Alternate Reality Games

I work with DR (the national public service broadcaster in Denmark) where I write and produce ARGs. I've been hosting and producing TV and radio for Denmark's biggest channels (DR1, P3 and P1) and have experience both as a writer and an editor. I'm a graduate from the Danish Writers' Academy, and I've published poetry, prose and essays. Besides that I'm an active musician and I've just started my own record label Speed Of Sound.

We have another Group Gathering at GDC 2008, in San Francisco.

If you're at the conference, come along and say hi to other SIG members, make some new contacts, or simply to find out more about ARGs. As ever, we'll also have an update on all things SIGgy.

Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 5:30pm — 6:30pm
Location (room): IGDA Booth, West Hall
Link: https://www.cmpevents.com/GD08/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=6440

(and we'll probably go for food and drinks afterwards)

I worked at Mind Candy as the in-house writer on Perplex City from the end of 2005 until June 2007. As well as writing, I also found myself producing and directing all the game's AV content. And I looked after a lot of the meta-content, such as the gargantuan Story So Far site.

My background is in drama, so I'm now pursuing ways of combining ARG-style interaction with more mainstream broadcast media – the 'Frozen Indigo Angel' episode of Perplex City, produced with the BBC, was a decent start.

IGDA NYC Chapter and Writers Cabal present...

Writing for Fantasy Game Worlds
Moderated by Sande Chen, Writers Cabal

RSVP:
http://www.largeanimal.com/igda/chapter-2007_06_21/

When: June 21, 2007 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Where:
Wollman Hall
65 West 11th St, 5th Floor
New York City, New York

(a.k.a. Kevin Hemenway)

I've coauthored a few books for O'Reilly, tech-edited or contributed to a dozen others, and have written for Apple and MacTech magazine.

I had a passing interest in The Beast, bought an Xbox and Halo because
of ILB (and was heartily disappointed in Halo 2), and have been fiddling with Perplex City for the past year. I'm waxing poetic internally about what ARG to follow with PXC's now-indefinite postponing. AliceIsLost is currently high on that list.

I joined the list a few weeks ago to get a better understanding of the
PM side of things, mostly for curiosity. I have a slowly developing idea for an ARG (with optional micropayments) but know I wouldn't have the resources to do it myself (and would rather develop the world/plot and pass it to someone else).

I'm an IT Manager from the UK, roleplayer, roleplaying game designer, layout artist and Techno Pagan. I think i became interested on the periphery of Perplex City, but i think i've been interested in the genre for a lot longer, films like Michael Douglas's The Game, and thing like that have always intrigued me. I guess i'm interested these days in what ARGs show us about people, the expectations of them, and what people are prepared to do as players as a mass decision making machine.
A friend and I are looking at running a UK Based ARG-lite, based on some roleplaying material we have, definitely a small player base, as a first run to prove the concept.

Dan Hon has posted a transcript of the ARG panel at this year's South by Southwest:

Part game, story and treasure hunt, alternate reality games introduce people to a world of creative play, skywriting, online games, phone calls, radio broadcasts, secret websites, blogs, texts, coded adverts, emails, hidden audio files and helicopter chases. What you need to know about what’s been happening and what’s happening next from industry leaders.

http://danhon.com/2007/05/23/sxsw-2007-arg-the-attack-of-the-alternate-reality-games-transcript/

Mark Heggen has posted an article discussing: "various non-casual investigations into alternate reality gaming. I had some wonderful question responses from Jane McGonigal, Brian Clark of GMD Studios, Sean Stewart of 42 Entertainment, Dan Hon of Mind Candy, and many others."

http://retext.blogspot.com/2007/05/lets-be-serious-non-casual.html

NOTE: This article is available in PDF format at: http://markheggen.com/heggen_noncasual_ARG.pdf - Mark recommends this version instead, since it comes with lots of extra typesetting etc and is somewhat easier to read

I have not had much experience with ARGs, nor have I developed anything. I am fresh out of highschool, soon to be in college, and have entirely way too much free time. I am extremely interested in ARGs. Being someone without much experience, I look forward to learning as much as possible. During college, I hope to get into the development of my own ARG on campus, but I know I have a ways ahead of me.