Alternate reality games (ARGs) are defined by Wikipedia as “an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players’ ideas or actions.” In other words- it’s an interactive game using different types of media to give players puzzle pieces to the story that is being told. Many ARGs have come and gone over the years, and most of them have faded into obscurity. The most common reason for this is their failure to use the tools at their disposal to create an interesting interactive platform while also telling a good story. Many ARGs have employed the use of codes such as the Caesar cipher, Base 32, and Atbash- however, many of these codes don’t lead to anything more than the occasional hint to plot or spoiler. If one is able to create an interesting story while also using the many media platforms at their disposal in a creative way, then this would be considered a successful attempt of creating an ARG.
Because of the modern success of social media, many ARGs have implemented these into their “games”- they often create accounts under cryptic names, sometimes even using simple jumbles of letters and numbers to create an account that may not look like much on the surface, but is hiding much within its folds. Before the rise of social media, however, alternate methods were used. The rise of the ARG began with a game called “The Beast.” This elaborate game was the cumulative effort of advertising a new line of Microsoft computers and a movie called “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.” Fake websites, email exchanges, and voicemails were set up all as part of an elaborate murder-mystery story. The game was at the time called the “Citizen Kane of online entertainment,” and at its peak, boasted over three million active participants.
Between 2001 to 2006, ARGs were mainly used for large-scale advertising for movies, products, and other widescale commercial uses. However, when sites such as YouTube and Facebook began to gain popularity, a new genre of the ARG was born: the self-sustaining ARG. These ARGs were the first to use not only multi-media platforms but also social media sites, to tell a story of mystery that pulled in fans of mystery and horror. More often than not, these early ARGs were mainly the stories of famous “creepypastas” such as Slenderman and Ben Drowned. The latter mentioned character, Ben Drowned, is one of the most prominent examples of the success of the early non-commercial ARG. This story was one of a haunted video game that haunted a society of people who were unknown to the mainstream world. To access parts of the story, participants had to send in videos of certain songs used in the game “Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” to try to forward the story. Certain songs were used for healing, the passage of time, and in some cases, death. The Ben Drowned ARG has, unfortunately, been paused for an indefinite amount of time, but it was one of the earliest pioneers in its field of storytelling and spooky stories.
Unfortunately, most ARGs of the modern era have become somewhat stale- they use the same types of patterns, same twists, and same plot devices to tell a story that many participants of ARG community have seen time and time again. When will the genre be opened to a new and fresh take on the modern methods at disposal for storytelling and clue hunting? At this point, only time will tell. However, we can always look back at past events in this community and see what sort of success the noteworthy titles have seen, and can hopefully build a new and revolutionary story from there.
(cited article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_alternate_reality_games)
This seems really cool.