BMW Event and Delivery Center

Now this may seem like a weird item to include in such a list, but I have my reasons. A few years ago, BMW commissioned this Event and Delivery Center to create an experience of picking-up your new car like no other. Here are some the objectives published a few years before it was built:

The BMW Group is planning to build a centre for brand experience and vehicle delivery. Customers from all over the world will be invited to take possession of their new BMW automobile personally and enjoy an unforgettable live experience of the BMW brand in an atmosphere of exclusivity. (BMW AG, Brandscaping, 30)

The BMW Event and Delivery Center is designed to stage the handover of the new vehicle to the customer as an unforgettable event. [...] To fascinate visitors requires more than just high-quality functionalism — it calls for an astounding sequence of spatial experiences, creating a theatre for the dramatization of customer service. To trigger excitement, curiousty must first be aroused: a sense that there is something to be discovered, that you are entering unexplored territory. Visitors must be amazed — before the familiar miracles of the BMW brand convey message of reliability. (Zaha Hadid, 3rd Prize, Brandscaping, 44)

I just love the whole idea of going to a big event, even if it is for a car. Gee, if I bought a BMW (wouldn’t mind one actually), I’d make the trip to have this delivery event too!. Though, when we get back to the big picture. Why aren’t delivery wards in hospitals given so much attention? Is there any miracle greater than the birth of a human being? Hmmm. In the meantime, I reckon this delivery center would be fun!

• BMW Welt

Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion

I haven’t experienced this theme ride (I’ve watched videos of it though — FYI: you can buy DVDs of all the rides everywhere in the world), but all the reports I’ve read by theme park designers is that this is one of the most respected. In terms of theme park design, every aspect of the experience, the staff, thrills, narrative and so on are all well put together.

• Haunted Mansion webpage

Universal Studios’ T2 2-D: Battle Across Time

The Terminator ride at Universal Studios is on my to-do list for a few reasons. The main one being that it is the third part of the Terminator narrative! This experience was directed by James Cameron, features Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong and Robert Patrick. It is, and I have many quotes from Cameron and others, the story that Cameron would of told if he did the third Terminator film. This ride isn’t an adaptation of the Terminator 2 story, it tells the story after it. It is the ending of the Terminator series. Arck, there is so much I could say about this (and I do in my thesis). And hey, if you really wanted to know what happens the video of the 3D sequences are on the web. But for now, I’m keen to experience this live — the shebang (preshow, specially-designed seating and 3D sequences, actors and so on).

• T2 3-D Orlando Resort
• T2 3-D Hollywood
• T2 3-D Tokyo

The Museum of Jurassic Technology

Gosh. I went to this museum with my mate Mark Marino last year when I visited California. I had no idea what I was in for. It was amazing. If ever you want to understand the experience that some people associate with ‘alternate reality games’ (well, the early ones), then this is the place for you. It seems like any museum. A museum of weird objects, but a museum nevertheless. But then a rising uneasiness grips you. You can no-longer tell what is real and what is fake. To really set the scene, here is a quote from Wikipedia:

The museum claims to have a “specialized repository of relics and artifacts from the Lower Jurassic, with an emphasis on those that demonstrate unusual or curious technological qualities.” This explains the museum’s name and also suggests its puzzling nature, since the Lower Jurassic ended more than 150 million years before the appearance of hominoids and in particular before anything that could be called technology (see geologic time scale). (Wikipedia)

I spent hours and hours there and still did not see everything. It is quite deceptive. You think you’ve seen every room but then you find another small corridor, and yet another and another. A real rabbit warren. I also have the DVD documentary and catalogue — which are works of fantastic fiction in themselves.

• Museum of Jurassic Technology 

Ghibli Museum

I’m a fan of Studio Ghibli and their beautiful animated films as I’m sure many of you are. But did you know they’ve also created a museum? The Executive Director of the Museum, Hayao Miyazaki, has published the design philosophy for the museum, part of which is here:

I kind of museum I want to make!:

A museum that is interesting and which relaxes the soul
A museum where much can be discovered
A museum based on a clear and consistent philosophy
A museum where those seeking enjoyment can enjoy, those seeking to ponder can ponder, and those seeking to feel can feel
A museum that makes you feel more enriched when you leave than when you entered! (source)

• Ghibli Museum

DanCoyote’s ZeroG SkyDancers

DanCoyote is a creator in the online virtual world Second Life. One of his works is the immensely popular (and hard to get the chance to experience) ZeroG SkyDancers. I know I included only real life places and events in my initial description, but I think this qualifies as an ‘experience’. It is described at the NMC as follows: 

Second Life’s history making, critically acclaimed world performance group, the ZeroG SkyDancers is a new form of ensemble performance that uses the airspace of this virtual world, resulting in a cross between water ballet and aerial acrobatics, in ways that would not be possible in the physical world. Wearing spectacular, flowing costumes called cascades – that are many times larger than their avatars – the SkyDancers move through space, and become part of the stage themselves. Altering and evolving, their flight triggers audio samples, which provide a unique layer to the original musical score commissioned for the production.  (source)

• DanCoyote page on ZeroG SkyDancers

Now, these are certainly not the only places one can include in this wacky category I’ve created. There are others that are yet to jump back to my memory. I’d love to hear of any you have experienced, or would like to experience.

References

Riewoldt, O., Ed. (2002) Brandscaping: Worlds of Experience in Retail Design = Erlebnisdesign für Einkaufswelten. Basel ; Boston, MA, Birkhauser-Publishers for Architecture.

But, since focusing on one strategy in isolation is evidently not the most effective approach, I will step back and look at the bigger picture. One of the issues with ARGs is that they are often referred to as hoaxes, and sometimes (rarely) experienced as hoaxes. So my questions have been:

1) Are ARGs hoaxes?
2) Why are ARGs referred to hoaxes?
3) Why are some ARGs experienced as a hoax?
4) Why is it most ARGs not experienced as hoaxes?

And here are the answers:

Are ARGs hoaxes?
No. As I outlined in a post last year, a hoax is an attempt to trick, to deceive an audience into thinking something is real. Though many ARG designers try to make their content look indistinguishable from real life content as possible, the effort is not to deceive the player but to furnish a storyworld, an entertainment environment. They”re not trying to fool them, they”re trying to entertain them. An aim of an ARG is not to have players realise it was all fiction in the end, but to have enjoyed the different way the fictional world was created (indeed co-created). There is more I can say on this obviously, but I”ll leave it here for now because I think the other points will support this argument.

Why are ARGs called Hoaxes?
Many commentators refer to ARGs as hoaxes. This is for a few reasons, some of which I”ll posit here. One, they”re just using the term because someone else has used it but don”t really know either way. Two, even if the person knows ARGs to not be hoaxes, they may use the term anyway because it is dramatic. Three, they”re aware of ARGs, such as Save my Husband and Hope is Missing, that were experienced as hoaxes and tar all ARGs with the same brush. Four, they”re somewhat familiar an ARG design aesthetic of TINAG (this is not a game) where (among other things) the fictional status of an ARG is denied and played down as much as possible and think this correlates exactly with a hoax. It is this last possible reason for the ”hoax” labelling which I think pervades much thinking. There is this belief that ARGs have absolutely NO FICTIONAL CUES both inside the content and around the content. But it seems that drilling down and looking at why most ARGs have not been experienced as ARGs renders that TINAG assumption false. Designers do put in cues to its fictionality status. But first, I want to have a look at the ARGs that have been considered hoaxes.

Why Are Some ARGs Experienced as a Hoax?
In my previous post here I cited the example of Hope is Missing. Jumping off from Lance Weiler”s retrospective assessment of one aspect of his ARG, I cited the issue of people not being able to distinguish a work of fiction without paratextual cues (eg: a disclaimer or production company credit). When I look at videos and websites of works that have been regarded as hoaxes (ARGs and non-ARGs) it is pretty clear to me that they are a work of fiction. But that is because I have developed fiction-identifying skills. I cited a recent study that talks about the skills of the ”Google Generation” and how they do not have critical assessment skills for the web. Weiler recognised this issue and posited that his ARG perhaps would not have been perceived as an ARG if it was first launched within the ARG community. You see, ARGers not only have these ”judgement” skills, they also produce a lot of content that identifies the works as fiction. But there is a more common strategy that ARG designers use to make it clear that an ARG is a work of fiction.

Why Is It Most ARGs Aren”t Experienced as Hoaxes?
As I said earlier, it seems concentrating on one strategy seems to cause problems. So, after a good chat with Steve Peters and SpaceBass in the comments of the last post, I”ve garnered a few strategies that seem to point towards many ARGs have not been experienced as hoaxes. I”ve divided them into cues within the content and those around it (paratextual).

In-Content Clue: Set in Known Fictional World
The Metacortechs ARG launched outside the ARG community but had the ARG community playing very early on. They didn”t have an issue of it being construed as a hoax (except for the issue about who the creators were). A reason? The content referred to a known fictional world: The Matrix universe. Terms such as ”metacortechs” etc are in The Matrix and so were picked up by Matrix fans almost immediately.

In-Content Clue: include ‘Unrealistic Statements of Truth’
In our comment discussion, Steve Peters mentioned that in the press release of Metacortechs, they described it as the world”s leading software company. This reminded me of Virgil Tatum in the ARG Art of the Heist being referred to as a ”master video game auteur”. So, another strategy is to include statements that are fairly easily identifed as being false.

But the point with the ”judgement” issue is that despite clues of unrealistic statements (and even production quality or bad scripting etc) that many people still won”t be able to tell the difference. If I ever doubt this phenomena, I just recall my step-sister who last year, at the age of 18, spent many sleepless nights after I gave her the Blair Witch Project book. It was a few days before I realised that she had no idea that the Blair Witch movie was a work of fiction and couldn”t tell that in the book either.

So, if one cannot rely on certain factors inside the content, then perhaps what ARG designers do outside of the core content is the better strategy?

Around Content Clue: Access Through Existing Fictional World
Most large-scale ARGs have made the link between the ARG and a work of fiction (whether already existing or forthcoming) explicit from the beginning: The Beast, I Love Bees, Dark Knight for instance, had an early link to the ARG through a film or game trailer or from the main film website. There were sites on the Internet but then it was predominantly the credit for a sentient therapist on the A.I.Artificial Intelligence trailer that brought most of the players in. The same with the trailer for I Love Bees, which had a quick flash a few times of www.ilovebees.com at the end, and more recently with the trailer for The Host, in which the URL www.monsterhuntclub.com was listed after the words ”Monsters Are Real”. And as for Dark Knight. The first main fictional site was revealed on the main film site shortly after its launch on May 12th. Then on May 19th there were cards found in comic book stores etc. Also, the ReGenesis ERG had an entry-point into the game (the online tour of the fictional company) situated in the television show website. So, although there may be elements of the game out in various communities, there is a very short time between fictional content being discovered and there being an explicit link between a fictional property and it.

Around-Content Clues: Access-Restrictions to Fictional World
One of the techniques Xenophile Media does with their ReGenesis Extended Reality Games is to make all the fictional sites only accessible by players who have registered for the game. And as I said in the previous point, players enter the game via the television show site so the relationship is very clear in at least two ways.

Around-Content Clues: Access Through Players
What about ARGs that don”t want to announce an ARG is part of an existing fictional world at the beginning (which is what Weiler wanted to do with Hope is Missing)? Well, another way is to ensure that there are paratextual (that is: content external to the main work) announcing it as a work of fiction. So, if there is no explicit link between a product and property made then the designer has to rely on players and commentators. Since ARG communities are the most adept at judging if something is a work of fiction or not or perhaps more appropriately can identify ARG techniques being employed, and they are quite prolific in their experience of game then they would be a good pathway to the fictional content. But it doesn”t have to be ARG players. Metacortechs had Matrix communities providing that fiction-frame, and likewise Dark Knight had superhero communities. But once again, these are players of an existing fiction. If you”re going to launch an ARG that is not part of an existing fiction or don”t want to announce it until the end…well then ARG players I”d say are your best bet.

To show how these techniques can be used in combination, here is an example from Art of the Heist , which was commissioned to raise awareness (and sales) of the Audi A3 — and so did not have an existing fictional property (but had a product). Here is a chart of the rollout of the beginning of the ARG, based on data from McKinney-Silver’s official report video:

Now, as you can see they first put the ingame, story sites online, then major ad buys for ingame advertising of ‘art retrieval’ services and Virgil Tatum (‘master video game auteur’). And then it was announced in the ARG community and then the video of the fictional break-in and then the ‘official launch’ at the car show, and then the PM-created gameplay sites. So, firstly the fictional world is furnished across the web and newspapers and these ads target lots of different communities. The ads raise awareness and curiosity. Who is this person claiming to a ”master video game auteur”? So, for a short while there is open speculation about the nature of the artifacts but perhaps the inflated claims about Virgil Tatum serve as fictional cues for some people. Either way, the ARG community is aware of it and they are announcing it on their main blog and are discussing it in their game forum unfiction. Players start to create gameplay resources. Then there is a break-in video which in my mind is the beginning of the game (the event that starts the plot and gives the players a mission). A few days later attendees at the Auto show see a missing Audi because of the theft. This launches it officially to the greater community but the ARG community is already in play. Then there is a PM-created gameplay blog and a micro-site on Audi. So, people learn about and access the game through the ARG community, Audi, media coverage of the ”marketing” enacted by Audi, and the ARG designer-created gameplay resource. [Post-Post Addition: Co-designer of this ARG, Michael Monello, commented that the ARG designer-created gameplay resource (the blog) made it very clear it was a game. See his comments below.] Here we can see how all of these strategies work together.

Basically the point is that most ARGs seem to avoid falling into the hoax pit of deception in a number of ways. It is clear that there is often an early clue that it is a work of fiction within the content (eg: set in a fictional world), but due to issues of judgement it is perhaps better to rely on the path people take to an ARG, how they discover it. That is: accessing it through an existing fiction or through players. In many cases even the ARG community benefit from the fiction-paths that PMs create. So, as we can see, the belief that the TINAG philosophy means PMs take out all the clues to fictionality (which is something I argued for a while), is false. However, the cues to fictionality are in many cases outside the work, in paths created by PMs and players.