Where Reality and The Internet Converge
   
 




The Language of
Alternative Reality
   
 

:: GLOSSARY

Alternative Reality:"AR Game"
Type of interactive, role playing game which involves the participants activities to tell the story. Many AR's involve actual contact with characters or aspects of the storyline. Contact or interaction may take place in the form of emails, phone conversations, letters, faxes or even personal meetings. Games are developed and managed by "Puppet-Masters"or"PM's".

Beasting:
Logic of having many individuals working cooperatively to solve, code break, decipher, and crack! Taken from the original first ever Alternative Reality Game "The Beast", a promotional AR for the movie A. I..

Brute Force:
The approach to solving puzzle elements by using scripted programs to attack a web site in order to gain information or data, possibly not intended to be seen by participants.

Cipher:
A message or information written in a secret code of some sort.

Curtain:
The invisible line that separates the Puppet-Masters from the actual participants. Some Puppet-Masters have been known to step out from behind the curtain to clarify story elements or to give a post game interview.

Decryption:
Process of taking coded text and converting it into readable language.

Guide: " Walk through"
Term used to describe a written account/documentation of steps of an ARG. Participants often create web sites to outline the storyline progression or to post puzzle solves, explanations and reviews.

Not In Game:
Used to help participants working together to distinguish between real information such as a web sites and unrelated information. Sometimes an important web site can be tagged as Not In Game, but is really part of the game.

Trail:
A complete listing of sites, puzzles, characters, and information involved in an ARG. Usually updated as new elements are revealed or discovered.

Transposition Code:
Method of coding a message where letters are arranged into a pattern or defined system which results in an unreadable text field. To decode, one must rearrange the letters to build the correct message.

Puppet-Master:
The individuals in control of the actual ARG. They usually are the story developers as well as designers of the game. If you do not know who they are....They are doing a good job.

Rabbit Hole: "Trail Head"
The first occurrence of a game. May take the form of an email, web site, newspaper ad, another game or other media. It is where participants go to get started.

ROT: "Rotational Letter Substitution"
Method of rotating the letters in a message using a shifted alphabet. Common used method is ROT-13, where each letter in the alphabet is rotated 13 positions to the right. In other words, "A" becomes "N," "B becomes "O,", and so on.


Whois: "Whois Lookup"
A method of looking up who the owner of a particular Domain Name on the internet. Sometimes may be misleading because actual owners sometime are not the real users of a Domain.

WIKI:
Web site developed with software to allow multiple visitors to add and edit information on the site. Excellent method for allowing many people to solve puzzles or add content to tell the story of an ARG.

Wizards:
Term used by VQC staff to refer to participants/players from such internet venues as UNFICTION.COM or ARGN.COM.

 ::