Undefinig ARG

What I have gotten from Spacebass' Undefining ARG article is clearer than I expected. The author started off saying that in defining ARGs we would learn that there is no clear definition, but to me although there may not be a written in stone definition of what they are, there are commonly agreed upon components that make an ARG an ARG. It's not as confusing as I thought. In fact I see the article as a clear articulation of what ARGs are by someone who can communicate it. Basically, what I have been thinking since we've started reading and learning about ARGs, but definitely communicated and expressed more concretely and clearer. It's not as hard to understand as I had thought, given my lack of experience with ARGs. According to Spacebass, ARGs are chaotic play (an experience of chaotic fiction): Chaotic in that the end result is undetermined and play because the audience takes part in the process and they are who influence the outcome. From this experience of chaotic play comes chaotic fiction: again chaotic meaning the end result was not predetermined and fiction meaning that a work that is intended to be imagined and not real. In the end an ARG is in a sense a production or play that is improvised by the audience and was started off by the authors (puppet masters). Spacebass goes on to define chaotic fiction with three graphs that present the three elements that represent what chaotic fiction consists of: Authorship, a Ruleset, and Coherence. Authorship describing who has more of the control in the development of the fiction, the architects or the audience. Ruleset, which does not refer to rules in a game, rather it refers to restrictions the author has made as far as organization of the fiction, is completely organized (order) or is any and everything allowed (chaos). Finally, Coherence or the amount of plot in the fiction, it can go from no plot to 'lotta plot (as Spacebass puts it). What ties this all in for me is that all of this does not define what an ARG is, ARGs produce these elements of chaotic fiction, what is clear is that an ARG should be placed somewhere in the center of these elements.

Spacebass should give himself more credit, because for a person with limited ARG experience, I think he made undefining ARG quite understandable.