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Defining and Exploring the Logics of Alternate Reality Games Jay Johnson University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

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Defining and Exploring the Logics of Alternate Reality Games Jay Johnson University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations August 2018 Issues with Reality: Defining and Exploring the Logics of Alternate Reality Games Jay Johnson University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Library and Information Science Commons Recommended Citation Johnson, Jay, "Issues with Reality: Defining and Exploring the Logics of Alternate Reality Games" (2018). Theses and Dissertations. 1837. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1837 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ISSUES WITH REALITY: DEFINING AND EXPLORING THE LOGICS OF ALTERNATE REALITY GAMES by Jay Johnson A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee August 2018 ABSTRACT ISSUES WITH REALITY: DEFINING AND EXPLORING THE LOGICS OF ALTERNATE REALITY GAMES by Jay Johnson The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2018 Under Supervision of Professor Stuart Moulthrop Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), a genre of transmedia experiences, are a recent phenomenon, with the first recognized ARG being The Beast (2001), a promotion for the film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001). This dissertation seeks to more clearly define and investigate contexts of transmedia narratives and games, specifically ARGs. ARGs differ from more popular and well-known contemporary forms of gaming in several ways, perhaps most importantly by intensive use of multiple media. Whereas a player may experience most or all of a conventional video game through a single medium, participants in ARGs must navigate multiple media and technical platforms— networks of websites, digital graphics, audio recordings, videos, text and graphics in print, physical objects, etc.— in order to participate in the experience of the ARG. After establishing a history of ARGs, the author defines both transmedia and ARGs and begins to build typologies to help distinguish individual examples of the genres. Then, after building the above framework for analyzing transmedia and ARGs, the author explores the relevance of the ARG genre within three specific contexts. These contexts serve as tools to excavate potential motivators from creative and participatory standpoints. The author refers to these motivations as three logics of ARGs: industrial, cultural, and educational. The industrial logic examines the advantages of transmedia and ARG production from the entertainment industry standpoint, in terms of an alternative to franchising and as a way to extend intellectual property (IP), as well as ii offering interactive possibilities to an engaged audience. The cultural logic examines the relationship between the emergence of digital media, transmedia, and ARGs and the aesthetic appeal of the form and genre as paranoia, puzzle-solving, and collective meaning making within a shifting representation of reality through networked embodiment and challenging long-held assumptions of ontological and phenomenological experiences. Finally, the educational logic of ARGs analyzes the potential and use of the genre as an immersive, constructivist learning space that fosters self-motivated individual and collaborative analysis, interpretation, and problem- solving. iii © Copyright Jay Paul Johnson, 2018 All Rights Reserved This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc/3.0/us/ iv To Ms bLue skies, who helped me discover that alternate universes are real v TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Abstract……………………………………………………………… ii List of Figures……………………………………………………….. viii Acknowledgements………………………………………………….. ix Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Chapter 1: A History of Alternate Reality Games…………………………………………... 16 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….. 16 A Brief History of “Transmedia”……………………………………………………. 17 The First ARGs……………………………………………………………………… 26 The Beast…………………………………………………………………….. 28 Life After The Beast…………………………………………………………. 40 Majestic……………………………………………………………………….41 Early Independent ARGs……………………………………………………. 45 Entertainment Industry Embrace of ARGs………………………………….. 46 Historical Precursors to ARGs………………………………………………………. 51 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………… 57 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework for Understanding ARGs……………………………….. 63 Medium Specificity and ARGs………………………………………………………. 65 Textual Combat: Games/Simulations and Narrative………………………………… 68 This Is Not a Game or a Story……………………………………………………….. 85 Approaching the Asymptote of Definition…………………………………………... 96 Chapter 3: The Industrial Logic of ARGs – The Lost Experience and Finding Reading Practices…………...................................................................................................... 105 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………. 105 Down the Rabbit Hole of Distributed Consumption………………………………... 109 Recursive World-Building………………………………………………………….. 116 Issues with Reality………………………………………………………………….. 130 Complex Rewards: The “narrative special effect” and “solving” the Narrative Puzzle……………………………………………………………………….. 131 The Puzzle Aesthetic of Lost……………………………………………………….. 134 Reading Our Mutual Friend…………………………………………………………137 Reflexive Immersion…………………………………………………………………150 Negotiating Reality…………………………………………………………………..154 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...156 Chapter 4: The Cultural Logic of ARGs……………………………………………………..161 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..161 The Ubiquity of Digital Media………………………………………………………166 “It’s not fucking marketing”…………………………………………………………173 (Dis)Ordering Perspectives…………………………………………………………..177 vi Immersion— and Production………………………………………………………..186 Chapter 5: The Educational Logic of ARGs………………………………………………...196 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….196 The Alternate Reality Environment…………………………………………………198 Situating Cognition in Alternate Realities…………………………………………..206 New Literacies………………………………………………………………………213 Applying ARGs in Higher Education……………………………………………….219 Lessons Learned from Previous ARGs……………………………………………...225 Future Realities: New Activism Outside of— and Resisting Against— the Institution……………………………………………………………………230 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..239 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………..244 Appendix A: Chronological List of ARGs………………………………………………….251 Curriculum Vitae……………………………………………………………………………259 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: In-Game Majestic Navigation screenshot………………………. 43 Figure 1.2: Google Books Ngram data from “transmedia” in English from 1950 to 2008………………………………………………………… 58 Figure 1.3: Pre Research Center survey data on percentage of adults in the United States who use the Internet……………………………… 58 Figure 1.4: Pre Research Center survey data on percentage of adults in the United States who use social media sites..……………………… 59 Figure 3.1: Hanso Foundation press release about Gary Troup’s Bad Twin from the Hanso Foundation website……………………………….. 121 Figure 3.2: Promotional imagery featuring the ensemble cast of Lost from season 6…….………………………………………………………..141 Figure 3.3: Promotional imagery featuring the ensemble cast of Lost from season 3……………………………………………………………...141 Figure 5.1: Google Ngram of the phrase “games and learning” from 1940 through 2008…………………………………………………..199 Figure 5.2: “3.52 The Cahir Images/MSD Enigma Puzzle #2” puzzle solution entry from “the trail v9.0”………………………………….205 Figure 5.3: The call to participate before the start of World Without Oil…...210 Figure 5.4: Comparison of the first pages of the Evoke first mission comic and the remixed Invoke first mission comic………………….236 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While many people have played a role in the formation and completion of this dissertation, none of this would be possible without my partner, Nic. She is the inspiration, motivation, and—perhaps most importantly in the slog of daily reading, writing, and thinking— the support and encouragement in my life. Thank you, Nic: for giving up our days, evenings, and weekends; for making meals and snacks and so so much coffee; for the gentle kisses and reminders of why we do this; for building something beautiful together. Thank you. Your light illuminates the path to beauty, happiness, and a deep appreciation and fascination for the world, part of which are reflected in the words that follow in this dissertation. Your intelligence and patience—your way of seeing the world simultaneously with playfulness and seriousness—shape so many of the ideas herein. Thank you. This process started in 2010 and sat mostly dormant for seven years; to be able to complete these chapters (as much as any writing is ever “complete”) in such a relatively short timeframe is a testament to your love and support and the collaborative spirit we share. We brought this process with us to so many places—Costa Rica, Denver, Galena, in rain and sun and snow—and it is a manifestation of This. The “diss” followed us from Cloud Forest to beach, through mountains and rolling green hills and snow-blown plains. And those experiences are a source of beauty. We are interwoven into the words and paragraphs—the units of meaning—within these pages. I love you. And, together, anything is possible; the universe is infinite; we can shape reality in ways I never thought
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