Questioning the alternate reality games canon through a reflection on its foundational components

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David Ruiz García

Abstract

Alternate reality games are one of the most complex and unknown ludonarrative forms of all those that populate the media ecosystem, about which a partial and outdated research perspective makes it difficult to adapt them to the new times. From an unused canon, approaches to the ARGs twenty years later continue to be articulated as entities alien to their history. Our aim is to question the canonical concepts of alternate reality games, puppetmaster, rabbithole, the curtain and the acronym TINAG (this is not a game), and to elaborate an updated framework of analysis in which the truly substantial ingredients of the device are present, in contrast with obsolete formulations of the genre. The qualitative paradigm is the base of the methodology employed, starting with a bibliographic survey in search of approaches to genre in an ontological sense and of dissensions and consensus on its canonical concepts. After that, we carried out a descriptive analysis of the basic ingredients detected for the formulation of a new substantial recipe and the articulation of a new framework of analysis on alternate reality games. Tradition and canon as both foundational structures and questionable dogmas, that is the base of a discussion that aims to ponder to what extent the foundational or canonical in alternate reality games is prescriptive or is a critical limit.


 

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How to Cite
Ruiz García, D. (2024). Questioning the alternate reality games canon through a reflection on its foundational components . AdComunica, (27), 191–216. https://doi.org/10.6035/adcomunica.7297
Section
Otras investigaciones
Author Biography

David Ruiz García, a:1:{s:5:"es_ES";s:32:"Centro Universitario San Isidoro";}

David Ruiz García presenta una trayectoria como investigador que se ha desarrollado entre el mundo de la comunicación audiovisual y la creatividad publicitaria, especializándose en branded content, guion audiovisual, videolúdica, narrativas transmedia, y formatos híbridos, y sintetizando finalmente sus trabajos en el estudio de los juegos de realidad alternativa.

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