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.
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See AllHer story was one of the more interesting video games I've ever played and I'm not even sure if calling it a "video game" is appropriate....
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As I have never played VR or ARGs myself, I found the “tearing down of separation” you pointed out quite inspiring. Used to playing games on my PC and sometimes my friends’ Switch and PS4, I noticed the mismatch between player control and avatar movement but never questioned it. Even though every time I get my hands on a new console I need to start over and spend a little while to learn to control my avatar, I never expected them to be more than just pressing buttons to perform designated movements. To have this “separation” torn down, for me, is something that I have not given a serious thought about. This really brings essential change to player experience. I…
I think identification in ARGs (removing the "middle man" of the player character) is more important than the concept of immersion. While some ARGs may convince people they are real, they don't have to be blurred with reality to be engaging. In the Parasite ARG, some players reportedly dedicated themselves to investigating the game creators and discovering the process behind creating the game. Often, the "this is not a game" aesthetic of ARGs doesn't necessarily mean players won't see it as a game. For example, Bungie's ARGs (which are marketing campaigns, not serious games) take place in their fictional universe, and no player seriously believes them to be real. In "The Video Game Aesthetic", David Myers suggested that the joy…
I like to think of ARGs and VR games as physically immersive "good books". When I say "good books," I am attempting to invoke the idea that readers will sometimes get completely lost and totally engrossed in a book or even a TV series. These media are a bit more cerebral but ARGs and to a greater extent, VR games, require the body to be involved to an extent. When an ARG and VR game are really good, the player becomes immersed as they would a good story.
I bring this up because other comments mention how the awareness of the player may or may not be relevant to these games. I would argue that although the player does know…
I wonder as to how the players of an ARG conceive of whether or not they are playing a game. I know Patrick suggested that a feature of ARG’s is a “this is not a game” aesthetic or messaging, but I wonder to what extent players internalize that. I wonder how the players range from knowing it is a game but thinking the game is fun and worth playing, to knowing on some level that it is game but also not being entirely to convinced of that, to actually full-on believing that it is not a game. I have trouble believing that almost anyone falls into the last category, and I think we can talk about immersion without attributing to…
Your point on the wall between our avatar in game and us as ourselves is interesting. And adding on to the heightened level of credibility of the game world, removing the "middle man" can also induce our emotions and involvement by putting ourselves responsible. It feels different when the mission is directly addressing you, and the "NPC"s in the game are responding to you personally. Putting the player directly in responsible of the mission has taken our immersive experience to another level.
Additionally, I am curious about how the ARGs' after-game-experience would differ from the keyboard-and-controller games'.