.com www.Love-Resurrected.com Community:  Unforums: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/  www.ARGN.com www.ARGN.com

29. 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