Alternate Reality Gaming: Mad and Crip Potentialities in Digital Storytelling

Abstract:This article focuses on the cultivation of anti-oppressive ethically engaged artistic practices within the realm of online storytelling, with particular attention to alternate reality games (ARGs). ARGs are immersive games that often involve the integration of elements of the real world within their storytelling but rarely advertise or acknowledge themselves to be games. In this article, I explore the possibilities engendered by this kind of digital performance and the ways in which this medium for theatricality may be more accessible for mad and disabled artists. ARGs and their peer mediums (like fictional vlogs and web series) have become increasingly more significant in terms of what they offer, especially during the pandemic. Given how these mediums have adapted to and continue to survive hosted among multiple sites and apps, including YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, there is much to be learned from the kind of accessibility these methods of digital storytelling employ. To not acknowledge their place within theatrical spaces would undermine the full artistic and activist potential of this kind of art, and it is this article's intention to give credit to this emerging art form. In this article, I also draw on my own experience conducting ARGs. In particular, I examine how my first ARG helped me develop mobilization strategies for disability justice and how in doing this kind of work, my own understanding of lived experiences of madness and disability expanded as I learned from other alternate reality game makers and developers.