'Immersion'

Not so long ago when I did some research about Alternate Reality Gaming, I found out that there are a lot of misconceptions concerning Immersion. Without starting definition debate #2197 about what Immersion is and what not, I think it is safe to say that it is basically the intensiveness of a person to ‘be’ in a fictitious realm and the ability to lock out his own realm of reality. A big problem is of course that it can be difficult to determine what is the real realm in which you actually live and what the fictitious realm is in which you have immersed. I think it was 庄子 who said: ‘Am I a man dreaming he is a butterfly or am I a butterfly dreaming he is a man’. The answer is unfortunately all too easy: The most boring realm in which you keep ending up after switching from realm to realm is most likely the one you actually live, pay taxes, loose kidneys and finally die in order to go to the biggest fictional realm ever conceived by human called heaven and/or hell.

Tagged with: immersion, alternate reality,

This is not a rabbithole!

Alternate reality gaming is a very interesting crossmedial concept. There are to this day some successes and some failures. There has yet to be found what the success factors are to make a successful ARG. Stef Wouters and Filip Fastenaekels were brought in to shed some light on the world of ARG. They are, amongst others, responsible for a very successful ARG for the Flemish Public television regarding the Flemish tv-soap “Emma”. Their findings on how to create an ARG were very insightful and inspiring.

Tagged with: alternate reality, crossmedia, games,