Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay [Paperback]

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) challenge what players understand as real.Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplayis 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.

Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplayis 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 Reals¦