Designing ARGs for learning
Many ARGs have large numbers of players, with the play spread out over several months. A new trend in ARG design for learning, often referred to as “Mini-ARGs” (mARGs), has seen the rise of more spontaneous, short-term experiences designed around specific goals and objectives. Often designed for smaller, more targeted audiences, mARGs often require fewer design resources. They can be as compelling as longer-running ARGs, but may be a better fit for training events such as conferences and workshops since, by design, their duration is shorter.
ARG design elements
As with any successful training program, the design phase is crucial to a successful outcome for an ARG. One can apply many of the traditional instructional design processes, such as components of the ADDIE model; however, there are some non-traditional aspects to consider. Since an ARG usually evolves as it is played, traditional game design cycles may not be completely applicable. It is important to be able to monitor the game play and quickly adapt the design based on player inputs. Below are some key elements to consider when beginning the design of an ARG:
- Audience Analysis. Identify audience traits including age, gender, job description, cultural aspects, and other demographic considerations including team dynamics.
- Learning Objectives and Goals. Identify the learning objectives. All activities within the ARG should support the acquisition of these objectives. Link objectives and goal statements to the specific business needs. Having a clear goal in mind will help ensure a focused design.
- Compelling Story. Create a story arc containing a beginning, middle, and end. A compelling story, combined with good writing, is a key element in a successful ARG. Creating meaningful characters, and roles that players can easily relate to through their own value system, is extremely important. Incubate "collective intelligence" by leaving gaps in the story. These provide players the ability to interact with each other, and to work together to evolve the story with their own actions.
- Game Components. Design the various game structures and components. The following list contains common ARG play elements:
- Clues and Puzzles. ARGs often involve deciphering clues and puzzles in support of solving or understanding some mystery or task. Clues can be delivered both in real life and in virtual formats, using online puzzles, physical objects that need to be found (using location coordinates or mobile geocaching), downloadable cards to print, or by using real players to diseminate the clues.
- Game and Activity Timelines. Game timelines and checklists provide organization for players and users.
- Leveling, Ranking, and Scoring. Include these components in order to offer feedback to the players, and to engender competition among individuals and teams.
- Game Websites and wikis. Websites, wikis, forums, or social networks are often used as virtual gathering places for participants to register to play, share information, form teams, discuss strategies, and debrief each other on game tactics. Fictional Websites can host clues and puzzles, display game artifacts, and contain unfolding game story elements.
- Multimedia Assets. Produce any rich-media elements needed for the physical or virtual environments. Design the media elements with the purpose of reinforcing the story by producing them at the appropriate fidelity. In some instances, it may be OK not to have "professional" quality audio or video.
ARG design team for learning
Regardless of the size of the ARG, the design team should include the following members. Some roles can be performed by the same person:
- Puppetmaster(s). The puppetmaster, or game designer, is the person who designs and runs the game. This person is responsible for evolving the narrative, ensuring that player changes to the narrative are successfully integrated or discarded, and for helping to ensure successful outcomes occur through play and participation.
- Instructional Designer (ID). The ID is responsible for determining performance objectives based on the results of the analysis that determined the need for the intervention. Many IDs perform the analysis as well. The ID also ensures that all components of the intervention adhere to its original goals. The ID and the Puppetmaster will need to work closely together to align the play elements and the learning objectives. Depending on the size and complexity of the ARG, Puppetmaster and ID duties may be completed by the same person.
- Content or Subject Matter Expert(s). The Subject Matter Expert (SME) provides the content that the Puppetmaster and ID use to design the play and learning components. SMEs are responsible for describing or documenting how tasks are to be performed, and for providing the performance objectives used to construct the play and learning activities.
- Media Designers. A team of graphic artists, audio/video specialists, or other media talent may be required to produce the required media objects. The production of the Websites, blogs/wikis, cards, artifacts, or other components, may require the leveraging of various skill-sets to produce all the needed game-related media.
- Programmer(s). Web programmers, or more advanced Flash programmers, may be required to produce interactive online media.
- Writer(s). The writers should be well-versed in the art of narrative. Since story is a primary component in an ARG, crafting a well-written story is key. Consider hiring a freelance writer or novelist to join the team.
- Editor(s). An editor is recommended to help ensure that cohesiveness and consistency is present in the story and game-play elements.
Other design tips
- Integrate content and game play. Avoid the "Story → Puzzle → Story" trap indicative of many ARGs.
- Design casual play for beginning activities. Lure in players with easy entree into the game and build complexity and compelling storylines. Make it simple and easy initially – a casual engagement that will draw players in and encourage them to go deeper on their own.
- Focus on the system being dynamic and flexible. Create simple rules that are easy to understand.
Design risks
Unlike traditional games, there is no "pause" button in ARGs so the design should be flexible enough to mitigate any real-life "risks" that may occur. With physical activities designed, players are always available to be playing, even as they stroll down the street. In that context, there are no simulations, or restarts available – so there is an immediacy to the play at that level. Beware of common play "risks" that may include:
- Demotivated target audience. ARGs designed for learning are likely to have a smaller target audience than a big-budget movie-themed ARG. It may be a challenge to get players involved in the game unless they know there's something in it for them. Be prepared to send alternative "rabbit-hole" clues, request executive involvement to help encourage employees to get started.
- Accidental non-player involvement. Physical objects may be subject to non-player interference.
- Public safety issues. Be aware that wrapped packages in public spaces may cause public safety concerns. Properly plan for activities that occur in public areas: are permits of any kind necessary or is compensation required for other events in the area?
- Design adaptability. Design the ARG to easily adapt to the flexibilities of diverse play situations. Length and intensity of the game, player lulls, outsiders joining the game, narrative changes, and moderated activities may mean the game evolves in unexpected ways. Expecting and embracing these changes is key.
- Confusion, ambiguity, obfuscation. Prepare strategies for occasions when players lose focus, or do not know what to do next.
- Lack of clear feedback, rewards, and progress. Design accessible rules and timely feedback with consistent and predictable updating.
Duke's Quest for Knowledge – A case study
Each year, the leadership team at Sun Learning Services (SLS) gathers for a three-day "conference" to recap the previous year's business results, set priorities for the upcoming year, and align those priorities with Sun's overall business goals. The event is hosted by the Chief Learning Officer (CLO), and includes formal presentations, informal discussions, and team-building activities.
Conference attendees include SLS executives from all the regions in the world, as well as other invited guests. The majority of the attendees are the executives that manage and drive Sun's learning businesses, including sales, strategic development, and classroom delivery. Although many attendees fall within the same age group, wide cultural and language differences do exist. Each executive is responsible for the business only in their region – resulting in infrequent collaborations and rare face-to-face interactions. While the conference is a top priority, it does fall near the end of the fiscal year, when budgets and reports are being finalized.
In 2008, a miniARG was one of the conference team-building activities, and served as an introduction to new innovations in learning. The miniARG was designed to begin one month before the conference, with culminating events occurring during the conference. The game had three primary goals:
- To increase the leadership team's competency with emerging social networking utilities
- To encourage the use of social media utilities such as wikis, blogs, mobile devices, and social network sites in their education marketing, and
- To provide SLS instructional designers the opportunity to pilot an ARG in a global context, and to evaluate the results.
Furthermore, the instructional designers also had the following secondary social goals:
- Facilitate discussions about new technologies and their influence on learning trends within the play experience.
- Encourage the participants to engage with one another online prior to the live conference at the Sun headquarters in California.
Story and concept
The concept combined elements of "old" and "new" to help build a contrast between current and emerging trends in learning. The story begins in the early 20th century as Archibald Duke, a radical scientist and self-appointed "futurist," documented his predictions about technology. Duke's associates considered his predictions ridiculous, and the work of a deranged mind. He was eventually institutionalized and died in an insane asylum. Prior to being committed, Duke hid some of his documents in a briefcase which he stowed away in his attic. In the present day, Duke's grandson, Jonathan, finds the locked briefcase. Decoding the lock and opening the briefcase becomes the first task for the ARG players.
Gameplay continued from this point with weekly milestones for each team to achieve. Players explored and used Websites containing Flash-based puzzles and games, and a Facebook group for discussion. They received cryptic messages from Jonathan via email. Since some of Duke's "predictions" included the rise of modern-day "social-learning utilities," some of the game activities offered the players an opportunity to use social networking to solve puzzles and experience working collaboratively using the technology they were learning about. Teams earned points by solving the weekly challenges, and each team was assigned the task of creating a presentation, to be shared during the final conference, on what they had learned about social media during gameplay. The team with the most points would be declared the winner and receive the actual "briefcase" containing old Mr. Duke's documents, a film roll with a message from him, and gift cards for the team to spend or donate. (See Figure 2.)
Takeaways
Initially there was a significant lack of engagement from players. Part of the issue was timing – it was the end of the fiscal year when the players were busy aggregating their financial data and preparing their reports. The design team reacted by ensuring the teams were aware of their time-based assignments via a Facebook group, which served as a collaboration hub where the players could interact with one another and with Jonathan Duke himself. Jonathan would then communicate with the players directly via the Facebook group. Messages from the CLO also helped the players begin to engage.
Given the Facebook group, and the game rules, incentives, and goals (all of which came to participants in e-mails), more than 70% of the target audience ended up participating online. The final presentations, which involved every player, included what each team learned about social media while playing the game, and teams detailed how they would begin to integrate new forms of learning into their business models. The combination of the pre-conference work and the interactivity driven by the game's narrative made it possible for the players to familiarize themselves with the overarching concepts of social learning, build new relationships with colleagues they may not have known before joining the game community, and engage in a socially-driven learning experience that helped enable them to find creative ways to present their ideas about the future of learning.
Summary
Alternate Reality Games can serve as excellent tools to encourage collective intelligence, collaborative play, and distributed storytelling in an educational environment. ARGs also help to build collaboration, increase communication, and raise awareness about products and causes.
Design cost is limited only by imagination – design teams that utilize free technologies and leverage existing social networks have proven to be quite effective in creating interactive environments where players collectively create stories and play.
You can learn more about ARGs, how they work, possible themes, player dynamics, and many more aspects of the genre by actually playing an ARG. Visit the ARGNet Website (http://www.argn.com) to find links and discussions about currently running games. If you are interested in learning more about how miniARGs are being used in learning contexts, access the Laboratory of Advanced Media Production (LAMP) at the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) wiki.
References
February 2008. McGonigal, J. Harvard Business Review . "Making Alternate Reality the New Business Reality."
Collective intelligence. (2009, March 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:48, April 10, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Collective_intelligence&oldid=279969115
Serious Games Portal (http://seriousgamesportal.blogspot.com/search/label/Alternate%20Reality%20Games) (Editor's Note: As of March 30, 2010, this blog appears to have been removed from the Web.)
LAMP's mARG catalog (http://www.lamp.edu.au/wiki/index.php?title=LAMP_Alternate_Reality_Games). The Cloudmakers Website is still active today and contains information on the story and gameplay experience. http://www.cloudmakers.org/
World Without Oil. (2007). Retrieved August 20, 2009, from World Without Oil: Official Website: http://www.worldwithoutoil.org/metafaq.htm#wwoblog
Year Zero ARG. (2007). http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/16-01/ff_args
