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The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning

The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning, Pages 199-227
Posted Online December 3, 2007.
(doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262693646.199)
© 2008 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming

Jane McGonigal

Institute for the Future

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PDF (627.587 KB) PDF Plus (371.052 KB)

This essay describes the design and successful deployment of a series of massively collaborative game missions in I Love Bees, the alternate reality game. Alternate reality games (ARGs) are massively multiplayer puzzle adventures that combine online interactive content with real-world game events. McGonigal proposes “stimulating ambiguity” as the central design philosophy of ARGs. She explores how ambiguous game content stimulates massively collaborative game play that allows for a greater share of leadership and meaningful participation in large-scale player groups. She also outlines how the open-ended puzzles of ARGs inspire multiple, creative interpretations that allow for diverse problem-solving strategies to flourish in a single player community. The essay is grounded in a close reading of player-produced content and their interpretations of the core puzzle of the I Love Bees game: a series of several hundred GPS coordinates, dates, and times that were listed on the central game Web site.

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