The Tension Experience - Performance in Alternate Realities

摘要

This paper aims to discuss the notion of performance in the alternate reality game based on an analysis of the Tension Experience project, conducted in 2016 under the direction of Darren Lynn Bousman, which features the use of immersive theater strategies in a number of special contexts, and the use of multiple media support to create an emerging fictional universe so that each participant has a unique and personalized experience. Tension Experience establishes a form of blind performance in a narrative game with no rules or clear objectives, that seeks to enter the daily life of its participants, providing an experience that acts between the fictional and the non-fictional. In this way, the work updates some traditional strategies of alternating reality games as an immersive entertainment format, with a greater focus on narrative and role-playing aspects at the expense of hidden puzzles and mysteries.