ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines current theories of participatory media/culture and how promotional ARGs challenge this perception of empowered media consumers. ARGs arguably offer an illusion of participation without relinquishing any real power to consumers themselves. However, previous scholarship tends to focus on power in terms of narrative control or textual production. This risks losing sight of other forms of meaning-making happening on more individual or social levels through participation in promotional ARGs. This chapter examines this primarily from player perspectives, considering their motivations and expectations around ‘meaningful’ participation, including, but not confined to, narrative control. Players identify strong affective connections with game content, producers, or ‘puppetmasters’ (PMs) and the player community, through which we can see a potential for a different kind of consumer empowerment. Understanding this requires viewing consumer practices as ‘lived experiences’. What are players doing with these games, and what meanings and values can they derive from them that might afford them a sense of empowerment? These questions prompt us to rethink how we understand the potential for consumer empowerment in the contemporary media environment and fan communities’ relationship with consumer capitalism.
