[arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Aug. 31: Umbrella Term + ARG/larp

[Brian Clark]

This is an important discussion, so let me dive in with you guys.


>From a definition standpoint, my concern is when some of the labels stretch

a familiar concept into unrecognizable territory. I find "pervasive gaming"
challenging because of the edge cases that require the broadest possible
definition of "game". Similarly, "transmedia" gives me concerns because how
the ends up trying to define ringing telephones and live events as "media".
Even "interactive storytelling" can suffer from over-generalization of
everything into "story". That doesn't mean that I don't find these terms
valuable in discussions with other practitioners (they certainly identify
buckets), but are they the desired umbrella term?

Or stated another way: as long as you could imagine someone having to
describe their work as "interactive transmedia storytelling" or "pervasive
transmedia gaming" or some other combination of the labels, then we haven't
hit the umbrella yet. If you could imagine someone saying "that's more
transmedia than it is interactive storytelling," then we haven't hit the
umbrella yet.

Or maybe ARG is a platypus.


-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Markus Montola
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 3:20 AM
To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG; Christopher Amherst
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] Topic of the Week Aug. 31: Umbrella Term +
ARG/larp


>> But fundamentally, I suppose, the question is: "what do you need  

>> the umbrella for?"

>> Werewolf and Art of H3ist are certainly both social games, but I  

>> don't see why they should fit under the same umbrella in most cases.

>

> I'll make a counter argument that an umbrella does matter.


Yeah, I totally agree. What I meant was that your choice of umbrella  
depends on where you aim at. :-)


> Conceptually, we understand that a puzzle hunt is different than a

> LARP is different than an ARG is different than a "Big" Game.

> Yet, we still are left with the question:

> Do they represent forms within that umbrella?  Do they represent styles?

> What attributes do they all share?


Yes, precisely. That's very much what we do with what we call  
"pervasive games" in our book Pervasive Games. We discuss games that  
defy the usual way of games being situated in a discreet spatial,  
temporal and social context. And then we look into that umbrella. And  
what do we have in there? ARGs, treasure hunts, scavenger hunts,  
assassin games, big games, Come Out and Play style games, The Game  
treasure hunts, street larps... Stuff from The Amazing Race to Mystery  
on the Fifth Avenue and everything in between.

(And on the fringes there's stuff from flash mobs to BASE jumping,  
trainsurfing and urban exploration.)

But, that might just be a little bit too broad umbrella for whatever  
you need one for.


> Is a sufficiently well-designed ARG indistinguishable from a LARP (or

> a Puzzle Hunt)?

> (If not, how?)


Personally -- having been in Nordic larp scene for 15 years -- I think  
one defining criterion of role-playing and larp is a character that is  
separate from the player. I'm now Conan the Barbarian, not Markus the  
Researcher.

However, in our pervasive larp (ARG-Larp hybrids in some sense)  
experiments (Prosopopeia and Momentum), we have experimented on  
various double life strategies and mixing of these personas. One of  
the phenomena is that even if you play Christopher Amherst in a game,  
the "real" Christopher Amherst starts to differ from the "game"  
version early on -- one of them pretends to believe and the other does  
believe, which makes them very different. Hence, your character is a  
reflection of yourself, but you again role-play a character.

I think you would be interested in more about Prosopopeia and  
Momentum. Here's a few links if you are interested.

  - http://users.tkk.fi/~mmontola/prosopopeiakp06.pdf
  - http://www.liveforum.dk/kp07book/lifelike_jonsson.pdf
  - http://www.liveforum.dk/kp07book/lifelike_stenros.pdf


Best,

  - Markus Montola
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