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

~ Dave Szulborski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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 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 reality ends and 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 this exciting new world.

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 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #93,113 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

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

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.

7 of 25 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)

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.