Alice is Missing
Author: Spenser Starke.
First published: 2020.
Nearby question
What becomes of role-playing when spoken conversation is no longer its primary channel?
Alice is Missing is a silent game centered on the disappearance of Alice Briarwood. Participants use their phones to exchange text messages during play.
What it makes possible
Text is not dressing on spoken conversation: it changes pacing, simultaneity, silence, the ability to prepare one's words, and the way several exchanges can coexist. The phone carries part of information flow and fictional presence.
The device may facilitate some forms of expression while introducing others: fast reading and writing, phone access, and management of multiple attention threads.
For Resonance
The case shows that changing the channel changes the cognitive and social activity of play. Accessibility therefore requires asking not only what was simplified, but for which participants a new medium opens or closes access.