ARGs: So Immersive, You Don't Even Know You're in a Game

Alternate Reality Games, or ARGs, provide a unique experience for the players. This experience is so unique that the players oftentimes do not know they are participating in a game at all. ARGs are created on a level below the player's awareness such that the player has no choice put to play through the game as if it is a real situation and their choices throughout the game will affect their lives in the future. This genre of game allows for creators to assume this level of immersion, which in turn facilitates the addressing of real-life issues and how real people would handle these issues. Furthermore, it allows the players to find solutions to problems that could potentially affect the world outside the game. This large increase in the level of immersion in ARGs is one that may be difficult to simulate in other genres of video games, especially games that require the players to act as a character that is not controlled by natural means (i.e. lifting your arms, running with your legs, etc.). Controlling a character with a controller or keyboard and mouse causes players to become slightly separated from the character they manipulate and themselves. In virtual reality games, however, this separation is torn down and players control their character in a first-person perspective using their own bodies as the controller. In ARGs, the middle man character is removed entirely and is replaced with your own self as the character without your knowing. As you play through the game, you act as though you are not playing a game, which may modify your decisions if you play differently in a game, but this effect allows for game designers to create games as if they were real. People tend to live more cautiously than they play video games, which makes ARGs great tools for learning about and teaching people about real-world issues and improving society as it exists today.