Editing Alternate reality game (section)

== Definition ==
There is a great deal of debate surrounding the characteristics by which the term "alternate reality game" should be defined.  Sean Stacey, the founder of the website Unfiction, has suggested that the best way to define the genre was ''not'' to define it, and instead locate each game on three axes (ruleset, authorship and coherence) in a sphere of "chaotic fiction" that would include works such as the [[Uncyclopedia]] and street games like [[SFZero|SF0]] as well.<ref name="Stacey">{{cite web |url=http://www.unfiction.com/compendium/2006/11/10/undefining-arg/ |date=10 November 2006 |access-date=19 February 2007 |title=Undefining ARG |first=Sean |last=Stacey}}</ref>

Several experts, though, point to the use of transmedia, "the aggregate effect of multiple texts/media artifacts,"<ref name="Watson">{{cite web |last=Watson |first=Jeff |title=Transmedia Storytelling and Alternate Reality Games |date=20 July 2009 |url=http://www.slideshare.net/remotedevice/transmedia-storytelling-and-alternate-reality-games |access-date=11 December 2011}}</ref> as the defining attribute of ARGs.  This prompts the unique collaboration emanating from ARGs as well; [[Sean Stewart]], founder of [[42 Entertainment]], which has produced various successful ARGs, speaks to how this occurs, noting that "the key thing about an ARG is the way it jumps off of all those platforms.  It's a game that's social and comes at you across all the different ways that you connect to the world around you."<ref name="Watson" />

Most ARGs do not have any fixed rules—players discover the rules and the boundaries of the game through trial and error—and do not require players to assume fictional identities or roleplay beyond feigning belief in the reality of the characters they interact with (even if games where players play 'themselves' are a long-standing variant on the genre).<ref>{{cite book |last1=McGonigal |first1=Jane |contribution=A Real Little Game: The Performance of Belief in Pervasive Play |chapter-url=http://www.avantgame.com/MCGONIGAL%20A%20Real%20Little%20Game%20DiGRA%202003.pdf |title=Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) "Level Up" Conference Proceedings |year=2003}}</ref>