What is an Alternate reality game?

The concept of ARG

ARG, the full English name is Alternate Reality Gaming, and the Chinese name is "Intrusive Virtual Reality Interactive Game". It is a multimedia interactive game that uses the real world as a platform, integrates various virtual game elements, and allows players to personally participate in role-playing. This kind of game has long been popular in Europe and the United States, and many participants enjoy it and are fascinated by it.

The biggest feature of this kind of game is that it blurs the boundaries between the virtual world and the real world, and brings players together through communication methods such as websites, blogs, text messages, phone calls, and fax machines.* ** Solve the interlocking mysteries together. It brings players directly from real life into a relatively virtual space, playing games in life scenes that players are familiar with. Players receive tasks from the Internet and solve the puzzle independently or collectively within the specified time limit according to the requirements. The clues to the puzzle are hidden in every corner of the online world or the real world.

In addition, ARG games are also highly interactive. No one will ever know exactly what the next step of the game will be. The context of the game is created through the constant interaction between participants and game creators. Players must work closely together, and their thoughts and actions will affect and change the progress and ending of the entire game. This interactivity brings unparalleled fun to participants and creators.

Success Stories of ARG Games

Jane McGonigal is one of the pioneers of ARG games. She has designed many interesting projects, such as "I Love Bees", "A World Without Oil", "Good Intentions", "Searching for the Lost Ring", "Superstruct"...

2007 4 In August, she participated in the design of "A World Without Oil", which fictionalized a sudden oil shortage crisis. The price of oil suddenly soared to US$4.07. She asked players to imagine and practice the possible consequences of this crisis - shortages, conflicts , war and technological rescue methods. Unexpectedly, the oil price crisis really happened a year later, and the events that happened in the real world were surprisingly similar to the settings of the game. Many players took a "time machine" to return to base camp specifically for this purpose, leaving messages about how the game changed their habits in real life, such as how they went to work, how they cooked, how they shopped, and how they dated.

In March 2008, she participated in the design of "The Lost Ring", an Olympic-themed ARG game. The story begins with a female athlete named Ariadne who wakes up and finds herself lost in a country parallel to the real world. She has no idea who she is or where she comes from. There is only a mysterious message engraved on her left arm in Esperanto - Looking for The Lost Ring. Through vlogs, Ariadne shares her story and asks people around the world to help her interpret and solve the mystery of her identity. Young people from around the world joined Ariadne and her six "allies" to form a global virtual alliance, involving three million people from 100 countries around the world.

"Superstruct" is her latest game. It started on October 6, 2008 and lasted for 6 weeks. It was completely launched on the Internet. The game presets a sci-fi-style future background: On a warm autumn morning in 2019, the supercomputer "Global Extinction Warning System" suddenly warned humans that humans as a species will perish in 2042. A few years ago, this supercomputer successfully predicted the extinction of red squirrels, geese and other animals. How can mankind save itself from imminent destruction? "Superstruct" requires players to play themselves 11 years later and imagine and describe your life in 2019.

The game system will broadcast to you in real time every day five "super threats" that are happening in 2019 - skyrocketing energy prices, food crisis, a terrible epidemic REDS spreading around the world, 250 million climate refugees becoming homeless, and the Internet changing. It has become a huge information dump... You can use blogs, photos, comics, podcasts or videos to tell your personal stories and experiences during the crisis, think about ways to deal with the crisis, or discuss with other players*** the possibility of building a new order. More than 7,000 people participated in this game. They formed teams according to their own interests and skills, and each solved crises at different levels. They put forward more than 500 proposals to save the future.

The most valuable experience learned from ARG games is team spirit and the everlasting and endless friendship of global assistance.

The platform of ARG games

The ARG platform provides a place for netizens to publish ARGs and participate in ARGs. Through the form of ARG, anyone can publish new discoveries, good ideas or problems, and questions in life on the ARG platform, and many netizens will come to follow, participate and help the publisher find answers.

When publishing an ARG, you can use multimedia elements such as text descriptions, images, photos, music videos, and map coordinates to enrich the ARG. Through the ARG platform, netizens can make friends, release their passion, and enjoy happiness... Similarly, when playing ARG games created by others, they can also experience the fun of blurring the boundaries between virtual and reality.

At present, ARG organizations are basically in a situation where there is no professional platform support, so ARG games have not caused a very strong response in China. However, a website specializing in operating the ARG platform has emerged in China. I believe that in the near future, we will all be able to play ARG, a new form of game, on the Internet.

The significance of ARG games

ARG players are a huge human resource library. Their knowledge, experience, skills, wisdom, goodwill, and imagination can be used to perform various tasks , from scientific research, political participation, charity sponsorship, and even prediction of natural and man-made disasters. Games are inherently social activities and problem-solving activities. Using ARG games, people can create a global youth culture that understands "cooperation" in the next few years, in China, the United States, Europe, India...

Through cooperation and communication in ARG games It makes players' thinking become more active and creative, and their ways and attitudes towards real-life problems also become different.

ARG games encourage people to no longer just escape to the virtual space to find strength and happiness. On the contrary, its goal is in the real world - ARG introduces game mechanics into real life. Turning all daily existence and experience into games is the original source of the word "Alternate Reality" - the "Handbook of Science Fiction" written by the famous science fiction writer G.S. Elrick in the 1970s, which means "experience existence" Another way."