Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay

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.