Universe Creation 101

News from Adrian’s blog is that Sean Cubitt has a blog. Now, Sean’s writing is not for the faint at heart but for the strong of mind. Eg:

The multidimensional mysteries facing the analyst of light in the early 21st century are neither more nor less characteristic of our times than the explorations of Groseteste or the indications of Newton were to theirs. The answer, the first part of the answer, to the question “What is Light?” is “Light has a history”, not only as practice, nor even as an experience, but as an idea. Informing and informed by technologies and techniques, evidence and sensation, light changes. [Light 2]

Check out: http://seancubitt.blogspot.com/

I’d like to just take a moment and share with you what it is like being in industry and academia. This post is actually in response to Monique’s comment yesterday:

Hi Christy,

Ah the terming debate… sigh.

Now, what Monique is referring to is my recent rantings about terminology on this blog. I highlight it because it may just be indicative of many of my industry readers. I find it interesting because I also have academic readers who I’m sure ”sigh” at my posts about marketing and my lack of theoretical debate. You see, I work in industry and academia and both of them speak different languages.

Industry isn’t concerned with discussions about terms or antecedents. If a term is introduced or claimed (eg: ‘mobisodes’ or ‘360′) it is to draw attention to the person or company touting it. A term helps create a product that can be exchanged for monetary value. They’re focused on the present, but more so the future. Industry is interested in the latest and next trend. It is about being economically viable, and that means products are marketed as being the first. Industry rarely refers to its predecessors and always claims it is the future. Industry is never unsure, it champions definitive cause-and-effect solutions only.

Academia is concerned with how the present and past shapes the present and, at times, the future. Academia looks at phenomena in the present and wants to find its heritage. It presumes there is never a first. Terms are introduced to delineate the object of study from other things. They describe a specificity. A term can be exchanged for monetary value (it is an IP business), but the aim is to draw attention to the object it describes rather than the person describing it. Terms represent theories, ways of seeing things. When discussing a way of seeing a thing, an academic has to know the conversation that has been going on for decades about it. It is always referring to its predecessors. Academia is always unsure, it champions sound inquiry only.

It is hoped that with these sweeping generalisations I have communicated the conflict of interest of I have when writing for this blog. I have purposely made this blog as accessible as possible but I am not a neutral reporter of projects. I am an academic and creator, who has opinions and a way of seeing things. This means that I’ll talk about things that won’t interest all of you all of the time. I have hardly any theoretical debate on this blog (because of plagiarism concerns) but I will be including more as I move into the final stages of my PhD land. I may be moving my theory stuff to another blog but that won’t be for a while. In the meantime, you’ll just have to grin and bear it. Or start your own blog that discusses things in an industry- or academia-only manner. But please, be aware that this is a shared space. So, academics and industry people, be tolerant of each other. And for those of you that are both…we can share war stories some time.

Tejpaul Bhatia, the founder of Tej Media Networks & senior manager of international business strategy for ESPN New Media, was recently interviewed on Kevin Roberts site SISOMO about “multi-platform storytelling”.

Multi-platform story-telling requires story-teller’s to think on multiple levels and in multiple dimensions. The audience is no longer in one place and no longer on a single device for a scheduled period of time.  These additional layers and moving parts require quite a bit of effort on the story-teller’s part.  The story-teller is no longer just a writer.  She is a writer, a producer, an architect, a metadata specialist, a marketing exec, a business person, and a user experience professional.

Hey, now that sounds good. But then Tejpaul answers a question about whether formats will change with multiplatform delivery (”‘delivery?” I ask myself and then read on):

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Recently, a top Hollywood special effects company — Digital Domain – announced that they will be investing 25 million into making “creating a video game that matches the quality of a feature film”. Well, as you can imagine, the gaming community found this claim pretty insulting. Well respected game designer Clint Hocking rants at his blog. He is understandably miffed by the implication that games are not up to the quality of feature films and then tries to unpack the often quoted claim that the line between games and movies is blurring:

[W]hat the hell does it mean ‘the line between videogames and movies in blurring’?

Do they think that 10 years from now I won’t be sure whether I just watched a movie or played a game? Again, I have to make some assumptions about what they mean to have this kind of crap make any sense at all… I can only assume they mean ‘the production methodologies and business models are increasingly similar and it is becoming more and more practical to look at doing feature film development and game development simultaneously as part of a multi-media production that increases efficiency’. In other words, they mean convergence in the purest business sense.

Beyond the battle of the rhetoric, there is also the question of whether filmmakers are actually able to create videogames. This is touched on in the original LATimes article:

“It’s going to be very difficult” for Digital Domain, said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. “The skill set of a game maker is very different from the skill set of a graphic artist.”

Nonetheless, company executives say they have a competitive advantage: a network of A-list directors that includes David Fincher (”Fight Club”), Rob Cohen (”The Fast and the Furious”) and, of course, Bay, whose latest movie, “Transformers,” is one of the summer’s most anticipated releases.

Most film-based games are developed through third parties, and filmmakers often have little or no creative control. By contrast, Digital would let filmmakers direct their own games.

Now what we see here is an example of the difference between tie-ins of the past and a writing transliteracy . In the past, ‘worlds’ or ‘brands’ were extended across media platforms by third-parties. They were not creatively controlled by the original creator and they were not intended to be part of the primary narrative experience. Now creators are wanting to have creative control (either by doing it themselves or specially commissioning people) and they are making each extension and important part of the primary narrative.

I can completely understand, therefore, this drive towards wanting to be involved in the game making process. Hey, I try and learn as much as I can about lots of different artforms. But what I don’t like is an attitude that filmmakers will learn what they need pretty quickly without any game designers help. By gosh, there are some absolutely brilliant game designers out there. I would be really impressed if I saw top game designers working with top film makers (and there have been). But the catch is: they would both have to be interested in learning a bit about the other artform. If someone wipes off an entire genre saying that there is no skill in it, it is sure a sign that they have only a superficial knowledge of the form. The truth is, what I’m really looking forward to is not seeing more top mono-media, mono-artform practitioners reskilling, but seeing those naturally transliterate creating transmedia/multi-platfor/cross-media/… artforms. They are the ones we should be pumping the big bucks to.

An interview with Trent Reznor (the man behind NiN and the ARG Year Zero) reveals that the only way forward for the music industry is for the industry to step aside and let the artists do their thing, and pay them for it:

When your US label, Interscope, discovered the web-based alternate reality game (ARG) you’d built around Year Zero, were they happy for the free marketing or angry you hadn’t let them in on it?

I chose to do this on my own, at great financial expense to myself, because I knew they wouldn’t understand what it is, for one. And secondly, I didn’t want it coming from a place of marketing, I wanted it coming from a place that was pure to the project. It’s a way to present the story and the backdrop, something I would be excited to find as a fan. I knew the minute I talked to someone at the record label about it, they would be looking at it in terms of “How can we tie this in with a mobile provider?” That’s what they do. If something lent itself to that, OK, I’m not opposed to the idea of not losing a lot of money (laughs). But it would only be if it made sense. I’ve had to position myself as the irrational, stubborn, crazy artist. At the end of the day, I’m not out to sabotage my career, but quality matters, and integrity matters. Jumping through any hoop or taking advantage of any desperate situation that comes up just to sell a product is harmful. It is.

Is the Year Zero ARG something labels will copy now?

Well, their response, when they saw that it did catch on like wildfire, was “Look how smart we are the way we marketed this record”. That’s the feedback I’ve gotten — other artists who’ve met with that label ask ‘em about it: “Yeah, you like what we did for Trent? Look what we did for Trent”. They’ve then gone on to try to buy the company that did it to apply it to all their other acts. So, glad I could help them out. I’m sure they still don’t understand what it is that we did or why it worked. But I will look forward to the Black Eyed Peas ARG, that should be amazing.

Black Eyed Peas ARG?!!! I really look forward to this next wave of transliterate artists. It is time the employment of multiple platforms became an artform and not just a marketing strategy.

Full article

Read Write Web has published an article on the top 60 Web 2.0 companies in Australia:

At Future Exploration Network’s Web 2.0 in Australia event on June 6, we are including a showcase of the top five examples of Web 2.0 coming out of this glorious country. Identifying who we wanted to invite to the showcase proved a marvelous opportunity to take a good look at what’s out there in the world of Web 2.0. The result is the following list of Australia’s Top 60 Web 2.0 applications.

At the Web 2.0 in Australia event we are showcasing five companies (written up in more detail here) - Atlassian, Gnoos, Omnidrive, Scouta, and Tangler. These fascinating and innovative companies have been chosen for our showcase because they are particularly effective in showing the diversity of the field to our senior executive audience, which gave slightly different results to the Top 60 list.

I’m thrilled to see Tangler (who my co-unorganiser Mick from BarCampSydney is with) and one of the ace companies that sponsored BarCampSydney: Atlassian. Also pleased to see Outback Online (an Australian Second Life — hope they have cleared the rights to use the likeness of Australian landmarks); Perth Norg in there (an aussie citizen journalism site); The Australian Index in there (they recently added my blog!); and the Podcast Network. Go aussies!

Check out: http://www.readwriteweb.com/aussie_top10.html

The Brisband chapter of the IGDA have invited me to give a talk and workshop next week in Queensland:

GAME_ON:

talk and workshop- tues 5 june, 5-7pm @ KGUV Community Hub, Carraway St, Kelvin Grove

‘Alternate Reality Games: Multi-Platform & Multi-World Design’

In this talk Christy Dena will provide an overview of the pervasive gaming genre of ‘alternate reality games’. These games use multiple platforms, have a high degree of narrative and gameplay and an immersive aesthetic that works towards being as indistinguishable from reality as possible.

They are commissioned by major corporations, created by independents and employed in education and training. After an overview of the various techniques used, the session will move into a workshop where an ARG schema will be created in 1 hour.

more information, future events and live links: http://www.igda.org/brisbane/game_on_get_game.html

Some links about finance and virtual worlds, MMORPGs and the digital games industry in general:

• simExchange: simExchange is a simulation of the stock market, for the games industry. You predict sales of games. They actually market it is a pedagogical game, in the sense that you learn about the games industry while playing. Interesting, maybe good for a class activity.
• IGE: At IGE you can buy, sell, trade and donate your inworld currencies between 16 different MMORPGs
• AnsheX: AnsheX is an investment and exchange service for virtual worlds Second Life, Entropia Universe and IMVU.  Anshe Chung Studios is also behind the WorldStockExchange, SL Exchange and is of course the well-known virtual estate m(b?)illionaire (and who also recently launched a Virtual Worlds Awards). 

AnsheX is described on the press release as follows:

Anshe Chung Studios is preparing to launch a virtual financial market, financial products and a set of services that are going to, for the first time, allow direct capital flow and investment across virtual world boundaries. This step will be the first of many in the creation of an open, cross platform Metaverse economy that transcends individual virtual worlds.

The sequel to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, will be launched in cinemas on July 18, 2008. Warner Bros are busy with preparing audiences now, however, with an emerging online ‘alternate reality’ campaign. On May 12, Warner Bros put the official teaser site online [source].

The site has the batman image, but soon after it linked to a site set within the fictional universe: www.IBelieveinHarveyDent.com [source]. This site is the political campaign for Harvey Dent, the character that becomes “Two Face” after being disfigured by acid.

The Harvey Dent image was also seen around the streets of the US, and within 48-72 hours were then defaced. [source]

[source]

On May 19th, a comic store employee in Southern California reported finding a whole lot of doctered joker cards lying around their store, Meltdown. The cards have the words HaHa and ‘I Believe in Harvey Dent Too’ [source].

 
[pic source]

Fans realised that the words ‘I believe in Harvey Dent too’ was indeed a URL (a device used quite readily in ARGs).  The new site, www.IBelieveinHarveyDentToo.com, had a defaced image of Harvey Dent and the offer to enter your email address. An email notified fans of an X and Y coordinate on the defaced image of Harvey Dent.

[pic source]

And then, as Muhammed Saleem explains:

But since participation is limited to one user and one pixel removal per email address, the average user will only be able to participate once. And since every ardent fan is desperate to see what lies beneath, it is in the best interest of every fan to spread the word as much as possible and to get the process going faster and faster so that we can all see what lies beneath. At this point the users undoubtedly take matters into their own hands, start spreading the word and try to get other users to participate and remove pixels.  

And so, the collective efforts of strangers all over the globe (or mainly the US I’d say) got together and took out one pixel as a time. 

[pic source]

And Muhammud continues:

As you can see, the campaign has successfully become viral and the Warner advertising machine rejoices. Not only have the various sites been submitted to socially driven communities, but there have been incoming links from a multitude of film sites and blogs alike. Within a matter of hours, we have the following reconstruction of the final image:

[pic source]

On May 21st, the Joker image was taken down. The site just has, now, the words ‘page not found’. However, fans did what ARG players do: highlighted the page. When you do this you see the page littered is with Haha’s, and some letters. Do it, it’s fun!

[pic source]

The letters spell out ‘See You in December’. The URL for www.SeeYouinDecember.com is reported to have been registered by ARG production company 42 Entertainment. [source] 42 Entertainment do some great stuff, though recently their work as been light on narrative. I hope that Christopher Nolan, the director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight (and lots of other great films), has had some input too. This looks like alot of fun, though, why can’t I still register my email address to receive email updates anywhere? Anyway, I’ll be keeping my eyes on the skies for a bat..

ARG community gameplay at unfiction

ARGFest-o-Con was held during March 2-4  in San Francisco. Videos of the sessions are at youtube, and here.

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