the last post i reblogged made me think a lot over how ARGSs have evolved and changed. im very specifically talking about how many people believe they've become derivative and cliche (mainly based off local 58). if you look at newer args through the lens of them being an alternate reality game, they dont hold up well. the main criticism ive seen of these works is that theyre intentionally making themselves creepier and dont hold much substance.
im putting the rest of this under a read more, its gonna be hefty. also unstructured. keep in mind this is all my personal opinion. if you think the walten files are revolutionary, no ones stopping you. im generalizing
there are 2 reasons i think args have become so stereotypical, and why it's so easy to spot one nowadays.
firstly, and like most obviously, theyre extremely popular now. back in the 90s args had never been heard of, and if you saw someone saying something on the internet you were way more likely to believe it or turn it into a mystery. you dont even have to go that far back. take poppy. people were not well-versed with the idea of unfiction, fucking game theory thought she was a part of the illuminati. it was strange if you weren't part of the unfiction niche. regardless, this rise in popularity has also lent itself to more people wanting to dip their toes in the arg waters. this has advantages and disadvantages. hell yes! people are being creative and want to share their stories in this interesting way but also... they don't indulge in the genre enough to create something new.
and thats where most newer args fail. they have lost the interactive aspect, which is crucial!! in my opinion they've even lost the alternate reality part as well as an example, we can look at neurocam. which is an exemplary arg and i think checks all the necessary boxes. it took place in real life and integrated an alternate reality into our own. it also had a wonderful game/puzzle aspect! the audience had to fulfil each task to understand more of the story. they were a key piece of the game, not a bystander or viewer. if you want a more popular example the same goes for cicada 3301. even though that was more puzzle based, less so focused on a coherent storyline.
though alternative reality games dont have any strict guidelines! every new work defies the genre and molds it into something new. plus, its fucking hard to create global treasure hunts if you dont have the resources. so many works leaned more into the alternative reality rather than the game. namely alantutorials or daisy brown. they presented an alternate reality in our own, and involved the audience through interaction and real time events. daisy brown frequently responded to youtube comments and alantutorials had significant bouts in upload times to show a realistic passage of time.
in comparison, local58 was fairly different. it told a story, and it merged the plot into our own reality, but it was not interactive. its huge success can be owed to this fact. it was easy to digest, and most videos were released at the same time. the viewer didnt have to consciously be a part of the story, they could sit back and take in the horrifying news of this alternate world. though i dont want to downplay local58 because its production quality is amazing and the storyline is well thought out. in other words, it did earn its recognition through creativity and clever story-telling, but it also flattened a lot of the greater aspects of an arg.
after local58 got popular, args started becoming far more mainstream, and everyone was interested. who wouldn't want to present a story they've been dying to tell in this new format that could include the audience?
i don't blame any artists, but most people are not willing to sacrifice tons of money for elaborate filming locations or props to create a realistic arg. but everyones got an editing program and a few spooky pngs right.
in that sense historical analog horror is super easy. you set it up as a found tape of something that happened 40 years ago, you edit your story together however you like and it turns out great. but you have lost all sense of alternate reality or interactivity.
another thing i forgot to mention was social media type args. no clue how to classify them but think the sun vanished or sexygirlmax2019. these sorts have remained as interactive as ever, so why are random twitter args also not living up to our standards?
either
a) the person is just trying to get popular and has no real story to tell
or b) the concept of an arg is so popular and played out that it's becoming increasingly difficult to create something good
i havent thought much about this but i do recognize the issue of seeing random morse code on twitter and knowing that its about to be some dumbass arg trying to piggyback off more popular ones.
plus, due to the nature of the genre, if you are creating something realistic and well made, its gonna take a long fucking time to get noticed. i think theres dozens of great args that never got recognized because of how realistic they were, or how long it took for the story to be properly set up that they flew under the radar.
WHATS MY POINT HERE.
args that are cropping up nowadays are not args. they tell great stories and are pretty good in their own right but they arent alternative reality games. call it unfiction, webseries, analog horror, whatever. i think all those labels would fit far better. but thats really why we're seeing such a downgrade of well-made or creative args, because they are no longer that, they are just stories being told in a very similar format
my second point is that the rising popularity of args has also become its downfall. its easy to recognize one nowadays and this has caused for its main appeal to die out.
ARGS AS A CONCEPT ARE COMPLICATED MAN. LOTS TO THINK ABOUT!
