Only days remain until a crowd of Alternate Reality Gaming and Transmedia enthusiasts converge in Bloomington Indiana for another year of ARGFest-O-Con.

This year I’m happy to announce that 4D Fiction will be officially curating the ARG Museum. This element of ARGFest is a place where creative artifacts and ‘swag’ incorporated into various campaigns and artful projects are put out for display for the fest attendees. It’s an opportunity for everyone to check out the work others have put into extending their storyworld tangibly into our reality, and perhaps for some aspiring puppetmasters and artists to gain some inspiration from others’ works.

This year I’ll be adding a section to the display specific for ARG-related books – whether game-specific, informational, or just related to the ARG genre in general.

This year’s museum will also incorporate an extended component, using – yes – QR Codes! Each display will have extended details about their project available for skimming by scanning their code on a smartphone. And as an additional bonus for the fun of perusal, there will be a trivia question for each display!

Yes, ARG Museum Trivia will be a playable component to this year’s museum.  Here are the juicy details…

Points will be rewarded for correctly answering trivia questions (and bonus points if you get it right the first time!).  The top 3 scoring (and present) attendees by Saturday lunch will win first choice of any of a selection of books to take home that were on display. At the time of this writing, the selection will include:

  • “This Is Not A Game: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming”, by Dave Szulborski
  • “This is Not A Game”, by Walter Jon Williams
  • “House of Leaves”, by Mark Z. Danielewski
  • “Codes, Ciphers, Secrets and Cryptic Communication”, by Fred B. Wrixon

So read up, stuff that ARG brain with campaign lore, and see if you can outsmart the rest!

A Call For Museum Submissions

If you’ll be in attendance at ARGFest this year, we’d love to have you help the museum by bringing any past ARG related items you may have to be included in the museum display.  Every year it’s been a collection from numerous community members and puppet masters.  The more items brought in to help populate the museum, the wider a variety of content and experience we have as a whole.

If you have something you can take to the fest, please contact me via this form, or on Twitter (@4dfiction or @thebruce0), so it can be registered in the collection.  Don’t worry if you’re not sure whether it’s appropriately ARG-related, I can be the judge of that :).  All items will be catalogued and guarded so they can be returned to their rightful owners at the end of the fest.

* As a bonus incentive for providing items for the museum’s display, those who bring any items that are put on display will be awarded bonus points towards the Trivia game!

Additionally, if you have anything you may wish to donate towards the prizes (collectible ARG artifact, books, etc), that would be awesome!  Please let me know beforehand.

Please visit this wiki page to see what people have offered to bring and whether you have something for an unlisted campaign, or an unlisted item for a campaign that may already be on the list. The more the better!

I’m very excited for this year’s ARGFest and Museum, and I hope you are too. ARGFest begins later this week in Bloomington – have you registered yet?
For more information, please visit ARGFest.com

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