The ludic vector in alternate reality games: dismantling a fundamental aporia in the genre
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Abstract
The ludic element in alternate reality games (ARGs) turns out to be one of the core elements of a provisional genre by nature. This circumstance, which would be predictable in any other case, becomes relevant precisely because of the device's refusal to recognise itself as a game, in the canonical sense. In keeping with their founding claim that This is not a game, ARGs propose a gaming regime in which the traditional features of games are transgressed and camouflaged as more or less indistinguishable parts of the real world. The aim of this article is to analyse the element of play in ARGs and conceptualise the genre under the term degamification, in order to explore the dialogue between the normative and disruptive facets of a medium used to occupying the borderland between reality and fiction, and between gaming and advertising.
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