Resources

What are ARGs?

Alternate reality games, or ARGs, are part story, part scavenger hunt, part puzzle, part role-playing game, and part community-building exercise. They are set in real and virtual spaces, with players navigating both their environment and the digital media landscape in search of clues and solutions. ARGs have been around since 1996, and some notable ones have been produced by large media companies looking to create buzz about a video game or movie. However, a growing list of educational institutions -- including the University of North Texas, Arizona State, and MIT -- are turning the power of ARGs' collective intelligence skills to educational purposes.

Alternate reality games can run for months (and sometimes years) and thus are usually produced by teams of "game masters," who create the game's narrative and monitor and adjust the game in real time. This narrative structure is not the usual linear structure, but instead is distributed across various media platforms for players to find and piece together. During gameplay, players' responses to puzzles and characters impact how the game unfolds, with game masters writing players' characters' into the storyline and gently guiding teams toward possible puzzle solutions.

Clues are hidden in websites, on blogs, in emails, in layered pictures, in scrambled YouTube videos, in garbled audio files, and even in the architecture and cityscapes surrounding the players. Each clue is in the form of a puzzle, and its solution leads the players on to another clue. The massive distribution of content and necessary skills to play lead to organic learning communities as players collaborate and share information.

The main website for ARG news and a list of currently playing games is the Alternate Reality Gaming Network. Another great resource is the Unfiction forums, where players meet to discuss clues and converse about alternate reality gaming. 

ARG Technologies

ARIS (Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling)

ARIS is an open-source, augmented reality game-authoring platform created by a research group at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The games ARIS allows you to create are location-based, interactive experiences played in real-world spaces using a free iPhone app (unfortunately, ARIS isn’t currently supported by other smart phones). Through GoogleMaps and GPS technology, ARIS enables you to embed virtual characters (complete with dialogue) and media (images, sound, videos, text) in real locations. Players must then physically move from location to location to access content – to speak to characters, to view media, to get the rest of the story, etc. Gameplay is structured through a simple system of requirements (i.e., the player must have spoken to character x to meet character y or pick up object y). 

Other technologies that can be used cheaply and productively to hide clues within an ARG:

Websites

A common location for clues in Alternate Reality Games is websites. They are relatively cheap to construct and host, and clues can be embedded in not only the media on the website, but also in the site's code itself. Given that the majority of RHE 306 research is done online, website clues present a prime opportunity to goad students into looking deeper into citations and web credibility.

Static Images

Using Photoshop to hide clues inside static images forces players to tool around with Photoshop's settings to reveal the clues or to deconstruct the visual rhetoric of an image. If the game can get players accustomed to Photoshop's various features and basic concepts of visual rhetoric, the hope is that such familiarization will transfer to students' engagement with the program when producing multimedia.

Videos

Videos in the game could be used to teach film theory, or to acclimate students to using video production software. Much like the skills acquired from working with static images, players would acquire familiarity with open source video editing software and learn basic principles of visual rhetoric in motion. 

Audio Clips

Clues can be embedded in this digital medium in two major ways, each requiring different skill sets to decipher. In the case of clues embedded in the audio file itself, players learn audio production skills through using open source programs like Audacity. When the clue is in the rhetoric of the clip, though, players learn to analyze the media artifact for connections between theory and praxis.

Online Databases

After speaking with research librarian Michelle Ostrow, there is a possibility of embedding clues in some of the online databases available through the University of Texas's libraries. Because we are a valued client for the Gale Group (a database vendor), it is even possible for us to embed a QR code into a special page within their databases. Given the push of RHE 306 classes to research in these databases, embedding a clue there could lead players to the databases and encourage them to engage with the scholarly articles there.

QR Codes         

QR codes are two-dimensional matrix codes that embed much more information than is allowed in traditional bar codes. They are readable through free applications on smartphones and handhelds. In an Alternate Reality Game, QR codes can be placed in flyers, on buildings, near landmarks, and even landscaped into the environment. Once scanned with a smartphone, a QR code can take you to a website (where other digital media is embedded), send someone a text, or even dial a phone number. They are free to produce and scan, provided the player already has a smartphone. The best QR code generator we found was created by Kerem Erkan. There are numerous smartphone applications that can read QR codes, but the one that we've had the best luck with is the free AT&T Code Scanner available on iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.

Print Media

There are a variety of print media where clues can be embedded. While embedding clues in a specific book would create a run on a resource (something the library does not want), advertising space can be taken out relatively cheaply. The University of Texas's Daily Texan could be one print source where clues can be hidden. 

Physical Environment

Though QR codes can be placed nearly anywhere, devising clues that use the physical environment can be used as well. The University of Texas has a rich architectural history, one that can be exploited for the pedagogical aims of the game. Architectural features on the Main Building, Battle Hall, and in Littlefield Fountain are just a few places where clues can be embedded.

Google Earth/Maps

Clues can be embedded in custom-made Google Earth or Maps files. Giving the longitude and latitude of a location can lead players there, but these applications can also be used to discern patterns in the geolocated markers. Obviously, such clues would familiarize players with these applications, but more importantly, it would assist them in thinking more critically about the rhetorics of space and place.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality is overlaying the physical world with digital data models and information (see Figure 2). When looking through a smartphone's camera, an augmented reality application will place 3D or 2D models on top of the view of the physical world through the screen. Using this technology allows for another "hidden" layer of geolocated information.