Alternate Reality Games

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Comment by Chris Bigenho on June 27, 2009 at 10:50am

Save the world from Homogenization. Session on Learning through Alternate Reality Games on Monday, 12:30 - 1:30 at NECC Unplugged.

Comment by Chris Bigenho on June 18, 2009 at 12:10pm

I will be presenting a session at NECC unplugged that will introduce the concept of alternate reality games as learning environments. This session will run an hour as you participate in a game I created specifically for use in a workshop format to teach about this emerging design concept for learning environments. You can get all the details here and I will post additional information as we get closer to NECC.

Comment by Jeremy Koester on June 17, 2009 at 3:39pm

Great points to make, Kae. Terms and their operational definitions have been a sticking point for this type of application for some time. I'm curious how long this will continue before we have some sort of standard to settle all of the contributing factors.

Comment by Kae on June 17, 2009 at 1:12pm

Greg - having the same problem with vocabulary.

We have an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) based on D.B. Copper. No question about it - there's a trailhead, puppetmater, role playing, clues, drops and plot twists.

But we just finished prototyping what what we called an AR (Augmented Reality) simulation using GPS coordinates that can be access via cell phones or wireless laptop. It does run learners thru scenarios for economic gardening and development but we didn't call it an ARG - it didn't fit.

Then we read about Coral Cross and how they are calling their game an emergent reality game. http://coralcross.org/about.html Now we're back to if we are playing this AR game with business students and small business owners and having them evaluate and learn about economic development - are we an ERG or maybe even an augmented ERG?

Comment by Jeremy Koester on June 17, 2009 at 11:30am

Our team is actually working on a few different multi-channel games and a couple of ARGs (alternate, not augmented, haha). I'd happily share our results when they all wrap up.

Comment by Greg Jones on June 16, 2009 at 11:58pm

One of the issues we face using ARG as a term. You will get people mixing up Alternate and Augmented Reality Games. Scott Warren and I did a day long workshop at NECC last year on ARG.

I was happy to have Chris ask to start a new sub-group with the SIG. I am sure we will find members interested in discussing this topic in details.

Cheers - Greg

Comment by Amanda Hefner on June 16, 2009 at 11:50pm

Wow! ARGs are new to me, but I'm fascinated by the history detailed in the Wikipedia article you linked ~ in particular, the use of ARGs by commercial entities to 'leak' or create a buzz about a new product or concept. Very interesting! I look forward to learning more about this! Thanks for adding it to our SIG. ~AH