First Monday has published a fantastic paper investigating the evolution and storytelling opportunities of alternate reality games (ARGs), Storytelling in new media: The case of alternate reality games, 2001-2009:
ARGs encourage players to participate in an emerging collective story to motivate particular types of behavior and encourage the formation of social groups. Players participate because they find the story fascinating, and the social network encourages them to continue to participate, team up and work for recognition. Instead of passively witnessing entertainment, players take part and shape their own interactive, collective experience. However, ARG designers focus very strongly on the story at the heart of the game. They use new media to reveal and shape collective stories, with amazing results.
What’s clear from this paper is that people enjoy digital social experiences, they love stories, and they expect to play a greater role in crafting their experience of narrative. Pertinent to publishers is a line at the end of the paper’s conclusion: “The next few years will reveal if industries outside of gaming and marketing can use the same principles to harness the intellect and drive of wide groups of people.” Indeed!
Kate Eltham is a writer and creative industries professional based in Brisbane, Australia. She is Chief Executive Officer of 
kate.eltham {at} gmail.com