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The internet is seeing the rebirth of the alternate reality game, a hyper form of media convergence. An Alternate Reality Game (ARG) can be loosely defined as an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions.”

I was introduced to the concept through LOST, which employed the ARG format to deliver enjoyable and compelling content which expanded on the convoluted narrative of the show, yet wasn’t crucial to the plot. The LOST alternate reality games (which ran either concurrently to the program to fill back story or between seasons to fan the flames of interest) utilized flash games, e-mail, phone messages, and hidden messages in commercials to deliver hints towards an evolving narrative.

That’s what is so damn cool about the alternate reality game. A factor they have in common is that they are so drastically shaped by the people involved.

The example most typically given when researching the ARG for the purpose of this article was for The Beast, which began as a ground-breaking marketing campaign for Steven Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence. The game garnered a community of over 3 million people who came together as an online community for the purpose of solving the puzzles and furthering the game.

From an article on the subject: "After the game, the Puppetmasters [game designers] admitted that they relied on the vast storehouse of knowledge amongst the Cloudmakers [The Beast player community] and other player groups to be able to meet any puzzle the designers created. For instance, a puzzle near the end of The Beast required that the players understand lute tablature, and sure enough there were Cloudmakers who could solve it.”

There are other stories of games that have been driven to a standstill due to a real-life circumstances that needed a resolution before the game could progress. For example, one game required a character to find information within a book by a certain author before the narrative could continue. Unfortunately, no such book existed. The online community collaborated and actually published this book, using the fictional author’s name as a pen name. The next chapter in the ARG opened later with a clue to push the narrative being pulled from that very same book. This level of engagement is an ultimate submersion, an unheard of pooling of resources which draws on the unique experiences, skills, and talents of each contributing member to push the game and genre forward.

In the spirit of the expansive evolution of the genre within the last decade, ARGs are growing from an intensive, participatory advertising medium (evidenced by Halo 2’s ‘I Love Bees’ campaign or the MySpace pages of the Cloverfield characters) to a deeply engaging and potentially powerful tool for societal betterment.

Pitchfork Media columnist Chris Dahlen noted the commitment, passion, and intensity of the ARG community and proposed that if narratives could be sculpted to spark players to pool their resources and solve extremely difficult fictional problems, could this medium be focused to resolve real issues as well? Recently, two different ARGs have emerged to capitalize on Dahlen’s proposal: World Without Oil (which focuses on the global oil shortage and exploring other potential sources of fuel) and Tomorrow Calling (which concentrates on environmental issues).

With the internet as a medium to bind the genre and an intelligent and multi-faceted community behind it, the ARG has realized its goals of engaging and challenging an audience in an almost impossible way. The potential of the genre is nearly limitless. It all depends on the people.