[arg_discuss] TOW: almost 8 years after the Beast, which is your favourite ARG and why?

[Brian Clark]

I also hope I didn't imply I took any offense. Mike wrote: "the term ARG was
really coined to describe the specific mixture of puzzles, gameplay, and
narrative that made the Beast experience different from BWP"

Let's be clear, though: the term was coined by Sean Stacey after the fact in
attempt to describe a genre of experiences that would include The Beast and
Majestic. That, though, is the way that genre labels tend to come about:
they tend to be applied by the fans of the work after the fact (in contrast
to "schools of art" where a definition is come up with between a group of
artists practicing at the same time.) So as a label, I can only assume it
was intended to be something broader than "experiences just like the Beast
or inspired by the Beast" ... otherwise, it is extremely narrow term of art.

Brooke wrote: "I understand that we don't want to lock an ARG into being a
certain something in order to avoid stifling creativity"

Eh. I don't really care if it is a narrow label or a broad label: it is the
question of whether ARG is more like "rockabilly" or more like "rock" -- if
ARG is a narrow subset with very stringent requirements to meet that
definition, it only begs the question of what the umbrella category is. If
ARG is a big umbrella category, then there is plenty of room for lots of
sub-labels inside of it to provide greater granularity.

The armchair academic in me thinks the only real innovations in "ARG" as a
useful label are that it is essentially a Internet age phenomenon (thus the
"collective participation" qualities) and that it is a real-time performance
instead of a media form (thus, it has a beginning and an end that is shared
by all of the collective audience.) Does that leave room for lots of
sub-flavors, some of which might even break those core rules? Sure.

Brooke also wrote: " As this is a Special Interest Group on Alternate
Reality Games that is, apparently, filled with people that are experts on
the genre and even we can't come to an understanding of what an ARG is, how
can we meet the aims of the group which, I think, include promoting ARGs and

sharing our knowledge about them."

I think that ship has already sailed, hasn't it? ARG is a fan-generated
label, so as a creator I don't feel the need to be bound by it or to be
responsible for defining it. I find myself not even using the term too much,
because for MOST of the people in the world, it has come to mean "a form of
viral marketing game promoting a product on the Internet." Not that I think
that is a particularly good definition, and it is far far afield from what I
think Sean Stacey was trying to describe. But at this point, it is as
difficult to change the perception of as "viral marketing" (which I also
don't believe means what most people think it means ... it has come to mean
everything from a "tell-a-friend" feature to an ARG.)

I'm totally post-ARG now :P


-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Brooke Thompson
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2009 4:41 PM
To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] TOW: almost 8 years after the Beast,which is your
favourite ARG and why?

On Jan 13, 2009, at 4:00 PM, Mike Monello wrote:

> Blair Witch was an interactive transmedia narrative, it had a  

> massive world-wide community (that is still very much active today  

> on fansites around the world since 1998, but (correct me if I am  

> wrong), the term ARG was really coined to describe the specific  

> mixture of puzzles, gameplay, and narrative that made the Beast  

> experience different from BWP, so I understand where Adam was coming  

> from.


I suppose my issue (which isn't with Adam or even the question) is  
that there has been resistance to coming up with a definition to the  
term and, without a definition, how can we say that something is an  
ARG, let alone look at early examples or talk about what may have  
inspired those examples.

I understand that we don't want to lock an ARG into being a certain  
something in order to avoid stifling creativity, but the result is  
that now a pillow fight in a park or character blog for a television  
show are as much of an ARG as the Beast was. And, if a flash mob a  
park is an ARG, then why wouldn't Hands Across America would be one.  
And, if a character blog is an ARG, than Blair Witch most definitely  
was.

"I can't define it, but I'll know it when I see it" isn't working and  
we wind up with presentations on how to pitch your experience as a  
story game because, well, it's a story and a game and that leaves you  
wind open to creating anything you want! It could be the next flash  
mob or MMORPG, but goshdarnit, it's an ARG!

As this is a Special Interest Group on Alternate Reality Games that  
is, apparently, filled with people that are experts on the genre and  
even we can't come to an understanding of what an ARG is, how can we  
meet the aims of the group which, I think, include promoting ARGs and  
sharing our knowledge about them.

My other issue is that I really hate this issue but I keep banging my  
head against it anyway. 
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