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[META] Jane McG cheering section and META discussion space
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Mikeyj
Unfictologist


Joined: 18 Oct 2004
Posts: 1847
Location: London
Phaedra wrote:
You can do it Jane! Smile

(Does she know this is here? Because if that's her schedule, I doubt she'll have time to be idly browsing Unfiction.)


DON'T DO THIS!!! I did this and ended up having to write two chapters, the bibliography, and have three copies printed and bound in a week so I made the deadline. Write 3 pages a day and leave at least a month for typo spotting, MSWord-wrestling, printer-wrangling and binder-bashing. The copy I gave my external had the whole of Chapter 5 upside down and backwards...which I'm convinced they did at the binders for a laugh!

If you have a bad writing day , just walk away and do something else like flower-arranging, water-skiing, gut-barging. Don't feel guilty, cos that'll stop you the next dayand the break will be better than a day of frustration. Approach in a zen-like state of calm.

It's the only one you'll ever write, so just enjoy it.

GOOD LUCK!
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 7:06 am
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MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?


Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial
Mikeyj wrote:
Phaedra wrote:
You can do it Jane! Smile

(Does she know this is here? Because if that's her schedule, I doubt she'll have time to be idly browsing Unfiction.)


DON'T DO THIS!!!
...
...
If you have a bad writing day , just walk away and do something else like flower-arranging, water-skiing, gut-barging. Don't feel guilty, cos that'll stop you the next dayand the break will be better than a day of frustration. Approach in a zen-like state of calm.

It's the only one you'll ever write, so just enjoy it.

GOOD LUCK!


I think browsing uf counts as RESEARCH for hers. Wink
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Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead


PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:26 pm
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Mikeyj
Unfictologist


Joined: 18 Oct 2004
Posts: 1847
Location: London

 		*mikey waves fist in jealous rage

Mine was boring boring boring!
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 4:48 pm
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taozero|Qatar
Guest


 		Ok, so I didn't play *any* game that Jane helped build....was too late for ILB, and was over here in Qatar for LCP (I didn't even hear about the game until it was over).

However, I'll still cheer for Jane - for what she's doing. She's blazing a trail into unknown territory, and hopefully it's a trail other wannabe pro-PMs can follow Very Happy

Good luck and good writing Ms. Jane!

PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 3:22 am
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Whalewashingdolphin
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Joined: 25 Aug 2005
Posts: 153
Location: Canada

 		I didn't even know who Jane McGonigal was before stumbling across this post, but after looking over her various websites and blogs I can tell that she's a really inspirational figure! You do amazing work! You're a figurehead for a new medium! You rock!
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 2:07 pm
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		a bunch of stuff
Quote:
Have you ever encountered a really interesting out-of-game thing or person, while looking for a game, or for in-game stuff? Did you have a positive, memorable interaction with that thing or person, that you might not have had if you weren't looking for or trying to play a game


I seem to run into out-of-game things and people all the time - here are a few incidents, you can decide how interesting they are. Most of them deal with asking total strangers to help me find things.

Perplex City - I went to Jones Beach to find something I thought would be totally obvious, based on the previous puzzles and on the information posted by the players. I was not able to find it - but before I was finished I enlisted the help of many people including: a bicycle cop, who actually asked around his fellow cops to see if they had noticed anything; a gardener - who told me the history of the garden, the creation of the 9/11 Memorial and the lowering of the flags; a local couple who explained the best entrances to the beach, how the beach works in the summertime and the best time to arrive; and, the gift shop cashier who gave me a free T-shirt when she saw how frustrating this search was ( I later sent this shirt to Colin in Australia as part of his prize for winning the ARGFest T-shirt design contest.) The most surprising part of this whole episode was that every single person was interested in what I was doing, helped me look around, suggested other places to look, checked my map to see if I was in the right place and even looked around on their own.

Art of the Heist - During a live event while I was pretending to be a producer of a film about the car, people would come up and ask me questions about the A3. (which is a pretty cool car.) I answered everyone as best as I could and even showed some guys the engine. I found this memorable (and also hilarious because I know nothing about cars ) because I was interacting with OOG people as part of a live event.

One character in Art of the Heist was a real life, actual person, a DJ named Will Star. Will made the music for the character Ian, and also played a minor role in the game. He works for a DG Academy called The Scratch Factory, which we weren't sure was in-game. Anyway, I took my son and his friend there for a DJ lesson. They really enjoyed it and my son's friend, who lives by the Scratch Factory, has been going back there regularly.

And who can forget that Will Star DJed our Friday night party at ARGFest - I think everyone thought he was a talented DJ and enjoyed having a "character" or more exactly someone we met through a game, play for us.

Last Call Poker - I had a lot of fun talking to Mike of Mike's Pub. He owns the bar that we went to after the live event. I ended up calling him a few times to check the best way to get there by subway, find out if they had food, if Tomtom could go because he is under 21, etc. He is a classic Irish pub owner, complete with accent, and I had a few very lively conversations with him. I think there is a picture of him with a couple of us in the flickr account from LCP.

I met a person who lives in New Jersey, who is interested in historic Manhattan. He has one project where he is listing the graves from Trinity Manhattan and St. Paul's Manhattan on the find-a-grave site. He wasn't able to make the live event, but he became intrigued with Last Call Poker and the whole ARG world. He may come to one of our NYC get togethers.

Because of something I posted, John Borland, the reporter from CNet asked if he could interview me for his article on Sean Stewart. I ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes about ARGs and Sean's writing. (not that you could tell from the article) But the best part is that after our conversation I emailed John asking if he would do an article on my son's high school, a large specialized urban high school for science and engineering. He agreed that it would be a good profile and will be writing about the school.

ilovebees -
While waiting to answer the phone at the Whitney Museum, I got to speak to one of the guards. He and others had noticed the pay phone ringing repeatedly and was annoyed, suspicous and curious about it. I explained it all very vaguely to him. I happen to go to that museum fairly often and have brunch in the downstairs restaurant. I occasionally run into this guard. We always chat a bit, but I think that in the back of his mind he still wonders what was really happening with the pay phones.

I know this doesn't fit your description exactly, but it is one of my favorite "ARG intersecting with real life" moments. The PMs (you Jane) allowed me to bring my fourteen year old son with me. While we waited in the line that took forever, he got to know a couple of other Halo players. None of them had played ilovebees, but had found out about the event somehow.

When it was my son's turn to play Halo, I got permission for him and one of the players he talked to in line to play on the movie screen. (How could they say no to the only mother who brought her kid to the event? ) Anyway, when they played, my son picked up some new weapon and the whole theater cheered. He and the other guy totally destroyed the teams from the other cities.

He was so psyched by the whole event he couldn't sleep after we got home. I think he wore the lanyard for several days afterwards and made sure to show it to all his friends. It was quite memorable for me --because of a game I played, my son and a new friend he made got to play Halo 2 on the movie screen.
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 2:38 pm
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Ranger D
Unfettered

Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 522
Location: Nor Cal

 		I think I have a great example.

Mazian, The Adam and I were running around San Francisco at lunchtime in late October 2004 answering payphones. We got to the next phone on our list a few min early, and kind of guarded it so no one else would use it. A woman dressed in camo pants, army boots and a tank top walked up, pushed right through us and started dialing a number on our phone. She looked like she was in her mid 30s, was short, had shoulder length auburn hair and had a hard weathered look about her. Definitely ex-military. I didn't want to ask her to leave because she looked like she could break your neck in two seconds flat. Someone else did though (probably Mazian Razz), and she harshly told us she would be done soon. We all backed away. Luckily she finished before our call and we enhottentated that axon.

Afterwards, the three of us all came to the same conclusion. We all swore we just met the real-life Gilly.
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 5:27 pm
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imbriModerator
Entrenched


Joined: 21 Sep 2002
Posts: 1182
Location: wonderland

 		Re: a bunch of stuff
rose wrote:
When it was my son's turn to play Halo, I got permission for him and one of the players he talked to in line to play on the movie screen. (How could they say no to the only mother who brought her kid to the event? ) Anyway, when they played, my son picked up some new weapon and the whole theater cheered. He and the other guy totally destroyed the teams from the other cities.

He was so psyched by the whole event he couldn't sleep after we got home. I think he wore the lanyard for several days afterwards and made sure to show it to all his friends. It was quite memorable for me --because of a game I played, my son and a new friend he made got to play Halo 2 on the movie screen.


I've heard you tell this story before and it's still one of my most favorite ARG stories to date. There's something just so fantastic about a mom being a hero to a teenaged son and it's a memory that you'll each have for years Smile

PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:23 pm
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MageSteff
Pretty talky there aintcha, Talky?


Joined: 06 Jun 2003
Posts: 2716
Location: State of Denial

 		Well, we have the first of a double Whammy of holidays behind us...

Come on Jane, You can get caught back up, just add half a page a day if you skipped writing on Christmas day....
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Magesteff
A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead


PostPosted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 1:44 pm
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LouMac
Pimp Daddy


Joined: 27 Sep 2002
Posts: 191
Location: Rhode Island

 		While loitering around a certain Chicago marina, I had the cops called on me. That was interesting to say the least. I had never had to dodge the fuzz before!
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:46 am
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		About Jane McGonigal
I realize, now, that I should have started this thread with a bit of a resume for those who don't know Jane McGonigal or aren't familiar with her work. It was a cardinal ARG player error - that of assuming that everyone knows what you know - on my part. Let me now proceed to rectify that mistake.

As I have been playing ARGs for the past two years, I have expanded my sphere of interest beyond this forum and into the game developer community. I learned that Jane McGonigal is a well-known and highly respected game designer, theorist and academician outside our little ARG world. That is, many well known game designers, who have no interest in ARGs, are very interested in what she is thinking, doing and creating. Her wikipedia bio for those who like wikipedia.
Her website

Her resume as of March 2005

So when I first thought of expanding ARGFest into ARGFest-o-con, my only real goal was to have Jane be our first annual keynote speaker. I knew that even if few ARG players attended ARGFest, Jane could fill a room on her own. And, also, I wanted to know what she had to say, so I created a conference where she could say it.

Jane had a schedule of speaking in four continents in a few months last summer. Even so, she graciously consented to be our first annual ARGFest-o-con speaker, paid her own expenses to be here (because we had no financial resources of our own to speak of, we had no way to offer a traditional stipend and honorarium given to speakers at a conference) and gave a brilliant, insightful lecture about Alternate Reality. You can see it on the ARGFest -o-on DVD.

I think it is safe to say that Jane McGonigal is a key part of the foundation upon which this community has been built.

Now what is her reputation based on:

1. She has, it is fair to say, single handedly begun the process of Alternate Reality Games being taken seriously in the academic gaming community. In her first talk about the Cloudmakers, she got questions about players that basically questioned their (our) sanity and ability to tell reality from "make-believe." Sean Stewart has it linked on his site This Is Not A Game': Immersive Aesthetics and Collective Play - a paper by Jane McGonigal which she gave on August 14, 2003 - lightyears ago in terms of ARGs.

Her other many writing are linked on her site as well: Writings

2. She has been a principal designer and creator of many community based games, like the Go Game , flash mobs, and place storming. You can look at these under
projects

3. She has great respect in the academic gaming community, as shown by her teaching, invitations to lead symposiums and inclusion on a book on gaming to be published by MIT Press
Quote:
The Puppet Master Problem: Design for Real-World, Mission-Based Gaming." Chapter for a forthcoming MIT Press collection.

Actually, I think this book has been published.

4. As we know, she help create two games, at least one of which is almost beloved here - ilovebees and last call poker. The community aspect of those games were among the most important features: the phone calls and missions for Melissa and the Sleeping Princess; the live events and special favors for Lucky, as well as the design of Tombstone Poker were Jane's ideas (in collaboration with the PM team, as she would be the first to point out.)

So, I think people should know and understand who Jane is. She is not just as we know her as the community lead for the games i love bees and last call poker, created by her employer 40rty2wo. But also, she is seen, known and respected among the most influential game creators and academics worldwide.
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Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

PostPosted: Sun Jan 22, 2006 2:42 pm
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wraith
Boot


Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 33
Location: Seattle, WA

 		I've always found this sort of thing fascinating. Basically because these sorts of false positives are part of our brains hunger for patterns. Essentially these are the ARG versions of natural simulacra (see here for examples: http://www.forteantimes.com/gallery/simulacra.shtml) where the brain, in its never-ending quest to find patterns that might mean something critical to us, matches a haphazard or accidental collection of forms, such as a collection of rocks, with something real, such as a face or an animal.

The interesting thing about ARGs is that playing in one almost certainly lowers the bar for what the brain considers is a match, making ARG players particularly susceptible to the phenomena. I would also guess that when non-ARG folk are involved there's a great potential for farce or misadventure, as I'm sure that the patterns that their brains are matching the ARG player's behaviors to are somewhat alarming to say the least...

And it's not just the players that are susceptable. While working on The Beast, very late one night, I staggered outside to let some cold air wake me up. Suddenly I found myself standing next to a drain in the parking lot. Beneath it was stenciled a picture of a trout with the words "NO DUMPING BRAINS TO STREAM". There was that moment of frission when it made an awful sort of sense, considering what I was working on. Then I noticed that the "B" in "BRAINS" was really a "D", with some paint that had dribbled and made it look like a "B". The world rotated 180 degrees and it suddenly it was all mundane again. The trout, I realized, looked more like a salmon, and the sign was simply a warning: "NO DUMPING, DRAINS TO STREAM". But there had been that moment when my brain had made the false ARG connection.

--Dan Carver
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 9:28 am
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wraith
Boot


Joined: 11 Sep 2003
Posts: 33
Location: Seattle, WA

 		Oops, almost forgot...

GO JANE! TAKE NO PRISONERS!
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:39 am
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SirQuady
Unfettered


Joined: 15 Jan 2006
Posts: 576
wraith wrote:
Oops, almost forgot...

GO JANE! TAKE NO PRISONERS!

Kinda like your pic, wraith! (i can imagine your pic taking no prisoners!)

Ok, back on topic!

Unfortuantley, i haven't been a part of ANY rrrrreal life game experiences (read: my only contact with ARGs is the internet. No real life events), so i don't have much to give you, Jane.

But i can cheer like a bandit up to his waist in cheese curd!

GO GO JANE!!!!!!!!!!!!
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PostPosted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 1:55 am
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missphinx
Unfettered

Joined: 02 Oct 2003
Posts: 395

 		Pony?! Coffee Pony?! Rock On Shocked Silly Geek Pony?! Jetpack Worshippy Pony?!

Jane finished her dissertation. And submitted it on July 30: http://avantgame.blogspot.com/

Oh WOW. I am so proud. I don't know what to say. Congratulations 100

PostPosted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 2:09 pm
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