Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay

Description

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.

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 journals including The Harvard Educational Review, English Journal, 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.

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 of 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) *