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Attn Grassroots Puppetmasters & BTS helpers:

We need names... your names! A number of the grassroots PMs are not getting the proper attribution because of a lack of accurate info. Check out your information in the ARGdb, and if something is missing or incorrect, let us know on our contact form!

Attn ARG Community Web people:
The Games database will be made available, but we need to know a) what info you want and b) how you want it. Contact Brooke to share your thoughts before she decides for you.

Over the last few weeks, I've had some great theoretical sorts of discussions about ARGdb. Seriously...great! From talking about the importance of and challenges with crediting works to using the site to ways to identify the qualities and characteristics of ARGs (and similar) to social & professional networking in the era of the social web it's just been a fascinating couple of weeks. So, many many thanks to all of you who have helped me brainstorm on this. I hope it never stops :)

To give you all a brief update, the site is still very much in a beta stage. All of these discussions and the feedback that I've received by current users have helped show the many issues with the site, as it currently stands. Despite those problems, the feedback has been very encouraging and I'm so happy to see that others see the potential in ARGdb. And potential it has! I've been pulling together the various ideas and have begun a massive site redesign which will increase the functionality and networking potential of the site - for everyone from the average ARG player, to the enthusiast, to those that create games and those that want to learn more about them. At the same time, Ben has been working on ways to better enable folks to enter information on the games themselves. But that's just the start!

We all have a presence on the internet, some of us more than others, and my current challenge is finding ways to pull of these things - twitter & delicious feeds, blogs & websites, and social networking and forum profiles - together in a way that helps players play games, designers make games, and researchers learn as much as they want to about this crazy collection of things we call ARGs.

But I still need your help! There's a ton of stuff that you can do.

1) Sign up, check the place out, and send us feedback - sure, the site is going through some massive changes, but we learn more with every new person that pokes around the place.

2) Gather information on games - add it to the wiki or send it to us. Or, better yet, if you want to be able to add & edit games directly to the site, let us know and Ben will set you up.

3) Send me feature requests! I want to know about anything and everything that you'd like to see ARGdb do for you. After all, the site will be maintained by its users and it will only have users if it does what people want it to do. A few (soon to be implemented) thoughts to get you started: You want to find & connect with players by location so that they can retrieve a game cache; you want to receive notification about new games; you'd like to be able to contact someone you worked with years ago; you'd like to search through every game that used a certain technology.

Also, I'm looking for someone to create an iphone ap. Ideally, it would be ready in time for ARGfest in mid-July. Unfortunately, I don't have any cash to throw at the project, but maybe you don't care about that or will do it in the hopes that I'll send you some paying work in the future (always a possibility in the ARG & pervasive gaming world). If you're interested, let me know.

Things are getting really exciting around here. I can't wait for it to all come together... and for you to be able to see it!

Someone posted to the IGDA ARG SIG group asking for help creating a list of promotional games and I thought nothing of it. After all, it was a reasonable and simple request and one that I've seen countless times before. And then a message popped up.... "Hey! is ARGdb still alive?"

and again... "What ever happened with ARGdb?"
and again... "ARGdb should have that information, right?"
and again... and again...

After a morning filled with conversations about ARGdb, it hit me... people actually do think that this site can be useful! The project isn't dead! (admittedly, I can be a bit slow sometimes)

So, the conversations began... As a designer, what would you like to see the site do? As a creative director how can ARGdb help you learn about and build great games? As a player, how can ARGdb connect you to the people and games you've gotten to know over the years?

The answers have been amazing, but the discussions are far from over and I would love to have one with you - no idea is too simple or too huge... from a broken link on the site to a complex idea on visualizing the relationships between games. I want to hear it all. I want to hear it from you.

The site still needs some work and there will be many changes over the next couple of weeks & months as we implement some of the great ideas floating around... things like making it easier for folks to add information about games to creating some really cool charts and maps about the games that brought us all together. But don't wait to sign up. Go on... register and get a feel for the place, add your memories to the games you've played (or made!) and connect with the friends you've met. Once you've done that, do us a favor and let us know what you think about the place!

If you'd like to get in touch with me, directly, about ideas you have for the site (please do!), there are lots of ways...
email: brooke @ this domain
skype: brooke.thompson
aim: mirlandano

Welcome to the Alternate Reality Game Database! We're very excited to go to open beta this week and bring this resource to the entire ARG community. Much work has been put into the architecture of the site as well as gathering information on the many many ARGs that have come and gone.

As I'm sure you have noticed, the process of gathering information is far from complete. You might even go so far as to say it has barely begun. There is just too much information and too many games out there for the small initial staff of ARGdb to tackle. As mentioned in the previous news post, there is a wiki set up for anyone to contribute to. We're also accepting game submissions and information updates through our site contact form for those who would rather not jump into the wiki. Puppet masters are particularly encouraged to submit your own games if they aren't found here! Just take a look at a completed game entry to see the scope of the information we're looking for.

For those who are interested, we're also looking for a few more people to help in the administration of the site. With all of the information there is to manage, the site administrators and moderators play a vital role in the verification and organization of all the information ARGdb will be cataloging. If you feel like you'd like to help with this endeavor then just head on over to the contact form and let us know!

A big thank you for checking out ARGdb, we hope that you'll pardon our mess as we straighten out a last few issues. Hopefully the information that we're providing will be found useful!