Crime Scene is a website that presents fictional crime stories that are told through realistic case documents which can be investigated by the public. It was started in 1995 by Tom Arriola, an experimental theater director in Oxford, Mississippi, and was one of the earliest examples of an Alternate reality game, internet hoax, or superfiction. Early on it received some criticism from viewers who, after having believed it to be part of a real murder investigation, discovered that it was actually a work of fiction. Content Crime Scene tells stories through the use of false documents, a literary technique whereby invented documents and/or artifacts are presented as real. In this way, an author tries to create a strong enough sense of authenticity that the audience goes beyond the typical suspension of disbelief that one expects to maintain when engaging with a work of fiction. Unlike in many stories, however, false documents are the primary vehicle through which Crime Scene stories are told, rather than as accompaniment to a central written narrative. Case documents can include interviews, evidence inventories, location sketches, biographies, press articles, forensic reports, anything that would normally be collected by detectives during an investigation. These documents are written and produced by Crime Scene staff and released serially. Viewers can discuss their ideas and offer theories by commenting in discussion areas, posting on their community profile page, and messaging other members directly. There is also an area where subscribers can "ask the detective" questions and receive a response from Crime Scene staff, who respond "in character" (i.e. as a real life detective working on the case). This format differentiates Crime Scene stories from other kinds of fiction, because "while readers of most paperback mystery stories are led down a single plot line, Crime Scene readers actively create a story line and participate in solving cases...". The interactive nature of Crime Scene plays an integral part of the experience. Oftentimes, the audience's input influences what happens in the story. This was especially true when Crime Scene was first getting started and helped to shape the way that the site developed over time. As Arriola explained in an interview with Web Review in 1995: This turned out to be much more interactive than anybody knows. When we made up this thing, we just "killed" some girl on my kitchen floor, photographed it, and put it up on the Web. We didn't