Alternate Reality Games for Orientation, Socialisation and Induction Nicola Whitton Manchester Metropolitan University

The initial experience at university… Traditional initial experience doesn’t meet all students’ needs  Orientation: not high consideration  Socialisation: hasn’t changed much despite changes in student demographics, increased diversity of age, background, culture, experience…  Induction (Core Learning Skills): Lack of context/limited time/frontloaded

Bridging the gap with Alternate Reality Games Alternate Reality Games  Challenges underpinned by narrative  Unfolds over several weeks  Blends the online world and real-world The ARGOSI project  One-year project to develop an ARG for OSI  Link challenges to learning outcomes  Prototyping at MMU September 2008

What’s so great about ARGs? It’s a gaming environment  Provides challenge, context and purpose  Creates engagement and mystery They’re collaborative They’re lo-fidelity  Encourages use of range of technologies  Less development effort to produce and extend They use ‘actual reality’  Enables orientation in the real-world  Uses the best of each medium  Links to community and other organisations

Some questions… How many people need to take part for ARGs to be effective as games? Are they effective for learning? We know ARGs won’t appeal to everyone…how niche are they? Is there a tension between the underground the mainstream?