More on Niantic Project ARG/Narrative

Well, the google Niantic Project is going strong and seems to have more coming.  A lot has happened just in this last month of full on launch.  There was a massive shift in the ARG about half way into the month when Google released Ingress - www.ingress.com  it made a huge split and created a new wave of "players" many of these however were not interested in the ARG or backstory (some in chat have said that very thing) but just the Ingress video game app - it was fascinating to watch the IRC channel change from the puzzle solving and chatting to the new audience of gamers - there was such a difference... it was, odd and a definite people watching moment to see the shifts and changes.

It looks like this project has no signs of stopping, a second month timeline at www.nianticproject.com looks to be starting tomorrow.

Plus in this article - http://allthingsd.com/20121115/google-launches-ingress-a-worldwide-mobile-alternate-reality-game/  J. Hanke, the head of Niantic Labs - the department seeming to be behind this, or at least the PR face for this, mentions a long event.

I wanted to continue my community and fan based thread and thoughts and, i will get to that, but WOW a number of communities appeared overnight with the advent of the Ingress video game app element - there are dozens of groups.  Also, as the IRC and ARG puzzle solvers were overrun by the Ingress gamers, more wikis and google docs and other outlets have appeared, these are more one or two people, but are attempting to continue the puzzle solving.

There is so much going on with this project and event, people have been making art and similar by the 100s and 1000s to try and get invite codes to the Ingress game, have to admit, getting people to do something for the invites and especially creative art and similar is awesome.  Also, google is collecting a buttload of map data as people are taking pictures of local art, murals, science places and similar to try and get portals made. plus, they send in a map error when a portal is located wrong - what a way to do free data collection...

And I could go on, I need to, there is a lot to talk about and point out, but I am off to try and hack a portal.

Oh, for the record, for now, I joined the Enlightened side, even if it seems like the Shapers are not so nice.... ;)

TapJoint and SXSWesteros

So, two new narratives, events, games, interesting way to tell a story can across my Twitter scanner this evening and both look fun, although one is better lending to my time than the other.

Also, something very, very interesting is the diminished turnaround time between the story being introduced and fans taking over and setting up shop (aka discussions on unfiction, working the wiki and more) to take advantage of a story - are readers/story users finally starting to really groove to alternate story delivery and beginning to make connections to make the story better and to keep it flowing?

I hope the answer is yes... also, I have to admit, I am not a crack puzzle solver, so middle level puzzles/interaction projects are more accessible to me, and it seems like more of these types of projects are starting to come out (part because mainstream has caught this form finally, part because people are better at making this type of story and part because it has finally really moved into the fan realm - meaning - just like the first sets of fanfiction being a form of entertainment made by fans, for fans rather than a professional, fan ARGs, transmedia narrative and shared storyworlds are starting to be made by fans.

All of which means, more story to explore :) so the two stories

The first is Tapjoint - http://tapjoint.com/

I've only looked at it a little, been intrigued, giddy, frustrated and then slowly drawn in (well until I had to go back and finish a work project) ;)

This article provides a good overview - http://www.argn.com/2012/03/telegraphs_to_an_alternate_world_with_tap_joint/

Here is a wiki already up for sharing of code and story - http://tapjoint.wikia.com/wiki/Tapjoint_Wiki

And here is a mobile option that also has a way for us keyboard lovers to better enter - http://tapjoint.com/mobile/

I recommend start at the official site first and see how much you can suss out on your own. Then read the ARGNet article and from there use the wiki and even better, contribute to the wiki

The second is a Twitter mashup/interactive with the SXSW conference

SXSWesteros - http://sxswesteros.wordpress.com/ and https://twitter.com/#!/SXSWesteros

Essentially as you can find at the wordpress site, this is a "role-play" AU fiction, not sure what name to use - narrative.

from the site -

#SXSWesteros asks the question: What if a similar event was held in the Seven Kingdoms?

What sort of panel discussions would there be?

What kind of keynote addresses? What parties? What mischief?

To play along, simply act as if #SXSWesteros is happening… and YOU are there.

Tweet about what panels you see. What parties you are attending. Who is hanging out with whom.

Make sure all of your posts include the hashtag #SXSWesteros.

A neat way to make a conference that much more interactive and fun!

So - give one or both a try. For now, I am off to tap in some more code.

How one finds a "rabbit hole" - aka The Skirts film

Alright - so here is my firsthand account (well a bit vague as I did a lot of clicking and wandering around) of how I found a new story/transmedia property or whatever ya wanna call it. I am very interested in the concept of UX (user experience) and user narrative, so I thought I'd try to document how just this simple little journey worked. I am amazed as I started writing this entry how far that little rabbit hole or entry point led me.

1. So, I am going through my twitter stream and I come across this tweet - http://twitter.com/#!/Megaton_us/status/108664814808731648 from Megaton_US.

1a. Megaton hosts a very cool all things Post-apocalyptic site - http://www.megaton.us/ which I started following because
1b. I participate in World of Depleted - http://worldofdepleted.com/ a very cool post-apocalyptic film, story, shared storyworld.
1c. Megaton was woven into the WoD storyworld as well as being a supported/Dark Dreamer and more, and thus I found out about the Megaton site and began following it and Megaton's Twitter account

2. So I value Megaton's tweets because of the WoD connection so, I decide to check out the link in the tweet. That brings me to

3. The Skirts Kickstarter page - http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jacklawrence/the-skirts-a-post-apocalyptic-short-film

3b. I poke around a bit and become intrigued. I decide I will back it (but not tonight, too much on my plate), yet, I do

3c. Retweet Megaton's tweet about the campaign

4. Then I decide I like the project and post it to My World of Depleted Tumblr log and my writing Tumblr log

5. I also decide to follow TheSkirts on Twitter - http://twitter.com/theskirts

6. As I am going through their older tweet stream - I come across this tweet - http://twitter.com/#!/TheSkirts/status/108613458098012160

which sends me to

7. Their Facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/theskirts

7b - very specifically - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.212906358766029.51387.196411983748800&l=58162459f1

The one poster/picture looks cool so I click it - (I am posting it below, I hope The Skirts do not mind) - well as I start to read it I find myself going WTF is NerveFLu - that sounds wacko - and then I see at the bottom of the flyer

8 A website - http://www.nerveflu.info/

8b - I am looking around it, kinda suspicious, then I recall why - the name of the city at the top of the page - I had just read about that city name - in the Kickstarter campaign

8c - going oh cool I started clicking around the NerveFlu site

and still have more to explore, as I said, I have limited time right now, but will come back and play a bit more.

I did do a little more clicking here and there, but that is a general account of my zig zag path down The Skirt's rabbit hole.

I do hope this project gets made, if for no other reason than to see the story that is behind my curious hike through this multi-piece story.

And if any peoples associated with The Skirts every stumbles on this, will there be other rabbit holes and pieces to find (are they already out there and I just have not found them yet...)

Thanks for the fun and journey.

oh on a postscript - my little one saw the QR Code on the Flyer picture as I was inserting it in this blog and went ooo a QR Code, we must scan it and so we used our iTouch to scan it, which lead us to the nerveflu site as well

Cloudiness - some thoughts

so much going on - Bridging program I direct about to start at the high school, getting ready for my college classes, heading to Gen Con in a couple weeks, working on World of Depleted stories, wiki and more, excited about the Far West Kickstarter project, Held first meeting for starting up a shared storyworld, getting back to my writing group and more

But, as I flit and flutter from one point to another, I came across this article

http://cultureby.com/2007/01/cloudiness_of_s.html - Cloudiness: of selves, groups, networks and ideas by Grant. It is from Jan, 2011 and I meant to read it and talk about it way back then, but better late than never.

Anyone interested in how the Internet, community, communication and culture are changing should at least can this article.

He mentions the way we are turning into clouds of connections with all of the assorted methods we communicate these days. And the difference between self pre and post computer/digital communication.

The author offers some good examples of what cloudiness is and how this form of interaction works. Some might say this is an example of a digital native vs older generations.

He even has a “transmedia” example as cloudiness by nature is transmedian in nature

I really suggest you take a gander – I leave you with the last two thoughts from his article.

“Summing up. The self and the group, when electronically mediated, reaches out in all directions, embracing more topics and contacts that it might reach out and embrace still more topics and contacts. Selfhood is expanding outwards, and this be much more exciting and fun, if we did not finding ourselves expanding into a certain conceptual, categorical cloudiness and the task of thinking down to test our assumptions and up to query our purposes.

Or perhaps this is wrong. There may be a model out there that could give cloudiness a "house that Jack build" clarity. Perhaps all these things do go together and we just need to build the model that shows us how. When it works best, culture doesn’t just make the world intelligible. It gives the world a "just so" quality (and when it works really well it makes everything seems so just.) Maybe there’s a way to make this happen. Maybe you, dear reader, can explain this to me.”

Far West

So, I just backed http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/Adamant/far-west-western-wuxia-mashup-adventure-game

It looks really cool and sounds like a good game - it has the west angle and also the Wuxia theme.

Anyone else planning on backing or interested in playing?

VH-1 Pop Up Videos and the documentary "Collapse"

So - World of Depleted and Environmental research - watched "Collapse" - very interesting one man show - I think the 1st 30 minutes are prety tight - the rest - a little more preachy.

I LOVED VH-1 POP-UPS (and they are a way to add more story/content) so reading this http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/05/vh1-revives-pop-up-video-behind-the-music-renews-mob-wives-love-hip-hop.html made me happy

And along with those two themes - good article on on-fictional use of transmedia delivery - http://documentarytech.com/?p=8161

Tumbr

Well started a Tumblelog for assorted projects - more just to learn how to work Tumblr - I am trying to learn the best way to use each social media/crossmedia/transmedia/etc tool/resource - tumblr I think would be good for video and pictures - but well see - here are the tumblelogs

My general one - geologylady.tumblr.com

My World of Depleted - www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/worldofdepleted-jojo

Transmedia Resources - transmediaresources.tumblr.com/

For Quixotic Taboos and Copper Rock Project/Storyworld - quixotictaboos.tumblr.com/

Gary Hayes and visualizing ideas

I really do like the visuals Gary Hayes creates - here are a couple that show diversity in transmedia and similar projects

Visual and interactive future

Reading through this article - www.niemanlab.org/2011/04/ap-interactive-visualizes-a-future-of-stories-that-reach-beyond-text/

It is a good summary and example of how the world is moving to a more visual/pictoral means of communication.

The world started with oral means as a major method of telling stories and sharing content. Then the written word began to replace that. Now a more pictoral form is taking shape.

Something interesting I note, and I am sure linguistic people have detailed this even more, true visual/pictoral communication may be the most global form of communication as oral and written require knowing the language, yet most of us can decipher what a photo of a fish is....

Also of note - America's education system has been cutting art and media programs for years, and now, perhaps, art and media education will be needed once again.... I love the way the world cycles ;)

And as a side note - this goes to supporting the trend of moving to cross-media/transmedia forms of content consumption - You know, I really like that phrase - content consumption :P

comments on a transmedia and high ed post

Read this article http://meetcontent.com/blog/2011/04/transmedia-storytelling-in-higher-ed/ and had to comment

My comment

Wonderful post - I teach high school and college and weave transmedia elements into many of my classes. I have found there are many things to consider when moving to this approach. It takes time and planning to move a story (or in education a lesson) across multiple points (whether you want to say platforms, mediums or storylines). Then there is the need to assess in some manner how effective the delivery was to students and if the student was educated (and as we must keep in mind, educated in the goal/objectives that the lesson/story was designed to meet - many transmedia properties by their very nature wander and diverge). Also, many transmedia properties/events/stories/etc. have an element of active participation - which is actually just a more student-centered classroom - yet, many have a hard time designing a learning environment.

I also have some reservations as voiced by another person regarding fictional mixing with reality - are students ready and prepared to separate fact from fiction? There are so many hoaxes and false information now that education has to combat - have we taught the students the needed skills to thrive and learn in a transmedia environment? It is one thing to enter a transmedia universe for pleasure - another for academic/business.... will students be able to make the distinction?

Oh so much to talk about!!!!! :)

Hypernarrative - an old article rediscovered

As I plug away on my collection of transmedia resources - I found this - as I read the assorted recent articles on transmedia and related, it makes me wonder - hypernarrative - an ancestor of #transmedia perhaps? :) ( http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/neapaper.html

I especially like this concept from the article, "Indeed part of the hypertext experience may be described as foraging for episodes."

check out the wiki entry for hypernarrative for more on the article - http://transmediaresources.wikia.com/wiki/Hypernarrative
Check out some of the referenced projets in the article

http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/partyone.html

http://www.eastgate.com/malloy/


http://www.eastgate.com/

transmedia intertextuality - marsha kinder's definition

As I wind my way through updating the transmedia resources wiki - I find resources now and then that just catch my eye and I want to somehow push them out in front a little more - here is one such resource and it is from waaaaaaaaaay back in 1991 ;)

The author uses the term transmedia intertextuality to define and discuss how narrative for children's projects moves across multiple sources and has levels of interaction - great thoughts and one of the very early works in the resurgence of the transmedia concept!

Marsha was transmedia savvy wayyyy back then


source "Playing with Power in Movies, Television, and Video Games: From Muppet Babies to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" by Marsha Kinder, 1991 (published in paperback in 1993)

From her book - "What I found [from recording Saturday morning children's TV] was a fairly consistent form of transmedia intertextuality, which positions young spectators (1) to recognize, distinguish, and combine different popular genres and their respective iconography that cut across movies, television, comic books, commercials, video games, and toys; (2) to observe the formal differences between television and its prior discourse of cinema, which it absorbs, parodies, and ultimately replaces as the dominant mode of image production; (3) to respond to and distinguish between the two basic modes of subject positioning associated respectively with television and cinema, being hailed in direct address by fictional characters or by offscreen voices, and being sutured into imaginary identification with fictional character and fictional space, frequently through the structure of the gaze and through the classical editing conventions of shot/reverse shot; and (4) to perceive both the dangers of obsolescence (as a potential threat to individuals, programs, genres, and media) and the values of compatibility with a larger system of intertextuality, within which formerly conflicting categories can be absorbed and restrictive boundaries erased."

Windmills of our Transmedia Minds

Not sure I mentioned this before - but going through some of my transmedia links/references as I update the transmedia resources database site (www.transmediaresources.com) and the wiki (http://transmediaresources.wikia.com/wiki/Transmedia_Resources_Wiki)

I found the link to this cool app by Gary Hayes called windmills of our transmedia minds - the music is addicting (well to me) and the ideas are very cool, as well as the concept. How many of these have you included in a project of yours?

http://www.personalizemedia.com/randomizers/windmills-of-our-transmedia-minds-app/

Viral power - unanticipated

Well - i got this email this morning and it is related to my last blog post so - who knew ;)

-------------
"Cowgirl Up Fanfic Bible.doc" is being tweeted more than anything else on SlideShare right now. So we've put it on the homepage of SlideShare.net (in the "Hot on Twitter" section).

Well done!

- SlideShare Team

Cowgirl Up Character bible from ms. Myatt

More on this later - but Nancylee Myatt has shared a document with backgrounds, ideas and writing tips for fanfic writers - this is so awesome

Cowgirl Up Fanfic Bible.doc

View more documents from docwho210.

Gettin Started in Transmedia storytelling - awesome resource

Robert Pratten has been writing/creating/living transmedia stories and project for quite awhile - he has put together a lot of what he has noticed and learned in a great resource -

http://transmediastoryteller.com/getting-started-in-transmedia-storytelling

take some time to work through this resource and use it a a springboard for discussion and your own projects.

Review ofPandemic 1.0 and WoD possibility

Well, for a few days I let myself follow a story/ARG/experience a little more intensely than I normally do (my apologies to all my twitter and facebook and other social media people as I flooded my accounts with really odd stuff)

Pandemic 1.0 (or #pandemic11 on twitter) was a transmedia storyworld/experience created by Lance Weiler and others. It is loosely based/takes place in his HiM (Hope is Missing) storyworld from a few years ago (ck http://hopeismissing.blogspot.com/ and http://lanceweiler.com/work/case-study/ for more info on that)

Lance brought a short movie to Sundance as well as a surrounding game/story/ARG (http://www.argn.com/2011/01/sundance_film_festival_is_ground_zero_for_lance_weilers_pandemic_10/ ). He released water bottles, gold objects, phones, actual prop locations, a mission control for people to visit, and more physically at Sundance. He also coordinated a social media story using twitter, facebook, the official web site(www.hopeismissing.com ), Youtube and maybe more.

People at Sundance were encouraged to play and interact with people online.

What resulted was a wild ride, interesting experiment and a story that developed in very odd ways.

I know a lot will be written about this over the next months and such as sooooo much happened (good and bad)

Overall the story is interesting, but not easy to follow (this came out a lot in the social media aspect as wild theories abounded, which is fun, but it was hard to know what was in game and what was not as people were encouraged to play along and I admit, i was followed by at last one "non-official" story pathway/character). There is the promise that this was just the beginning, so who knows.

What I really like, is how much possible avenue there was for participation and how there was potential for not quite needing to have the whole story and yet you could have, potentially, still enjoyed pieces - hence a true transmedia narrative.

If I have time, I could write pages of my experience and what i noted and other bits, and i hope (ooo I made a pun ;) to be able to do that.

For now, I take the immediate that this experience has really piqued my interest and i'd like to run smaller scale versions at small cons and other events as I think this mix of traditional story/traditional gaming/ARG/LARP and digital gaming can work and be a major awesome experience.

I’d love to run/participate in an event along these lines for another storyworld I am very interested in – World of Depleted. I think a mix of this story involvement would fit and I’ve even written a general plot and idea for a few ways you could incorporate this type of interaction and story into the WoD universe.

so here are a few links if interested - and feel free to give a holler - I am always up for chatting (@geologylady on twitter and part of the Pandemic11 Facebook and I watch the World of Depleted Facebookpage too)

Transmedia Resources Updates

I have a few pet projects and one is collecting articles related to transmedia and aligned subjects - I post what I find at http://www.transmediaresources.com/ - and I have probably about 500+ articles sitting in my gmail folder that need to be added, plus there are even more to be searched out.

That said - if anyone is interested in a menial task of helping to review and add resources (it takes me so long because I read the resource before adding and whooo that means lots of reading, thinking and time : )

Well anyhoos - slowly adding more - below is my last little update blurb at the site

--------------
Happy New Year everyone! - It seems the creative juices and discussions continue to flow (a couple of interesting recent articles I like http://muchtoolong.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-makes-good-transmedia-format.html and http://athinklab.com/2010/12/16/a-tale-of-two-trends-augmented-reality-and-transmedia-storytelling/)

As mentioned in both articles, transmedia has continued to build and grow and excite, which means there are a large number of resources. No one can collect all of them (I heave a big sigh as I had this dream to build a transmedia library) if anyone has any ideas on better organization systems for this site - please let me know.

Also, I am alway worried about archival issues - especially as the Internet ebbs and flows and sites disappear - yet there is always a conflict between copyright and just wanting to make sure the ideas and content survive - if you find bad or old links - please let me know, thanks!

I am going to copy three paragraphs from http://muchtoolong.blogspot.com/2010/12/what-makes-good-transmedia-format.html - I recommend reading the whole article (even better, leave comments and start a conversation).

By Simon Staffans - "There are still probably as many definitions of transmedia as there are people talking about transmedia. These are not necessarily differing all that much from each other, but rather in a nuance here or a nuance there. It’s all good though; we should all fear the day when we have the definite definition of what transmedia is. That’s the day when it’s time to start doing something else.

It’s not just talk either. A growing number of people are starting to venture into the field of transmedia to tell their stories. These range from major multi-million dollar ventures to small dramas or documentaries with next to no financial power behind them. Some will fail, even amongst the colossal ones, but some will succeed magnificently, even amongst the small ones – such is the way of the storytelling business.

As more and more projects are being developed, there seems to be a need to look beyond the ”what is transmedia?” or ”why transmedia?” to the much harder ”should I and this project go into transmedia?”

Learning New tools and skills from a game

Today I have increased my tech skill and knowledge thanks to a "game" - I am becoming immersed, of sorts, in the universe loosely know as "World of Depleted" worldofdepleted.com/about.

Today I received a message and was invited to create a Dropbox account and begin sharing files. I have never used dropbox or similar (although I do use Google Docs and cloud share files that way). This is one reason why I like ARGs and similar transmedia properties and why I think they have a great place in our culture - they are a way to teach and demonstrate "practical" use of technology and skills in a compelling way.

I not only use my Barcapture to read the QR code left for me, but I also created a code, and, hopefully, shared it using dropbox (we'll see if that part worked).


Here is the code, as it does pertain to the game and the odd symbols, which I am following.

Transmedia Classroom -

Read over this interesting post on transmedia and the classroom transmythology.com/2010/10/05/the-transmedia-classroom-of-tomorrow

Left a comment (posted here too)

MY comment

very nice post on a topic I am very interested in - I am teaching for the first time this year a curriculum I wrote for Juniors and Seniors in high school generically labeled Environmental Literacy and Transmedia education - yes I snuck in a course in my school that uses transmedia and other concepts and actually lists those in the curriculum content ;) I teach environmental awareness AND transmedia concepts (aka how to navigate content across platforms and to build understand and story as you go, yes I see education as nothing more than many stories to be told and learned ;-)

Your post, IMO, is only the tippy, tippy top of a very exciting and dangerous iceberg (Titanic analogies inserted here).

Game Mechanics in education has actually been around for a bit, but as with other industries, is just now gaining a larger awareness. Our school was fortunate to have Dr. Rebecca Hines come and speak and she discussed game mechanics and I know she was planning on taking her sabbatical to research this more. Florida now has the virtual K-12 program and she discussed some of the curriculum and ARG structured content figures in many of the programs. So there are lots of examples out there, kinda, sorta (insert the what is transmedia discussions here :P

But then, you move to the rural, smaller districts such where I teach and I get hunh and blank stares (from the students, not just the teachers) and oh all those sites are filtered, we just signed AUP agreements that we can not engage in any social media type of interaction with students and, well, everything in many ways associated with transmedia is VERBOTEN in the classroom (We have these standards that have to be met and curriculum we have to follow what do you mean allowing the "user" to contribute and participate ala participatory culture we have to get all this in and have students pass the test)

And digital literacy, digital etiquette and ethics are lacking in all aspects (students/staff/administrators/parents) and that makes for all those sensational news stories that scares an educator back into the closet and away from non-traditional media and content delivery strategies.

And I could go on, I have been working on putting out there what I am doing and trying to look for others doing what I do (not just the ok this is an idea but the hard, cold activities and examples and content because today's teachers are so buried they need that more than the show and tell on what this is type of professional development) - So, I'll stop, for now, but transmedia navigation, the New media literacy skills and the like are very exciting topics for me.... I hope this stirs up many conversations and I look forward to listening and maybe even participating