List of alternate reality games
An alternative 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.
| Name | Date | Story summary | Gameplay summary | Scale | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Beast | 2001 | Murder mystery set in the future featuring human like robots. | Puzzle solving by online communities. Rewards in the form of new websites and videos. | Very influential. | http://www.cloudmakers.org/ |
| I Love Bees | 2004 | An AI from the Halo 2 universe is stranded in our world and needs help. | Puzzle solving by online communities. Information released by phone calls to public telephones. Rewards in the form of new websites and videos. | 600,000+ players.[1] | http://www.ilovebees.com/ |
| Last Call Poker | 2005 | A cursed gun, passed down through generations, threatens the granddaughter of its last owner. | Puzzle solving by online communities. Real world missions in cemeteries. Online poker with dead characters. Rewards in the form of new stories and videos. | Over 500,000 active participants. | http://www.lastcallpoker.com/ |
| The Lost Ring | 2008 | 6 olympians from another world came to help us save this one. | Puzzle solving by online communities. Real world missions. A new olympic sport "The Lost Sport" was introduced. | 3.000.000 players from over 150 countries. | http://www.thelostring.com/ |
| CommanderVideo | 2008 | Puzzle solving, currently, done by online communities. Email correspondance, Twitter, and various Internet interactions are the areas of play. | New; Ten recruits are the major players thus far. | http://commandervideo.com/ | |
| ARGuing | 2008/9 | European Union funded education project. Players solve quests, in multiple languages, to save the future planet Earth and build the Tower of Babel. Played over a Moodle platform. | March 2009 Recruiting secondary schools from Europe to play the final pilot completes March 27th 2009 | http://www.arg-education.eu | |
| Year Zero | 2007 | Set in a dystopian future where the government surveys everyone. | Players solve puzzles, listen to recordings, and watch movie clips, to gain more info and find sites. | http://www.ninwiki.com/Year_Zero_Research | |
| The XenoVaradox Saga | 2008 | Take sides in a conflict between defense contractors and cyberactivists as contact with extraterrestrial intelligence hangs in the balance. | Puzzle solving, currently done by donation-funded online communities. Email correspondence, parcel drops, and various meatspace interactions are the areas of play. | http://operationaladdin.info/ | |
| PIE Network | 2009 | Set in current day where paranormal investigators are trying to prove a theory and need your help. | Players solve puzzles, listen to recordings, and watch movie clips, to gain more info and find evidence to prove a theory. Players submit videos, photos, stories as evidence. | http://www.pietheory.com | |
| Xi | 2009 | The worlds first console-based ARG created by nDreams, set in secret areas in the world of PlayStation Home, users must help to find Jess and the meaning of Xi. | Users must solve puzzles, watch video clips, and do objectives in and out of Home to gain more information to help find Jess and the meaning of Xi. Users must search in Home as well as in the real world depending on the puzzle or objective. | http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/03/23/xi-has-begun/ | |
| The Junko Jutsui | 2009 | Two secret organization, the japanese Junko Jutsui and the russian Alfa-Tsentr, fight each other over the women known as the Pure Breed, thought to be the next evolution of the human race. | http://SHEISTHEORIGIN.ORG/ | ||
| MalfusCorp | 2009 | Playing out in central Sydney but with players able to follow and participate online, MalfusCorp differs from other ARGs in its limited timeframe, launching in November but finishing before Christmas 2009. Genetic research, corporate crime, and demonic activity are currently being investigated. Join Jason Meeks and Victoria Down on Facebook and Twitter, and help them save Sydney and the world from the evils of MalfusCorp. | http://www.malfuscorp.com.au/ | ||
| Gbanga Zooh | 2009 | Save the amur tiger and other endangered animals which are distributed across the city of Zurich, Switzerland. | A billboard catches passers-by’s attention to wild animals that live across the city (Zurich, Switzerland) and that need to be saved. Their natural habitat is endangered, and participants are asked to bring the virtual animals to the real zoological garden Zooh. |
|
http://gbanga.com |
| XenoVaradox | 2009 | Corporate espionage featuring extraterrestrials in cyberspace. Individualized characters and plotlines. | Rewards in the form of new websites, videos, and other interactive opportunites. | http://xenovaradox.com/Contact_XenoVaradox.html | |
| Saving The Past | December 2009 | Invaders destroying the past, players have to save history | A mix of online and real world clues. Online can take place anywhere in the world. For the real world clues players must be in the continental US. | New | http://savingthepast.tk/ |
Media with ARG themes
Films
Books
- This Is Not a Game (novel) by Walter Jon Williams
- Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
- Penny Dreadful by Will Christopher Baer
- Halting State by Charles Stross
- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
- Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key by Sean Stewart, Jordan Weisman, and Cathy Brigg (illustrator)
- AS Simple As Snow (novel) by Gregory Galloway
- Personal Effects : Dark Art (novel) by J.C. Hutchins and Jordan Weisman
- The Raw Shark Texts (novel)
- House of Leaves (novel) by Mark Danielewski
 | This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. |
References
- ^ McGonigal, J. (2008) "Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming."