An interesting application of narrative in games can be found in Alternate Reality (ARG), a form of narrative that uses the real world as a platform. Unlike traditional storytelling, narrative information isn’t confined to one area but instead takes place across multiple digital platforms. This variety of transmedia storytelling can also be altered by the ideas and actions of the participating players (“Alternate reality games”). In “Alternate reality games, narrative disbursement, and canon: the lost experience,” IMMERSe researcher Kent Aardse provides an in-depth analysis of ARG storytelling. He compiles a list of the existing literature on ARG and examines the genre through an analysis of “the Lost Experience,” an ARG game designed by the writers of the television drama Lost. Aardse contends that, as a genre, ARG games tend to be completed in a group using a technique called “collective intelligence.” Distributed fiction is much more collaborative than the conventional narrative form and it also make use of hyper-attention, something that Aardse contends, signifies a “shift in cognition associated with “new” digital media” (Aardse 110-111).

The unique medium of ARG is a good reminder that not all narratives exist within the game world. There are also narratives linked with videogame culture that become embedded in our everyday life. In “Fighting the Good Fight”: Gamer----, NotYourShield, and Neo-facism” IMMERse researchers reported on Gamer----, describing it as “a response to the entry of videogame discourse and culture into the mainstream, and the resulting tensions between a more privileged group of veteran “gamers,” and the perceived “newcomers,” including those who have been criticizing the status quo perpetuated by the game industry.” They contend that at its core, the Gamer---- group is a conservative, right wing, reactionary movement, linking otherness with the loss of the “gamer” identity (Jong 1).

Both examples cited above exemplify how this theme looks both within and without games: narratives exist inside a game, as well as in the culture beyond the game itself. IMMERSe researchers consider how narratives and dialogues in games reflect or construct narrative and dialogues outside games. For instance, narratives of the loss of the “Gamer Identity” which, researchers contend, is often likened to a form of militarized masculinity (Jong). It is a good reminder that there are all kinds of narratives that affect a gamer’s playing experience, even those that exist outside the game world.