[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Aug. 31: Umbrella Term

[Brian Clark]

That's pretty good meta-bait for a Monday, Andrea. 

Over the years, I've settled into using Nathan Shedroff's "experience
design" as the umbrella (see http://www.nathan.com/ed/ for interesting stuff
related to that.) So for me, all ARGs are "designed experiences" but not all
designed experiences are ARGs: some are theme parks, some are street games,
etc. A paragraph from Nathan will do a better job than anything I could
write on why "designed experiences" is as good an umbrella as any:

"The most important concept to grasp is that all experiences are important
and that we can learn from them whether they are traditional, physical,
offline experiences or whether they are digital, online, or other
technological experiences. In fact, we know a great deal about experiences
and their creation through these other established disciplines that can-and
must-be used to develop new solutions. Most technological
experiences-including digital and, especially, online experiences-have paled
in comparison to real-world experiences and have been relatively
unsuccessful as a result. What these solutions require is for their
developers to understand what makes a good experience first, and then to
translate these principles, as well as possible, into the desired media
without the technology dictating the form of the experience."

To throw a match on the gasoline: ARG (as a concept) has more of the traits
of a genre than of a form. Genres are fuzzy labels, usually created by fans
to describe subsets of a form. So I tend to be of the belief that "what is
an ARG and what isn't" can't really be broken down by the mechanics of form,
there's some je ne se qua involved (which is also more like a genre than a
form.) So perhaps "ARGs are a genre of designed experiences" sums up my
personal view. 


Brian