Online Augmentation to
'Emerging Participatory Culture Practices:
Player-Created Tiers in Alternate Reality Games'
by Christy Dena

MAIN PAGE > Tiering: Levels > Tiering: Types > Resources: Sources > Resources: Types > Resources: Fictional > Summary > Bibliography

This minisite is an online augmentation of an essay published in the Feb 2008 issue (vol 14, no 1) of Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (which is available in hardcopy and online). My essay, 'Emerging Participatory Culture Practices: Player-Created Tiers in Alternate Reality Games is in the special issue edited by Henry Jenkins and Mark Deuze on 'Convergence Cultures'. Specifically, this minisite is referenced in footnote [2] of the journal essay. The intention of this online extension is to provide more examples of the taxonomy types referred to in the essay, to provide current information (the essay idea was originally submitted 18 months ago), to be a resource for fellow researchers, and to encourage curiosity in those considering reading the essay. :)

To help situate this online component, here is the abstract of the journal essay:

Abstract

This paper introduces an emerging form of participatory culture, one that is not a modification or elaboration of a primary producer's content. Instead, this paper details how the artifacts created to 'play' a primary producer's content has become the primary work for massive global audiences. This phenomenon is observed in the genre of alternate reality games (ARGs) and is illustrated through a theory of 'tiering'. Tiers provide separate content to different audiences. ARG designers tier their projects, targeting different players with different content. ARG player-production then creates another tier for non-playing audiences. To explicate this point, the features that provoke player-production -- producer-tiering, ARG aesthetics and transmedia fragmentation -- are interrogated, alongside the character of the subsequent player-production. Finally, I explore the aspects of the player-created tiers that attract massive audiences, and then posit what these observations may indicate about contemporary artforms and society in general.
In summary, the essay interrogates: By concentrating on these elements in the essay, I was not able to provide detailed information about 'tiering' and ARG gameplay resources (nor is it appropriate in an academic essay). Therefore, this online augmentation offers that information in a general style and obviously not what is the journal.

The first section introduces 'tiering' and tiering levels;
The second section explains types of tiering in ARGs;
The third section outlines a taxonomy of ARG GamePlay Resources and provides examples of sources;
The fourth section continues giving examples of ARG GamePlay Resources, specifically the types of resources;
The fifth section more ARG GamePlay Resources, but this time looking at their degrees of fictionality;
The sixth section briefly looks at the implications of the points in the essay;
The final section contains the acknowledgements for my tiering essay and the bibliography for this online augmentation

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Created: 24 Sep, 2007
Last Updated: 22 Jan, 2008
Author: Christy Dena

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