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< User:Imbri

This page is being used as a workspace to rewrite the Alternate Reality Game article. I've adopted the format used on the MMORPG page, changing it slightly to fit the ARG genre. Now it's just a matter of taking that huge long bulleted list and turning it into readable paragraphs. Feel free to help me with this process. If you're feeling lost or overwhelmed, there's a ToDo & ToDone list as well as editing notes & discussion on the discussion page. The big one, however, is the history section. I've included an initial thought of the games that could be covered as well as the actual bullet points from the initial article as a rough outline.



An Alternate Reality Game (ARG) is a type of game in which the game world and reality overlap, an effect achieved by utilizing real world media in order to deliver an interactive narrative experience to the players.

ARGs are typified by involving the players with the story and its characters, and by encouraging them to explore (and sometimes directly affect) the story, solve plot-based challenges, and interact with game characters. ARGs can be delivered via websites, email, telephones, or any other means of communication which is readily available to the players.

ARGs are growing in popularity, with new games appearing regularly. They tend to be free to play, with costs absorbed either through supporting products (e.g. collectible puzzle cards in the case of Perplex City) or because they support or promote an existing product (e.g. Halo 2 in the case of I Love Bees).

Concepts

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Real World Media

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Alternate Reality Games make heavy use of real world media such as Internet websites, e-mail, telephones, newspapers, television, or even real world interaction. There is no restriction on the media used to deliver an ARG, as long as the targeted player base eventually has access to those media.

The most common medium used to date in ARGs is the Internet. ARGs generally feature a large game-reality consisting of multiple websites, all of which are presented as being real (non-fiction). The games are so ubiquitous that sometimes it is difficult for the players to tell if a website is real or part of the game.

The use of pervasive media outlets which extend into the players' everyday lives creates a situation where the game's alternate reality and the real world collide. As the in-game elements and real world overlap, the lines are blurred between the game world and reality. Some games have extended into players' everyday lives by pushing information towards players at certain times (e.g. SMS messages), whereas others have required players to initiate all communication to advance the plot.

By conflating the game world and the real world, ARGs create a self-conscious and self-sustaining alternate reality which never admits to being a game, but rather presents itself as a universe coexisting with and crossing into the real world.

Alternate Reality & This Is Not A Game

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The phrase "This Is Not A Game" (TINAG) is central to the ARG genre and has been used as both a design philosophy and a player mantra.

As part of the design philosophy behind the Beast, it was first presentated publicly by the lead designer of the game, Elan Lee, at the 2001 Game Developers Conference. The idea is that in order to present a believable story world or alternate reality, everything within the game reality must react appropriately. If there is a phone number given, it should work or have a good reason not to (no fake numbers such as 555-1234). If an email address is available, it should accept and, perhaps, respond to emails. If a website is mentioned, it should exist. The same is true of the characters who must act and react as if they truly exist. The result is a design philosophy that leads to a game that does not know that it is a game. Everything within the game world believes itself to be true; it is not a game.

TINAG also frequently appears in player discussions as a mantra. This is especially true when players are confronted with a boundary between the real and fictional worlds. It has also appeared in several games and was the title of one of the first books devoted to the genre, This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming.

By maintaining that the game is real, the creators do not reveal themselves while the game is running. The creators of the game have thus been given the title of "Puppet Masters", running the game from behind the "Curtain", and creating a universe which is entirely self-contained and filled with a vast array of assets which are used to tell a story.

The Narrative Experience

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ARGs deliver a story by breaking it into several pieces which are delivered over different media, and allowing the players to combine those pieces in order to reassemble the story and advance the plot. For example, an ARG might convey the relationship between two characters by employing a personal blog for each character, and creating entries which detail the actions and emotions of each character. The players would then proceed to piece together the story by cross-referencing different enteries and creating a timeline of the correspondences between the two characters.

This fragmented approach in delivering the story translates into an enjoyable challenge for the players, who in turn form groups to discuss the different elements of the game, and attempt to speculate on what the current story elements mean and how the plot might advance.

Player Collaboration

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ARGs inherently lead to and encourage player collaboration. The Internet is a highly pervasive medium used for delivering ARGs, and thus creates a perfect environment for the rapid delivery and dissimination of information.

If an ARG used an advertisement in a magazine to deliver a message, then only one player needs to aquire that magazine and scan the advertisement in order to publish it online for all players to access. The players can then use online resources such as forums or chatrooms to discuss the message and how it relates to the story.

Thus the player base for an ARG becomes a unified collective, with the majority of player base composed of lurkers following the discussion amongst the more vocal player base, but jumping in at various stages in order to make a contribution which the active players might have missed or did not have access to. This blend of passive and active players sharing experiences and knowledge is unique to ARGs, and is an integral part of playing the game.

Interaction

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ARGs encourage the collective player base to interact with the game world. This is done by allowing players to respond via the same media used to deliver the story. For example, a player might receive an e-mail from one of the characters containing an encrypted message. The player would then solve the encryption to reveal a website address which contains another message from the character, and requires further interaction on the site itself.

Interaction constitutes a major foundation of ARGs. By interacting with the game world, players can actively advance and influence the plot of the game. The players' actions (or lack thereof) has a direct effect on the game and its progress.

The interactive nature of ARGs, combined with the element of player collaboration, has lead to the creation of communities which flourish around individual games and the ARG genre as a whole.

History

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ARGs, as defined today, have existed since 2001. However, the roots of the genre were visible in the 1990s and they are strongly influenced by other genres, such as traditional role-playing games (RPGs) and early online fiction.


Before ARG

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(RPGs)

(publius enigma & ongs hat)

(online fiction)

(blair witch)

(webrunner)

From the original article:

  • Other roots include reader-influenced online fiction sites. The first of these was the all-text QuantumLink Serial by Tracy Reed on AOL (then called Quantum Computer Services), which debuted in 1988, and was played out in online chat rooms, emails and traditional narrative. The series also went by the name The AppleLink Serial and The PC-Link Serial on those services before they were all unified under the AOL brand when Quantum changed its name. After each week's chapter was published, users wrote to author Reed suggesting how they could be part of the story. Each week Reed chose one to a handful of users on each of the three services and wrote them into the story, depicting how they interacted with the fictional characters. The project was personally greenlighted by AOL founder Steve Case and produced by Kathi McHugh. Later titles, the most famous of which was The Spot by Scott Zakarin, added photos and video to the stories, but typically featured less user interaction.
  • Wizards of the Coast developed some of the first ARGs (before the term was coined) to promote the collectable card game Netrunner in 1996. The first "Webrunner" game, Webrunner: The Hidden Agenda, cast players as futuristic hackers breaking into the Futokora Corporation's computers. The sequel Webrunner II: The Forbidden Code turned the tables, casting players as security agents defending against hackers. Wizards did several more such games in the late 1990s for its games BattleTech and Magic: The Gathering, and one more ("Horsemen") for Hecatomb.
  • The Game, a 1997 film starring Michael Douglas, featured a fictional company that developed and implemented large-scale ARG/LARP games for the amusement of wealthy people. Michael Douglas' character is caught up in a supposed conspiracy when his brother buys him a "game" for his birthday. However, there are no known real-world ARGs tied into the one in the movie.

Early Commercial Games

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(beast & cloudmakers)

(majestic)

(nokia ?)

From the original article:

  • The first wildly successful ARG was a game developed to promote the movie A.I. by a small team at Microsoft. At its peak, this game was being played simultaneously by many thousands of users, and created something of a cultural phenomenon when it was released; it was referred to by its developers (and now by players, as well) as "The Beast", and is considered the granddaddy of the genre it created. The players were known as Cloudmakers, and still self-identify themselves as such in ARG communities.
  • One of the earliest large-scale examples of this was the EA game known as Majestic. Though the game itself suffered commercial failure and had significant problems, it remains a useful initial case study for the genre. While development on Majestic began before "The Beast" was launched, Majestic was made available to the public at the tail end of this A.I.-related campaign. Change Agents Out of Control was an early ARG that actually grew from the demise of Majestic.
  • One of the most commercial ARGs to date remains the Nokia Game, which ran between 1999 and 2005, with a different story each year. The game used phone calls, SMS, TV adverts, newpaper articles and emails to give clues to the player. As each game lasted only a maximum of 3 weeks, deadlines for mini-games were strict, with many sections of the game only giving players one chance to solve it.

Grassroots Development

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Under the influence of “The Beast” and drunk on the power of collaboration, several cloudmakers came together with the idea that they could create a similar game. With very little experience behind them, the group stumbled through the development process but were determined to see it through, especially once Wired published a short article highlighting the game, A Conspiracy of Conspiracy Games. It took nine months before the game was ready to go live, but once it did, the Cloudmaker’s forum lit up. Having been players of the Beast, the Lockjaw development team was extremely aware of the community playing the game and took steps to encourage the tight bonding of the player base through highly collaborative puzzles, weekly euchre games, and even included player personas in the game throughout the four months that players spent exploring the internet along with a fictional group of urban explorers who had uncovered a powerful secret hidden in an abandoned subway tunnel in the nation's capitol.

While the numbers never rivaled those of The Beast, with absolutely no funding or promotion, the little game proved that there was interest in this new form of storytelling. In fact, it was during Lockjaw that the genre took its first steps. The term Alternate Reality Gaming was first used by Sean Stacey in the Trail for the Lockjaw game. Furthering the charge, the moderators of the Lockjaw playing community, Steve Peters and Sean Stacey, created the two websites that have become the hub for ARG players: ARGN and UnFiction. Due to their efforts, when Lockjaw ended, the players had a new home to go to where they could come together to play the games that were soon to follow.

Just before Lockjaw concluded, players discovered a game that seemed to revolve around the movie Minority Report. Though speculation ran rampant through the Cloudmakers and Lockjaw players when the game was first launched, the game was not an official movie promotion. However, those that stuck with Exocog, as the game was called, were treated to a compelling story about the rise of pre-cognitive individuals being utilized for commercial purposes. The game, which ran for about six weeks, was an experiment in interactive storytelling by Jim Miramontes who has provided a case study of the Exocog experience.

And, just as Exocog was wrapping up and inspired by the independent Lockjaw effort, Dave Szulborski introduced his ChangeAgents to the ARGN audience. The ChangeAgents were originally created to amuse Dave and his fellow Majestic beta testers. When Majestic initiated an innovative fan fiction program called BIOS, Dave created a second ChangeAgents game called Operation Mindset. After a year of silence, players of Operation Mindset recieved an email saying that time was running out and pointing them to what would become the three month long experience ChangeAgents: Out of Control.

With these three successes, all by independent teams exploring the genre on a low budget, it is no surprise that an active "grassroots" development community has evolved within the genre. While the quality of the grassroots games vary wildly, a number of amateur storytellers, web designers, and puzzle creators have found satisfaction in providing ARGs for the active player community.


Experiments in Extended Reality

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During the suddenly busy summer of 2002, television commercials promoting a new series to air on ABC called Push, Nevada invaded the television airwaves. Created and written by Sean Bailey and Ben Affleck, and produced by their company LivePlanet, the real attraction of the show was the implication that the show’s mystery would move off of the television and into the online realm. Intrigued, ARGers kept their eyes open for hints of Push, and were rewarded months before the show aired, spotting message board posts from people claiming to live in the town of Push, NV. By the time the first episode aired, players had discovered a number of websites surrounding the fictional town, including a newspaper, local businesses, and even a Toyota dealership linked to from the official Toyota website.

Though enthusiasm was high on the side of players, the quality of the show did not attract casual viewers and left commerical sponsors scratching their heads. The online portion, while containing numerous websites, was far from expansive and did little to expand the story or allow the eager players to explore. Furthermore, the clues embedded within the show were nothing short of obvious, leaving players wanting in challenge - they held out hope that things were gearing up for an end of the season push and an increase in depth and difficulty. Unfortunately for all involved, the show was cancelled by the 8th episode forcing the show's producers to scramble in order to provide the final puzzle leading to a simple puzzle followed by a fastest fingers competition to dial in the correct phone number in order to win the million dollar prize.

While Push, NV came to an abrupt and disappointing close, the forums which were now at unfiction were going strong and those following the experience realized that there was great potential for something similar to work in the future. However, there had been no large success since the Beast and with the failures of both Push, NV and Majestic, players were concerned that Hollywood may hesitate before making another attempt.

The following year, the team that developed Lockjaw decided to take matters into their own hands. With the directors of the Matrix exploring many different media models in telling their story, it seemed like the perfect universe to experiment with. So, in October, 2003, just before the official release of the final film in the trilogy, the independent team launched Metacortechs. Despite virtually no budget or promotion, the fan fiction effort was very successful and reached a larger and more active player base than many professionally produced games.



(lead into ReGenesis - directly runs aside tv show)

(Fallen - promoting a tv show)

(The Lost Experience - keeps attention during summer hiatus)



From the original article:

  • October 2004, the ReGenesis Extended Reality game launched in tandem with the Canadian television series ReGenesis. Clues and stories from the series sent players online to stop a bioterrorist attack.
  • ABC Family also launched an ARG inspired by Fallen. This game follows a young girl named Faith Arella as she travels around the world in search of her parents. A mysterious device called The Oculus is tracked by the investigative team (and guide) at The Ocular Effect. This game is still underway.
  • In May 2006, the makers of the TV series Lost started their own ARG called the Lost Experience. American television network ABC joined with Channel 4 in the UK and Australia's Channel 7 in promoting a revamped web site for The Hanso Foundation. The site is focused on the fictitious company that is prevalent in the storyline of Lost, the TV series. The game has been promoted through television advertisements (run during Lost episodes) featuring the company's name, web site URL and one of three telephone numbers (depending on which part of the world the ad is being run) which connects to the Hanso Foundation company directory. Players can find out more about the Lost universe by accessing the web site. Several additional websites have been created to further the game and offer clues.

Promotional Games

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(I Love Bees - product advertising: halo 2)

(Art of the Heist - brand awareness: audi)

(Who is Benjamin Stove - e-85 fuel and not an actual product / client not revealed until late in the game)

From the original article:

  • In 2004, the I Love Bees ARG (also known as Haunted Apiary) was developed in relation to the Xbox game Halo 2 and set in the vast fictional universe that has grown around the Halo franchise. This ARG departed from the traditional puzzle-led form to be more story-led. Its authors, who also created The Beast, had in the interim founded an ARG design and development company, 42 Entertainment.
  • Likely in response to 'I Love Bees', 2Advanced Studios developed another ARG, Channel 51 (Be sure to look at the older updates on the bottom of the page in order), which was centered around a fictional company called Orbis Labs. This ARG was used as a promotional vehicle for Nintendo's GameCube game Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. Also, as a parody of 'I Love Bees,' Nintendo created many similar-sounding websites (for example, ilovetrees.com).
  • March 29, 2005, The Art of the Heist launched. Developed as a promotional ARG for Audi, The Art of the Heist took things to a new level with multiple realworld events/missions and extensive media placement.
  • September 24, 2005, a poker-themed ARG called Last Call Poker launched. It is 42 Entertainment's first major ARG since I Love Bees, and featured both online poker play and cemetery-based live events and poker tournaments across the country.

The Search for Business Models

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(PXC - product/collectable puzzle cards)

(edoc - product/clothing)

  • In April 2006, at the close of an ARG designed around IDEAS Festival 2006, an email was sent out to players announcing the launch of Studio Cypher, an ARG organized into "multiplayer novels": free-standing mini-games lasting approximately a month each.[1] The game uses a two-tiered participation model, in which subscribers who pay a fee for each chapter are allowed access to direct character participation and special content, as well as receiving game updates earlier than non-paying participants.[2]

(cathy's book - in game advertising & product / book)

From original article:

  • April 2005, Perplex City began in earnest, after a years' worth of teaser/previews. Perplex City is currently still playing, and is a commercial ARG involving the purchase of puzzle cards as well as an online trail and live events.
  • March, 2006, edoc laundry [note: "edoc" is simply "code" backwards] was launched. This ARG venture uses clothes as its primary communication medium, with consumers deciphering the codes hidden within the garment. The codes are then input into the website to reveal pieces of a story about the murder of a band manager.
  • In late September 2006, Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman's book/ARG "Cathy's Book: If Found Call 650-266-8233" is due to be released. The novel is essentially an ARG wrapped up in book form with an "evidence packet" attached. 17-year-old Cathy has just had her dad die and her boyfriend dump her, but when she tries to find out why Victor left her, things get very strange and she follows a trail that leads her through biotech and ancient Chinese secrets.
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Self-funded

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As highlighted above, a number of teams are experimenting with different revenue models. Despite a few failed attempts at a pay-to-play model (most notably, Majestic), games had either been funded from the pockets of the teams that created them, with minimal attempts at recovering their costs let alone covering wages or turning a profit, or created as a part of a promotional or extended reality campaign until Perplex City launched with it's collectable puzzle cards in 2005. Since then, we've seen a number of other teams attempting to do this. Currently, there are games working on a pay-to-play basis, using additional products and merchandise, and taking advantage of in-game advertising.

Playing with different forms of media

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From comic books, to collectable puzzle cards, to a very non-traditional traditional book, we're seeing game designers experimenting with forms of media that had not yet been utilized within the genre. Additionally, we're seeing games make more use of a wider variety of media types within a single game.

Much of the experimenting with different forms of media actually relates to the funding of the game. For example, the collectable puzzle cards in Mind Candy's Perplex City not only helps to draw players into the alternate reality game, but they also provide the main source of revenue. Catching the Wish, the sequel to Chasing the Wish (2003), does something similar with comic books. And, while also utilizing in-game advertizing, Cathy's Book by award winning author and experienced ARG writer Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman uses a book to lead readers and participants into a rather deep on and offline mystery.

Large live events & street games

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Alternate Reality Games have been taking to the streets more and more since I Love Bees sent its players on a quest to find (and answer!) payphones throughout America (and select few outside of the US). While going to and answering payphones had an element of play to them (with singing and occasionally dressing for the occasion) a recent trend has combined elements of Big Games into the ARG which can stand apart from the ARG and only tangentially apply to the online story. A great example of this would be 42 Entertainment's Last Call Poker which offered games of Tombstone Hold'em (a variation of Texas Hold'em that had players completing their poker hand with tombstones) in a different city every weekend throughout the run of the game.

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As a new genre of gaming, the definition of what is and is not an ARG is fluid and often debated. Additionally, players and designers are attracted to ARGs for a variety of reasons and often find, play, or design games that contain those attractive elements but that might not classify as an ARG otherwise. None the less, they are influencing the ARGs that we see today and will see in the future. These include games such as the following:

  • Morton's List: The End to Boredom, published by Dark Carnival Games, was first published in 2000 and is unique game that uses dice to give players randomly determined activities to do in real life. While there is very little narrative, the use of collaborative play and real world missions is also often seen in Alternate Reality Games.
  • Uru Live, a now-defunct (Update: Uru Live is to be restarted by Turner Broadcasting System/GameTap) "immersive" MMORPG created by Cyan Worlds, was the culmination of nearly a decade of subtle (and, in the later years, not-so-subtle) overtones in dialogue between the software company and the fan community, in which the former "passively maintained" the existence of the fictional D'ni race. The hired actors who formed the D'ni Restoration Council served as the central feature of the ARG experience.
  • In Memoriam (also called Missing:Since January) was an adventure game released for PCs that combined a number of online elements, including websites and email. The story goes that the game was created by a serial killer whose mystery needs solving by the player. Though it is single player with little live play, it's unique blend of online elements is an interesting model for "replayable" ARGs
  • SFZero was launched in San Francisco in January, 2006 but was quickly adopted by players all over the world. It is a fascinating "Collaborative Production Game" where players complete tasks designed by other players. Like ARGs, it is collaborative however it is much more dependant upon player created content and exploring the real world than most ARGs.
  • Lonelygirl15 uploaded her first video to YouTube in June, 2006, immersing viewers with a compelling story compounded by the mystery of whether or not she was actually real and encouraging a large community of viewers to form on a "fan created" website (actually created by the creators of the videos). While there has yet to be a game included in the experience, the storytelling and community experience is very similar to what occurs with Alternate Reality Games and ARGs have been mentioned heavily in the press covering the experience.

Genre challenges

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Academic & Press attention

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This section should cover research and academic writings on ARGs. This includes Jane's work as well as others that have discussed ARGs in game and cross-media contexts. As far as press, it shouldn't be just a long list of general press articles but, instead, mention the focus that articles are taking. For example, perhaps it should include Andrea's article in Gamasutra about women in ARG.

Bits included in the original article:

  • Avant Game - A compilation of articles about alternate reality and pervasive gaming, and project notes, from Jane McGonigal

Other resources:

See also

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References

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Notes
  1. ^ http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14458
  2. ^ Senderhauf, Michelle. "Did Studio Cypher Leave Agents Out In the Cold?" ARGN June 10, 2006 (URL accessed September 2006).
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Introductory ARG resources

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Main resources

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  • Alternate Reality Gaming Network - the hub of a network of sites dedicated to Alternate Reality Gaming. News, reviews, commentary and resources, plus an opt-in mailing list to be notified of new games as they are discovered.
  • unforums - the genre's largest message boards dedicated to ARGs (since September 2002). Parent site: unfiction.com.
  • Immersion Unlimited - community of players who build and play games, similar, albeit much smaller in volume than unforums.
  • patmo.de - ARGReporter - a German news site dedicated to ARGs
  • IGDA ARG SIG - Special Interest Group on Alternate Reality Games development. A free group run by the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) for all professional and hobbyist game developers to discuss, analyze, share, and learn about ARG development.

Other relevant sites

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