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[LordIllidan]

How much "Alternate" and how much "Reality?"

[Fishjp]

I think the quality of the story being told is what matters the most. Also there should be some believability in it, for example Gandalf would NOT have a Facebook page. But Gandalf could possibly use a chat room and have it explained as using magical means on his end of the conversation.

If the story is good the ARG will be good. Just make sure the characters follow all the rules of whatever world you create for them.

[Vecheeso]

In my opinion it really depends. here are some of the factors i consider when working on my ARG and when playing other ARGs.
Do I enjoy the game? How much do i enjoy it?
if i am just kinda lurking, I will probably be put off by such a thing. But, as with a lot of things, you have to set a tone for the game to begin with (or so people have said )
I mean, if you have believable characters at a believable setting, like an X-Files ARG, and then suddenly Mulder and Scully are getting tips from elves about the corruption of the American government by alien carebears, then you lose a lot of credibility and such.
However, if you set a tone at the beginning that it is on THIS earth, you have to maintain within a level of believability in order to retain credibility.
If you are making this in another dimension/ in a different world, you may likely have to describe how/why/when etc. of this to players. I mean if at its core TINAG, how and why are we interacting with this other planet/world?
again, just my opinion.

[Rogi Ocnorb]

As long as the game believes it is real, it can work. If the game can make me "feel" like it's characters might actually exist, I care not how impossible my conscious mind considers it.

My, how I wish that pirate shrubbery would have kept it going.

Or the one where the characters were bits of data on a hard drive? That could have been good.

When a PM goes for the ultra-realism and messes it up, though. That's gotta be the worst. Not knowing enough about something you've brought into the game really lowers my future expectations for it.

[konamouse]

If there was a LOTR ARG, my husband would finally play an ARG.

I love reality ARG (Sammeeeees was real life, real time) and I love "it really can't happen ARG (Sammeeeees II had much of the action taking place in the realm of the undead).

Hard to do deaddrops and live events in a fantasy ARG - but they aren't always needed. As stated above, give us a valid reason for a Wizard from Middle Earth to be using the internet, and we'll accept it.

[Nighthawk]

[Euchre]

Considering the name is 'alternate reality' it of course depends entirely on what level and type of reality the player believes could exist as an alternate to our own. However, I think the true zen of alternate reality gaming is that it's something that could be reasonably expected to happen in the real world, and appears to be happening in the context of our real world, at our current time. As far as 'how much of each' - isn't the blurring of where reality and game begin and end supposed to be the goal of the PM? Only the awareness and common sense of the player should be what prevents them from fully believing that the game is real.

Basically, you have to make it plausible.
If you've ever noticed my sig, you might get the idea. If you want a broader idea of what I'm basically talking about, you can watch this:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=jGhst-XNxN4[/youtube]
I came up with this before I knew what an ARG was, before I learned of Cloverfield, any of this. Spooky, huh?

[konamouse]

Your video is no longer available

[Euchre]

Oops. Embedding was turned off.
Works now. Try again.

[konamouse]

That is a great video! It should be shown at ARGFest.