An alternate reality game (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' ideas or actions.
The form is typified by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real-time and evolves according to participants' responses, and characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers, as opposed to being controlled by
artificial intelligence as in a computer or console
video game. Players interact directly with characters in the game, solve plot-based challenges and puzzles, and often work together with a community to analyze the story and coordinate real-life and online activities. ARGs generally use multiple
media (such as telephones, email, and mail) but rely on the
Internet as the central binding medium.
Troy, created for the
Experimental Gameplay Competition, is a game about invasion of privacy on the internet. As visitors to the site try to download a game made by a fictional character, they are lead to a 404 site.
The average visitor would probably not bother clicking on the link to the parent directory. But visitors who are inquisitive and prying enough will click on the link and be lead to files and information they weren’t supposed to see. If they keep going through this data, they'll get passwords to spy into more of the fictional character’s personal information. For example, they'll learn that the game developer has just broken up with his girlfriend Becky, and as visitors progress through the game, they uncover very private stuff that gradually reveal what went wrong in their relationship.
Eventually, the curious would get a hold of the game they were originally trying to download, but it turns out to be a trap that the fictional character set for the player, as a punishment for going through his stuff.
