Why I play Alternate Reality Games

In March 2008, I received a package in the mail on which the words ‘unravel the mystery’ were written. To further add to my confusion, inside I found a ball of coloured twine and a 1920 Belgium Olympic poster. Unravelling the twine revealed a piece of paper containing this clue “You will soon discover an alternate reality. The adventure begins when you meet Ariandre. You will soon discover a secret code. www.thelostring.com” Thus began my adventure playing an alternate reality game called The Lost Ring, where participants used social media and offline social activities to complete tasks. The game concluded with the start of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

In March 2010, I began playing EVOKE, an alternate reality game that is a 10 week crash course in changing the world. In this online game, participants use social media to complete missions and quests while gaining powers such as courage, creativity, and sustainability. As a project for the World Bank, the goal is to develop creative solutions to world issues such as poverty, safe drinking water, and disease.

This presentation will discuss what alternate reality games (ARGs) are, how they are designed to engage participants, and explore their social value. Using these games as case studies, I will share my perspective as a participant and discuss how games relate to my dissertation research.

Bio:

Phillip Jeffrey is a UBC PhD student supervised by Dr. Sidney Fels. His department is the Media and Graphic Interdisciplinary Centre and his research interests include new media, games, and social behaviour. On a regular basis he appears on CBC Radio to provide on-air expertise about Facebook and he is an early adopter of emerging technology such as Facebook (since 2005), Twitter (since 2007), and Flickr (since 2005). He enjoys conversations with people passionate about changing the world and welcomes opportunities to share everyday life through photography. His blog is fadetoplay.com and his twitter username is @tyfn.