“Via Web forums, participants investigated the documents—manifestos—which spun up descriptions of brilliant but suppressed discoveries relating to paths that certain scientists had forged into alternate realities. Soon, those haunted dimensions existed in the minds and fantasies of Ong’s Hat’s many participants. That was evident as they responded to the original postings by uploading their own—all manner of reflections and artifacts: personal anecdotes, audio recordings, and videos—to augment what became “a really immersive world, and it was vast,”
Published by Joseph Matheny
Joseph Wayne Matheny (born December 24, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois) is an American storyteller and artist who has created works using alternate reality gaming and transmedia storytelling methods, dealing with subjects of liminality and modern myth. He holds patents for prediction, recommendation, and behavioral analysis algorithms and software design. He is a published author of screenplays, white papers, technology, sci-fi, marketing, and gaming books. He currently resides in the Pacific Northwest. He is probably best known for the avant-garde work, Ong's Hat, which has been called the proto-Alternate Reality Game by academia, the mainstream, and alternative media. Ong's Hat is often cited as the first ARG on many List of alternate reality games. View all posts by Joseph Matheny
Joseph Matheny 