Participation, collaboration and spectatorship in an alternate reality game

In this paper we present a study of an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) called MeiGeist -- a cross media game in which narrative elements of a story presented to players across a whole range of on-line and offline media and through which players can interact with in-game characters and events. The study looked at player progress over the eight weeks the game took to play, following their behaviours through the on-line forums, chat rooms and in-game logging of player interactions. The paper explores aspects of collective participation among players, the motivations underlying such participation and the factors that shape these contributions such as timescale of the game. It discusses too, how the narrative is produced and progressed through collective player interactions and how the experience is created through a collaborative suspension of disbelief. Different aspects of participation are also considered, in particular how a more passive spectatorship is an important experience for many players of the game. Finally the game considers how the ideal of a collective ethos among players is sometimes challenged during game play and the efforts necessary to repair this.