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Suddenlife Gaming
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The concept of Suddenlife Gaming denotes a form of gaming where fiction becomes part of every day experience in an unexpected or sudden (hence the name) way. The experience of suddenness/unexpectedness and the surprising turn of fictional events stimulate an emotional state of intermediateness on the gamer's part. Suddenlife Gaming is a form of transmedia storytelling. Conceptual History The term Suddenlife Gaming was coined by Peggy Jürges in 2012 and it has enjoyed a growing popularity in every day German language over the past two years. It describes a phenomenon that is recurring in Alternate Reality Games (ARG) and in other types of staged experiencing. Since its coinage the term has been taken up by and broadcast across the media in connection with transmedial forms of art and gaming - most significantly relating to a project centring on the long-standing German police procedural TV series Tatort. Functional Principle Suddenlife Gaming directly affects the daily routine of the participants of alternate reality games and experiential story-telling. Usually, the respective players deliberately take part in a game and become involved in the plot line via different means of media, such as phone, e-mail or standard mail. There are, however, also other forms of Suddenlife Gaming, where people can be taken by surprise. During the ARG "I Love Bees" (2004), for example, coin box telephones all over the US started to ring simultaneously at a certain time of day. When unsuspecting passers-by picked up, they heard strange noises from another world and were able to talk to an extraterrestrial intelligence - a typical case of Suddenlife Gaming. Similarly, the "Go Game", the "Nokia Game" or the ARG "", composed to market A.I.: Artificial Intelligence by Steven Spielberg, employed techniques of Suddenlife Gaming, that is, used everyday means of communication and media to construct a plot and entwist participants. In a way, even the reality television franchise The Amazing Race can be added to that list, since it is working on puzzling out clues and observing certain signs and commands - all of which feels as if the contestants were travelling the world in the manner of a board game. Some Suddenlife Gaming experiences may even go beyond technical or postal devices and call into play the direct contact with other people, using actors. For Suddenlife Gaming to work properly, it is crucial that the people playing can never be completely sure what to expect when. The scale, type and duration of the individual experiences vary. They can range from brief moments to several weeks, depending on the individual elements employed, such as telephone calls, mail pieces or e-mails which build up a story or composition. This way, immersion is created and enhanced step by step: Gamers are purposely connected to fictional or partially fictional contents that they have to react to. As a result, the boundaries between fiction and reality may blur which in turn can be beneficial to the desired affective impact. Popularity and Trend Similar means and concepts are used in artistic and political campaigns, e.g. guerrilla communication, or they serve as vehicles for viral marketing and recruitment. Moreover, Suddenlife Gaming is increasingly used in the area of experiential gifts, and scientists like the German author and professor for media culture Mathias Mertens concern themselves with Suddenlife Gaming and its phenomenons. 
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