Contextual Studies - Creating a coherent world and question

So far I have been trying to create a question that not only makes sense for the project but than can be answered with enough information to fulfill it. The project at hand is about Coherent Worlds. Here is the brief we have been given.

'This unit considers storytelling in digital games and poses questions about the role of
the story world in the construction of different kinds of digital games. 
It will look at the development of digital games from narrative-based games to Alternate
Reality Games (ARG’s) and MMORG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing
Games).
You will gain further understanding of story worlds, genre and narrative theory
introduced in earlier studies, and learn more about creating narrative and dramatic
elements for digital games. You will investigate the differences between ‘traditional’
digital games and transmedia storytelling, where digital games are only one element of
the story world, researching the characteristics of franchises and ARG’s. You will also
look at worlds that contain little narrative structure but provide coherent worlds of
possibility for players'

We have had many lectures on the different topics written above in the brief. We looked at the various different Genres and the definitions of them to which we had to work in a group to produce a short presentation on a genre and then a specific game. This research is in an early post of the game 'Fuel'. We then looked at Jesper Juul, a games researcher and theorist in the field of videos game studies. We had to look at his article Games telling stories? on gamestudies.org, [1]. After reading it through a few times and even still now finding it hard to really grasp what he saying I can understand and agree on some of the suggestions he makes, an example of this would be 'The primary thing that encourages the player to connect game and movie is the title "Star Wars" on the machine and on the screen. If we imagine the title removed from the game, the connection would not be at all obvious.' This I feel is true, the player immediately ascociates the games story with the films, this create that coherent bridge between them, however in the game this isn't always the case since it doesn't follow the story religiously. Does this mean games tell stories? Yes I feel it certainly does, any game really absract or really complicated has a story and the player can immerse themselves into it. A good and favorite example of mine would be Halo, it's story is big, not just in game but through it's transmedia devices which stretch from the games themselves, books, comics, anime shows, live TV series and even Alternate reality games. All these help towards creating a story that the player can connect to. 

We then looked at Vladimir Propp and his 'spheres of actions'. These spheres of actions are as follows;

1. The Villian
2. Donor
3. The Helper
4. Princess and her Father
5. The Dispatcher
6. The Hero
7. The False Hero

These spheres of actions are common through any narrative structured stories, it may not have all of them but will more than likely have some of them. We had to create a presentation exampling two games and use these 'Spheres of actions' and how they use them. The question for this task was; 'What Sphere(s) of action would you assign to the world of two chosen games and why?', this question was aimed at the world rather than the characters. So how can the world have these spheres of actions?. Well we choose Super Mario and Skyrim. With these in mind we looked at what there might be in Super Mario. We soon discovered that world of Super Mario has a Donor, Villian, Princess and a helper. 

The Donor in SM was; 
 Gives power-ups within the game world. It gives you coins which gives you lives and points.

The Villian;
Time plays against you. The levels have traps and some enemies are obstacles.

The Princess;
You free each world but completing the levels. It's an incentive in progress. 

The Helper:
The environment helps movement and travel throughout each world with moving platforms.

For Skyrim we found it had; The Donor, Princess and Villians.

The Donor;
Gives items and ore throughout the game world.

The Princess;
Factions are fighting for Skyrim, politics, Dragon Born.

Villians;
Traps, Dungeons, dragons killing you at random points. 

We also discovered what defines a game world. The answer we gave was; Anything that doesn't have a sphere of action is part of the game world. The problem is out what is not part of the games world.

So, what have I come up with then? Well I have looked over at what really the word coherent means, I want to know what the brief means and wants, besides a 10 minute presentation on your own, yippee. The best answer is 'logically connected'. So are the worlds within different medias or as put in the brief 'trasmedia storytelling' connected logically and basically make sense, do they link together. Anyway enough of that, here are the questions I have though about;

How is Link, the main protagonist in the Legend of Zelda game coherently represented in the cartoon show? 

How has Halo been coherently represented through its transmedia storytelling devices?

Does alternate reality gaming add more depth to the players experience in relation to the original media?

How important are transmedia storytelling devices when it comes to creating coherent worlds in game?

All these questions are either too short or harder to answer than I anticipated, I need to look at this from a broader perspective, I think I will create a study looking at coherent worlds in Alternate Reality Gaming. I will study how they are logically linked to the original media and if it adds depth to the players experience. I will also look at the different transmedia devices used and how important they are to the gaming industry and film industry.

I want to look at what transmedia storytelling means, in short it just means telling stories across multiple platforms using digital technology. Sure it's simple to put it like that but of course this is cs. I stumbled upon this writer; 

Chuck Wendig  

Chuck Wendig is equal parts novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He is the author of the novels DOUBLE DEAD, BLACKBIRDS, and MOCKINGBIRD. In addition, he's got a metric boatload of writing-related e-books available, including the popular 500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with wife, dog, and newborn progeny.

He wrote an article [2] explaining transmedia storytelling and what you should know, he put 25 points. I liked and enjoyed reading this article because it bold and humorous and at the same time blunt and honest, it made sense rather than these stupidly written cryptic articles with big words that aren't necessary (my opinion of course). 

I like this post;

14. The Word I like: "Emergence" 

I’m starting to feel that the success of a given transmedia project lives or dies on how much emergence it affords — emergent game play being unexpected or unintended game interaction, and emergent narrative being stories growing out of the experience that you did not plan for or anticipate (and note that both are strongly driven by audience). You cannot demand or force emergence, but I think you can cultivate it by leaving room for it, by designing aspects that cede  authorial control (or some portion of it) to those who are participating in your story. It also may work if you just hand out buckets of hallucinogens.

It talks about the success of its transmedia project depends on the audience that is involved, if it  offers enough emergence for the player to feel some control over what is happening. This ties hand in hand with ARGs, although there is much speculation over how much control the player has do with the story the player still has control on how to get there and how quickly there get there, this type of transmedia storytelling is different from a comic book or a film since it offers the player to join forces with other people to solves the game and also to take time or no time at all in solving it. A book does not simply off the same satisfaction for say a murder mystery as it is for an ARG. This I feel really pulls the player in to feel immersed within this game world and almost be it a part of their own real life. ARGs are created to feel as if its part of the real world, their success comes from a creative story and the transmedia storytelling devices that they use, whether or not they add more depth to the players experience is besides the point, if it creates that coherent world with its original media then an ARG is successful, is it not?

I decided to look at Henry Jenkins and his article on 'Transmedia Storytelling 101' [3]

His first point:

1. Transmedia storytelling represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes it own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. So, for example, in The Matrix franchise, key bits of information are conveyed through three live action films, a series of animated shorts, two collections of comic book stories, and several video games. There is no one single source or ur-text where one can turn to gain all of the information needed to comprehend the Matrix universe.

This is so very true, another example from this is the franchise Halo, its main source is its games, however there are many different transmedia storytelling devices, there are books, comic, live TV actions series and even anime shows, all these create this coherent world but each help to produce back stories, different characters, different time zones, no one can just simply find one place for all of the story in one book or one game, its spread out across all media. 

I am picking up on his point because transmedia storytelling is important when it comes to ARGs and how they are made, portrayed and played etc.  

This next part is me attempting to write about Alternate Reality Gaming. 

A study looking at coherent worlds in Alternate Reality Gaming

I am going to be looking at the coherent worlds within ARGs, how they add depth to the players experience in relation to its original media, the different types of transmedia storytelling devices they use create these links and what makes them successful.

So, what is alternate reality gaming? To put simply it’s a way of collaborating people to join forces in solving puzzles or mysteries. They use transmedia storytelling devices such as mail, emails, phone calls and other various devices. They are controlled by the creator themselves meaning that the player can’t alter what happens but can make it to the next step in the puzzle. There is as always a reward for solving these games, I’ll explain more about the different types of rewards that ARGs give.

What makes a successful ARG? It’s a big question really, one that I cannot simply answer in 10 minutes. However some of the main structures that are needed to create a successful arg is its coherent links to its original media. It has to relate in a way that the player can over time recognise -what it is. It needs to be planned out well enough that it can hook the player and immerse them within this real life platform game. It needs a good plot, a good story that the player can hunt and search for clues for it. Most ARGs are free, this is a big win win situation for the player because it then gives them the option to play. Now whilst researching I came across a useful and interesting site, it talks about 5 rules of alternate reality games. There are 5 points made by Ivan Askwith [4], he made these points after playing an ARG called 'The Lost Experience', considered to be one of the most successful ARGs of all time, he published a 'White Paper' with his findings from the campaign. He then established guidelines for anyone wanting to create an ARG. Here are the 5 points mades:

1. The experience matters most.
2. If advertising isn't making it better, it's probably making it worse.
3. Know what you're getting into.
4. Expect players to exceed your expectations.
5. Build communities, not audiences and markets.

A pretty straight forward list of the things to do when creating an ARG, of course there will be more in depths views and answers to creating an ARG and a successful one at that, here is one that succeeded these rules;   

The first real successful and influential arg was ‘The Beast’ [5], created in 2001 to promote the film A.I it ran for 12 weeks in the spring and early summer. In short The Beast was a murder mystery game. It became so popular that the designers had to create sub plots to keep the players entertained.

It started off by them altering the credits at the end of a trailer and movie posters by putting ‘Sentient Machine Therapist - JEANIE SALLA’ as one of the crew, since when is that job in the film industry? When this was discovered people from around the world then googled her name and was confronted with various made up website relating to her, within in these websites were clues, there were phone numbers on her bio and those curious enough rang this number and heard a message back saying that her friend Evan Chan had recently died on an AI-enhanced vessel called Cloudmaker.  From here it then spiraled into several clues about how Evan was murdered, eventually a group formed on Yahoo called the Cloudmakers, named after the vessel who combined together to solve all the clues, meanwhile the creators were still producing it as they went along, this was a highly successful ARG.

How does this relate to the original movie?

The Beast creates a coherent link between the movie and the plot of the game but creating a world around the AI robots and what kind of technology is around then. It created plots that involved AI-enhanced boats and therapists needed for robots themselves. The murder mystery takes place 16 years after the original story in the film, however it relates to the film well enough that created enough attention for the film to then become a big hit. It created a coherent world around its original film media and hooked the players in. 

Now lets look at  an ARG that wasn't so successful

At the same time as The beast Electronic Arts was developing Majestic [6][7]. Although it launched after The Beast had finished. It was a science fiction thriller that involved players to solve the puzzles by various forms of technology media such as phone calls, AOL messenger, fax and visting websites. It played the same way that 'The Beast' was played but failed due to lack of players. Other reasons were because the game cost to play, the first pilot episode was free to play but from there on you had to be part of EAs platinum service. There were some other reasons why as well but for the most part this ARG wasn't as successful as 'The Beast' or others.

I feel the trouble is with this ARG the reason of course obviously is because of the lacking in numbers of players but this is most likely due to the fact you had to pay for the next lot of episodes, you had to wait until you weren't out of 'standby' once you had completed the tasks and puzzles of that day. If I look back up at what I wrote about successful ARGs it's down to not being free. Now of course it's all down to this, there are other reasons and probably more valid reasons but without the audience it will most likely fail.  

Do ARGs add more depth to the player’s experience?

To answer my question simply, yes it does. However I have to take a step back from this answer as it’s just a matter of my opinion. Not everyone will feel like it has added depth to their experience. After all the original story is the foundation on which it has taken its place from right? Not only that but the original story can sometimes and most times be the best there is. When I start talking about original media of course we all know that when a game, film, book whatever the media is, is then re made, most of the time it’s bad because they change so much that well coherent really isn’t the right word for them.

I need to look at this question with being unbiased. I need to look at really if it does exist in creating this immersive experience for the player and if it adds a better and more in depth experience for the player compared to its original media.

I am going to look at this question by looking at another famous ARG, ilovebees [8].

Ilovebees was created as marketing viral for the game Halo 2 by Bungie in 2002. The ARG was created by 42 Entertainment [9]

Their goal:

‘Create a campaign extending the IP of the Halo brand in a clever way to attract mainstream press.

Based on the Halo fiction, ilovebees was an original radio drama that was deconstructed and delivered to consumers over an unlikely broadcast medium: ringing payphones. ilovebees was a giant multi-player, multi-platform story, immersing players in the world of Halo2 in the four months leading up to the title’s record shattering launch.

During the campaign players hunted down and answered payphones in all 50 states and several countries around the world. Each week a new episode was broadcast to the phones which the players obsessively sought out in order to unlock the content online for the broader community playing the game.

Their plan worked, it attracted a lot of attention from the press and helped to promote the game even more, it also worked to involve the player in the game. The game immersed these players into a world that wasn’t real but yet felt so real, its audio logs felt real and therefore made the entire experience exciting and worth following. Did this game add more depth to the experience in relation to Halo 2? Yes in short it did, it was a huge success, and it brought new story into the Halo franchise which was coherent to the original media. Of course many people can argue that it may not have added to the personal experience but when looking at its coherent worlds it didn’t stray the player away from its original story.

What kind of transmedia storytelling devices did they use to create this game?

Ilovebees used payphones as a way of connecting the players to the game, it meant that people had to get off the arse and go outside to gather these clues. People would then answer these payphones and give code words to unlock these clues, the clues are ‘axons’, unlock so many of them and then it unlocks ‘wav.’ Files that can be listened to on the website [8], there is an archive now that is on the site for anyone that wants to listen to them. They relate to Halo and its franchise, this I feel gives the player an in depth experience and in creating a coherent world with Halo.

What has made these ARGs so successful then?

Is it the story, the devices it uses to convey them, the coherent worlds in which it takes place? Well in truth all of the above, it relies of creating an obvious link between it and its original media whilst carrying a mystery to it, that’s what hooks the players, the players want to know more, they want to find out and most of all they’re immersed in this real life game. Do ARGs create a coherent world, yes I feel they do, they provide a part of what the original media is all about, it bridges that gap from which people might have questions, it may even be part of that story before its original media is released. ARGs are a good way of marketing a game, film, books, cd and pretty much anything really and how they do it is up to the creators, we’re just here for the journey in which it takes us, they create this link that is logically connected to the original media and help plant that idea in our minds. They help to bridge that gap which I mentioned, a good example of this is the ARG created for the TV show Lost, and it was created between the second season and third to keep people interested and to create a story that coherently linked between the two, after all we sometimes wonder what happened before, after and even between some games, films, books etc.  The key success for this is also what is revealed from these, too much and it might annoy some people, too little and again it may annoy some people, however some or most will agree. Overall the genre Alternate Reality Gaming has its own right in creating coherent worlds in relation to its original media, it also provides to some people a more in depth experience with its various forms of transmedia storytelling devices.

Notes
Useful websites;

Narrative_Friction_in_Alternate_Reality_Games
ilovebees - youtube
Dark Knight ARG - youtube
5-most-insane-alternate-reality-games
ilovebees wav. file
game-theory-it-s-just-a-fantasy-but-real-life-is-always-in-play


Bibliography
[1] http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/
[2] http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/04/17/25-things-you-should-know-about-transmedia-storytelling/   
[3] http://henryjenkins.org/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html 
[4] http://wallblog.co.uk/2011/10/07/5-rules-of-alternate-reality-games-2/
[5] http://www.cracked.com/article_19346_the-5-most-insane-alternate-reality-games_p2.html 
[6] http://gamingirresponsibly.com/top-ten-alternate-reality-games-of-all-time
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majestic_%28video_game%29
[8]http://www.ilovebees.com 
[9] http://www.42entertainment.com/bees.html