Universe Creation 101

The long awaited report by Nielsen Entertainment Video Game Benchmark Report
I’ve mentioned this report before, and discussed about some other stats. For those of us who don’t have a dream researcher budget, ACTeN provide some more stats:

* Wait and See: Many active gamers appear to be in a holding pattern, before making a purchase decision on next-generation consoles, with nearly 50% of active gamers stating they will likely wait until both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 are released before making a final decision

* Xbox 360 vs. PS3: While most are taking the wait and see approach, those that own and prefer Xbox are more likely to buy Xbox 360 than those that own and prefer PS2 are to buy the PS3

* Moving Online: 57% of active gamers have played online with free casual online games the most used and a notable 21% having played MMO games

* Women are Playing: While online-enabled console, MMO and gambling gamers are disproportionately male — 76% vs. 24% — casual gamers who play free online games such as puzzles are just as likely to be women as men, 49% vs. 51% respectively

* Good Scores on Mobile Gaming: 18% of active gamers have downloaded a game to their cell phone, with nearly two-thirds (63%) rating their experience from good to excellent

* Jock Games Rule: Traditional Sports is the most preferred game genre followed by Role Playing and First-Person Shooter

* Men of Opportunity Value: Males 25-34 and Hispanics represent the most valuable emerging market for video games with high entertainment budgets and higher potential than other segments for increased video game spending

* Dominating Leisure Time: Nearly 25% of a gamer’s leisure time is spent playing video games, with males playing 12 hours per week on average.

There is also the Nielsen Entertainment’s Mobile Entertainment Consumer Benchmarking Study, which ACTeN have been generous in supplying the following:

* Turnover Equals Opportunity: 52% of mobile phone users will buy a new phone within the year with 37% claiming additional features will figure prominently in their decision making process

* Mobile Atop Media: On average, active mobile phone consumers report spending 17 hours on their phones per week, 13 talking and 4 on data services, surpassing music, video games, movie going and home entertainment

* Mobile Girls are over TVs: Young females are on their mobile phone 23.5 hours per week on average, more time than the 20.9 hours they report watching television

* Following the Money: Topping all entertainment expenditures for share of wallet, mobile phone users spend $57.50 each month on their phone and related services

* Mass Market, Mass Medium: 85% or 144 million 13-54 year-olds are mobile phone users

* Cutting the Cord: One in seven mobile phone users have no home landline and 35% consider their mobile phone to be their primary phone

* Nickels and Dimes: Of the mobile consumers polled, 60% said they pay for text messaging; 48% for custom ring tones; and 22% for games

* Music Madness: One in five (21%) teens downloaded at least 10 ringtones in the last three months, including one in eight (12%) who downloaded 15 or more

* Multiple Dominant Brands: Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and LG are cited as top hardware providers while Verizon, Cingular, Sprint Nextel and TMobile are cited as top service providers

Gamers Agree: Women and men share the preference to play board, card and puzzle games on their mobile phones.

** This page obsolete: now see my Mobile Drama Round Up **

Okay, I’m putting together a list of the Top Ten Mobisodes; only problem is, there isn’t that many, so it isn’t really a top ten, but a list of ten mobisodes that have been made. The following are not necessarily mobisodes that are ONLY delivered via mobile, and not necessarily original content (they’re repurposed or part of a franchise). They are not in order of revenue, as I don’t have that data. Because there are not that many I’ve included ones that are about to come out too. I also haven’t included location-based games or mobile gaming. If you know of any I left out and where I can get some more data:

• 24: Conspiracy, Fox Entertainment Group, 2005 (worldwide)
• Random Place, iconmobile, 2005 (Aus)
• Jong Zoid, Media Republic, 2004 (Netherlands)
• FanTESStic, Endemol, not out yet (worldwide) [press release]
• TXT MS C, Switchfire Ltd , 2004 (UK)
• V-girl, Artificial Life, 2004 (USA) [not sure about this one, I think it qualifies as a mobile game more than a mobisode]
• The Simple Life: Interns, Fox, 2005
• Forget the Rules, Jim Shomos and Paul Baiguerra , 2005 (Aus)
• Girl Friday, Kylie Robertson, not out yet (Aus)
• Love and Hate, Twentieth Television, not out yet (USA) [article]
• The Sunset Hotel, Twentieth Television, not out yet (USA) [article]
• PS I Luv U, [Singapore Television station], not out yet (Asia) [article]
• Flatland (Timothy Shey, Ruddy Morgan Organization production, 2005/…) [added 12 March 06]

These are TV shows that have been delivered on the mobile phone (separated into bits, mini eps):

• Lost, on Channel 4, 2005 (USA, UK, Aus) [I think it is just the series as on TV with no changes]
• The Daily Show, Comedy Central, 2005 (USA)
• Big Brother, (wideworld) 2004

etc, etc…

*** Added 12th March, 2006: See also my listing of Top ARGs, with stats ***

I’ve been at the Australiasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment being held in Sydney this week. There is still one day to go but I feel compelled to *download* my impressions before the final blast of input and then distraction of catching-up on delayed duties. The attendees are computer science students working with game technologies, interactive narrative and game technologists and designers, iTV researchers, industry, media studies and cultural theorists. There is an impressive selection of international presenters, established local academics and emerging ones. Although an academic conference, the papers have an industry focus. I’m really enjoying this conference: a happy and eager bunch of theorists and practitioners who all share a passion for the area. We’re all keen to learn from each other and extend our own research with unusual linkups. There is alot I’d like to say about the this conference, but I’ll start with a blow by blow overview of the talks I attended:

The conference was opened by Professor Sue Rowley, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) of the University of Technology, Sydney. Rowley made some refreshingly critical comments about the phenomenon of cross-fertilised content (comics influencing films and so on). Much that is being produced, she said, is not cutting-edge, ‘banal’, ‘derivative’ and ‘ideological’. Although I keep a keen eye on the intermingling of genres, arts types and media affordances, it is great to hear that other people are finding the plethora mimic-art beyond cool.

Mark Pesce, famous for founding VRML but has done a stack since then, including being a fellow mentor at LAMP. Mark gave the keynote speech, The Telephone Repair Handbook, for the conference on mobile phones: their usability issues and potential social uses. In the style that Mark is renowned for, the presentation was delightful to the ear, so much so that I dubb mark a ’suited cyber poet’ (also due to his talks being more inspirational rather than academic or industry). The podcast is online, as well as the pdf.

I went to see Jens F. Jensen’s talk, Interactive Television: New Genres, New Format, New Content, but he didn’t show for some reason. His paper is in the proceedings (we were given the full proceedings at the beginning of the conference, which ensures informed question times and means I can read up on who I want to chat to).

The aim of this paper is to discuss some of the main issues associated with interactive genres, formats and content in the context of interactive television (ITV). First, a set of new forms or categorizations of ITV will be presented. Second, the suite of interactive genres, formats and applications that currently constitutes ITV will be introduced and discussed. And third, some general conclusions concerning interactivity, television and the interactive user/viewer will be drawn.

Next, I was really looking forward to a talk by Lori Shyba: Opening Doors to Interactive Play Spaces: Fragmenting Story Structure into Games. Unfortunately, Lori spent more time describing her product than discussing how story is fragmented. her product is a theatre experience in which the audience interacts with actors who themselves interact with projections on walls and play specially designed screen games. She calls the form “integrated performance media” (which is developed from “integrated media”, an industry term in Canada and is related to “integrated marketing”).

Someone made a comment during one of the talks about franchises not being about art but about money. I keep forgetting that people see alot of cross-media not as an artform but as a marketing technique. Cross-media is often derided under this pretense. I couldn’t help thinking of an alternate perspective: the utilisation of multiple media for the delivery of a creative work has been the privilege of conglomerates, but with the ability to broadcast from personal media (a mobile phone or home computer rather than cinema) cross-media delivery is suddenly an option for everyone. Sure, many products are created with the sole intention of making money, but to claim that the employment of multiple media is the domain of commodification is to underestimate the democratisation of publication that the Internet has enabled.

Anyway, the final talk I saw on day one was by Robert Grigg. This is the exciting talk: it is about a particular sub-area of CME: episodic gaming. I’ll be giving a generous post about this very soon.

Jill Walker, the theorist behind ‘distributed narrative‘, has organised and participated in a panel on Viral and Distributed Narratives (as arranged by Jessica Henig). The panel is part of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts 19th Annual Conference held recently in Chicago. It is the first time that electronic literature has been included in the conference streams. But back to the panel:

Scott Rettberg, Arts and Humanities, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, “Implementation in Context: Viral, Locative, Situationist”
Implementation by Nick Montfort and Scott Rettberg is a novel about psychological warfare, terror, identity, and the idea of place, a project that borrows from the traditions of net.art, mail art, sticker art, conceptual art, situationist theater, serial fiction, and guerilla viral marketing. Implementation was first published as a serial novel printed in fragments on stickers distributed in monthly installments. Readers then posted the stickers in public spaces around the world, photographed them, and returned those photographs to the project site, where they are archived by date and by location. This paper presents Implementation in three distinct relevant contexts: that of recent viral “meme-based” sticker art and street graffiti projects, that of recent locative media and mapping narrative projects, and finally in the context of situationism, a movement of an earlier era that advocated participatory “opposite of works of art” and demanded that “the inner city to be laid out as field of activity for artists.”

I’ve spoken about Implementation before, especially at talks I’ve given, but this talk is from the co-creator of the project. As I do, Rettberg situates the work within the paradigm of meme-art and locative arts, and then adds in situationism.

Jessica Henig, English, University of Maryland, “As Thin as Reality: Shelley Jackson’s “Skin”
In her short story “Skin,” hypertext author Shelley Jackson moves her canvas from the screen to the body. “Skin” is published only as tattoos on participants, each of whom becomes one word in the story. In addition to challenging our usual notions of reading and authorship, this raises critical questions about the location of the story: Is it on the participants? Is it the participants themselves, their own stories as they go about their daily lives? Does it exist only inaccessibly on Jackson’s computer, waiting to be distributed? In fact, “Skin” exists on all of these levels, but the strategies for approaching it differ depending on which story one wants to read. This paper examines “Skin” in the context of Espen Aarseth’s “indeterminate cybertext,” and looks at the ways in which it requires us to revise our algorithms for finding, reading, and understanding a story.

Henig has made her powerpoint available for download. She talks about ‘emergence’ and systems, which is good. [If you haven't already read it: I'm using polysystem theory to map CME.] Henig talks about John Holland’s Hidden Order and focuses on ‘aggregation’ and ‘flow’. It seems this is a taxonomical analysis, which I find immensely interesting as I’ve been battling with it for months. [See comments for details on the correct talk] Henig would be good to talk to, it seems, about the CME software I’m conceiving. Here is a nice quote from her presentation:

Recognizing the identity of these works as complex adaptive systems allows us to read them, but it also allows us to investigate, predict, and improve future emergent narratives.

Jill Walker, Humanistic Informatics, University of Bergen, Norway, “Pattern Recognition: Reading Distributed Narratives”
In earlier work, I have proposed the term distributed narrative to describe the increasing number of texts where elements of a story are distributed in time or space. By using the term narrative, rather than discussing the larger group of texts variously called “contagious media” or “crossmedia”, I wish to emphasize the ways in which our basic knowledge of narrative structures allows us to see connections between fragments that may have no explicit links. In this paper, I will look closely at fragments of a distributed narrative, examining how each segment signals to the reader that there is more to be found, and arguing that repetition and variation are prime tropes in distributed narrative. Comparing techniques used in weblogs and their surrounding co-texts to techniques used in Marc Saporta’s Composition No. 1, a novel written in 1962, printed on loose sheets of paper that the reader was asked to shuffle. The comparative reading will build on narratology, hypertext theory, and theories of emergence.

Okay, Jill is here distinguishing herself from “other” approaches (as I have done with her). The difference, she says, is that she is claiming distributed narratives work because of narrativisation. I have been thinking about this for a year or so and have been moving backwards and forwards between seeing what the audience member does in CME as narrative-based or something different. Currently I view what the audience does as narrative- AND play-based. I do see them as different and as both having a role. This is where I think ergodics is the unifiying concept of these areas. But back to her points, she cites two tropes: repetition and variation. This makes sense. As we’ve seen in countless simultaneous media usage studies, youth are using media in different ways.

The explanation for this behavior is the constant search for complementary information, different perspectives, and even emotional fulfillment. [Finanzen]

Indeed, what all three presenters cover is correct, valid and true. I’m excited that there are panels happening about the area, and that there is another couple of researchers. What I’m keen for, however, is an advanced discussion about CME. I know it is important and necessary to have the explanantions of the phenomenon, its antecendents and proof of existence, but I’m yearning for hardcore debates about its cogs.

Keren Flavell has a great blog, The Mobile Media Show, that distributes podcasts of interviews she has with mobile arts creators (and other news and reviews). Here is a bit of her description:

I have turned my attention to what this marvelous little gadget can do for us in terms of distributed entertainment. To that end I am kicking off this podcast show which will feature a whole host of guests who are producing content for the mobile phone. The show will also cover news, reviews and discussion about the latest happenings in the mobile media space. The show will appeal to both producers and consumers of mobile media.

She has interviewed Joe T Velikovsky (who I just blogged about) and also interviewed Jim Shomos and Paul Baiguerra of the Forget the Rules multi-platform soapie(who I’ve blogged about before too). I love the pics too. Great stuff Keren! I’ve added your blog to my Mobile Arts section.

Max Giovagnoli has completed a book on cross-media: Fare cross media. From Big Brother to Star Wars. Theory and Techniques of the Integrated and Distributed Use of Simultaneous Media. Check out this description:

Performing cross-media entails carrying out information, entertainment and communication campaigns in an ‘integrated’ manner, thereby simultaneously utilising a range of media forms within large editorial projects. From reality show (Big Brother, Operation Triunfo, Talpa) to film promotion (Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Ring 2). From multi-medial journalism (BBC news, SKY TV 24, RAI news 24) to video mobile telephone use and internet serials. From inter-business, institutional and political communication, to the creation of emotional marketing campaigns and new formats for cable links. The book describes, through examples, simulations, and contributions by leading international scholars, the techniques, the scenarios and the fundamental rules necessary in order to carry out communication project distributed across various media forms. Among the first publications in Europe on the subject, the work uses the research on collective imagination, emotional competence, project management and alternative dramaturgies to give order to a discipline where, to this day, too much scope is given to the talent of the individual and to an improvisation that generates mysterious successes or unexpected flops in the sectors: information, entertainment and communication.

I so look forward to getting the book (not reading it, as it is in Italian!). I was lucky to have Max interview me for the book, I was unfortunately REALLY busy and wasn’t able to contribute as much as I would of liked. [How can anyone be too busy to contribute to a book?!]

But anyway, it is a great sign that cross-media books are coming out and Max’s should be fanatastic. At present, I’ve only been able to find one book that address the cross-media phenomenon: that is Angela Ndalianis’ academic treatment of the subject in her book Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment (2004). There are some books on convergent journalism and some interesting ones on alternate reality games (ARGs). The later ones are highly relevant, as ARGs are the most developed form of CME. However, they are only one type of CME. MIT Media theorist Henry Jenkins is set to bring out a book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Intersect, which should be great. And Drew Davidson has been commissioned to write one too. All very exciting. I’ve added all of these to the Cross-Media Books section on the right sidebar.

Congrats Max!

I met Joe T. Velikovsky yesterday, a passionate game/story creator. He showed me his mobile comic, a sample is available at Mobster for free, which I really enjoyed. He’s playing with some nice geek/tech/philosophical areas. I took a look at his site, and found him to have a very accomplished career:

* award-winning professional screenwriter and director in the fields of Film, TV, Games and Digital Media;
* published Game Designer and writer, and a published short story author, and professional cartoonist;
* Creative Director and founder of A-Rage Pty Ltd, an augmented reality videogame development company.

He also is fully aware of, and has a stand on, the Narratology/Ludology debate:

`Games’ and `Story’ shouldn’t be mortal enemies. He’s made a career out of bringing them together, to live alongside, in peace and harmony.

And he likes bots! Yay!

Another talented individual that is working with both story and games in innovative ways. Great to see.

The Australian Game Developers Conference is happening on 1-3 December at Federation Square in Melbourne. Keynoters include: Ian Livingstone, Creative Director of Eidos; Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO and Co-Executive Producer at BioWare Corp; Rob Pardo, Vice President of Game Design, Blizzard Entertainment; Aaron Lieberman, Bungie Studios. There is also a conference and a School & Computer Games Summit. For those who cannot attend (which includes me) there are two cool ways to receive updates (other than blogs) : Control Freaks will give daily video updates during the event, and 3G subscribers (that is me!) can also get updates on their mobile — the first game event updates through a mobile.

I’ve been reading about WiMAX alot and receiving email notifications about the technology for a while. I’ve never really known what it is, just concepts around it: ‘connectivity’, ‘mobile’, ‘wireless’ and so on. C.J. Mathias sets a narrower understanding:

The idea of carrying one’s broadband connection around, perhaps over very large geographic areas, is more than powerful and compelling – we expect it to become the norm over the next decade.

So, WiMAX is a technology that will supply wireless broadband access for laptops and mobile phones etc in urban and rural areas, and then ultimately applications. It is not out yet, it is in-formation. The was recently a conference held on the technology: WiMAX World.
Here is a podcast of an interview with Eliot Weinman (CEO, Trendsmedia, Inc.) explaining ‘the technology, industry, players, research, rollouts and its future’. There is a report on WiMAX Business & Technology Strategies available via email too.

Well, I’ve just undertaken the only kind of facelift I’ll ever have: a digital and conceptual one. Firstly, the digital: I’ve migrated to WordPress. So, you’ll see alot more functionality, like categories on posts and (coming soon) subscription. I have to finish the categories, and add more resources, but there are plenty of new items to feast your cross-media minds on. Also, I haven’t been able to migrate the comments (which isn’t a big deal as I don’t have many!). I’ll be entering them manually.

The second facelift: conceptual. After many months contemplating the shift I’ve made the framing switch from ‘cross-media storytelling’ to ‘cross-media entertainment’ (CME). These are the reasons:

• The phenomenon I’m looking at involves properties|franchises|works that have components that are traditional narratives & games. ‘Storytelling’ implies I’m looking at the traditional narratives only.
• CME are experienced/realised by audiences through narrativisation and gameplay. Once again, storytelling implies the former only.
• CME puts the focus on the form of ‘entertainment’ in general.
• CME is more accessible for industries and disciplines.

I will keep the crossmediastorytelling.com URL, I still love it, but if you use that address it will forward you here. Also, I should note that the narrative aspects of CME will be the focus of my academic research (my PhD). So ‘polymorphic narrative‘ is still relevant too. Hope you enjoy the new-look site and resources. Please feel free to contact me with your own suggestions for inclusion.