Play actually alternate

Intro

In reality, it' S.A. range! , slogan of the play Nokia Range (transl.: Actually, it is a play! )

This Is Not has Game , slogan of the play The Beast (transl.: This is not a play )

About what is it?

A play actually alternate ( Alternate Reality Range - ARG ) is a Jeu Multimédia, which in a deliberated way maintains the blur between the experiments perceived at the time of the play and out of the play.

immersives Fictions which scrambles the borders between the real-world and imaginary, is spread at the same time on line and in the true life, are propagated by all the channels: anonymous telephone calls, treasure hunts in the city, textos, in the newspapers, tele advertizings, posters, e-mail, Internet sites, etc (Marie Lechner - Release)

More than one play of riddle, the ARG are before all a new manner of telling stories. In fact fictions are played in the real life, instead of being confined in the pages of a book or on the images of screen. The players can see the intrigue hatching and spreading themselves in real-time. It is an interactive experiment much richer and amusing . (Adrian Hon - Puppetmaster)

Basically, it is about the meeting between a drives out with the treasure in life size in the form of a play of track, implying the interactive course of a history, the use of new technologies and a community of users/in line players.

They are qualified sometimes intrusive plays , because it is important to distinguish them from the plays immersifs and the plays massively multi-players, who are them closer to the Video game.

Characteristics

Usually, the ARG are either of artisanal origin , or of commercial origin. The latter are especially conceived to attract a certain public with an aim of Marketing (even of viral Marketing), but without referring directly to the products of which they make promotion.

Any confused origin, these plays often work towards the specific end, not to make interact the player with the fictitious history or characters, but above all to put the players in contact the ones with the others. Many enigmas of these plays can be besides solved only by collective efforts and collaboratifs of many players, their technical training, competences and resources.

Elements of the scenario can be provided the players in almost all the conceivable forms, among which:

email;
Web sites;
phone calls with the residence, on the mobile phone of the player, or towards a phone box;
postal mail;
articles of newspapers or classifieds;
cat/instant messaging, e.a.;
forums, channels IRC;
objects resulting from the real-world and put in relation to the play in progress;
events of the real-world or situations implying of the actors, interacting with the players who assist to with it.

Within the framework of the ARG, they are the Web sites - those related in an obvious way to the play and others apparently less innocent - which provide the major part of the elements of the play, in the form of enigmas, or calling upon the Cryptographie, for example. These sites constitute the base of the universe of play and are the vehicle first course of the history, although the other media listed higher are used, creating a collision between alternate reality and real-world.

The concept of the This is Not has Game is important, because these plays are not announced as such, and in fact never admit to actually be a play. The mystery in connection with what is held and of which hides behind the organization is for the players a major factor of the palpitating atmosphere of the search.

In general, the participation in a ARG is free.

It seems generally allowed that the ARG are the subject with difficulty of a concise definition.

Some historical reference marks

the ARG grew starting from the traditional roleplays, to start with the senior Donjons and Dragons in 1974.
the Wizards off the Coast developed some of the first ARG (before even the appearance of the term) for the promotion of a card deck to be collected, in 1996.
In 1997, left the film The Range , where a rich person business man receives a strange gift for his birthday: a play life size of which it becomes the object.
first great success in ARG was the play developed for the promotion of film of Steven Spielberg AD INTERIM artificial intelligence , in 2001, by a team of Microsoft. With its apogee, several thousands of players took part simultaneously in the play. Its developers (and by after its players) there referred under the name of The Beast ; one regards it as the senior of the kind.
more recently, in 2004, it is I Coils Bees which was a fulgurating success. Developed within the framework of a promotion campaign for the video game Halation 2 on Xbox, it developed a vast universe of fiction around the play. This ARG seems to be crowned success in terms of audience and participation. Its originators, also at the origin of The Beast had meanwhile founded a company of design and development of ARG, 4orty 2wo Entertainment .
In January 2005 appears This Is Not has Range: With Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming , first work to cover the phenomenon of the ARG, providing an outline of the kind and its history, and councils with the players and the futures puppetmasters .
March 29th 2005, launching of The Art off the Heist'. Developed like promotional support for Audi, Art off the Heist pushes a little further the levels from events and missions in real-world and the intensive use of publicity.

April 2005, beginning of Perplex City, after nearly one year of pre-announces and Teasing .

Examples of ARG

I Coils Bees - play developed by the company 4orty 2wo Entertainment and financed by Microsoft like means of marketing for the play Halo 2 on Xbox.
Perplex City - play launched after quasi a year of pre-play and teasers, of which part of the enigmas are on charts to play
Metacortechs - Play inspired by the film The Matrix.

Terminology

ARG - abbreviation of Alternate reality range : play actually alternate
ARGonaut - term sometimes used by the players of ARG to indicate themselves
The Beast - promotional play related to the film AD INTERIM artificial intelligence
PuppetMaster (the marionettist) - the group usually acting in the shade and which controls the ARG
Rabbit hole (the burrow of rabbit) - the page of starting or the enigma which train the player in the world of the play; by reference to white Rabbit of Alice to the country of the wonders

Some resources

Until now, this concept of very popular play on the Anglo-Saxon side seems to have aroused interest on the French-speaking side little. Let us note nevertheless the following articles:

article of Marie Lechner big game; Perplex City , published in Release of March 18th, 2005 (also partially consultable at this address);
article To play in a parallel world , published in the newspaper the Evening.

Three English works on the subject:

Dave Szulborski, This Is Not has Range: With Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming , 2005, a deliver-resource in connection with the theory, of the history and the realization of the ARG, ISBN 1411625951
John Gosney, Beyond Reality: With Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming , 2005, ISBN 1592007376
Dave Szulborski, Through the Rabbit Hole: In Beginner' S Guides to Playing Alternate Reality Games , 2005, ISBN 0977354105

At the present time, no serious study on the phenomenon, except for the academic contribution, This is Not has Game: Collective Immersive Aesthetics and Play of Jane McGonigal of the University of Berkeley, which studies the aspects immersif and collaboratif of this mode of play.

Some sites

Alternate Reality Gaming Network - the point of meeting of a network of sites devoted to the ARG;
Unforums - the forum the important splus devoted to the ARG (since September);
Unfiction.com - site relative of the precedent;
cloudmakers.org - the group of players which solved " The Beast" ;
Unlimited Immersion - community of players;
Dave Szulborski - Web site of Dave Szulborski;
Immersive Gaming - site of This Is Not has Range: With Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming of Dave Szulborski;
4orty 2wo entertainment - the company responsible for the play The Beast and I coils bees ;
Mind Candy - the team/company behind [Perplex City.

Random links: