Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay [Paperback]

Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) challenge what players understand as real.Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplayis the first collection to explore and define the possibilities of ARGs. Though prominent examples have existed for more than two decades, only recently have ARGs come to the prominence as a unique and highly visible digital game genre. Adopting many of the same strategies as online video games, ARGs blur the distinction between real and fictional.

With ARGs continuing to be an important and blurred space between digital and physical gameplay, this volume offers clear analysis of game design, implementation, and ramifications for game studies. Divided into three distinct sections, the contributions include first hand accounts by leading ARG creators, scholarly analysis of the meaning behind ARGs, and explorations of how ARGs are extending digital tools for analysis. By balancing the voices of designers, players, and researchers, this collection highlights how the Alternate Reality Game genre is transforming the ways we play and interact today.

Antero Garciais an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, USA. His research focuses on developing literacies and civic identity through the use of gameplay and participatory media. Antero's work appears in numerous journals includingThe Harvard Educational Review, English Journal,andRethinking Schools. He is the author of the booksCritical Foundations in Young Adult Literature: Challenging Genres(2013) andTeaching in the Connected Learning Classroom(2014).

Greg Niemeyeris an Associate Professor and Director of the Center for New Media at University of California, Berkeley, USA. He founded the Stanford University Digital Art Center, which he directed until 2001. At UC Berkeley, he is involved in the development of the Center for New Media, focusing on the critical analysis of the impact ol3Î