HW#2: ARG's

I'm not a gamer but I do appreciate good games, and now-a-days games are very well made to the point it looks and feels like reality. From GTA down to Snipers Elite as the years progress so does our video and PC games, which got me thinking, why are games like those so moving and at most so compelling to the player that it get them screaming, get their heart pumping and their minds over whelmed?

The most common games to date that get your heart pumping are indie honor games such as Amnesia, Left 4 Dead, Slender, etc...
So why are they so impacting to us players? Upon my inquiry I came accross an article on what they called ARG's (Alternate Reality Games) on wikia.com. According to what I've read, ARG's are interactive storytelling devices that make use of real-world interaction devices and media to add realism in order to help tell a story, which may be altered by 'participant' action.
Simply meaning with a story to follow in the game, it creates the feel of suspense & wonder. Which make perfect sense on it's impact to the player. According the the television program Game ™ on StarSports ™ in 2011, players prefer the esthetic appeal of the game play if it has a good story. Thus is why games such as Left 4 Dead and Grand Theft Auto are so popular, not only because it allows you the freedom of what the real world can not provide and the also the excitement that the real work can provide.

Left 4 Dead - The Sacrifice

Sniper's Elite

 The same goes heavily on horor games. One of the most recent and popular indie horor games is the Slender games which at this point has evolved from a simple "Find 8 pages" to a large origin survival game. One of the most difficult among the Slender games is the "Haunt" where in you find out one by one how Slender became, and how to survive, leading you from one point, to get you to another.

Now games like these have vivid & impressive stories which lead you to play further thus spanding your interest. But where do these stories come from, besides the imagination of the game designer?

Many if not all typical ARG's are not actually ARG's (according to wikia.com) but rather ARE's (Alternate Reality Experiences). Simply meaning these are taken from common experience by people in day to day lives and events.
When we look at games such as Grand Theft Auto, we can relate that to common crimes of mugging, car-jackings, gun voilence, prostitution & drug smuggling.
Other games prefer most historical events such as World War 2, Medieval sieges and so forth. Games such as Assasins Creed, League of Legends and Team Fortress 2  all apply such events that can be related to modern combat events and historical events such as DDay and the British & Spanish Empire battles of the late 17th hundreds.

From my perspective, games are here not only to entertain us but the enlight us in the our history and our world culture. We enjoy the stories of games because they are our stories; stories from the past and the present. We conent with these stories cause they happen to us every day, we see it happen in the news, from our familys, in films. When we make that connection it makes the game a winner.