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, http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/02/26/viral-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: http://42entertainment.com/see.html

Real-world crossover

Anatomy of a puzzle

Mysterious audio file: rf992388ls.mp3

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: http://2011.argfestocon.com/

Serious Game: Year Zero

2007, Nine Inch Nails Civil Resistance

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

Serious game: Skeleton Chase

IU Bloomington, Fall 2008 Structured around physical

fitness

Serious Game: Ghosts of a Chance

Smithsonian, 2008 www.GhostsofaChance.com

Final report:http://ghostsofachance.com/GhostsofaChance_Report2.pdf

Serious Game:Should Brandon and Nicole get Engaged?

UNC, 2010 moviestar2b.blogspot.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/ShBANGE

More info: http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1878335.1878376&coll=DL&dl=GUIDE&CFID=15009796&CFTOKEN=80479239

Serious Game:Urgent Evoke

Online, 2010 http://www.urgentevoke.com

Repeatable! Story?

Experience

Vs.

Story

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 )

ARGs can take it even further: learn new skills along the way

So you want to play an ARG…

Brief Experience: www.Love-Resurrected.com

Community: Unforums: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/ www.ARGN.com

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