Title:  Alternate Reality Games: A new way of wARGaming?

Author: Ms. Elizabeth Bonsignore, PhD Candidate, U of Maryland

Abstract: An alternate reality game (ARG) is an immersive story-game hybrid whose core mechanics are collaborative problem-solving and participatory storytelling. The narrative context of an ARG is not bound by any one communications platform or media type: its story fragments can be scattered and hidden in websites, phone calls, text messages, or books. Because of the ways in which an ARG’s narrative elements are hidden, players must collaboratively hunt for clues, solve puzzles, and synthesize disparate information to assemble and advance its ever-evolving storyline. ARGs ask players to engage with a past, present, or future alternate world that they can influence. Perhaps an ARG resembles the decision-support wargame most directly, because players must consider plausible outcomes of potential decisions as they reconstruct its narrative. As simulated experiences that recruit devoted player populations adept at solving complex problems collaboratively, ARGs have also garnered increasing attention in formal education contexts as vehicles for collaborative sense-making, and may offer useful models in warfare training. Our goal for this panel segment is to introduce ARGs, to explore connections between wargaming and ARG'ing, and to engender discussion on how (or whether) to choreograph sites of engagement between the two. We'll also take the opportunity to share details of an ARG designed at the University of Maryland to promote information literacy and critical thinking. The ARG, known as the Arcane Gallery of Gadgetry (AGOG), is set during the U.S. Civil War and post-war reconstruction, and we would appreciate getting feedback from experts on how we might integrate Civil War battles and/or locales into future iterations of the game.

Last Updated: 29 June 2012