This article from io9 is an interesting discussion of the pros and cons of Alternate Reality Gaming campaigns and how they work (or don’t). Many of the points they make are things I think I agree with, specifically about relying too much on puzzles and schwag and not enough on compelling storytelling.
Here’s some key quotes:
Lost is running an ARG at Comic-Con this week where the fictional Dharma corporation tries to recruit new employees, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles had a tie-in ARG that was quite artful in which employees of the Enitech Corporation discover a camera that takes pictures of the future and predicts the rise of the machines.
One reason I liked the Sarah Connor Chronicles ARG so much was that it actually functioned as its own, compelling story. It was almost like the Heroes webisodes – stories set in the same universe as their parent story, but shorter and with a lower budget. The Dark Knight ARG, on the other hand, felt like it really was just advertising with a few perfunctory interactive bits thrown in.
Well I’m glad the author dug our work and I can’t complain about having our project called “artful.” He makes some good points and I’m glad this discussion is going on now. ARGs are walking the fine line between art, entertainment, and advertising, so it’s important to start pushing these questions out there.
I’m part of a panel at ARGfest this weekend talking about Extended Media Experiences and specifically my work on Terminator. Here’s a summary of what we’re discussing:
ARGs and Extended Media Experiences -
Connecting ARGs with marketing can be both an amazing challenge and an amazing experience for both player and puppetmaster. The members of this panel are uniquely poised to offer insight into the various ways that ARGs can be used to generate buzz and excitement for other media properties, as well as the challenges and hurdles required to navigate the terrain of expanding copyrighted properties, such as TV shows, video games, and movies.
Joining me will be moderator Evan Jones owner of Stitch Media (who I worked with on Terminator and recently Holomove), Yomi Ayeni the Creative Director of Expanding Universe, Elan Lee founder of 4th Wall Studios, and Lance Weiler director of the movie “The Last Broadcast.” Should be an awesome discussion!
As a Creative Director at Millions of Us, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some really amazing and exciting projects. From what some have already figured out, and as reported by Virtual Worlds News in March, our company, has been working to create spaces for Playstation Home the last several months. The idea is to create some really cutting edge virtual and social experiences in this new 3D world, for some of the biggest titles in the video game world.
Yesterday at E3, some footage of this work was unveiled to the general public for the first time:
This is one of those highly top secret projects I’ve been dying to tell people about, but had to remain absolutely silent about until launch. Well, as of Wednesday last week the cat is out of the bag and all over the press. Google has entered the virtual world social space and we’re a part of the project.
For the past few months, I’ve had a very exciting chance to be a creative role during the development of experiences in an awesome new virtual tool by Google called “Lively.”
This ambitious browser based app aims to do for 3-D virtual social experiences what YouTube does for video. It lets you create your own space inside it and then embed that space on any webpage (or blog post as you’ll see at the bottom of this one).
Lively by Google is the media, and as creative director for this project myself along with the project producer Eliana Sur (from Terminator) teamed up with our client National Geographic Channel to bring you the first of many experiences this product will offer. Last week we launched National Geographic Channel’s LA Hard Hats into Livelyby Google.
Eliana Sur as her Lively avatar - a cartoon pirate dog
Lively enables users to visit, chat, and interact in a catalogue of 3D spaces, each space having its own unique style and experience. Users can customize their own space to add to the catalogue and share their spaces with friends. Creating a space can be as easy as picking a room shell, decorating it with objects from the Google 3D Warehouse, and naming your space. Integration with YouTube and Picasa Web allow users to stream video content and display photos right in their 3D environment. Evangelizing your freshly created Lively experience is important and this is simple as well. By adding a short piece of html code located under the room window, you can embed the space on any website, indicating this platform has great potential for viral content distribution. Lastly, and most importantly I would argue, Google’s scale and distribution places this product firmly in a category all its own.
To inaugurate this new product, Millions of Us has teamed up with National Geographic Channel to create an experience in Lively based on the LA Hard Hats series premiering Sunday, August 3rd at 9 pm. I’m thrilled to say that we’re a participant in the Preferred Developer Program for Lively by Google, and that the L.A. Hardhats room is the first branded space in Lively. The television series chronicles the heavy-duty work of a construction crew as they build an LA high-rise for nearly 2 years. Our interactive Lively experience captures the best features of Lively while immersing the user in the LA Hard Hats story. Download the Lively application, create an avatar, and come see what this experience is all about by clicking here or on the embedded room at the bottom of this page! Then, grab a hard hat, some caution tape, a couple of barricades, and the LA Hard Hats room shell and create your own custom “under construction” Lively room. Or, you can just steal ours by grabbing the code.
Thanks to Eliana Sur (our extraordinary Producer and writer of much of this cribbed blog post), Ted Tagami (business wiz who made the Google connection happen), Adrian Herbez (incredible programmer who pushed the product to the limit and then found new limits), Kes Quinn (the artist who built an entire skyscaper), and the rest of the whole team at Millions of Us.
ARG - An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.
For several months, I’ve been working on writing and directing a top secret project to create a live-action thriller alternate reality game campaign. 2 weeks before the launch of the new Fox show “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” a website for an unusual company appeared. In their first video they claimed to have developed a tachyon camera that sensed faster-than-light particles and could therefore generate images of the future. Their first blog post generated significant online controversy, with 53 posts suggesting ways of testing the camera’s capabilities. In their second video, the researchers followed the audience’s suggestions, taking photos of mirrors, newspapers, and cityscapes. The images they revealed suggested a dark and apocalyptic future. Soon the audience became directly involved in the story, digging up similar camera devices around the United States. Finally, the researchers found themselves being hunted by a deadly entity seeking to stop their work permanently. The drama built to an explosive conclusion in the Sausalito parking lot of Enitech’s offices:
Now that it’s concluded you can watch the full story from start to finish. If you want to know more, check out Enitechlabs.com.
This is a project I produced recently that took a rather interesting approach to virtual worlds. Rather than explain it, I think CNN’s article probably does a better job than I could:
November 12, 2007 — Updated 1649 GMT (0049 HKT) CNN enters the virtual world of Second Life
(CNN) — So, what exactly is news in a virtual world?
CNN aims to find out by opening an I-Report hub in Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world created entirely by its residents.
There, CNN will look to those most familiar with the virtual world — the Second Life residents themselves — to determine what constitutes news “in-world.”
Developer Linden Labs opened Second Life to the public in 2003. According to its Web site, Second Life is inhabited by millions of “residents” from around the globe. However, traffic at any given time hovers around 40,000 users. Photo See the many views of Second Life. »
Just as CNN asks its real-life audience to submit I-Reports — user-generated content submitted from cell phones, computers, cameras and other equipment for broadcast and online reports — the network is encouraging residents of Second Life to share their own “SL I-Reports” about events occurring within the virtual world.
“The thing we most hope to gain by having a CNN presence in Second Life is to learn about virtual worlds and understand what news is most interesting and valuable to their residents,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services.
When Second Life residents observe an in-world event they deem newsworthy, they can take snapshots, shoot video, or write a report about the event and submit to CNN.
Submissions selected by CNN I-Report producers will go back into Second Life for residents to view throughout the virtual world. SL I-Reports may also be viewed and discussed in the real world at CNN.com’s SL I-Report Blog.
CNN’s in-world I-Report hub includes a news desk where CNN producers will hold weekly editorial discussions, and an amphitheater for larger in-world events, such as training sessions and appearances by CNN anchors and correspondents.
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CNN’s first in-world training session will be held Tuesday, November 13, at 5 p.m. ET at the I-Report Hub.
At the I-Report hub, residents can also meet other resident reporters, as well as access I-Report kiosks, free-standing terminals where residents can pick up free gear and tools for gathering and viewing in-world user-generated content.
Winning awards is always neat, and this project was especially fun and thrilling. We brought World Wrestling Entertainment into Gaia Online with an alternate reality experience like no other… Kind of a celebrity meet and greet that turned into a coordinated disaster. Hard to define but here’s a video that helps explain it…
Sometimes it can be tricky for a company to figure out exactly how to enter Second Life. A few have tried and struggled with setting up a storefront that mimics their real life presence, only to find that users in Second Life had a completely different set of needs and expectations. For international electronic appliance company Electrolux, the challenge was even more unique. Electrolux is a company that sells items like washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Useful in real life, but not so in a virtual one.
So the minds at Millions of Us and the marketing firm Gronstedt Group teamed up with Electrolux to come up with a unique and creative solution to this challenge. Electrolux spent months researching and talking with Second Life users to identify their needs and problems. Instead of simply setting up shop and waiting for the community to come to them, they went to the community to understand what made it tick.
UPDATE on the Cinematic Geography of LA project: CNN Headline News wanted to interview me about the
movie we created for YouTube. This was basically a brief behind the scenes piece to talk about how we created the film:
Sometimes it can be tricky for a company to figure out exactly how to enter Second Life. A few have tried and struggled with setting up a storefront that mimics their real life presence, only to find that users in Second Life had a completely different set of needs and expectations. For international electronic appliance company Electrolux, the challenge was even more unique. Electrolux is a company that sells items like washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Useful in real life, but not so in a virtual one.
