THE PHONE

Ryan GaspariniIvan Tay

Alicia Byrnes

STORY SYNOPSIS

• protagonist finds phone

• discovers the phone contains strange video footage of the owner ostensibly being followed by men in suits

• looks further and discovers texts, more videos, pictures, and telephone numbers

• posts findings on a Wordpress blog to seek help

• the fan culture surrounding concepts of paranormal activity

MIB’s Star Wars UFOs

• the notion of such fan cultures appropriating a piece of fiction to seem more real

MY TRIBE

GENERATING INTEREST

As we sought to maintain authenticity, promoting the artefact was a delicate process

•Posted to online platforms acting as protagonist YouTube 4Chan

• Distributed posters around RMIT City Campus

We chose not to post to Facebook to maintain authenticity.

YouTube Channel

Posters

GENERATING INTEREST - OUTCOMESIncrease in page views of blog after linking

via 4Chan and posters

USER INTERACTION

Alternate reality games require players to use clues from a variety of media to solve puzzles and participate via the Internet in an evolving

story.-Gupta, 2008

USER INTERACTION

CLUES• clues were integral to user engagement as they encouraged audience participation

• clues demonstrated convergence culture as they were integrated through various media platforms

mobile phone number with voicemail

link to password protected website

Google Map

Blog post relaying mobile phone number

USER INTERACTION

USER INTERACTIONPassword protected website

IMPROVEMENTS

• could have improved user interaction, ie. enabled users to alter outcomes or change the narrative

• with a larger time frame we could have produced more content- blog posts were cut from 18 to 12 in order to condense information

CONCLUSIONS

• developed creative ways to maintain authenticity while still considering ethics

• planned successfully - stayed on track with timeline

• learned how to create stories around multiple media platforms

FIN