Definitions

From Wikipedia: "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 typified 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."

See also Brooke Thompson's 'Alternate Reality Gaming: A Definition'

History, Lists & Stats

Christy Dena's 'ARG Stats': an ongoing listing of all statistics, awards & impact info avail about ARGs

Brooke Thompson's 'Current & Recent Games': a listing of all ARGs between August 2005-August 2006

Sean Stacey's 'History', UnFiction: a short description of the first ARGs

See also the wikipedia entry on Alternate Reality Games: but be warned, although some ARG designers have done a great job in summarising much information, it is unreliable as it suffers from vanity spammers.


'OMG! Holy Cow! ARG!', UnFiction Unforums: players (and PMs) list the moments they suddenly realise how cool ARGs are/amazing moments

'Great Characters in ARG History', UnFiction UnForums: players (and PMs) list their favourite characters

'Top Ten ARGs of all Time', UnFiction UnForums: players (and PMs) list their favourite ARGs

'Greatest Moments in ARGs', UnFiction UnForums: players (and PMs) list their most memoriable events

Player Communities

Alternate Reality Gaming Network: announcements & articles about ARGs

UnFiction: resources & articles about ARGs

Unfiction Unforums: where just about all ARGs are played & discussed

ARGNetcast: ARG community podcast featuring announcements, discussions & interviews

ARG Reporter: ARG announcements & wiki for Germany

Immersion Unlimited: gameplay & meta discussion


'Alternate Reality Game Blogs': aggregated feed of a collection of ARG blogs (PMs & players)

How to Play

Thompson, Brooke (2007) 'Alternate Reality Gaming: A Quickstart Guide', Giant Mice, 30 Sept

Collective Tutor (no date) 'Tutorial for Playing Alternate Reality Games', Unfiction


Unfiction Glossary

UnForum Glossary

Now, test yourself with Brian Enigma's ARG Buzzword Bingo (click on 'generate card' button)

Dave Szulborki's 'Errant Memories': download the annotated guide & follow this 19 step sample ARG/puzzle trail

Press Articles & Blog Posts

Anne-Marie's (2008) 'Not an ARG: Colleage Coursework as Immersive Marketing?', Info Fetishist, 3rd March.

Jeffrey Y. Kim, Jonathan P. Allen & Elan Lee's (2008) 'Alternate Reality Gaming': article about designing I Love Bees [PDF]

Mike Cox's 'How can Trent Reznor be dead wrong and a genius at the same time?': article arguing that Year Zero was marketing, good marketing is art

Frank Rose's (2007) 'Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games' Wired Magazine, Vol 16, Issue 01, 20th Dec.

Alice (2007) 'One Problem with ARGs, Wonderland, 17 Dec.

various (2007) '1-18-08 and Design Flaws', UnFiction Unforums, 20 Sep: a discussion about PMs who don't think about the player experience

Mark Heggen's (2007) ‘Let’s Be Serious: Non-Casual Investigations into Alternate Reality Gaming’, re:Text, 8 May [PDF]

Alex Handy's (2005) 'The Buzzmakers', East By Express, 15 May

Jim Miller's (2004) 'Exocog: A case study of a new genre in storytelling', Miramontes Studios, Nov.

How to Design > Text

Puppet Master Help @ Unfiction Unforums

'Why a Curtain?': general discussion about the pros & cons of keeping the PMs anonymous & not contactable

'Rules for PMs': rules for procedure on how PMs can use Unfiction Unforums


McGonigal, Jane (2008) 'Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming: McGonigal outlines the three stages of collective intelligence gameplay in I Love Bees & three aspects of the game design that facilitated it.

Dena, Christy (2008) 'Emerging Participating Practices: Player-Created Tiers in ARGs': an academic essay about why most players on large-scale ARGs are lurkers of player-created content [PDF]

Dena, Christy (2008) 'Online Augmentation to Emerging Participatory Culture Practices: Player-Created Tiers in Alternate Reality Games': provides lists & links on PM-created gameplay resources

Thompson, Brooke (2007) 'Understanding Your Audience': a description of the different types of players in ARGs

Stacey, Sean (2007) 'The Puppetmaster-Player Communication Dynamic in Alternate Reality Gaming and Chaotic Fiction', Unfiction, 15 Dec: an article about the potentials & pitfalls of communication between players and designers during gameplay

Dena, Christy (2007) 'ARG Design Charts': samples of charts used to document the design of ARGs

Ethernull (2006) 'Key Elements in Designing a Successful ARG': excellent overview of elements needed for a large-scale ARG

various (2006) 'Knowing Your Audience': Chat log of a discussion about ARG audiences types & targeting different audiences etc

various (2004) 'Secrets of the PMs': Chat log of a Q&A with the PMs from Metacortechs

How to Design > Audio

Evan Jones Interview: podcast interview with ARG designer Evan Jones

The Samaritans: podcast interview with ARG designer Jan Libby

Tales from the Clark: podcast interview with ARG designer Brian Clark

The Szulborski Show: podcast interview with ARG designer Dave Szulborski

Developers (uncurated, unfinished)

42 Entertainment [The Beast, I Love Bees, Vanishing Point, Year Zero...]

Brooke Thompson, Giant Mice [Lockjaw, Chasing the Wish, Metacortechs, Who is Benjamin Stove?, Eldritch Errors +]

Campfire NYC [Art of the Heist, Battle Over Promicin, Legend of the Sacred Urn]

David Varella, writer [Perplex City]

Dee Cook, Addlepated [Battle Over Promicin, Dread House, Monster Hunt Club, World Without Oil]

Fourth Wall Studios [The Beast, I Love Bees, Year Zero, Cathy's Book]

GMD Studios [ ]

Jim Gunshanan, writer [Art of the Heist, Legend of the Sacred Urns, Who is Benjamin Stove?]

Maureen McHugh, writer [I Love Bees]

Phantom Compass [ReGenesis]

Six to Start [Perplex City]

Xenophile Media [ReGenesis I & II, Fallen]