unforum

[danteIL]

[LindbergMTL]

I was asked to write the synopsis of my dreams by a producer, in the context of asking for a development grant for a ARG documentary.

So, in order to illustrate how stories must sometimes be changed, or secondary characters brought forward as main characters, I came up with the idea that some player hacked the puppetmaster computer, forcing him to change the story and characters in order to preserve the integrity of the whole project.

What do you guys think about that possibility? Far fetch, too far fetch?

[imbri]

It's a bit far-fetched. More, I think it really misses the point. When puppetmasters change things it's usually because of the interaction between the players, the story, and the puppetmasters. That interaction is what makes ARGs magic.

Throwing it out there that someone hacked a computer and so they had to change things makes it more malicious than organic. And it makes it so that the change was the result not of players, but of a security failure. That sort of change could happen in virtually any industry and any entertainment field.

Perhaps it would help you to understand if you think of ARGs as improvisational music - such as jazz. The musicians have a plan, but as they play off of one another and the audience, the music sometimes morphs and changes before returning to plan. Sometimes it goes someplace else entirely. It's not because someone from the audience jumped up and stole one of the instruments. It's because of the moment and where the musician felt he could or should go.

[catherwood]

i love the jazz analogy. That's what needs to be documented, not examples of failures. Players are not supposed to be adversaries with the PMs over the path a story takes.

[LindbergMTL]

The jazz improv analogy really helps. There must be a form of dialogue that takes place between the PM and players.

As for the endings, some games need to have a specific ending, such as in Perplex City it was finding the buried object, others, the ending is not determined.

All of this makes me wonder if one day we will see a movie that was first an ARG, which with the help of players, was written by the players. Characters, plot points, ending, all the crucial elements would be written by the players.

[imbri]

[LindbergMTL]

[Daeld]

[LindbergMTL]

[imbri]

[labfly]

and Sammeeeees was optioned for a tv show about a month after the part one wrapped & continues to be pitched for a tv project. its been developed and re-developed, but it is all about the journey of the Sammeeeees. Sammeeeees are not only fictional characters in my storyworld, they're all of those who played as well. the players stepped into the fiction the minute they phoned Mister Alan Johnson.

[LindbergMTL]

[labfly]

[notgordian]

Since we're talking about movie/ARGs, I think it's also worth mentioning Lance Weiler's project, HIM. To shamelessly lift from my writeup on the project,

[konamouse]