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 Forum index » Updates » Press and Other Analysis
Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
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Adm_BlackCat
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Joined: 18 May 2010
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 		Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
Unfiction gets a shout-out... kinda.
An excerpt from the AdvertisingAge article Five Wishes for Movie Marketing This Year
Quote:
Alternate reality games tone it down a notch: To continue being effective, alternate reality games will need to not only evolve but also stay novel, a tough trick to pull off. The game for "Tron: Legacy," one of the biggest such efforts since 2008's campaign for "The Dark Knight," bridged the first "Tron" and its sequel by filling in the mythology of the intervening 28 years.

Bouncing between the online and offline worlds, these kinds of ARGs keep people not only checking online for the next clue but also getting active in the real world, which lends itself to spreading significant word of mouth.

But there probably aren't many avenues of innovation left here, so delivering something novel will get harder and harder. Here's one counter-intuitive idea: Drastically reduce the scale, creating games in which only a handful of people can participate -- meaning the Unfiction forum team won't be able to crowdsource the answers in half a heartbeat.
~emphasis added.

Is it just me, or does this seem like an unfair criticism of the Unfiction forums?
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:06 am
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distilled
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 		Re: Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
Unfiction gets a shout-out... kinda.
Adm_BlackCat wrote:
An excerpt from the AdvertisingAge article Five Wishes for Movie Marketing This Year
Quote:
Alternate reality games tone it down a notch: To continue being effective, alternate reality games will need to not only evolve but also stay novel, a tough trick to pull off. The game for "Tron: Legacy," one of the biggest such efforts since 2008's campaign for "The Dark Knight," bridged the first "Tron" and its sequel by filling in the mythology of the intervening 28 years.

Bouncing between the online and offline worlds, these kinds of ARGs keep people not only checking online for the next clue but also getting active in the real world, which lends itself to spreading significant word of mouth.

But there probably aren't many avenues of innovation left here, so delivering something novel will get harder and harder. Here's one counter-intuitive idea: Drastically reduce the scale, creating games in which only a handful of people can participate -- meaning the Unfiction forum team won't be able to crowdsource the answers in half a heartbeat.
~emphasis added.

Is it just me, or does this seem like an unfair criticism of the Unfiction forums?


Does seem a bit derogatory, the way its phrased. I'd describe the methods which we employ here as collaborative, and that - surely - can only be a good thing?
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 8:18 am
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catherwood
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee

Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 4109
Location: Silicon Valley, CA

 		Re: Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
Unfiction gets a shout-out... kinda.
Quote:
Drastically reduce the scale, creating games in which only a handful of people can participate -- meaning the Unfiction forum team won't be able to crowdsource the answers in half a heartbeat.

Just because only a handful of people *can* participate doesn't mean a crowd won't be recruited on the sidelines to help find answers. I've stepped in (as a crowdsource of one?) to solve a puzzle in plenty of games where I'm not at all following the story or interacting with the game. I'm sorry, AdAge, but I think what you want isn't a smaller scale game, but a game which requires a different kind of participation.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 11:38 am
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thebruce
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
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 		Re: Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
Unfiction gets a shout-out... kinda.
catherwood wrote:
Quote:
Drastically reduce the scale, creating games in which only a handful of people can participate -- meaning the Unfiction forum team won't be able to crowdsource the answers in half a heartbeat.

Just because only a handful of people *can* participate doesn't mean a crowd won't be recruited on the sidelines to help find answers. I've stepped in (as a crowdsource of one?) to solve a puzzle in plenty of games where I'm not at all following the story or interacting with the game. I'm sorry, AdAge, but I think what you want isn't a smaller scale game, but a game which requires a different kind of participation.

This.
It's really a matter of what it is that's being solved. Unfiction can't solve a live event. Unfiction can't pick up a deaddrop. Unfiction can't create a mosaic of player-made content. But if some campaign puts a puzzle out there, and someone gets wind of it, sure there's a good chance it'll make its way to Unfiction, and chances are it'll get crowdsourced/collaboratively solved pretty darn quick.

AdAge's little request smacks of Puppetmasters telling players not to share answers (or punishing players if they do), or complaining because players did stuff much quicker than they should have...


However, to play devil's advocate, I think there's a point to be made about the evolution of args, and Unfiction has really kind of made an impact in the genre. It's certainly not the only community, but it's lasted the longest since args have gone mainstream (relatively speaking), and even from a forum standpoint it's one of the best/cleanest/free-est out there. And because of that, I think developers are more often inclined to keep 'unfiction' in the back of their minds when creating content... AdAge kind of implies creators have an "us vs. them" sort of sentiment.

Many who regularly visit Unfiction I think have a "Has this been posted to Unfiction yet?" mentality when coming across a puzzle or mystery.
Heck even geocache puzzles have been posted (though not referenced as such) so that people can get help solving them. There is something to be said about what Unfiction represents when it comes to collaborative puzzle solving.

But ARG creators and mass media experience-designers just need to keep inevitable crowdsourcing in mind (wherever it may occur) when they create their content. If you design a puzzle targeted for thousands (or millions) of minds to try to solve individually - only one location needs to exist for people to work together, and only one person needs to share an answer publicly (especially if it's then googlable) to "ruin" the puzzle's intended experience for the masses (whether Unfiction or otherwise).

Creators need to design accordingly! Times have changed.

You can't stop the signal! Smile
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:07 pm
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Nighthawk
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 14 Jul 2007
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Quote:
Drastically reduce the scale, creating games in which only a handful of people can participate -- meaning the Unfiction forum team won't be able to crowdsource the answers in half a heartbeat.


Isn't that going against the very purpose of creating an ARG as part of a marketing campaign in the first place? Why would you create a promotion that would, on purpose, target LESS people?

Secondly, is quickly answering a puzzle such a bad thing? If you have a puzzle that takes to long to solve, be it as an individual or through the "hive mind", it's going to annoy people to the point that they will no longer care and move on. Nothing's more annoying than staring at the brick wall for days...
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:23 pm
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thebruce
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Joined: 16 Aug 2004
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Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		It's all a matter of implementation.

I think they're looking at it from the perspective of... take Flynn Lives for example...

(very rough example) Massive audience intended... relatively very few people watching when the puzzle goes up. It's solved in 15 minutes - before 98% of the target audience even gets wind of any news. A day later people are still discovering the update/puzzle, and some players end up bummed that they either couldn't be a part of the solve, or feel left out or behind - not the kind of feeling the makers wanted to leave their demo with.

Of course we know the flaw isn't the players or Unfiction - the issue is the implementation of the puzzle. But that is, I think, the perspective this writer is coming from - instead of adjusting how the content is intended to be consumed/solved, they appear to want to find a way to hinder what Unfiction (by name, even) is so apt at (when it's not, in spirit, specific to Unfiction), at the sake of campaign scope and scale.

You could say, take Unfiction away and the collaboration will just happen somewhere else. AdAge's suggestion just masks the problem, much like DRM Smile
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:34 pm
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Syncopal
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Joined: 18 Jul 2009
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Location: Look Behind You!

 		Re: Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
Unfiction gets a shout-out... kinda.
Adm_BlackCat wrote:
Drastically reduce the scale, creating games in which only a handful of people can participate -- meaning the Unfiction forum team won't be able to crowdsource the answers in half a heartbeat.


That's funny... I thought we've gotten it down to a quarter of a heartbeat... LOL! But it is the age old problem... I've been working on some hyperlocal stuff here with some local bars... and when I threw out some puzzles I got the response... "You gotta be kidding me... nobody here is going to get that"

My initial response was "Dude this would be cracked in two seconds if it reaches Unfiction."

The solution I'm working on is to actually run 2 games... sort of a 'dome within the dome' thing. Have a much easier game running for the masses with a tighter 'underground' one running for those evil crowdsourcing people... Twisted Evil

PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 12:45 pm
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thebruce
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 		side note: Came across a great article from Simon Pulman on the topic of geek culture and the internet, analogous to this issue of crowdsourcing puzzles and such - great read!
http://transmythology.com/2011/01/13/wake-up-geek-culture-time-to-live/
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:07 pm
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Nighthawk
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 14 Jul 2007
Posts: 4751
Location: Miami, Florida, USA, Earth

 		Re: Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
Unfiction gets a shout-out... kinda.
Syncopal wrote:
That's funny... I thought we've gotten it down to a quarter of a heartbeat... LOL! But it is the age old problem... I've been working on some hyperlocal stuff here with some local bars... and when I threw out some puzzles I got the response... "You gotta be kidding me... nobody here is going to get that"

My initial response was "Dude this would be cracked in two seconds if it reaches Unfiction."


The first game I ever ran here had one puzzle that took several days to design and was solved before I even finished posting it.
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:21 pm
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Syncopal
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Joined: 18 Jul 2009
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 		Re: Adage.com Movie Marketing Editorial
Unfiction gets a shout-out... kinda.
Nighthawk wrote:


The first game I ever ran here had one puzzle that took several days to design and was solved before I even finished posting it.


Lol... that's funny... totally believe it. I am always amazed at the speed and genius of the unfiction groupthink. Scary too in a way...lol.

PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 1:38 pm
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Rogi Ocnorb
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Joined: 01 Sep 2005
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 		Sounds like sour grapes to me. My take is that they were jealous of unfiction's demonstrable prowess and that they couldn't get a scoop; Or, maybe it was just their being too late/slow to get one of the "prizes".

The ideal game should include something for everyone. Puzzlers, Gamers, LARPers, Communicators, etc. Having the game serve-up unique, individual challenges is always a good way to keep things interesting (Like many of Wei Hwa's Google puzzles or FL's Circuit Cycles[kinda]). If combined with a collaborative requirement to share your info, (with ample redundancy for those who don't complete their task). folks tend to stay engaged a lot longer and feel like they have value.

Lots of the puzzles we see could be gen'd from an algorithm that introduces uniqueness. I think many of the developers don't have the resources to make that happen, though.

Nighthawk wrote:
The first game I ever ran here had one puzzle that took several days to design and was solved before I even finished posting it.

Would that have involved a Rubik's Cube? Wink
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PostPosted: Fri Jan 14, 2011 4:45 pm
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