This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming [Paperback]

Dave Szulborski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 30, 2005

Imagine a world of mystery and excitement, adventure and fantasy, waiting for you to explore. A world that reacts to your every move, with characters and companies that talk to you, send you messages, and even give you items to help you in your quest. A world so immersive that you can no longer tell where the reality ends and the fiction begins. Welcome to the world of Alternate Reality Gaming. This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming by Dave Szulborski is the perfect introduction to the unique and exciting world of Alternate Reality Games. Written by the creator of five successful and critically acclaimed ARGs, This Is Not A Game features detailed sections on the theory and history of Alternate Reality Gaming, as well as a "How To Guide" for aspiring game creators. The book also includes Dave's personal reflections on creating some of the most popular ARGs ever developed, and essays on gaming and cooperative writing by award winning authors Ben Mack and Joseph Matheny.

Product Details

• Paperback: 395 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1411625951
• ISBN-13: 978-1411625952
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #193,534 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book on ARGs, October 3, 2010

By 

Kerry (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming (Paperback)

This is Not a Game is an interesting take on the ARG/Transmedia genre's early years (1999-2005ish) from the perspective of a player turned independent ARG designer. While not exactly encyclopedic and covering every game from that time period, it does a good job of looking at the early foundations and some of the big names as well as their aftermath and a case study of a couple indie-games that came afterwards. Its a great into to people new to the genre, that may have missed The Beast, Majestic, and any others from that time period.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks bro, August 17, 2009

By 

Joseph Matheny "Occam's Razor is not a dispos... (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming (Paperback)

You did well with this one my brother. Thanks for letting me participate in it's inception and dissemination. I miss you, a lot but in some weird way, I know I'll see you again, somewhere, somehow. That last sentence had more commas than a Shatner monologue. ;-) You never got tired of that joke, did you? Peace.

11 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ARGs: Internet's Psycho-Masada Goes Corporate, June 22, 2005

By 

Ben Mack (Nacirema) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming (Paperback)

I found this in Howard's notes on TINAG
North Bennington, VT

The Jews at Masada staved off the Romans for nine months. The Puppet Masters of immersive gaming staved off corporateland for over 12 years. A new book is being published that pulls back the curtain of the circus otherwise known as Alternate Reality Games (ARGs). Alternate Reality Games were the last vestibule of sponsor-free space on the web.

This Is Not A Game by Dave Szulborski is being heralded as the first book documenting the work of the great, original online gamers. That much is true. What this book lightly touches on is that when Microsoft commissioned Spoungey to create "I Like Bees" as a teaser campaign for Halo 2, the art-for-art-sake space has just become a whore, working for money like the vast majority of other projects that engage minds.

ARGs constructed a new space. They built something from nothing.
ARGs used micro-ads in mass media to attract players to a media-free zone where answers to puzzles became the currency of news and stories took bizarre twists. Populated by Internet mavens, this target audience was far too tempting for mass marketers. Now, instead of frolicking in the depth of geek perversion with fellow techno perverts, ARG participants are being played by The Man.

I drink to my memory of yesteryear, when an ad was an ad and I knew when I was being played.