ARGs

This week’s blog concerns ARGs or alternate reality games. ARGs are games that take place in a setting that dissolves the boundaries of traditional games.

     According to Jane McGonigal, one of the problems associated with traditional games is that “players are prone to falling for the games’ dissimulative rhetoric. The gamers, in other words, are too easily persuaded by the games’ realistic aesthetics and aspirations. They wind up believing in their play too much for their own good. (pg. 3)” In short, people play their games to the ending and realize that they have nothing to show for it and may even find their actual lives in disarray due to their constant game play. This is not true of ARGs.

     In an interview with Steve Paikin on The Agenda, McGonigal further explains the benefits of ARGs. She says that, unlike more traditional games, ARGs allow players to play as themselves solving real world problems such as the case with A World without Oil. In this game, players simulate what a world would be like during an oil shortage. With players playing as themselves working on real life problems, players can take away from the game a sense of accomplishment they could not get in more traditional games.

     Another benefit that McGonigal mentions is that with ARGs, once the original goal is accomplished, the community does not go away. She says that often times players come up with new problems to solve and continue their play. This in turn leads to a higher level of satisfaction from playing because the game becomes more about the process than an end goal.

     It looks as though ARGs are the next step in gaming. With its realistic problem solving scenarios and actual identity gaming, it is certain that ARGs will keep gamers engaged and may also lead to real solutions to real world problems. My question is this: where will games go from here?