User:Epsilon the Eternal/Alternate reality games

Alternate reality games, often abbreviated to ARGs, are in their simplest form, a of storytelling; a given alternate reality game will be oriented around "unfiction", a type of fiction that attempts to convince its readers that is isn't actually fiction but reality,  and often uses two other important elements: the interactive elements, which make up the "game", and the fictional narrative conveyed by the plot and themes and the growth of said plot in response to audience interaction. However, it has been observed that a specific definition of what constitues an "alternate reality game" varies between people, and therefore the best definition of the genre is to not define it.

Many commonalities of alternate reality games is how they involve "real-life treasure hunting, interactive storytelling, video games and online community", often utilising "involving coded Web sites, real-world clues like the newspaper advertisements, phone calls in the middle of the night from game characters and more", to deliver parts of the narrative. Additionally, ARGs are often used as marketing mechanisms.