A primer for non-specialist audiences on the subject of Alternate Reality Games. Includes brief survey of prior art, diagrams illustrating the nature of networked fictions, and references to key scholars/innovators.

1. Transmedia Storytelling
and
Alternate Reality Games
Jeff Watson
USC PhD Researcher
http://remotedevice.net/
March, 2009

2. Context
…wherein we discuss the social, cultural and
technological moment.

3. Three Dynamics

4. Three Dynamics
Narrative

5. Three Dynamics
Narrative
Play

6. Three Dynamics
Narrative
Public Space
Play

7. Three Dynamics
Narrative
You
are h
e re
Public Space
Play

8. Three Dynamics
Narrative
Public Space
Play

9. Communications Paradigms

10. Communications Paradigms
Local
Culture

11. Communications Paradigms
Broadcast
Culture
Local
Culture

12. Communications Paradigms
Network
Culture
Broadcast
Culture
Local
Culture

13. Communications Paradigms
Network
Culture
Broadcast
Culture
Local
Culture
•Bittorrent
•Wikipedia
•Web 2.0
•Printing press
•Radio & TV
•Cinema
•Letter writing
•Oral traditions
•Classical theatre

14. A tangled spectrum: Narrative in the 21st Century

15. A tangled spectrum: Narrative in the 21st Century
•Novels •Comic books
•“Sock puppets”
•Performance Art
•Fan Fiction •Flame wars
•Films
•TV series •Flash mobs

16. A tangled spectrum: Narrative in the 21st Century
•Novels •Comic books
•“Sock puppets”
•Performance Art
•Fan Fiction •Flame wars
•Films
•TV series •Flash mobs

17. A tangled spectrum: Narrative in the 21st Century
•Novels •Comic books
•“Sock puppets”
•Performance Art
•Fan Fiction •Flame wars
•Films
•TV series •Flash mobs

18. A tangled spectrum: Narrative in the 21st Century
•Novels •Comic books
•“Sock puppets”
•Performance Art
•Fan Fiction •Flame wars
•Films
•TV series •Flash mobs

19. A tangled spectrum: Narrative in the 21st Century
•Novels •Comic books
•“Sock puppets”
•Performance Art
•Fan Fiction •Flame wars
•Films
•TV series •Flash mobs

20. Three Dynamics
Narrative
Public Space
Play

21. The Magic Circle

22. A magic circle is circle or
sphere of space marked
out by practitioners of
many branches of ritual
magic, either to contain
energy and form a sacred
space, or as a form of
magical protection, or
both. It may be marked
physically, drawn in salt or
chalk, for example, or
merely visualized.
(wikipedia)

23. All play moves and has its being within a play-
ground marked off beforehand either materially or
ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as
there is no formal difference between play and
ritual, so the ‘consecrated spot’ cannot be formally
distinguished from the play-ground. The arena, the
card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage,
the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice,
etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e.
forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed,
within which special rules obtain. All are temporary
worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the
performance of an act apart.
Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A
Study of the Play-Element in
Culture (Boston: The Beacon
Press, 1955), 10.

24. All play moves and has its being within a play-
ground marked off beforehand either materially or
ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Just as
there is no formal difference between play and
ritual, so the ‘consecrated spot’ cannot be formally
distinguished from the play-ground. The arena, the
card-table, the magic circle, the temple, the stage,
the screen, the tennis court, the court of justice,
etc, are all in form and function play-grounds, i.e.
forbidden spots, isolated, hedged round, hallowed,
within which special rules obtain. All are temporary
worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the
performance of an act apart.
Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens: A
Study of the Play-Element in
Culture (Boston: The Beacon
Press, 1955), 10.

26. ... the membrane between
synthetic worlds and daily life
is definitely there but also
definitely porous, and this is
by choice of the users. What
we have is an almost-magic
circle, which seems to have
the objective of retaining all
that is good about the fantasy
atmosphere of the synthetic
world, while giving users the
maximum amount of
freedom to manipulate their
involvement with them.
Edward Castronova, Synthetic
Worlds: The Business and Culture
of Online Games (Chicago, The
University of Chicago Press,
2005), 147

33. What is the
Virtual?

35. Immersion

40. Transmedia means “across multiple
mediums.”
Henry Jenkins, a pioneer in the field
Transmedia and director of the MIT
Comparative Media Studies
program, defines Transmedia
Storytelling as “...a process where
integral elements of a fiction get
dispersed systematically across
multiple delivery channels for the
purpose of creating a unified and
coordinated entertainment
experience.”

41. Transmedia means “across multiple
mediums.”
Henry Jenkins, a pioneer in the field
Transmedia and director of the MIT
Comparative Media Studies
program, defines Transmedia
Storytelling as “...a process where
integral elements of a fiction get
dispersed systematically across
multiple delivery channels for the
purpose of creating a unified and
coordinated entertainment
experience.”

42. The Traditional Model
(approximation; not to scale)
The Story World

43. The Traditional Model
(approximation; not to scale)
Media
Artifact
The Story World

44. The Traditional Model
(approximation; not to scale)
story
Media
Artifact
The Story World

45. The Traditional Model
(approximation; not to scale)
story
Media
Artifact
The singular
media artifact
bears full
responsibility
for revealing
the story world.

46. The Transmedia Model
(approximation; definitely not to scale)
The Story World

47. The Transmedia Model
(approximation; definitely not to scale)
The Story World

48. The Transmedia Model
(approximation; definitely not to scale)
The Story World

49. The Transmedia Model
(approximation; definitely not to scale)
The Story World
User-generated
content

50. The Transmedia Model
(approximation; definitely not to scale)
There is no “ur-text”
that tells the whole
story; rather, the story
world is revealed as
the aggregate effect of
multiple texts/media
artifacts. User-generated
content

51. While the notion of using Transmedia to
create fiction is relatively new, the practice
of consuming Transmedia stories is deeply
ingrained in all of us. Indeed, although we
may not have ever thought about it in these
terms, each of us is in fact a lifelong
consumer and interpreter of Transmedia.

53. Alternate Reality Games
(ARGs)
Nobody’s happy with this term, but
let’s run with it anyway.

54. Wikipedia says…
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an
interactive narrative that uses the real world
as a platform, often involving multiple media
and game elements, to tell a story that may be
affected by participants' ideas or actions.

55. Wikipedia says…
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an
interactive narrative that uses the real world
as a platform, often involving multiple media
and game elements, to tell a story that may be
affected by participants' ideas or actions.

56. Wikipedia says…
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an
interactive narrative that uses the real world
as a platform, often involving multiple media
and game elements, to tell a story that may be
affected by participants' ideas or actions.

57. Wikipedia says…
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an
interactive narrative that uses the real world
as a platform, often involving multiple media
and game elements, to tell a story that may be
affected by participants' ideas or actions.

58. “If you listen to a Velvet Underground album from the late
'60s, leaving aside the individual tracks, there is a sound to
that record. There's a sound to a mid-stage Bowie album,
there's a sound to the record. ARGs are the sound of the
twenty-first century. They sound like what today feels like.
You're sitting here with a mini- tape recorder on one hand
and a Blackberry on the other... you're talking to us... you
emailed me yesterday... that's life. And the key thing about
an ARG is the way it jumps off all those platforms. It's a
game that's social and comes at you across all the different
ways that you connect to the world around you.”
– Sean Stewart, 42 Entertainment

59. The whole
world is our
platform…

60. Movies
Signs
The whole
Graffiti world is our
platform…
Word of
mouth

61. Movies
Phones &
Instant
Answering Signs
Messages
Machines
The whole
Graffiti world is our
platform…
Word of
Events
mouth
Postcards

62. Theatre Movies
Phones &
Instant Books and
Answering Signs
Messages comics
Machines
The whole
Graffiti world is our
platform…
Single
Word of
Email player Events
mouth
games
Techno-
Hoaxes Postcards
toys

63. Adverts Wikipedia Theatre Movies History
(see * above)
Phones &
Instant Books and Installation
Answering Signs
Messages comics art
Machines
The whole
Blogs Graffiti world is our YouTube Twitter
platform…
Multi- Single
Word of
Email player player Events
mouth
games games
Techno-
Hoaxes Letters Postcards Software
toys

64. Story Model Comparison
Single-platform (movies, non- Multi-platform (ARGs,
sandbox video games, books) transmedia stories)
• Clear boundary (or “magic • Blurry boundary separating
circle”) separating story story from non-story
from non-story • Story told across many
• Story contained within a media artifacts
single medium or artifact • Progression through the
• Progression through the narrative negotiated among
narrative orchestrated by multiple authors and
authors or algorithms player-participants
• Story as channel • Story as layer

65. Origins and Prior Works
…wherein we discuss the provenance of the
ARG, its first manifestations in popular culture
and its emergence as a field of artistic practice.

66. The Voynich Manuscript
Possible Hoax, 15th-16th century?

67. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
The Club of Queer Trades
Short Story Collection, 1905
"We believe that we are doing a noble work," said
Northover warmly. "It has continually struck us that
there is no element in modern life that is more
lamentable than the fact that the modern man has
to seek all artistic existence in a sedentary state. If
he wishes to float into fairyland, he reads a book; if
he wishes to dash into the thick of battle, he reads a
book; if he wishes to soar into heaven, he reads a
book; if he wishes to slide down the banisters, he
reads a book. We give him these visions, but we give
him exercise at the same time, the necessity of
leaping from wall to wall, of fighting strange
gentlemen, of running down long streets from
pursuers—all healthy and pleasant exercises. We
give him a glimpse of that great morning world of
Robin Hood or the Knights Errant, when one great
game was played under the splendid sky. We give
him back his childhood, that godlike time when we
can act stories, be our own heroes, and at the same
instant dance and dream."

68. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
TheFilm, 1997
Game
Feature

69. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
Relational1990s Art
Art movement/theory,
Relational Art, according to critic
Nicolas Bourriaud, is “… a set of
artistic practices which take as
their theoretical and practical
point of departure the whole of
human relations and their social
context, rather than an
independent and private space.”
Bourriaud, Nicolas, Relational Aesthetics p.113

70. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
Viral Practices, 1990s-2000s Marketing
and Stealth
Advertising

71. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
Pattern Recognition
Novel, 2003

72. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
The Beast and ilovebees
First wave of ARGs, 2001-2004

73. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
SF0 Production ARG, 2005-present
Collaborative

74. Case Study
YEAR ZERO

75. Alternate Reality Games: Origins and Prior Works
YearNails concept album ARG
Zero
Nine Inch
I really wanted to focus on
something that was at the
forefront of my consciousness
which is, as an American, I'm
appalled by the behavior of our
government, the direction that it
has taken and the direction that
it's taken everyone else in the
world and its arrogance... I
decided to write an essay about
where the world might be if we
continue down the path that
we're on with a neo-con-esque
government doing whatever it
pleases...
http://www.42entertainment.com/yearzero/
Trent Reznor

76. •[ARGs] are designed experiences with a strong potential for emergent, that is to say
unexpectedly complex, group play and performance.
•They are distributed experiences: distributed across multiple media, platforms,
locations, and times.
•They are embedded at least partially in everyday contexts and/or environments,
rather than in marked-off gaming contexts and spaces. They prefer to adopt
everyday software, services and technologies rather than exclusively gaming-
platforms.
•They have the effect of sensitizing participants to affordances, real or imagined.
That is to say, they increase perception of opportunities for interaction.
•Many, if not most, of their distributed elements are not clearly identified as part of
the experience. Thus active investigation of, and live interaction with, both in-game
and out-of-game elements is a significant component of the experience.
•They have the effect of making all data seem connected, or at least plausibly
connected.
•They make surfaces less convincing. Underlying structures are what matter.
•They establish a network of players who are in the know. They intentionally involve
or engage others who are, at least temporarily, in the dark.
•They inexorably create community.
Jane McGonigal
This Might Be a Game, 45

78. Locative Media
…wherein we discuss the practice of using
technology to layer narrative on physical
space.

79. AR Toolkit QR Code
(Japan,
China, UK)
Visual Datamatrix
Codes (USA DOD,
Germany)
Spotcode D-touch

80. Embedding Media in Public Space with QR codes: The basic model
QR codes placed on walls Cell phone with camera and
and other surfaces QR Code-reading software
1. 2.
Scanning the QR
code with the phone
camera yields text or
a URL linking to a
video or other
content available
online for cell phone
playback
3.

81. QR Codes: Survey of recent projects
AddFacebook mashup
to Friends
QR Code
“Add to Friends” is a
Facebook application that
enables users to add friends
by snapping photos of
custom QR codes associated
with Facebook profiles.
Facebook app URL:
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2135251
More info:
http://www.etre.com/blog/2008/02/facebook_add_to_friend

82. QR Codes: Survey of recent projects
P8TCHQR-code URL patch
Velcro-backed
“Think of it as a TinyURL you
can wear. The QR Code on
the p8tch is a URL. If you
scan the code with your
iPhone, Mobile Safari will
take you directly to that URL.
If it's a Google Maps link,
your iPhone will take you
directly to the map. If it's a
YouTube link, you'll see the
movie fullscreen. Cool,
right?”
More info:
http://p8tch.com/

83. QR Codes: Survey of recent projects
Semapedia.org
QR Code Wikipedia mashup
“Our goal is to connect the
virtual and physical world by
bringing the right
information from the
internet to the relevant
place in physical space.”
More info:
http://www.semapedia.org/

84. QR Codes: Survey of recent projects
Pet Shop Boys - Integral
QR Code-enriched music video/activism initiative
“The QR Code links in the
video are a catalogue of
online content about issues
of civil liberties, as well as
links that will give you the
opportunity to get involved
in campaigning against the
erosion of our personal
freedom.”
More info:
http://www.petshopboys.co.uk/browser.aspx?page=pethead

85. QR Codes: Survey of recent projects
Kaywa Pixel Scarf
Fashion accessory
Wearing a QR code confers
the wearer with mystery and
geekitude, signaling social
niche position on both sides
of the scanning-moment.
More info:
http://lendorff.kaywa.com/

86. QR Codes: Survey of recent projects
Simone O’Callaghan
PhD researcher blending printmaking and QR Codes
“Why am I looking at [QR codes]? Well as
you can see from the entry above, at the
moment they are mostly being used in
commercial and advertising scenarios, as
yet to my knowledge, no one is utilsing
their full capabilities in art. The nice thing
about creating artworks is that the process
is about experimentation and exploration.
Something, that is quite a luxury in the
commercial world.
The way a user interacts with a qr code is
similar to taking a photograph. Its easy to
do, and rewarding for the user. Not like
trying to type a url on a mobile phone…I'm
talking about playfulness that results in
delight and a smile.”
More info:
http://elusivesprite.squarespace.com/phd_journal/

87. Related tagging/mobile/ubicomp projects
gofindit.net (QR Code-activated mobile AR)
Ford “Ka” marketing campaign
“The 3D mobile interactive experience is
delivered via QR code stickers.
The Ford Ka stickers have a WAP link that
allows people to download an application.
When the camera phone is pointed at the
marker on Wunderman’s QR code stickers,
it projects a 3D image of the Ka onto the
screen.
Developed in conjunction with technology
experts HIT Lab NZ and Ford’s CGi
specialists Burrows, the 3D Ka is viewable
on Nokia camera phones released within
the last two years, plus most camera
phones which use a Windows Mobile
operating system.”
More info:
http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/2260.html

88. Related tagging/mobile/ubicomp projects
Spellbinder AR “invisible grafitti”
Image-recognition tagging/mobile
“Scottish researchers are turning to camera
phones to help bridge the virtual and real
worlds.
Using image-matching algorithms the
researchers have found a way to adorn the
real world with digital content.
The technology has already been used to
create a guide of Edinburgh that allows
people to find virtual artworks placed
around the city using their mobile.”
More info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6938244.stm
Project page:
http://blue.caad.ed.ac.uk/branded/stageone/