[ecrea] CFP: Edited Volume on ARGs

Call for Chapters: Alternate Reality Games and the Cusp of Digital Gameplay



Series: Approaches to Digital Game Studies, Bloomsbury



Editors: Antero Garcia, Colorado State University & Greg Niemeyer, 
University of California, Berkeley





Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) challenge what players understand as “real.”


Though prominent examples of ARGs have persisted over the past two 
decades, only recently have ARGs come to the prominence as a unique and 
highly visible digital game genre. Adopting many of the same strategies 
as online video games, ARGs blur the distinction between the “real” and 
the “virtual.”



We seek chapter proposals for a proposed collection that explores and 
defines the possibilities of ARGs. With ARGs continuing to be an 
important and blurred space between digital and physical gameplay, this 
collection offers clear analysis of game design, implementation, and 
ramifications for game studies. Divided into three distinct sections 
(noted below), this collection emphasizes first hand accounts by leading 
ARG creators, scholarly analysis of the meaning behind ARGs from noted 
critics and researchers, and explication of emerging visualization and 
data collection methodologies. We are particularly interested in 
cultivating research from various disciplinary perspectives; by 
balancing the voices of designers, players, and researchers, this work 
highlights how the Alternate Reality Game genre is transforming the ways 
we play and interact today.



We seek chapter proposals that fit within one of the following three 
book sections:


Section One - Development and Execution

Chapters in this section of the book detail the design and 
implementation of ARGs. Authors pay attention to specific fictions, 
audiences, and goals within these ARGs and offer a clear step-by-step 
behind the scenes look at how these game designers engineer new modes of 
play and participation.

Section Two - Alternating Reality - how ARGs are changing games and society

These chapters focus on analysis and critique of ARGs. While some 
chapters may focus on specific games, other chapters in this section 
invoke larger trends in ARGs.

Section Three - Data Visualization and Collection

As the ARG genre is dependent on responding to the ways participants 
interact with one another and with a story’s content, this section of 
the book looks at how we interpret and construct data. In particular, 
the genre of digital games is reinventing new data visualization 
methodologies and this section should illuminate ways games display 
information during play and as synopsis after a game concludes.

This edited volume has received initial interest from the Digital Game 
Studies series editors and we are currently seeking additional chapters 
to share with the editors and secure a book contract. The deadline for 
proposals of 300-500 words is August 15, 2014. Please email your 
abstract and a 100 word biography to (anterobot /at/ gmail.com) (please 
indicate to which section of the book your proposal is directed). All 
authors will be notified of acceptance by September 2nd and full chapter 
manuscripts would be due in April, 2015. Please do not hesitate to 
contact us with any questions at the above address.



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