The Fascinating Medium of ARG's

 How The Most Immersive Stories Are Told

    One of the greatest aspects of a good story is immersing the viewer in the world presented. Making sure that the total story being presented feels real and believable. Some entertainment mediums are better than others than immersing the viewer and in different ways. Stories that make us feel like we have an impact are best presented in video games, allowing the viewer to directly impact the world created. Meanwhile, stories that put us in the shoes of others are great in books and text, created vivid imagery to make the viewer feel a certain way. A great middle ground between different styles of entertainment that provides a unique sense of immersion is the ARG. An ARG or Alternate Reality Game is a very specific kind of storytelling, typically using social media, real-life locations, and viewer engagement to progress a given story. ARG's span a decent range between things such as Twitter accounts that uses posts to tell a story, or as deep as a multi-source story with requires the viewers to actually go to real-life locations to figure out a specific mystery. A recent popular example to demonstrate the medium would be the Twitter account known as "The Sun Vanished". This account began posting around 3 years back, starting with a phone recorded footage of a fake news broadcast stating that mysteriously the sun has vanished, though the news report said that this was a known phenomenon that has happened in the past, where the suns light is covered by a large passing object, it soon takes a sinister approach. The account proceeds to document the story of the main character who goes unnamed, as he survives an apocalyptic world where there is no sun, people are being poisoned by an unknown source in the water, and there appear to be unknown invaders killing people in large black ships. Over the course of the existence of the account, it has grown a cult following, with people intrigued in how this person from a seemingly "alternate reality" is interacting with us. This series has grown so successful that the creator disclosed that he made it and is now working on a series of short films based in the universe of the sun vanished, though not following the events of the account. There have been ARG's of all sorts based on different source materials and through different platforms. It has become a trend for horror movies or movies with deeper lore to make an ARG based on their film to engage audiences, the film series "Cloverfield" made one of the more popular ARG's to reveal the secret origin behind their movies main monster.


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