- By Evan Jones
2009 is looking like the Year of the ARG meta-discussion as my various feeds light up with very intelligent discussions of Alternate Reality Games. In my browser at the moment are following links, and I’d recommend all those curious to take a look at them. (In fact, if you’ve got more meta-articles for the New Year, send them along and I’ll update this list as a resource. Thanks!)
* A Beginner’s Guide to Alternate Reality Games – Mental Floss
* The art of engaging audiences – Variety
* They’re Here. They’re Fake. Get Used to It – Save the Robot
* WTF is an ARG? 2009 Edition – Deus Ex Machinato
* And the ongoing debate at the IGDA ARG SIG (which has lit up in the New Year!) Subscribe and get in on the action.
One of my own New Year’s Resolutions has been to engage more with the ARG community. I have been an ARG puppetmaster for years now, but hiding behind ‘the curtain’ for so long has put a distance between my experiences and the front lines of ARGing. I decided this year that I’m going to get back in the trenches and write home about it.
New Year’s Resolution Lesson #1: Always announce your Resolution as publicly as possible to maximize embarrassment. The pressure of failing and the subsequent public humiliation will keep you on target.
Obviously my perspective on playing an ARG is going to be different from most. I have played a handful very seriously as a classic lurker (i.e. daily visits and weekly discussion), have played many more as an ‘interested party’ (i.e. snooping on other ARGs every few months), have designed and deployed five major ARGs and talked a LOT of shop with fellow puppetmasters (don’t worry everyone, this isn’t going to be a tell-all – puppetmaster code of silence prevails).
No idea how often I’ll be posting here but I’ll tag them all with “Playing an ARG” so that the series can be viewed in sequence. What I hope to accomplish is to see ARGs with new eyes this year and to gain a little perspective that I can share with everyone.
Evan Jones aka ‘mysteryjones’
