Alternate Reality Gaming
and the uneasy relationship between
business and the New Web
J.P. Allen
University of San Francisco
blog.jpedia.org

Summary
(if you don’t enjoy surprise endings)
1. ARGs are interesting because they:
• are large, temporary, task-focused online communities
(unlike most...see Preece, 2000; Allen, 2008)
• show the power of self-organization and open
technology (see Benkler, 2006; von Hippel, 2005)
2. but ARGs are but one small example of the
depth and power of the New Web...
and its uneasy relationship
with business as we know it

If this presentation were an Alternate Reality Game...

The
“rabbit
hole”
Who is the JP?

Initial story and clues

Setting up player resources

Collective puzzle solving
AAPLTCSCOGOOGHPQ
ADMIT OUR INTCIBMMSFTORCLVZ
SUITOR
KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGY
COMMUNITY

Regular story releases (multiple media)
Dean Duffington,
University of San Andreas Business School
Professor Soyrizo,
University of San Andreas Business School

Conclusion: Story ends with live events
and “puppetmasters” revealed

The two ARGs that started it all...
The Beast - set in A.I.
movie world
(cloudmakers.org)
ilovebees - set in Halo 2
videogame world
(dorkclub.com)

Self-organization extraordinaire -
the cloudmakers’ trail

(argn.com)
(argn.com)

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The depth and power of the
New Web
• The participatory web
• The social web
• User-generated content
• “Web 2.0”
• Collective intelligence
(rojo.com)

The New Web - not your mama’s dot.com internet...
Three major changes, 2001 to 2007:
• Consolidation of Search: In 2001, people apparently had a really
hard time finding stuff. In the top 25 sites, 10 were some form of
search engine or portal. With the exception of the MSN, Yahoo and
Google, the rest have fallen out of the picture.
• Shift toward socialization: The top sites in 2001 were predominately
focused on delivering one-way information, whether it be through
search, professional produced media, or ecommerce. In 2007, the top
50 are skewed heavily towards social sites, so much so, in fact, that
MySpace, Youtube, and Facebook account for a collective 14% of all
time spent online.
• Increasing entertainment: With broadband speed comes broadband
media and games. Pogo.com, runescape.com, and neopets.com all
live in the top 25 sites on the web.
(compete.com)

Largest gains
Unique visitors, 9/06-9/07
1. youtube.com
2. flickr.com
3. fling.com
4. wikipedia.org
5. digg.com
6. google.com
7. att.com
8. facebook.com
9. turn.com
10.yahoo.com

The New Web as an independent force
For “free”
Groups, forums, wikis, blogs,
For less than $100/year... file/photo/video sharing, FAQs,
1,500 Gb storage opinion/review sharing, social
15 Tb transfer/month networks, auctions, real-time
Payment processing collaboration...
Targeted ads
Full web analytics
World-class software for:
web server and database
content management
wikis and forums
CRM
online education and training
...and tens of thousands more apps
(3mpub.com)

The New Web
Freely available knowledge
Knowledge
Technology Community
Open technology
Online community

Knowledge What to do with
the New Web?
Technology Community
Ignore it?
Advertise to it?
React to it?
Interact with it?
Participate in it?
Control it?
Use it?
Subcontract to it?
Compete with it?
Destroy it?

Reactions to the New Web:
the next generation of Alternate Reality Games
ARGs as marketing - Audi’s Art of the Heist
ARGs as stand-alone business - Perplex City
ARGs as point of view - World Without Oil
Amateur ARGs - OpAphid ARG for lonelygirl15

Summary
(in case you got lost along the way)
1. ARGs are interesting because they:
• are large, temporary, task-focused online communities
(unlike most...see Preece, 2000; Allen, 2008)
• show the power of self-organization and open
technology (see Benkler, 2006; von Hippel, 2005)
2. but ARGs are but one small example of the
depth and power of the New Web...
and its uneasy relationship with business as we
know it

What are my plans?
• Knowledge
“How Web 2.0 solves the knowledge sharing
problem” - IEEE ISTAS conference
prosper 450k loans
• Community facebook 1% US internet
“Online communities that break the rules” digg 1m daily visitors
plentyoffish 1.2m users
• Technology
craigslist 10m new ads/m
“Six Web 2.0 capabilities that changed
linkedin 25 new u/minute
knowledge sharing”
argn 420k posts
ABA National Institute on CyberLaw,
Virtual Reality panel yelp 1m reviews
tripadvisor 10m reviews
• The New Web
wikipedia 8.3m articles
New Web mini-case collection wordpress 78k posts/day
“Web Renaissance” book proposal

What are your plans?
I cannot imagine an area of business that will not
be touched by the new online world.