hi my name is jason i cant help but wonder wot this thing in my pants is for it stands up when i see pritty things(kayliegh) and i have been wondering if this little thing has a greater purpose than just to make my hands wet. love u all jason

Thanks for writing about ARGSs. The article is timely because the ARG community is itself discussing the very issue of how (and, even, if) to define ARGs.

A question: how do you define "advergame"? Do you mean a game that people play for free because the cost is coverd by a corporation? And I am not sure what you mean by "gameplay" in the sense you are using it.

You don't say which games you have played, although I am sure you must have played some. Otherwise writing about ARGs based on what you have heard or read is a bit like people who object to GTA based on content without ever playing it or even seeing it. (not, come to think of it, that those people have been effective at anything but getting the game more publicity so maybe that could work for ARGs as well.)

For what it is worth - here are some submissions to the thread at unfiction www.unforums.com regarding a short definition of ARGs:

An ARG is an interactive narrative played over a variety of media.

An Alternate Reality Game is an interactive, cross media experience, combining elements of storytelling and game play, delivering an immersive fictional narrative through a variety of real world communication methods, such as email, instant messaging, and phone calls.

My submission:

Quick definition:

A non-linear narrative that is told through the interaction of players with the story on-line and in the "real" world.

For a six-year old:

A story that people have to follow clues on the internet and in real life to find the answer to the next part of the story until they come to the end.

While it is true that the games that have advertising tie-ins may be what brings the Genre to a person's attention, many of the players who start out with a corporate sponsored game then stay around the "ARG community" and play other games, some of which may be sponsored, some of which are grass roots.

The genre is still in it's infancy, less than 7 years old. While it is still shaking out the nit picky details, it has been around long enough to show that it is around for the long haul and not just a flash in the pan.

Having corporate sponsorship does not equal a bad game, look at LCP - while it was sponsored by a game manufacturer, you did not need to be familiar with the game to play the ARG, nor did you have to pruchase anything to play.

The same with the Halo sponsored "I love bees" - while the information gathered was about characters in Halo, one did not need to be familiar with the game background in order to play and have fun. Again, it was not necessary to purchase anything to play.

Just like real life, there is advertising that surrounds us every day. But advertising is not the whole of life, nor is it the whole of Alternate Reality Games. To claim that it is, is to disrespect the many fine people who put together grassroots games while this genre was in it's infancy and developed the community that sponsors now desire to reach. Advertising is secondary and not first in my opinion. The bulk of games that are developed and presented are more than likely grassroots games. Simply basing your opinion on what these games are by what shows up in mainstream meadia is a disservice to the genre.

I suggest that anyone who wants to get a better look at the community check out the following sites:

http://www.argn.com/

http://www.unfiction.com/

http://www.deaddrop.us/

These are all "grassroots" sites and not corporate ones. They have been around since the early days of Alternate Reality Games. From there you can talk to the people who participate in these games and find out what aspects are important to them.

Hey Rose and Magesteff! For what it's worth, I'd reckon to say Ian here understands ARGs just about as well as anyone writing about games today... for one thing, we are on IM constantly as I am either making or playing them and so he has picked up quite a bit. ;) (Not to mention he flew all the way out to San Francisco to play Tombstone Hold 'Em last fall! Woo!)

Anyway I just want to weigh in with my thoughts that as ARGs become seen less as marketing and more of "extended experiences", this will be just one more aspect of media convergence. (What Ian is calling branded games is essentially the same phenomenon.) A single brand/IP can be read, played on a console, play as an ARG, watched as a movie, etc. Every piece of media is marketing another piece of media... it's a web of IP that drives sales or audience for everything else in the web. The entertainment markets more entertainment. I for one will be happy when we can all understand that and as things like ARGs become more closely integrated with other forms of experiencing the IP.