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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » ARG: This Is My Milwaukee
[TRAILHEAD] ThisIsMyMilwaukee.com
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Starblind
Boot


Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 58
Bernard Black wrote:
That probably rules out the "cease and desist"-option, I can't think of any other people or organizations who might have a reason to stop TIMM.

Unless Milwaukee really, really, really hates being depicted as NYC.


If it really is an "outside forces" situation, which I kind of doubt. then it probably is along the lines of Milwaukee objecting to being portrayed as a dangerous apocalyptic shithole. Usually you can say almost anything in a clear satire/fiction, but TIMM might have crossed the line by actually claiming to represent Milwaukee. There isn't a lot of legal presedent about running ARGs, so who knows, but just the right nasticy-worded letter from a real-life lawyer might have sent the PMs scurrying.

However, I find that scenario unlikely. Weren't there some murmurings about certain content only appearing if various viral goals were met? (getting on the front page of DIGG, etc) My theory is there is/was some sort of sponsor, who was generally a little dissapointed at the overall level of interest but let it slide up until the NYC Central Park event, which they were hoping for a much bigger turnout for. When only [what? seven?] people showed up, the sponsor decided enough was enough and threw in the towel, leaving the game effectively in limbo.

Only a theory, possibly way off base, but seems to fit all the facts. Thoughts? Opinions?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 1:33 pm
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Kid Twist
Boot

Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 24
Starblind wrote:

Only a theory, possibly way off base, but seems to fit all the facts. Thoughts? Opinions?


It's possible, but I find it hard to believe that they're expecting that large of a turnout--I mean, yes, you want lots of people at your events, but at the same time, most of their events were in NYC. I know that some people here live in the city, but a lot of us don't, and I'm not trekking to NYC just to cuddle some fennel and scream at a poorly dressed corporate cyborg. (All right, I'm being overly sarcastic here, but my point is, it's a long trip for relatively little payoff.)

There's also the fact that, even though this is titled "This is My Milwaukee," there's not much, if anything, from Milwaukee actually used execpt for a few references. The Journal-Sentinel ran a piece on the game, but I'm willing to bet that many interested folk from the area looked at the video, saw that it wasn't actually Milwaukee, then lost interest. (It's sort of what I've heard from a few self-styled geek friends of mine that live in the area.) If they wanted a larger response, then they'd have to engineer some way for people across the country to interact with the major plot points, sort of like I Love Bees did with the pay phones.

Overall, though, I find it hard to believe that they didn't get the response they wanted--it's not like many of their challenges were designed for huge groups, and the popularity will grow as more stuff happens. However, I can see the money issue becoming a problem--with all those calls we were making, I bet the cell phone bill adds up fast, and they didn't have the cash flow they thought they'd have. Which is sad, because I really want to know what they had in mind for Milwaukee. =)

PostPosted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:17 pm
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BostonBeats4
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Joined: 04 Jan 2009
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Kid Twist wrote:


I'm not trekking to NYC just to cuddle some fennel and scream at a poorly dressed corporate cyborg. (All right, I'm being overly sarcastic here, but my point is, it's a long trip for relatively little payoff.)


Hey...watch it buddy! I trekked all the way from Boston to NYC for the meetup and it was worth every penny, haha

PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 3:14 am
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Relia
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Joined: 19 Dec 2008
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BostonBeats4 wrote:
Kid Twist wrote:


I'm not trekking to NYC just to cuddle some fennel and scream at a poorly dressed corporate cyborg. (All right, I'm being overly sarcastic here, but my point is, it's a long trip for relatively little payoff.)


Hey...watch it buddy! I trekked all the way from Boston to NYC for the meetup and it was worth every penny, haha


I also can't imagine they expected dozens of people to turn out in the fucking coldness and the snow. It took all of my deep love for TIMM to overlook how cold it was.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 6:15 am
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Kid Twist
Boot

Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 24
BostonBeats4 wrote:


Hey...watch it buddy! I trekked all the way from Boston to NYC for the meetup and it was worth every penny, haha


Boston makes sense, but I live in Ohio. That's not a realistic trip for me to make.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 10:26 am
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Deanodon
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Joined: 27 Jul 2008
Posts: 130
Location: Near Boston, MA
Kid Twist wrote:

It's possible, but I find it hard to believe that they're expecting that large of a turnout--I mean, yes, you want lots of people at your events, but at the same time, most of their events were in NYC. I know that some people here live in the city, but a lot of us don't, and I'm not trekking to NYC just to cuddle some fennel and scream at a poorly dressed corporate cyborg. (All right, I'm being overly sarcastic here, but my point is, it's a long trip for relatively little payoff.)

There's also the fact that, even though this is titled "This is My Milwaukee," there's not much, if anything, from Milwaukee actually used execpt for a few references. The Journal-Sentinel ran a piece on the game, but I'm willing to bet that many interested folk from the area looked at the video, saw that it wasn't actually Milwaukee, then lost interest. (It's sort of what I've heard from a few self-styled geek friends of mine that live in the area.) If they wanted a larger response, then they'd have to engineer some way for people across the country to interact with the major plot points, sort of like I Love Bees did with the pay phones.

Overall, though, I find it hard to believe that they didn't get the response they wanted--it's not like many of their challenges were designed for huge groups, and the popularity will grow as more stuff happens. However, I can see the money issue becoming a problem--with all those calls we were making, I bet the cell phone bill adds up fast, and they didn't have the cash flow they thought they'd have. Which is sad, because I really want to know what they had in mind for Milwaukee. =)


The truth is that there are all sorts of media companies who say, "We need an ARG! They're hot! They're the latest thing in marketing! Get one about our product, now!"

So they hire some creatives, who explain what an ARG is, and the reaction among the suits is, "We can't do that! We'll get sued."

There's also the idea of the inverted pyramid, where there are relatively few "hardcore" players but there are a lot of people watching and lurking. You want your hardcores to be excited, wired-up people, so when a live event happens, there are tweets, pics, and video all being uploaded about the event. That way you may only get seven people at an event, but there are hundreds (or thousands, or even millions) who experience the event in some way either at the time or with some sort of time delay.

But those eyeballs are hard to track, especially when the content is user-generated (like YouTube videos of events). So the suits see seven people show up and think that's how many people are playing, when in fact there were something like a hundred people in the IRC channel at the time of the event and another thousand watched the footage of the meetup.

And many thousands watched the original video.

So it's quite possible that they had to meet certain milestones for funding that they didn't meet, but those milestones were probably unrealistic and the TIMM PM's agreed to them out of overconfidence and inexperience.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 30, 2009 11:53 pm
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Bernard Black
Boot


Joined: 04 Jun 2009
Posts: 27

 		It's possible, ofcourse, but that still wouldn't explain the complete radio silence.

Also, at the end of the original TIMM video, it clearly says "Another Synydyne Initiative!" (at 10:42), I interpreted that as meaning they did it on their own.

Another argument for this point of view is that Synydyne is a relatively young, relatively unknown company. Even with TIMM and the more recent Werewolf Battle, they only have four projects listed on their website.

I'd say this was a project of Synydyne, to promote their "newly-formed content group specializing in video and web culture synthesis".

PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:55 am
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Starblind
Boot


Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Posts: 58
Deanodon wrote:

So it's quite possible that they had to meet certain milestones for funding that they didn't meet, but those milestones were probably unrealistic and the TIMM PM's agreed to them out of overconfidence and inexperience.


I think that's very possible. The sponsor didn't want to pony up big bucks for something completely nebulous and unmeasurable, so there were performance metrics built into the game at various points. Some of these were kind of obvious (200 Facebook friends for Mars, front page of Digg) some probably were less so (certain numbers of responses to the basketball photo thing? Blackstar job applications? people at the meet?). Apparently some were met while others were not.

Bernard Black wrote:
It's possible, ofcourse, but that still wouldn't explain the complete radio silence.


Depending on the circumstances, that might be all they can do. Imagine if, say, ABC had pulled out of The Lost Experience. Could it possibly have continued without anything to do with Lost? Probably not. It's also possibly unclear whose intellectual property is whose, and the PMs possibly arent sure whether it's possible to continue.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 1:11 pm
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Bernard Black
Boot


Joined: 04 Jun 2009
Posts: 27
Starblind wrote:
Deanodon wrote:

So it's quite possible that they had to meet certain milestones for funding that they didn't meet, but those milestones were probably unrealistic and the TIMM PM's agreed to them out of overconfidence and inexperience.


I think that's very possible. The sponsor didn't want to pony up big bucks for something completely nebulous and unmeasurable, so there were performance metrics built into the game at various points. Some of these were kind of obvious (200 Facebook friends for Mars, front page of Digg) some probably were less so (certain numbers of responses to the basketball photo thing? Blackstar job applications? people at the meet?). Apparently some were met while others were not.



Now you mention it, that would give some sense to those requests.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 3:31 pm
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bjaardker
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Joined: 01 Dec 2008
Posts: 71

 		TIMM, where have you gone?

Why have you left us?

OHHHHH GOD. We will never know what happened. *sob* *sob*

I'm hoping the NDAs run out soon so we can finally find out what was supposed to happen with all of this.

PostPosted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:02 pm
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oilers24
Kilroy


Joined: 21 Aug 2009
Posts: 1
Location: BC, Canada

 		Hey all.
Long time follower of Milwaukee, first time poster.
Not entirely sure if anyone still follows this, I'm aware that I'm about 8 months too late.
For the record, I just got the first YT reply on the original video in about 2 months.

Quote:
ThisIsMyMilwaukee (41 seconds ago) Cool dog.

oilers24 (12 hours ago) I've recently taken on a position with Blackstar and will be coming soon to Milwaukee, through the East Gate.
Fortunately I'm polyskilled - just wondering where i pick up my Febrezzio's Sword of Slaying?
thanks in advance.


The PMs still check the YT account?
Who knows, just a very distant ray of hope.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 21, 2009 5:46 pm
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BostonBeats4
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Joined: 04 Jan 2009
Posts: 109

 		They probably check the youtube account like I still check this. We both know its dead but we loved that it happened...so we can't let it go

PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 2:15 pm
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swift360
Decorated


Joined: 10 Dec 2008
Posts: 211
Location: Omaha, NE/Council Bluffs, IA

 		I know this is dead, but John Mayer just posted a video that reminded me of TIMM... as if the creators of TIMM ripped off this video (and it's likenesses; there are many) to get the feel for the original TIMM video. Enjoy Smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE5cHe6c3s [/url]
_________________
xbl username: swift360
Follow me on Twitter: @swift360
Playing: I was reeled into Flynn Lives. I'm down w/ that.
I was President of Environmental and Community Affairs for Aguatero Industries. Fun Ride!

PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:20 pm
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BostonBeats4
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Joined: 04 Jan 2009
Posts: 109
swift360 wrote:
I know this is dead, but John Mayer just posted a video that reminded me of TIMM... as if the creators of TIMM ripped off this video (and it's likenesses; there are many) to get the feel for the original TIMM video. Enjoy Smile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drE5cHe6c3s [/url]


The reason I got so into TIMM is because it reminded me of all the Look Around You videos. They were around long before TIMM and I'm pretty sure they used it as their inspiration

PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:21 pm
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EdgarDerby216
Greenhorn


Joined: 27 Dec 2008
Posts: 8

 		ThisIsMyMilwaukee ' s most recent comment on their YOUTUBE PAGE:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLWP45AGE-o

Quote:
"For a different Crystal Wars experience, enable FIBS: Full Interactive Battle System. Some players prefer the frantic action, but watch out ... enemies will continue to attack while you select from your Actionmatrix."


Crystal Wars: (what does it have to do with TIMM???)

http://www.it.murdoch.edu.au/games/projects/crystalwars/CW%20Web/index.html


Has anyone noticed this or posted on this yet?

PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:54 am
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