Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay

by Antero Garcia (Editor), Greg Niemeyer (Editor)

Overview

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) challenge what players understand as "real.+? Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay is the first collection to explore and define the possibilities of ARGs. Though prominent examples have existed for more than two decades, only recently have ARGs come to the prominence as a unique and highly visible digital game genre. Adopting many of the same strategies as online video games, ARGs blur the distinction between real and fictional.

With ARGs continuing to be an important and blurred space between digital and physical gameplay, this volume offers clear analysis of game design, implementation, and ramifications for game studies. Divided into three distinct sections, the contributions include first hand accounts by leading ARG creators, scholarly analysis of the meaning behind ARGs, and explorations of how ARGs are extending digital tools for analysis. By balancing the voices of designers, players, and researchers, this collection highlights how the Alternate Reality Game genre is transforming the ways we play and interact today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501347191
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/01/2018
Series:	Approaches to Digital Game Studies
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Antero Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, USA. His research focuses on developing literacies and civic identity through the use of gameplay and participatory media. Antero's work appears in numerous jourbanals including The Harvard Educational Review, English Jourbanal, and Rethinking Schools. He is the author of the books Critical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres (2013) and Teaching in the Connected Learning Classroom (2014).

Greg Niemeyer is an Associate Professor and Director of the Center for New Media at University of California, Berkeley, USA. He founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center, which he directed until 2001. At UC Berkeley, he is involved in the development of the Center for New Media, focusing on the critical analysis of the impact of new media on human experiences. The Black Cloud (2008) was funded by the MacArthur Foundation to provide an alternate reality game and a social network for sensing air quality and taking actions to benefit indoor air quality. The project has evolved into a startup company under the name of Aclima Inc.

Table of Contents

Introduction (Antero Garcia, Colorado State Univeristy, USA & Greg Niemeyer, University of California, Berkeley)
Part I: Guiding Principles of Alternate Reality Games
Chapter 1 - From Alternate to Alternative Reality: Games as Cultural Probes (Patrick Jagoda, University of Chicago, USA, Melissa Gilliam, University of Chicago, USA Peter McDonald, University of Chicago, USA and Ashlyn Sparrow University of Chicago, USA)
Chapter 2 - The Game Did Not Take Place - This Is Not a Game and blurring the lines of fiction (Alan Hook, University of Ulster, UK)
Chapter 3 - Alternate reality games for learning: A frame by frame analysis (Anthony Pellicone, Adelphi University, USA Elizabeth Bonsignore, University of Maryland, USA, Kathryn Kaczmarek, University of Maryland, USA, Kari Kraus, University of Maryland, USA, June Ahn, New York University, USA & Derek Hansen, Brigham Young University, USA)
Chapter 4 – Promotional Alternate Reality Games and the TINAG Philosophy (Stephanie Janes, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Chapter 5 - The Coachella Disaster: How the puppet masters of Art of the H3ist Pulled a Victory from the Jaws of Defeat (Burcu Bakioglu, Lawrence University, USA)
Chapter 6 – Designing and Playing Peer-Produced ARGs in the Primary Classroom: Supporting Literacies through Play (Angela Colvert, University of Roehampton, UK)
Part II: New Frontiers of Alternating Reality
Chapter 7 - Games Beyond the ARG (Jeff Watson, University of Southern California, USA)
Chapter 8 - Methods: Studying Alternate Reality Games as Virtual Worlds (Calvin Johns, University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Chapter 9 - A Typology to describe Alternate Reality Games for Cultural Contexts (Diane Dufort and Federico Tajariol, University of Franche-Comté, France)
Chapter 10 - Sociability by design in an Alternate Reality Game: The case of The Trail (Elina Roinioti, University of Athens, Greece, Pandia Eleana, Panteion University, Greece, Skarpelos Yannis, Panteion University, Greece)
Chapter 11 - Ingress: a restructuring of the ARG or a new genre? An ethnography of Enlightened and Resistance factions in Brazil (Thaiane Olivera, Federal Fluminense University, Brazil)
Conclusion (Antero Garcia, Colorado State Univeristy, USA & Greg Niemeyer, University of California, Berkeley)
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay is a rabbit hole into a wondrous world where everything we encounter is playable, every problem demands extreme-scale collaboration, and every story is open to co-creation. In this world, the virtual games we play threaten — or promise? — to blur the boundaries of our real lives and even become our lives. The volume is nothing less than a definitive history and the most significant theoretical examination yet of the strangest happenings in the most transgressive and personally transformative genre of games to emerge in our connected age. Don't forget: In an alternate reality, anything and everything might be a clue to something bigger — including, yes, of course! the very pages in this book. Happy playing! And keep your eyes open for clues..." - Jane McGonigal, Alternate Reality Game Creator and author of Reality is Broken

"A well-researched and in-depth collection. Especially useful as a retrospective and case study of ARGs’ first decade." - Steve Peters, Founder/Chief Creative Officer, No Mimes Media, USA

"Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay provides a timely critical exploration the histories, terminologies, and tropes of the genre. Bringing together theory and example, with contributions from some of the foremost researchers in the field, this volume represents an essential overview of the scholarly state-of-the-art in alternate reality gaming." - Nicola Whitton, Professor of Professional Learning, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK

"Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are notoriously hard to define; luckily this new collection grapples with their complexities with a playful and scholarly approach. Using interdisciplinary perspectives, the contributors show how ARGs provide insight into humanity, reality, play, and what it means to have fun." - Karen Schrier, Assistant Professor and Director of Games & Emerging Media, Marist College, USA, and author of Knowledge Games (2016)

From the Publisher