So, thisisnottomdotcom is essentially a series of really complex riddles that slowly reveals the pages to a novella. Both are written by author/youtube vlogger John Green and, as of this writing, is still unfinished. I wouldn’t classify it quite as an ARG because the story never quite bleeds into reality. However, it does have a lot of elements of an ARG in that it requires a group of people to crowdsource solutions to almost impossibly hard riddles in order to get a common goal, usually related to some common interest they have. In a lot of ways, where finding something in an ARG usually is a reward in and of itself, for thisisnottom the reward is another piece of a novel. It seems more forgiving and encouraging to its players/interactors than an ARG usually is. ARGs, as mentioned in class, have a high drop out rate, which thisisnottom shares, though I’m fairly certain not as high of one.

Another interesting aspect of thisisnottim is that like an ARG, the novella was written in real time as the riddles progressed. Of course, this screwed over the author when he stop writing, but the idea of readers directly influencing a novella as it is written due to online interference is definitely a new idea. ARGs also have this user/creater interactions, something that video games and interactive fiction traditionally lack. Really, I’m not sure how to classify thisisnottom. It’s definitely not an ARG, it’s definitely not a pure novella, and it’s definitely not interactive fiction. It seems to be a genre in and of itself. I would be interested in seeing if there is anything similar to it on the internet, but the closest thing I can find are the beginning stages of an ARG, before everything goes crazy hardcore.