portland film festival 2014: existenz alternate reality game
DESCRIPTION
A presentation I gave at the Portland Film Festival on August 30, 2014 for the STORYWORLDS - Transmedia & Interactive Storytelling panel: http://portlandfilmfestival2014.sched.org/event/96c925e1207c95871904e322a9770a72#.VAe5nmRdX62 The presentation was about a grotesque Alternate Reality Game based on the David Cronenberg film eXistenZ. Created by my friend Alex Grunenfelder and I as a surprise game for about 30 of our friends in February 2014. More info: http://eesmyal.com/portfolio/alternate-reality-game-existenz/TRANSCRIPT
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What’s an ARG?Wikipedia:
An Alternate Reality Game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and uses transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions.
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ARG Elements• Storytelling as archaeology
• Platformless narrative
• A whisper is sometimes louder than a shout
• "This is not a game” aesthetic
• Real life as a medium
• Collaborative storytelling
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AI: the Beast• elaborate murder mystery played out across
hundreds of websites, email messages, faxes, fake ads, and voicemail messages
• hired Sean Stewart, an award-winning science fiction/fantasy author, to write the story and Pete Fenlon, an experienced adventure game "world builder," to serve as developer and content lead
• involved over 3 million active participants
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• Surprise ARG for 30 friends in Feb 2014 !
• Made with friend Alex Grünenfelder
eXistenZ ARG
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eXistenZ ARG
• fake websites, social media accounts
• working phone numbers (SMS / call)
• 3D printed game objects
• real game characters
• live events
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antennaresearch.ca
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antennaresearch.ca
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Twilio & OpenVBX: for SMS, robo calls
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Call / SMS flows
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It started with an SMS invite to beta test a new game…
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Realist Manifesto
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text “in vivo veritas” to 647.496.6422
(Latin for “In a living thing there is truth”)
Realist Recruitment Process
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First Realist Agent (Tom Wynn)
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thank you!
Twitter: @eesmyal
www.eesmyal.com
Want to play an ARG? !Text “play [your city]” to 844.325.4700 (toll-free)