Thoughts are Progressive

Personal Reflection (The Unit)

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:07:00 +1000

Roles and The Team

My pre-game roles in The Unit were to create the:

Missing Person Poster.
Probull Website.
Write up Spencer’s Diary.
And convince my sister that she wanted to be Annie and do a video blog and voice message for us! No, my sister was very good and didn’t take much convincing.

My in-game roles were:

To be ready with the voice message. Due to my message bank playing up we had to resort to playing Annie’s voice message into Pheobe’s phone. We had tried making it Phoebe’s message bank, but decided it wasn’t clear or loud enough for the game. That was the only technical glitch in our game.
I was the ‘agent’ that the players met outside O’Clock.
And I was with Pheobe, Sharani and Grace in staying one step ahead of the players.

The roles and responsibilities were designated fairly and evenly between the team and we were all very good with getting our parts done in time for the next meeting. Our meetings were productive and we used the time to look at the individual sections we had been allotted to make sure that they were all cohesive in design and to discuss what was next to be completed. I am very glad to have been able to meet and work with Sharani, Grace, Natalie and Pheobe.

The Game Itself

The running of The Unit went really well. There were a couple of small glitches (phone message and thinking O’Clock was O Block), but in the end they didn’t hugely effect game-play. After watching the video of the players, it looks like they had a lot of fun playing our ARG and were a bit stumped every now and again. This was good because it forced them to think and meant that our clues where challenging enough.

Some Explaining.

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:10:00 +1000

Immersion: The idea is that the set up of the plot should make it difficult to know that Amene is false. The integration of it into the real world should be seamless. Having an actual product that people can buy and using real world companies to back it are part of this illusion. Then the game-play shouldn’t detract from it as they make sense. I’m not getting them to do anymore decoding after the initial rabbit hole because being on the blog seems to be safe so they don’t need to do things secretly. The tasks involved in Amene are meant to be very practical. How else are you going to stop it all unless you go out and get people to stop.

Agency: The main use of agency is in the graph that shows the progress of the earth’s stages (critical to non-critical). Without this, the players don’t have any indication if what they’re doing is bringing proper results. I could have just had Nelson Crouch post comments like, “My Monitor went crazy today, thanks to so-and-so for having such a big group. We’re getting closer and closer to non-critical now!” But this would actually effect the immersion, he doesn’t have to the Monitor and could just be saying that. It doesn’t strike me as being as believable. The graph seems more legitimate, trustworthy, regular and instantaneous.

Narrative: I’ve used a typical narrative arc. It begins with an exposition that engages the players (the discovery of Amene); followed by rising action which excites the players (finding that the archaeologists have been sneaky and placed clues about the ‘real deal’); next the climax which might evoke concern in the players (learning the true story behind the destruction of Amene and that it’s happening again); and finally the resolution which brings satisfaction to the players (being a part of changing history and saving the world). This certainly seems to be a fail safe way to do it.

This is proof. Spiderman has obviously heard of Amene and knows...

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:31:53 +1000

This is proof. Spiderman has obviously heard of Amene and knows the risks! Thanks to Natalie W. (blahblahx) for showing this to me!

Use Case Scenario Flow Chart Style. Don’t know if...

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:55:00 +1000

Use Case Scenario Flow Chart Style. Don’t know if it’s big enough to see properly…doesn’t seem like it. Don’t know what I can do about that. Sorry.

Use Case Scenario (full detail)

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:29:00 +1000

Entry 1 (main entry)
Promotional poster for the documentary DVD. Spy the clue and search for what ‘archygeek’ leads to.

Entry 2
If they didn’t see the poster, they have a chance to enter the game through hidden easter eggs on the DVD. Clue is exactly the same.

Entry 3
If browsing on YouTube, they might come across one of their clips and in the credits, the same code from the poster will appear. The user name of who posted the clip is part of the clue too because it will be ArchyGeek.

2. ‘Archygeek’ leads to a blog with the URL www.archygeek.blogspot.com and the title Archy Geek

3. People look around the blog and will know for sure that it is connected to the documentary.

4. Read different posts that Archy Geek has written (there are 3 writers of the blog; Prof. Michelle Milligan, Dr. Tommy Andrews and Nelson Crouch - Nelson is the main contributor) and explore different links to information.

5. One link is to a fake Wikipedia page. Its purpose it to convince players of authenticity. Another link is to YouTube and clips of the documentary if they never had access to the DVD (if they entered the game from YouTube in the first place, this link won’t matter).

6. First contact with Nelson Crouch (as he is the main blogger). Nelson has a post where he implies that things are slightly ‘off’. He asks for your help. [Possible end]

7. Player must leave a comment if they want to help.

8. Task is given to the player and they carry it out. Task involves getting a group of people (2+) together and go around trying to stop people listening to their own music through headphones and listen, at least a short while, to music communally. To be filmed.

9. Task is uploaded and shown to Archy Geek. He gives the option for them to do some more of the same task or move onto the next one. [Possible loop]

10. The second task ask players to make a pledge to try and listen to music more communally. (Video upload)

11. After this, the third task it given: go around (solo or with someone) and try to get other people to pledge the same thing. The more the better. (Video upload)

During all this: There is a graph on the blog that shows how the world is progressing in relation to Amene. It gives an indication of when the world might possibly end due to all the individual music. This graph gets updated every time someone uploads a video. The point of the graph is to show that the players are having a ‘cause and effect’ on the issue. The game properly ends when it reaches a non-critical level.

12. Once those tasks are complete they can still redo them or they can get more people involved in the game. They shall be prompted to get the word out there and show people the blog so that they can then play.

13. People who have ‘finished’ can still come back to check on the status of the world. Like I said, the proper end comes when the world is no longer under threat of dying from itself.

Time: For an individual/group the tasks won’t take very long to perform at all. At most, I would think that someone would take a week to do it. As for the entire project, I can’t determine how long it would go for as it depends on how many people get involved as it ends once there have been enough changes to the issue.

Special Considerations: People should try to form groups, but it is doable as an individual. It is expected that people have access to a video camera of some sort. It shouldn’t cost the players anything (unless they bought the DVD).

The Visual Prototype.It is a promotional poster for a...

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 16:23:00 +1000

The Visual Prototype.

It is a promotional poster for a documentary DVD on Amene. In the simplicity of the poster, I am showing the players that it won’t be an overly complicated ARG but also not dull. I’m not introducing them to any players as such, but with the mention of ‘The Archaeologist’ at the top, they might get a hunch. The picture of the DVD can suggest that it will involve other video mediums. Also, it places the fictional in the real world by making mention of Pompeii through a ‘quote’ by The Australian. This way, they won’t get the impression that it will involve a rolling landscape on a red planet with five moons and rain that ‘falls’ upwards.

The clue is down the bottom. It reads: “If you are ordering for educational purposes, then contact us on 1800 390 264 and we shall help you.” The clue is actually in morse code (I figured that if they’re interested in archaeology, like ancient Egypt with it’s hieroglyphics, then they should enjoy spotting a code and working it out), so there are ‘dots’ and ‘dashes’. But this looked pretty silly by itself (not to mention obvious), so I placed other symbols and squiggles to make it look like the font malfunctioned or something. The Morse code reads: ‘awrwcwhwywgwewewk’, so they still need to take out all the w’s before they get to the real clue: ‘archygeek’. This, through searches, should lead them to a blog with the name ‘ArchyGeek’. The game is now afoot!

iPod warning after teen girl's death

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 12:39:15 +1000

iPod warning after teen girl's death:

Another article.

Rise in pedestrian deaths renews call for iPod bill

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 12:37:57 +1000

Rise in pedestrian deaths renews call for iPod bill:

Information I looked at to enhance my game.

Here’s the list of my brainstorming for a tagline. I wrote...

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 21:58:00 +1000

Here’s the list of my brainstorming for a tagline. I wrote down words that I thought related to the plot and then used them to think up several possibilities for me to from.

A mind map of my idea. An exploration into what could...

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 18:27:00 +1000

A mind map of my idea. An exploration into what could happen…

Socks Inc.

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 17:06:49 +1000

Socks Inc.:

Once again, so that you can check it out if you feel inclined.

Inspirational Work: Socks Inc.

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 17:05:38 +1000

Socks Inc. is an ARG aimed mainly at children and so the set-up is different. They’ve made sock puppets come to life and be characters. The idea is that you sign up and join Socks Inc. workforce. The work you do is to make videos of your own sock puppet creations perform specific duties like being athletes or groundskeepers (gardening). Then you upload your video onto there site and you get points for completing “Your mission”.

It’s not a conventional ARG like I Love Bees and Find 815 etc. but I believe this is due to the target audience. You can’t be so extreme when it comes to kids because you can’t have them running around to random phone booths to take a call or even wandering all over the internet looking for clues, so I think it works within it’s constraints. Besides, it is merging their fantasy incorporation into the children’s lives.

The reason this particular ARG is relevant to my own game is in the way the tasks/missions are carried out. I intend to have the players take video (or at least photographic) proof that they have carried out the task. Because of the nature of my game, this is pretty important because then you can’t just write and say you’ve done it, but the person behind the blog can see that it was done and maybe even say that it didn’t have a large enough impact on the issue, so they need to do it again but with more people.

So basically, it’s the ‘involving’ factor through use of video that has influenced me.

Some of my sketches of possible DVD cover designs. The sketches...

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 23:13:00 +1000

Some of my sketches of possible DVD cover designs. The sketches are obviously (hopefully) based on these photos my mum took :)

I’ve looked at different documentary DVD cover designs as...

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:39:36 +1000

I’ve looked at different documentary DVD cover designs as influences upon my own.

I’ve collected various styles from National Geographic to some oddities because at the moment I’m thinking it could be self-published. Not quite sure yet.

Images are from:
http://www.theufostore.com/erich-danikens-ancient-astronauts-archaeology-p-452.html
http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/dvds/national-geographic-channel-dvds/exploration-and-adventure/egyptian-secrets-of-the-afterlife-dvd
http://shop.history.com/detail.php?p=271012&v=history

Final Idea

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 15:19:00 +1000

I’m using Idea 3 as a base, but changing it. The gist of it will be that this archaeologist has found a civilisation that died out because they didn’t listen to music communally. Everyone had there own music to listen to, so they eventually lived in there own little bubbles and communication and collaboration on subjects went out the window. This caused development and progress to grind to a halt and in the end they just sat there listening. They died from music.

This archaeologist has talked with professors and other smart people and they’ve figured out that this is the direction in which majority of the planet is headed towards now. If that is the case (which it is) then they need to get the information out there and get the authorities to do something to stop what happened to that civilisation happen on a much larger scale. They plan to release a documentary about the whole thing.

They run into a problem, though, because the authorities, although understanding the consequences, don’t believe it would come to pass and also care too much about the money that comes in from the music industry from people buying for themselves and their portable music players. So they won’t let the archeologist publish information about the issue.

Of course they have to comply with the authorities, so they do the documentary without properly covering the issue (they vaguely mention why the civilisation perished: they perished because they were caught unaware by a swift, deadly plague when they were having a celebration). But, and this will be the rabbit hole, on the poster advertising the documentary a clue is left.

With this clue, players will then follow the trail and discover the cover up story and what is really happening and then be encouraged to help the world by “clearing the air” (one way to put it). The main aim is to stop people from being self-absorbed at times because they’ve got headphones in and seem completely oblivious to what’s happening around them, as well as to try to get people to then listen to music together (like having converts all the time!).

All this will contribute to stopping our society to dwindle and perish like that ancient civilisation.

I Love Bees (original website)

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:39:58 +1000

I Love Bees (original website):

So that if you feel like it, you can explore it for yourself.

Inspirational Work: I love bees

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:38:00 +1000

This ARG for Halo 2 has intrigued me. It was such a massive concept and such a success that it blows my mind! I possibly also find it interesting because one of my own ideas included bees (but that’s extremely minor!)

I know most people reading this will already know a lot about it, so I won’t go into the plot description and all the sorts of extreme things that happened (if you don’t, just find it on Wikipedia [at least for a general idea of what went on]). But I find the concept of the ilovebees website being taken over inspiring. In one of my own ideas, I have someone being taken prisoner by some high authority and it’s pretty much the same thing, but in reality rather than virtually. I like the idea of someone’s ideas and work being suppressed or muted as the one of the main things that kick the ARG off and helping that person then being one of the elements that drives the game along.

Ideas I've Thrown Around

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:23:07 +1000

Idea 1

All the bees have disappeared off the planet and now the everything’s awry. There is no more honey to be found anywhere (except from the Black Market at millions of dollars) and now Weet-Bix just does not taste the same. Not only that, but the flowers are slowly dying out too because there is not pollination. How will this effect florists and Valentines and Mother’s Day??? So because florists are out of business does that mean chocolates will become the only thing to buy for those special days? Does this mean that it could be a giant chocolate corporation that has caused the bees to disappear?…

Idea 2

Plain and simple: someone or something is in our time stream who/that shouldn’t be. This idea is somewhat Doctor Who-ish in nature.

Questions to think about:

why is it a problem that this person/thing is now in our time and not in their own?
will the world collapse upon itself because of this disturbance to the time stream?
how can this be resolved?

Idea 3

The discovery that because music used to be so much more communal in nature and that it isn’t now will have dire consequences on the world. The person who discovered what this means for our survival has been “suppressed” and everything hushed up. Whoever has hushed this up cares too much for money than saving the planet (which really doesn’t make sense because if the planet dies because of this, they won’t have money anymore anyway…)

So how can we get this information out into the public? How can we free the person from “suppression”? How can we cure the world of what’s going to happen?

Perplex City

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:47:00 +1000

Perplex City:

Here’s a link to the website. The game is finished, but it uses the Wayback Engine and you can have a look at the old site and other little things.

Inspirational Work: Perplex City

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 16:44:00 +1000

Perplex City

Perplex City is a fictional city that has connections with Earth somehow. Their culture is all about puzzles and mind games and they have this event called The Academy Games, which is equivalent to our Olympic Games but using mental strength and not physical strength. They also have an object of great value called “The Receda (reh-kay-duh) Cube” shortened to just “The Cube” which has been stolen and has ended up on earth.

People from Perplex City who interacted with Earth were sisters Scarlett, Violet (through blogs); Pietro Salk an investigative reporter (through online newspaper) and Kurt McAllister and I wasn’t able to discover how he interacted with the players. There was also something called Mind Candy, which sold puzzle cards and it was through these cards that players progressed through the game. The cards held many purposes, not just a puzzle, but some had invisible ink and pieces of maps for other aspects of the game and led to websites and the usual features.

Interesting thing about this ARG is that it wasn’t promoting a movie, TV show or anything. They did make money through selling the puzzle cards, but this might have only been enough to keep the game running. And there was actually a money prize of £100,000 for whoever found “The Cube”.

The game ran from 2005 until 2007 and because of the longevity of it, the game achieved some interesting traits. A book was written by the players and published so that a fictional character from Perplex City could achieve something and a cd was released from a Perplex City musician. Some more ‘normal’ (for an ARG) activities included a banner plane with an access word; an in-game event where one member was revealed as a mole and the actual Perplex City Academy Games was played in both London and New York.

I like this ARG because it was able to incorporate proper mental puzzles in without ruining the ‘This is not a game’ mentality. I think they managed immersion through making Perplex City a puzzle based city and this then represented what the norm was for the players. Other immersion would be through collecting the puzzle cards, because they were like baseball cards where some were more rare than others. But players didn’t just have to buy the cards to participate. They could follow the game online without them. Possibly then, the people who bought the puzzle cards were more immersed, but I don’t really know!

I’m not sure that they employed agency too well because it seems that the only outcome from submitting an answer to a puzzle card were points. I’m assuming that there were other outcomes, you know, ‘the answer from the puzzle you just completed puts another piece of the jigsaw into place’ sort of thing, but I couldn’t find out what they were exactly.