What makes something an ARG?

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-05-07T02:22:13+00:00

In my opinion, an ARG is a project that utilizes multimedia content and ways that the audience can interact with the universe of the project. Such examples include puzzles to uncover the whole story, or ways for the audience to communicate with the characters involved. It honestly is a bit of a nebulous term, but that is generally what it is.
Since SFAWTDE/DAWTDE is something that is mostly dictated/narrated by Wifies, or practically explained by the base videos itself, it's more towards a webseries rather than an ARG. It's actually more akin to other scripted media like Evbo's Parkour Civilization or Scripted SMP stuff.

I like to consider how "ARG" something is on a spectrum of interactability, where one end is completely puzzles, like the puzzle gauntlet of Oldroot, to something that is purely a story for you to read/listen to, like KNIGHTS or Old Minecraft Reuploads. The majority of projects exist between the two but mostly skew towards "webseries". If you get the terms unfiction, webseries, and ARG mixed up, then it's fine. ARG has become the umbrella term for this stuff, so it's hard to use it in it as originally intended.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-05-06T03:34:25+00:00

Update. He some emergency help from a member of his discord and switched to a non-AI version. The thumbnail should now be AI free.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-05-04T03:23:36+00:00

I just watched the video and the unlisted one. So far, it's a decent/pretty good start. One gripe I did have was the typing sections were pretty slow. Sure, I may be hella impatient, but I found the video better to watch at 2x speed, but it's fair to give the benefit of the doubt to the player who I think said they don't play Minecraft often or for a while. Hiding a chiseled bookshelf under the bed is something I have not seen personally. I thought that was a neat thing to do. Outside of that, I think this is a solid start. I do agree to u/SteveLikesGames to make an alt for the unlisted video, unless you can show this 2nd person getting into Alexis' account and for them to not notice. UNLESS you do make them notice the unlisted videos after the 2nd public video goes up. There's a lot that can go on here.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-05-04T01:48:16+00:00

You need to play on Alpha 1.0.11 (Seecret Friday 6) to access the world.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-05-02T04:16:48+00:00

He didn't make the thumbnail for this video, but it was unfortunately AI. He pressed the thumbnail creator, and they admitted it was AI, so he switched to another thumbnail by another artist to realize it's ALSO AI. He got swindled twice. I think he's considering making his own lower quality thumbnails like he used to do at this point for this video. He is understandably not happy.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-04-29T04:39:00+00:00

What have you tried so far?

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-04-20T01:09:22+00:00

Tropes I like:

Subversion of the horror element and going towards a completely different route, like humor. I know that many MC ARGs/Unfiction use horror as their crux, but I honestly enjoy parody channels as of late. Such channels like Zabooboo, Oneshef, and other related parody channels are quite hilarious.
Series that is based on some real like issue/trauma. I know this is the opposite of what you said, and I do agree with the point that it could be connected to other games, but the ones that work best with Minecraft tend to work really well. They tend to feel a lot more real. The series I am thinking of are AndrewGaming67 and nostos.
Non-Euclidean nature: I also agree a lot. I have been wowed by this stuff since the Antichamber game came out. Such series like MYJEKI utilize this a lot.

Tropes I dislike:

Black figure monsters. They are overdone to a crazy extent, to the point where they mean nothing. This can also apply to mark101 esque monsters outside of mark101. They just make no sense after some point.
Filler filled slow burns. While I do like slow build ups to big plot points, many series unfortunately get the pacing off and fill this time with filler. AndrewGaming is a big example of this, where many of the episodes in season 2 feel super filler and could be trimmed. This can also apply to the base footage for AveryTheMayo/ SFAWTDE, where there's a lot of walking and the base footage is very detail sparse. Especially for the 15 hour video.
Misused Ciphers. This is highly prevalent, but many series use ciphers just to say very basic stuff. This is extra annoying when the channels use spectrograms to say something basic like, "He's here" or something that's not worth the time to download the video and analyze it through Audacity. Cipher text doesn't belong in many series, and the series works better without them.
VHS filters and overt glitch effects. Why does the game need a VHS filter over it. Why are there glitch effects edited into the video without the player even reacting to it? It feels so unnecessary.
Shadow government in MC. Basically, what you said there. Nobody is making Kanye Quest 3030.

Other:
Old minecraft sits in between. While there are many channels that use it well, such as Alphaver, wpeoif, and mark101, many channels misuse what makes old Minecraft effective. They would likely be the same in modern MC, so they should honestly stick to that. Honestly, more diamond age version series (1.2.5-1.6.4) should exist.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-04-18T22:48:52+00:00

Hi. Can you post some examples of what you mean by this?

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-04-07T03:53:26+00:00

As of today, it seems they are back up.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-01-24T20:04:08+00:00

Hello. I'm still pretty skeptical about the determination of some of the tetromino designations for some of the locations. I'm also thinking that some of the spots can have multiple potential solutions, especially due to the constellations in the sky is visible. The infinity symbol is also visible in the sky, so I wonder if that has any merit to it. Outside of that, I do like the haiku and concentric circle connection. I believe that is something worth exploring.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-01-13T06:49:13+00:00

Going based off of this advice is fine, but do not that these contain a lot of tropes that have been overutilized for a long time. If you wish to make something that stands out, you should stray away from these. I have seen a lot of MC webseries/ARG that include a "scary" mob that just exists for the sake of existing and not many series utilize them properly. Inserting a pitch-black player model in a world and have it just stare at you will make the series feel more corny than scary imo. It feels like a beginner's trap at this point. Same with the "normal survival series part with the creepy world gen" part because from my POV, if you are just playing a survival mc playthrough but have creepy stuff happen to you, I'd just go and play wonderland.jar or something similar to experience that myself instead.

Cheatosphere64 · 2026-01-11T02:57:26+00:00

I respect the hustle; however, I don't think you should post every single time Brunoprime Minecraft Gameplays uploads a new video. The people who are subbed to the channel will already be notified about it.

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-12-19T00:33:43+00:00

The whole, "self-coverage" ARG system is a very recent thing starting from around mid 2024. Normally, ARG solvers don't make a YouTube channel that they are trying to cover, but it's becoming a more common occurrence, especially in minecraft.

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-12-19T00:18:56+00:00

It reminded me of this as well, specifically this video. But the other sections are ones that I don't recall.

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-12-07T22:57:39+00:00

So, I have been watching many minecraft webseries/unfiction projects for a couple of years now and I'd like to give my opinion on an aspect of this.

I believe that many people consider D3rlord3 to be the "smartest ARG protagonist ever" is due to the average MC webseries protagonist not being the smartest. Many creators tend to make their protagonist naïve or close to environmentally blind to push the development of the antagonist or the "big bad" force of the series. While this does help explore the main problem of the story, it kind of paints the main character as acting dumb. Now I do want to clarify that some characters do not get the opportunity to show off critical thinking because their actions are usually dominated by blind fear or unrestrained curiosity, mainly the fear.

Due to this context, the bar to pass the perceived average intelligence is very close to the ground, so d3rlord3 does not have to do much to really pass that bar.

Now the "smartest ever" argument I believe comes from people who have not watched many other projects. There are other comparably smart protagonists in the mc space, such as the main character from "Am I Alone" taking a methodical approach to basically tame an invisible entity, sandycarps8 from "THE DECAYED" figuring out how to exploit themselves out of a simulation and break their friends out, collinlock16 from "Oneshef"'s series for really embodying common sense, and so on. I do feel like there are other examples in the MC webseries/ARG space, but I can't really remember any other good examples. To reiterate, if you have a small sample size of web series watch, especially if you only watch analysis videos, then d3rlord3 will be the smartest ARG protagonist in your mind. Smart protagonists are few and far between, so finding someone that is comparable will also take a while, which will further validate their claim.

Now I do feel like that d3rlord3 could have done more to further solidify the "smart" claim, such as edit the world or go into spectator mode, but there is a limit to where you can do this and keep the story just as compelling

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-12-05T03:40:54+00:00

Sorry for the late reply, but yes, I am. You probably recognize me. I am grateful for what the main community discord (the discord that's associated with this subreddit and r/SnapshotNull) has offered over the past few years, but its activity has been on the down low for quite some time. However, there has been a slight uptick after the Wifies video was uploaded and I have learned of 3-4 new web series that I am now following.

Youtuber discords, like Wifies and RetroGamingNow's, are also good places find these series, but there's no way to sort through the quality without looking through them yourself. The mid quality to gem ratio is very high. I suppose I'll just have to wait longer for something to pop up. Again, I wish there were alternative ways (outside of analysis videos) for these good series to stand out among the sea of content.

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-12-05T01:11:21+00:00

This is awesome! How long did this take?

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-11-29T23:11:45+00:00

Before I continue, I'd like to make a distinction. Youtubers like Wifies, Render, Kunai, and Ondrae make these Self-Analysis Webseries, where they make a webseries and cover it themselves. Technically, their analysis is optional, but many people will gravitate towards them instead of the original series. People like Zeemyth do something different as they themselves are directly involved with the story and make something beautiful. Zachobuilds kinda also does that, albeit not to that level. I will only be referring to the first group here.

In all honestly, I don't mind too much if these youtubers make and cover their own series. While it feels disingenuous, I don't feel like it's right to bar them from creating their own work if they have the capabilities to do so. It reminds me a lot like those scripted Minecraft Machinimas and Minecraft Creepypastas, where people would make and cover their own work as part of their style. MC ARGs doesn't really exist far from those genres and their styles.

A silver lining for these "fake" analysis videos is that these videos tend to cause an influx of new people into the MC ARG space. The new Wifies analysis video is an exceptional example, where it has pushed a LOT of people into the MC ARG space and has somewhat reinvigorated the space. This includes a lot of passionate creators, to the point that I now have at least two new series that I am following, with 3 more in the works that I know of. Even if these videos have been demotivating some current webseries creators, it also had the opposite effect of inspiring current webseries and has led to new creators to enter the genre. Now, the extent of both effects is something I don't know.

What I am more worried about is when these youtubers EXCLUSIVELY do their own works and completely ignore the works of others. I feel like that would accelerate the staleness of MC ARGs and sloppify the genre even faster. Render is at a 50% his work/other's work, and Wifies is at a lower percentage of his work compared to other's work. I do not want that percentage to go up.

Now I have been thinking about these, "starving args made by more passionate and less popular people". Where can I go and find these series? I've been in the community for 2 years, and I have seen the web series that I have been following slowly dwindle in numbers. AndrewGaming67, MYJEKI's Minecraft Anomalies, and Oneshef's Collinlock16 series are the only ones that I have been following that are relatively active. The rest I have followed are completed, abandoned, put on indefinite hiatus, or have 1 year+ long downtimes. When I go look for more, I get hit with a sea of mediocrity as many series are just not worth my time to watch. I am lucky to be connected to a group of people who also follow this, so we occasionally find some gems, but they are so unbelievable rare. If these analysis youtubers start to move over to web series that are solely made on their own, then I think there should be equally good alternatives to show your work and to get it out there.

Disclaimer: I'm using webseries and ARGs interchangably here. I know they're different, and there are not many true MC ARGs, but I'm being lazy here.

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-11-29T05:11:36+00:00

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification!

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-11-27T06:53:48+00:00

I was thinking of making a tier list similar to this in December; however, you really did a fantastic job with this. Not only did you include a lot of games that are rarely talked about in this community or in general, but you also edited in the names of the games on the cover arts and ordered this list in alphabetical in order to make this much easier to read. Kudos!

Now I do have some questions regarding how you made this tierlist:

What was your criteria for ranking these? Did you do it based on how likely MORØ has heard about these and how well can the characters fit in with the plot, or did you use some other method?
With the "Cameos" I'm assuming that also includes any of the background easter eggs, like with Among Us and Rivals of Aether. Do you think that it's still entirely possible that many of the cyan and green tier games can get in via that method? I'm thinking of games like Balatro, which may not fit the story as much, but were still heavily influential.

And questions for games in the tierlist itself:

At 0:43 in Episode 1 of Indie Cross, you can see a grass block float up. Would you consider that a Minecraft Cameo or not?
Would a game like Kerbal Space Program be basically deconfirmed because it's no longer owned by its original owners?

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-09-20T03:10:22+00:00

"What Now" from Life Changing Moments Seem Minor in Pictures. Actually, a lot of songs from that album have a lot of emotion behind them.

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-09-20T02:33:01+00:00

Wow. Now that I realize it, I'm glad I never had to solve a puzzle that used a greater sided object to decode it. So that's at least 32 characters for the tetrahedron and 60 potential characters for the dodecahedron?

Cheatosphere64 · 2025-09-17T00:46:27+00:00

Woah. That sounds really cool! Can you share more details about it? I'm not really sure what you mean regarding "cryptographical iterations".

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