I Subscribed to a Missing Girl’s YouTube Channel and You Won’t Believe What I Found

A Study on Alternate Reality Games

Abstract

Alternate Reality Games – commonly abbreviated as ARGs – have emerged in the first decade of the 21^st century. The main feature of such games is their claim to reality, denying these narratives to be fictional at all. Moreover, the effectiveness of the genre’s storytelling often relies on its ability to blur the boundaries between fiction and reality. In light of these observations, this article seeks to identify the tools utilized by ARGs to create a narrative that simulates reality; it aims to analyze how the simulation of reality in ARGs engages communities across social-media platforms, at times even moving outside the virtual space. In order to perform this analysis, this study outlines common features of the genre, briefly reviewing the history of ARG as described by Garcia and Niemeyer (2016). As a theoretical support to comprehend how this genre attempts to simulate reality, McLane’s (2007) and Aufderheide’s (2007) studies of the conventions of documentary are mentioned. The narrative of a 2018 ARG called “AshVlogs/i-know-where-she-is” is reported in order to exemplify some of the characteristics of the genre, furthering the discussion about ARG’s possibilities of intersecting reality and fiction.