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ARG and Unfiction: A new way of storytelling

By: Carolina Beltrán 10°A

Stories of any kind are one of the most important aspects from our society. They have existed since the start of civilization and they have changed along with people, starting with oral tradition and evolving into movies, videogames, and even music. Being such an important thing for humans as a whole, a question in me has risen: how will stories adapt to the new technological era?


Most people will answer that they already did with movies, tv series, and short videos, and while this is true, these types of media don’t take full advantage of what our current technology (most specifically the internet) has to offer. If this is the case, how can storytelling evolve to the point where it can tell engaging stories with the help of things like social media? Well, would you believe me if I told you that these kinds of stories already exist, and some of them are taking place while you read this article.


They are usually divided into two categories: Alternate Reality Game (ARG) and Unfiction (although most of the stories belong to both categories). 


I know most of you might not be familiar with any of these terms, so I am going to give a brief explanation of what they are and their characteristics. Let’s start with Unfiction. It is defined as a subgenre of fiction in which stories tend to present themselves as real and interact with the viewers. Some famous examples that could fall under this category are “The War of the Worlds” radio broadcast by Orson Wells and “The Blair Witch Project”. 


ARG, on the other hand, is a subgenre of games. These aren't like any other types of games, because the players usually play them by interacting with their surroundings either  by decoding secrets through the internet, or visiting different places in order to get more clues. Another important characteristic of ARG’s is the fact that the players affect the story directly, they aren’t outsiders just watching, they are also active characters that help the story move along. I do need to point out that a story isn’t necessary for a game to be considered an ARG. Although most of them tell some kind of narrative, there are some that don’t and only focus on the puzzles. 


As you can see Unfiction and ARG are very similar concepts, and the majority of ARGs are considered works of unfiction. Both have a mission to interact with the viewer as much as possible and the two make blurry the line between what is real and what is fiction. 


Now, how do these types of narratives use technology to their advantage? To explain this, I would use one of my favorites ARG as an example. The name of this story is “I am Sophie”. The main platform in which the story takes place is YouTube (in the channel of the same name) and it started with the video “The NEW QUEEN of YOUTUBE”. At first, it seemed that it was a vlog channel of your stereotypical rich girl and that caused it to gain waves of hate and criticism, but the more videos were uploaded the more deeper the story got. Followers of the channel started to realize that some videos had glitches and codes that, when decoded, would give you links to videos. It wasn’t long until people started to realize what was really going on. It wasn’t just a normal channel, it was the start of a new ARG. 


After that, the story got more convoluted. One video adresses the big amount of hate the channel was facing and used it as part of the story, and the videos started transforming from vlogs to a mystery/horror series full of puzzles for the fans to solve. Not only that, but the story also started to take place on other platforms like Instagram, where the characters would interact directly with fans by answering comments or giving clues. I won’t get any deeper because the only way to really understand what an ARG is to to experience it for yourself, and the good thing is that the story of I am Sophie isn’t even finished, so you are still on time to hop on the wagon (I do need to give a warning because some of the videos can show strong images). 


Of course not all ARG or Unfiction stories happen on YouTube, they are literally everywhere. On Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and some of them even started in real life. This genre of stories have become so popular that even big companies have used them in order to promote their new movies, series, or videogames. 


In the end, we can see that in this era of technology stories have adapted in a way that have made them as interactive as possible. It might seem weird and a little difficult to understand at first, but after you experience them you are going to be able to see how great they can be. 


Now for all of you who are curious and want to start your journey into the world of ARG and Unfiction, let me give you some recommendations. I have to put a warning because some of the stories are of the horror genre so they might have strong imagery:


Stories that haven’t finished: 

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Stories that have already ended: 

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More:

Channels that are about analyzing and summarizing ARG and unfiction stories:

ARG and Unfiction: Trabajo más reciente

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