Alternate reality games challenge teens to use technology in new ways

Hi, my name’s Chelsie. I got this bracelet for my 14th birthday. My aunt says it’s from my parents, but the thing is that I haven’t seen them in a year. They disappeared after my last birthday. They were working on an archaeological dig and one morning they were just gone. The bracelet is the only link I have to my parents. I’m hoping it can help me figure out what happened to them. Do you think you can help me?

Chelsie is just one of the characters that teens “met” during Carroll County (MD) Public Library’s first Summer Reading 2009 Alternate Reality Game (ARG). Created by teen volunteers, the game was open to all teens participating in the summer reading program. The volunteers, or puppet masters, spent almost a year creating the story line, online content, and real-world game play for their game, Find Chesia. The teens are the youngest creators of an alternate reality game and also the first to create a game specifically for their age group (11-17).

What is an alternate reality game?

According to the Wikipedia definition, an ARG is “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’ shared ideas or actions.” While this is a very comprehensive definition, an ARG may or may not fit into these precise parameters. The definition varies with every game, every Web site, and every player. Perhaps this inability to pinpoint a definition is the best way to describe an ARG: open-ended, in a state of constant change, and incredibly social. The only thing that all ARGs do have in common is the alternate reality game motto: this is not a game. Players must interact within the ARG as if it were real. And the success of the game depends on how willing the players are to lose themselves in the game and how interactive they become within it.

Carroll County Public Library simply defined their ARG as a game played online and in the real world, where players solve puzzles, collect clues and objects, and ultimately find out about the mysterious Chesia. The library’s definition focused on the interactive story element and the promotion of technology literacy. Lynn Wheeler, Director of Carroll County Public Library, expressed pride in the project and the volunteers and staff who “have worked tirelessly to create delightful opportunities for teens to learn about and in turn use Web 2.0 technologies to create fun learning activities.”

ARGs and libraries

Libraries are story warehouses. From early man’s cave paintings to the summer blockbusters, humans have always been storytellers. And that has not changed much over thousands of years. Our stories are just a bit flashier now, with more special effects, and instead of reading about the stories of heroes, we get to simulate walking in their shoes.

ARGs are a wonderful combination of stories and technology. In addition to being able to participate in the story, players are challenged to search the Internet, decipher clues, and form teams to solve the mystery. Dorothy Stoltz, Outreach Services Manager at the library, noted that Find Chesia “encourages game players to be history detectives seeking out the mystery of a fictionalized civilization called Chesia,” combining game play with “learning about the history of Maryland and its Native Americans.”

Building the ARG

The Find Chesia ARG grew out of an Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS) funded Library Services & Technology Act (LSTA) grant project, TeensConnect. It was a cooperative effort between Carroll County Public Library and Carroll County Public Schools to educate teens about Web 2.0 tools and encourage them to use online technology to cross geographical and cultural boundaries. The culminating event for the project was a presentation on alternate reality games by Jane McGonigal, game designer and researcher, who demonstrated how to use Web 2.0 tools in new and creative ways for gaming purposes. She shared the 10 key steps for creating an ARG, and the library used them to build its first alternate reality game for teens.

Step 1. Start a puppet master team: The puppet master team pulls the strings of the game. While player participation moves the game and story line along, it is up to the puppet masters to build the story line, create a satisfying conclusion, and then guide the game in the necessary direction. The five teen volunteers the library recruited to be puppet masters ranged in ages from 12 to 15 and attended different schools.

Step 2. Brainstorm your theme or story: During a Google search of the Chesapeake Bay, a map showing what looked like a skull in the center of the Bay caught the puppet masters’ attention. It was decided that an Atlantis-type theme, with a sunken island and a lost culture, might be an interesting story line for our game. The idea for Chesia was born.

Step 3. Pick the game “verbs”: For Find Chesia, players were asked to solve puzzles in Chelsie’s blogs and collect beads from each library branch location. However, since our target audience was too young to drive, the game inadvertently involved parent participation as well.

Step 4. Make a “media plan”: Our audience ranged in age from 11 to 17, so the team built specific Web sites to provide the clues. Instead of having players randomly search the Internet, which is a huge concern for this age group, a blog and Web site were built for the game. YouTube, Twitter, and Podbean were also used, but direct links to the content on those particular Web sites were posted on either Chelsie’s blog or the Find Chesia Web site.

Step 5. Design your community: An ARG works only as well as the players communicate and cooperate together. Because the alternate reality game was a new concept to Carroll County, the team did not build a wiki or forum where players could discuss clues and collaborate. Instead, game play relied on players’ comments to Chelsie’s blog. Since most of the teens chose to comment anonymously, it was more difficult to track the number of players.

Step 6. Decide on a launch date: Since Find Chesia was created for the summer reading program, which runs for nine weeks from mid-June to mid-August, the team did not list specific dates when promoting the game. This caused some confusion as to when the game actually started.

Step 7. Identify team’s strengths and pick design roles: The puppet master team was composed of five very talented teens. Two of them had won second and third place in the Carroll County Public Library’s 2008 Summer Shorts contest, a short story writing competition. Two others had worked with local community theater groups.

Step 8. Make a game time line: The time line helps plan the pacing for the game but must be flexible. Since it may take longer than anticipated to solve a clue, the time line, like the game, is always in motion and constantly changing.

Step 9. Create content: Since the teens attended different schools and lived in different parts of the county, we decided to build a private wiki where the puppet masters could talk about the game without sending out mass emails. In addition to the character of Chelsie, we also created a discredited archeologist, Magnus Carter, and an evil scientist, Dr. Spencer. Carter was the brains behind the Find Chesia Web site, and he also Twittered updates about the game. Dr. Spencer Twittered occasionally, and a podcast of her speaking was featured as a clue in game play.

Step 10. Decide who to invite: Find Chesia was played in cooperation with the summer reading program, so all the registered teens were invited to play. Those who didn’t register but found one or more of the clues hidden in any of the library’s six branches could join in as well. Invitations to the game showed up as origami boats (promotional flyers folded in disguise), business cards for Magnus Carter, and library book slips, created by using a fake library card for Chelsie with her blog address listed instead of her name.

Find Chesia ARG

Building Find Chesia demanded hard work, organization, and perseverance. But it was immensely rewarding. Whether it was the puppet masters learning to use a wiki for the first time, or the game players interacting with a character online, the ARG challenged everyone’s learning curve.