I would caution though that the memory of the internets can approach the perfect and that even though every video in youtube might have some relevance to your entity today that individually they represent atoms of history and do not serve well, so from that standpoint the idea of an indentity ecology is particularly appealing.

Finally I question the place of identity in ARGs. This may come from my limited experience with them, but essentially it feels to me like the player has little input in the navigation of the space. Certainly their intellect, skills and luck come into play and their personality becomes evident in the forums but how does this intersect with play?

At some level there is a paradigmatic problem with identity anyway… such as the idea of an ID, a passport, etc. … to be ‘carded’ so to speak… identity as social formation has always been about consistency — that the ‘card’ shows who one is… via face recognition, height, hair color… all of these things are alterable even in ‘actuality’, but they were made to be variable in the ‘virtual’ from the point it went public (so to speak)…. which, really emphasizes the problem with identity as a plane of consistency rather than something flexible, fluxible… and, the root of the term avatar in itself emphasizes this — the flex and flux of it… as well, the term avatar emphasizes intentionality… that it is changable based on particular intent… Vishnu doesn’t appear as a fish because it is just cute… or as a philosopher when a tortoise might serve a purpose better… So, maybe there is a hint of rationality in avatar construction…

Yes, I wrote that post when I was half-asleep so I apologize if I was not too articulate. I am still not that articulate since I cannot shake my sleepiness at the moment.

I guess by “top-down”, I meant that I was hoping there was a game that say one individual or a small group of individuals made (narrative, characters etc etc) that was not tied to any pre-existing video game or other promotional usage…I do not know Perplex City (I know of it quite well) but my Twitter/Facebook comment was about those alternate realities strictly created by the users…I can imagine that some “ARGs” might just be a bunch of people twittering their own contributive mini-narratives to make a new consensual gaming reality which would be a “bottom-up” kind of ARG. I was still thinking of a narrative that was pre-written in terms of world and (main) character design which may or may not also involve Facebook/Twitter as media that may carry the top-down story line but is not dependent on all the user-driven tweets and FB profiles…does this make sense? If not, I need to go to bed now..actually, I need to go to bed anyway…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Thus, you do tend to see a lot of blogs, flickr, and YouTube videos. However, I don’t think that makes them “based on emergent narratives derived from social networking sites.” As Christy already noted, there are generally more grassroots games at any given time than there are corporate sponsored ones.

If you’re looking for projects with a more profit-based orientation, I’d suggest looking into some of Lance Weiler’s work — with Head Trauma and its related promotions, he created an integrated work that might fit what I think you mean by “top-down”. Similarly, he’s working with Hammer Films on “Beyond the Rave” currently, which might be in line with what I think you’re looking for.

I’m not sure what you mean by this part of the question: “Alternate Reality game that is not based on emergent narratives derived from social networking sites (Facebook/Twitter) but actually is one that has a full top-down structure”. Could you elaborate?

As for your question about ARGs not based on a videogame or music. There are MORE independent, original intellectual property ARGs than there are those that extend an existing fictional world or product. Pervasive game designer and theorist Jane McGonigal (2006: 262) approximates that between 2001 and 2006 there were ‘seventeen commercial alternate reality games (ARGs), fifty-two independent ARGs, and many dozens more smaller and lesser-known ARGs’. Some well-known, highly-regarded independent ARGs include Sammeeeees 1 & 2, Chasing the Wish, Catching the Wish, Eldritch Errors (which is ongoing), Perplex City, Edoc Laundry, Lockjaw and so on.

McGonigal, Jane (2006) This Might Be a Game: Ubiquitous Play and Performance at the Turn of the Twenty-
First Century, PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley.

Well, there was Perplex City…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perplex_city

Perplex City made fairly spare use of MySpace and Twitter, and no
Facebook at all, as I recall. I’m not sure what you mean by a “full
top-down structure,” but most of its narrative happened on an in-game
newspaper site, a few character blogs, and websites for various city
institutions, along with the real-world treasure hunt and other live
events. It was designed from the very beginning as an ARG, and wasn’t
promoting anything else; it was a stand-alone entertainment product.

Edoc Laundry and World Without Oil might also fit these criteria of
yours, but I’m afraid I can’t quite pin down what those are. Can you
be a little more specific?

I will be commenting on this specific posting in a few days since it relates to my ideas for a thesis proposal but before I formulate my answer, I thought I would quickly ask any of the Aug-readers if there is an example of an Alternate Reality game that is not based on emergent narratives derived from social networking sites (Facebook/Twitter) but actually is one that has a full top-down structure and is not based on any video game?

The only ARGs I have heard of so far are used as either promotional material for a pre-existing video game or music album or were not initially constructed as an ARG such as those emergent narrative tweet-a-thons.