From alternate to alternative reality : games as cultural probes / Patrick Jagoda, Melissa Gilliam, Peter McDonald, and Ashlyn Sparrow -- The game did not take place : this is not a game and blurring the lines of fiction / Alan Hook -- Alternate reality games for learning : a frame by frame analysis / Anthony Pellicone, Elizabeth Bonsignore, Kathryn Kaczmarek, Kari Kraus, June Ahn, & Derek Hansen -- Promotional alternate reality games and the TINAG philosophy / Stephanie Janes -- The coachella disaster : how the puppet masters of art of the h3ist pulled a victory from the jaws of defeat / Burcu S. Bakiolu -- Designing and playing peer-produced ARGs in the primary classroom : supporting literacies through play / Angela Colvert -- Games beyond the arg / Jeff Watson -- Methods : studying alternate reality games as virtual worlds / Calvin Johns -- A typology to describe alternate reality games for cultural contexts / Diane Dufort and Federico Tajariol -- Sociability by design in an alternate reality game : the case of the Trail / Roinioti Elina, Pandia Eleana, Skarpelos Yannis -- Ingress : a restructuring of the ARG or a new genre? : an ethnography of enlightened and resistance factions in Brazil / Thaiane Moreira de Oliveira

Imagine a world of mystery and excitement, adventure and fantasy, waiting for you to explore. A world that reacts to your every move, with characters and companies that talk to you, send you messages, and even give you items to help you in your quest. A world so immersive that you can no longer tell where the reality ends and the fiction begins. Welcome to the world of Alternate Reality Gaming. This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming by Dave Szulborski is the perfect introduction to the unique and exciting world of Alternate Reality Games. Written by the creator of five successful and critically acclaimed ARGs, This Is Not A Game features detailed sections on the theory and history of Alternate Reality Gaming, as well as a "How To Guide" for aspiring game creators. The book also includes Dave's personal reflections on creating some of the most popular ARGs ever developed, and essays on gaming and cooperative writing by award winning authors Ben Mack and Joseph Matheny.

By weaving fictional narratives and problem solving into everyday life, alternate reality games (ARGs) may be able to fill gaps left by traditional studies in the behavioral and social sciences. Researchers are exploring new ways to address concerns such as ecological validity, inconsistent replication, and recruitment of large and diverse sample populations. ARG-based research design, using familiar tools and multimedia venues to engage players in meaningful interaction within complex near‐real‐world environments, offers methods that can make a difference. This book examines the potential strengths of ARG‐based social science research, the challenges that remain to be overcome, and potential starting points for testing these possibilities.

While formal training and communication are a foundational approach to developing employees in the workplace, alternate reality games (ARGs) provide a framework for increased and sustained engagement within business organizations. ARGs are transmedia experiences designed to generate engagement and immersive learning beyond what is achieved in forma

Using textual analysis, interviews with game designers, audience surveys, and close analysis of player forum discussion, this book examines the unique nature of the producer/consumer relationship within promotional Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Historically, ARGs are rooted in advertising as much as they are in narrative storytelling. As designers often have to respond to player actions as the game progresses, players can have an impact on the storyline, on character behaviour, and potentially on the final resolution of the narrative. This book explores how both media consumers and producers are responding to this new reconfiguration of the producer/consumer/prosumer dynamic in order to better understand the diverse advertising experiences available to media audiences today. With a focus on participatory culture and the political economy of promotional communications, this in-depth analysis of ARGs will appeal to academics and researchers in the fields of games, film, advertising, and media and cultural studies.

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are computer- and Internet-based "games" (sometimes they're not games at all in a traditional competitive sense) that create virtual environments and self-contained, fully elaborated worlds. The games usually feature an interactive, real-time narrative that involves multiple participants directly with characters, and the action unfolds as a result of participants’ responses to challenges and puzzles. Participants often form a community of sorts to play the game, coming to strategic decisions and coordinating their responses and actions in the virtual world through media of the actual world, such as telephone, email, snail mail, and the Internet. This book introduces readers to the dazzlingly elaborate, intricate, and wildly imaginative world of ARGs and shows how a career can be forged out of a form of “play” that is both serious and entertaining, ingenious and imaginative, fun and profitable.

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 53. Chapters: Alternate reality game, The Book of Jer3miah, History of alternative reality games, Xi, Lost Experience, Ethan Haas Was Right, I Love Bees, Jamie Kane, Perplex City, List of alternate reality games, Nokia Game, Heroes Evolutions, SFZero, The Lost Ring, The Go Game, Push, Nevada, Evidence: The Last Ritual, Gbanga Famiglia, Ravenchase, The Beast, Find 815, Perplex City Stories, Majestic, Ong's Hat, In Memoriam, World Without Oil, Commander Video, Matt Wolf, The Art of the Heist, Cathy's Book, OurColony, Picture the Impossible, We Tell Stories, Lewis Hamilton: Secret Life, The Truth About Marika, Mind Candy, This is My Milwaukee. Excerpt: An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions. The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time and evolves according to participants' responses, and characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by artificial intelligence as in a computer or console video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and often work together with a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multimedia, such as telephones, email and mail but rely on the Internet as the central binding medium. ARGs are growing in popularity, with new games appearing regularly and an increasing amount of experimentation with new models and subgenres. They tend to be free to play, with costs absorbed either through supporting products (e.g. collectible puzzle cards fund Perplex City) or through promotional relationships with existing products (for...