Alternate reality games (ARG) are hybrid between real world and virtual world experience. There are primarily centralized around online communities which are responsible to solve puzzles and mysteries, various number of which are real world problems. ARG provide better interactivity and higher degree of complexity which very often exceeds the one seen in normal video games. In general, they are a lot more interesting.

Although I have never took part in any ARG so far, and probably I will never do, I find them quite interesting and intriguing from conceptional point of view. The simple fact that the player is able to perform any kind of interaction makes ARG unique and extremely interesting. ARGs often doesn’t have an end. They can continue as long as it takes, or as long as there is interest.

During the last couple of weeks I was collecting ideas about how ARG works and where it can be used. I was trying to see how similar concepts can be applied to the computer security industry in order to reach higher levels of productivity and interaction in terms of discovering new security issues and fixing the old ones.

The result of my research is one of the simplest applications I have ever done. CARNAVAL, will be realized in a couple of weeks time as part of little social experiment of mine. The experiment will continue as long as there are people interested in interacting with the communication channels provided by the gameplay.

More information will be available as soon as I get the project from the dashboard and put it into production. This may take a way but also could prove to be quite useful and interesting.