Collaboration
In "Interactive audiences? The 'collective intelligence' of media fans," Henry Jenkins (2006) provides what is, for our purposes, perhaps the most useful definition of collective intelligence when he refers to it as a “cosmopedia” or “knowledge space” which, “serves as a site of collective discussion, negotiation, and development” (p. 136-37). Jenkins continues:
…such knowledge cultures represent an alternative source of power that exists alongside the political authority of the nation state or the global reach of commodity capitalism. We will someday learn to use this power to change the world. (p. 140)
As such, the collective intelligence of self-organized groups offers the promise of “something much more powerful than the sum of its parts” (p. 140). In Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide, Jenkins (2006) refines this idea as “the ability of virtual communities to leverage the knowledge and expertise of their members, often through large-scale collaboration and deliberation” (p. 281). This describes the work of collaboration as it pertains to ARGs perfectly. From all perspectives, ARGs are collaborative, social projects. To be effective, “real,” alternate realities, ARGs rely on the “collective intelligence” of authors and audiences alike. Puppetmasters collaborate on design and implementation just as players collaborate on efforts to uncover elements that make up the story.
We can look at communities that form around playful activities such as ARGs as similar “knowledge spaces” that provide arenas for group thinking and decision making. The ability of collective intelligence to “change the world,” as Henry Jenkins states, brings issues of rhetorical power and civic participation back to the fore. These issues have become even more pressing in today's age of ubiquitous participatory media that enable the organic formation of interconnected, physically dispersed communities that are actively engaged on a global scale.
Most ARG puzzles are designed to tap the power of this "collective intelligence." One such “puzzle,” dubbed “A Billion to One” by players of the game Perplex City, required players to reach out and test the limits of the “six degrees of separation” idea (which poses that every person is linked to every other through no more than six shared associations) by challenging them to find one man based on nothing more than a photo, his first name, and some Japanese text reading “Find Me.” (NOTE: the puzzle has, to this date, not been solved). In another example, players of the game I Love Bees, released as part of the marketing push behind Microsoft’s Halo 2, uncovered geospatial data leading them to payphones all over the world. These players were rewarded with 45-second audio clips that, when combined with other messages received by players, revealed a 5 hour long “radio play.” Neither of these tasks would be possible for any one player to complete alone.
Since every student comes to class already equipped with a unique set of interests, literacies, skills, and ideas, the classroom, like the ARG player forums, encapsulates a readymade “knowledge space” for collective intelligence. Students cannot be expected to start off equipped with an encyclopedic knowledge of every skill necessary for working with a ARG text any more than, as Bartholomae (1985) indicates, we can expect them to come to the university already well-schooled in the conventions of academic discourse. Students and players learn new skills and literacies by seeing them in practice and applying them to different situations. Part of what makes the experience of playing ARGs and participating in classroom activities worthwhile is the ability to contribute one’s skills to the collective when necessary and applicable. Even when not actively involved in working on a specific task, students and players alike find that they possess a range of skills they were not even aware were “useful”—skills such as a knowledge of sports statistics, historical and cultural references, and other source materials which are called upon during the course of a game. Standard classroom practices such as discussion and peer-review are already intended to produce similar results by facilitating interactions between students and having them learn from each other.
During the course of Metacortechs, a game created by fans of The Matrix trilogy and set in the world of the film, an audio puzzle delivered via voicemail was unpacked by someone with access to advanced audio analysis equipment to take on the task of unpacking the various elements hidden in the file. The specificity of the skills and tools required allowed a few people who, perhaps, would have contributed less or differently to the project to make their mark on the game. This collaborative approach to the work of playing the game helps to address issues of the “digital divide” between those who have access to advanced technologies and those who don’t, a distinction that often falls along race and class lines. Just as students share experiences and knowledge with other players, they can share their knowledge, tools, and specific technical literacies with the rest of the class, contributing to the collective intelligence of both communities.
It is important to note here that many of the most successful ARGs are marketing endeavors designed to reach a broad audience. Game designers want as many players to be able to access the game as possible, not only those with the latest in graphics and computing hardware (as is the case with many advanced first-person shooter and MMORPG games). The wide range of media and technologies used to distribute elements of the ARG story almost always guarantees that every participant will have at least some, if not most, of the tools required to actively play the game. In cases where diegetic elements require specific technologies such as cell phones or fax machines, games such as World Without Oil (WWO) release these elements in numerous forms. For example, during WWO, messages sent to telephones were also released through a weblog ensuring that all one needed to hear them was a web browser and an Internet connection—tools found in every campus computing lab.
ARGs can be mined for several kinds of collective engagements through both the primary texts that make up the game and the community discussions found on message boards and player forums. These examples demonstrate how persuasive appeals can engage a public, steer their collective intentions, and harness the collective intelligence of the group. Additionally, these forums act as an environment within which these rhetorical appeals are deployed. Players must argue their claims, use careful support, and construct arguments to influence the player community. Because resources are often limited (time and technical skill being the most significant limitations), players spend pages and pages arguing the merits of certain approaches to a problem, posing solutions, and making appeals. These rhetorical situations, while part of game play, are not simulated encounters; they are quite serious and very real. By asking students to study the rhetorical engagements found in these online archives, we can encourage them to examine the approaches community members use when persuading other players and readily translate what they learn in that space to action in their everyday lives. The persistence of these archived lists on such web sites as “Unforums” (the largest community of ARG players) allows us to study these conversations long after a game itself has ended.