ARGHive

Submitted by zach whalen on Mon, 2010-10-04 21:04
Due: 
Wed, 2010-11-03 09:30
Value: 
100

This project is the first of two major, collaborative projects that comprise the remainder of the semester. The ARG archive (ARGHive) is a an attempt to mitigate one of the major problems facing the study of Alternate Reality Games: access to the texts and artifacts themselves. Some attempts at preserving ARG data do already exist (one uses the same pun, in fact), but there is still much of ARG history that remains in accessible or too loosely scattered for future researchers to study. We're going to do something about that.

Working in a group of peers, you're going to identify two ARGs to work on: 1) an older, "classic," campaign and 2) an emerging, currently running campaign. After using Zotero to gather your data on these two campaigns, you will publish these artifacts into an online exhibit within our Omeka installation, and present your findings to the class.

Timeline

10/5 Assignment introduced; groups assigned; start looking for campaigns to follow
10/7 Come up with three campaigns you're interested in
10/7 - 10/28 Research your classic ARG; follow (play) your current ARG, taking notes along the way
10/28 Present on classic ARG campaign
11/2 Present on contemporary ARG. Final exhibits due on arghive.elsweb.org

Evaluation

This project is worth 10% of your final grade, or 100 points. These points break down as follows:

Contemporary ARGhive exhibit 30 pts Evaluated for completeness and coherence
Classic ARG presentation 25 pts Evaluated for clarity, organization, use of visual material, and delivery.
Contemporary ARG presentation 30 pts Evaluated for clarity, organization, use of visual material, and delivery.
Participation 20 pts A measure of what you, individually contribute to the group's project, evaluated by way of confidential group reports.

Notes

Using Zotero is quite easy, and the import into Omeka should be fairly smooth. There will, however, be some degree of curation and narrativisation that takes place within Omeka itself. In addition, some types of artifacts may need to be uploaded manually, and for all artifacts, some amount of contextual metadata will be necessary to make sense of it.

The presentation should be short, no more than 10 minutes -- 5 minutes per ARG. However, each member of the group should participate in some way. To make this happen, we will make use of a modified pecha kucha format. Details to come.

Resources

ARG Quickstart Guide
ARGN
UnFiction
UnForums
Wiki Bruce
Remix Fiction
Cloudmakers.org

Groups

Memory Warriors

Following: Plato's Cave
Research: Chasing the Wish

SERC

Following: Clock without a Face
Researching: Art of the Heist

Best F'ing ARG Group

Following: I was Charlotte Bronte
Researching: Perplex City

The No Shows

Following: Savage County
Researching: Lockjaw

The Chosen Ones

Following: Tempus Umbra
Researching: Project Mu

The ARGonauts

Following: 15 Days of Darkness
Researching: Ministry of Argon

"Classic" ARGs

Here's a list of older, longer-running campaigns that you may select from for your research projects. If you know of some other game you'd rather research, please ask.

  • Perplex City
  • Art of the Heist
  • Last Call Poker
  • Chasing the Wish
  • The Jejune Institute
  • The Haunted Apiary
  • Year Zero
  • lonelygirl15
  • Sammeeeees
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