ARGs are coming to Steemit ASAP

You may have already seen my previous post on Steemit on the topic of Gamification of Politics : Political Usage of Steemit. In that post I briefly mentioned Alternate Reality Games and elucidated on how Steemit is a Social Media Game with a Purpose. The purpose that I've discovered is financial liberation, and this would mean winning the game is equivalent to acquiring a lot of Steem Power which if Steem works as intended would also mean financial independence for whomever acquires beyond their threshold amount.

Alternate Reality Games take things a step further than merely a game with a purpose. An ARG blends the game into reality seamlessly by using the social media technology. There are some ARGs which use augmented reality and there are some that don't but the point to note is that an ARG is a transmedia experience, and the media to use is whichever media, so this means websites, blockchains, Youtube videos, all can be part of the game.

An Alternate Reality Game with a noble purpose, would be an Alternate Reality Game with a purpose, and would be an example of gamification of politics.

Below are some examples of Alternate Reality Games for people who have no idea what they are. ARGs can be used to enhance the marketing of Steemit itself, or to increase stickiness of Steemit beyond what the casino effect and blogging currently manage to do.

How could an ARG be built on Steemit?

An ARG would work by the player participants producing content for the ARG and being rewarded for doing it. The fact that Steemit rewards content creation means that a Youtuber could become an actor in an ARG as a career, and become a very popular character in the game, while also gaining Steem Power from their upvotes. A blogger could produce fantasy content for the ARG, receive upvotes, and get paid as a story writer. So in these two examples you would have both visual artists/actors and story tellers working together to create the fantasy world experience while being rewarded by Steemit.

An ARG might require some of the following:

• Visual content such as graphics, logos, short films, photos and designs.
• Audio content such as podcasts, phone recordings, voice overs, and so on.
• Puzzle content such as challenges, human computation games, quizzes and tests, geocaching, etc.
• Software, such as smart phone apps, augmented reality apps, addons and plugins for Steemit to reinterpret blockchain data as part of the game.
• Written content such as interweaving story lines, narratives, legends for characters, dialog for NPC bots on Steemit, etc.
• Game specific items, such as rewards, etc. This may be facilitated with a side chain.

Because building an ARG is a very complicated topic, it should be that we give this a lot more discussion. A tag "alternaterealitygames-steemit" could be used, or "steemit-args" for people who want to discuss it further.

Do you think the technology behind Steemit can change the world while also being fun to play with?

Steemit represents a game changer transmedia gaming and for the ARG industry. The casino effect of Steemit combined with the ability of an ARG to market products and services is a profitable use case.

Alternate Reality Games are fun but in many cases people cannot get paid to win. In fact in many cases people must pay to win because of the fees, the costs, and in addition in some cases people must pay to play as well because of the subscription fees. Steemit can reverse these models, where people can not just get paid to blog, but get paid to play ARGs, and these ARGs can have a social purpose or just be plain fun.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game
2. Kim, J. Y., Allen, J. P., & Lee, E. (2008). Alternate reality gaming. Communications of the ACM, 51(2), 36-42.
3. Svahn, M. (2005). Future-proofing advergaming: a systematisation for the media buyer. Proceedings, edited by Marinka Copier and Joost Raessens, 30, 45.