A note-to-self about the subtext of developing an ARG within the confines of an academic institution. It seemed to me at the time that a good idea would be to try to design the ARG such that it would ultimately invite players to become authors; in short, I imagined a game that would become kind of like a secret school newspaper, a club that you could only become a member of once you delved deeply into its mysteries — and once you were there, you’d be invested enough that you’d want to see it continue. Could this model work for motivating collaborative storytelling in other contexts?
STEALTH OBJECTIVE
A collaborative storytelling project. An increasingly baroque fictional system develops around a newly-constructed building on a university campus.
Public interventions ==> Oddities on iPhones ==> Web intrigue ==> Dark Art Portal
Now, what could I mean by “Dark Art Portal”? Admittedly, it sounds a little ridiculous. Let’s just say it’s a place holder for now. The idea is this: readers spiral into the Web intrigue via a variety of rabbit holes. Once there, they encounter password and player-to-game-communications puzzles. Solving these puzzles leads to additional text and layers of story. Active readers/participants (for web forums will be crucial components of this project) will eventually be contacted by the puppetmasters and asked to continue the story. This request will come in the form of a formal invitation.
This activity is a kind of anti-journalism ocurring in reverse.
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