These are fun times we are living in. The Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC), has an article about a new alternate reality book called Cathy’s Book. It is authored by Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman directed I Love Bees, the alternate reality game which won a Webby Award and an International Game Designers Award for Innovation.

Even so, alternate reality games, for now at least, are most often used as viral marketing for movies and video games.

Likewise, for the creators of Cathy’s Book,the blend of fiction and interactivity comes not from activism, but from a background in games and literature. Edmonton-born Sean Stewart has written novels and he and creative partner Jordan Weisman are ARG pioneers. They created what’s considered the first ARG, The Beast, used to promote the Steven Spielberg movie A.I. For them, a big appeal of ARGs lies in their sociability.

“This is an intensely social artistic experience,” says Stewart. “If I read a book and you read a book, we each have our own experience. In an ARG, the audience puts it together. It lives in the place where blogging lives, where people are constantly talking to each other.”

That’s another reason ARGs may have a real future with the generation in their teens now. The so-called Myspace Generation is growing up with social media — the digital network of blogging, instant messaging and social networking. It is an intensely, even hyper-social, group. It’s also a generation increasingly used to digital media as a part of life and a natural component of community.

I grew up reading mystery books such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and I always feel a part of the action as I followed them on their adventures. Now children can bring the fiction world into their reality.  Super cool that one of them is Canadian.
Relevance:
Regarding my gaming research I am interested in new forms of gaming that involve mixed and novel realities such as TorGame in Toronto. One can look at familiar spaces in a totally different light.

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