ARGs, Participatory Entertainment, & Audience Agreements
Project: Polytopia

A talk I attended by Martin Erickson, Creative Director of The Company P (participatory, playful, pervasive) at Power to the Pixel 2009, the crossmedia filmmaking film forum.



There was also a workshop the next day with him. It quickly turned into a philosophical discussion on the implications of ARGs, pervasive gaming, TINAG (This Is Not A Game) & participatory entertainment.

I recorded the talk and fixed up the audio as best I could. Might be better to use headphones. Enjoy!

Download it on Archive.org HERE

Thanks to Jean-Yves & Gabriel Shalom for contributing greatly to the discussion!

And many, many thanks to Martin for leading a deeply insightful discussion.

Description of the workshop:

Is this a game? – Towards a constructive audience contract in the participatory arts.

All traditional art forms have established social contracts with their audience, dictating their behaviour and attitudes. Western movie audiences generally suspend disbelief, allowing them to be emotionally affected through a process of secondary identification with the characters on screen. Social entertainments like Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), participatory dramas and pervasive games are currently in the process of formulating this contract with its emerging global audience. Using the famous “TINAG” (This Is Not A Game) agreement used in most ARGs as a point of departure, this workshop explores the possibilities and pitfalls of encouraging different audience attitudes. The discussion and design exercises span the full range from pure competitive game-ism, via secondary identification, all the way to no-bars held 24/7 live-action role playing.

See all the videos from the first day of Power to the Pixel online HERE (highly recommended for ANY digital storytellers)

See the archive of tweets from #PTTP09 HERE

Sat, Oct 24, 2009  Permanent link
Categories: video, narrative, polytopia, collective intelligence, ARG, participation, alternate reality game, audience agreements, film, storytelling
Sent to project: Polytopia

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