Mobile Social Technology & Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG)

Mobile Social Technology & Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) Bob Hitching Director of Technology, Xumii 22 April 2009 Twitter: @hitching A presentation to the Australian Film Television and Radio School

Story or technology?
The story comes first
However, “ the medium is the message ”
New stories become possible using new media
So let’s look at some mobile social technologies that will enable new forms of narrative
My objective today: convince you that some of your time should be invested in keeping an eye on emerging mobile social technologies
Then: m y personal journey into an ARG
Why I have been sending pictures of sheep to strangers in Paris using Twitter

Twitter - http://twitter.com
Twitter is the simplest way for anyone to publish stuff
A Tweet is a 140 character update via SMS originally, then web, IM, email, iPhone
Other users follow your tweets if they value your content. Tweets get published out to followers in real-time (originally by SMS)
The hockey stick surprise is that many people are now sourcing lots of their information in this way
Old media is struggling to keep up. E.g. Susan Boyle, Ashton Kutcher, Oprah.

Truth or Fiction?
Big challenge for old media
Big opportunity for ARGs?
There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy. Steve Jobs was rushed to ER after severe heart attack

Twittervision
One example of a real-time publishing medium
Adds geography, but lacks any narrative threading

twitpic
Adds pictures & credibility to Twitter
Mostly mobile
Extract GPS position from EXIF data
450k views of Hudson River plane crash

iPhone accelerometer
Adds roll, pitch and yaw

Photosynth
2007: a Microsoft Labs demo that many thought was smoke and mirrors
2008: it actually works

Google Latitude
Adds user location
Adds lots of privacy issues and controls

Xumii - mobile social networking platform
Plugs you into all your social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Windows Live, Google Talk, Yahoo Chat, more soon)
… and lets you real-time chat and share stuff (photos, gifts, videos, more soon) with all your friends using your phone (Nokia, SonyEricsson, Motorola, iPhone, Android, Blackberry)

Video - 12seconds.tv and Qik.com
12seconds.tv does what it says on the tin
Qik.com is real-time mobile video streaming

Video synth
Synthesis of multiple user generated videos into a single coherent visual thread
… probably coming sooner than you might think
Remember the surprise of Google Earth, and Google Maps Street View?

Checkpoint
The medium is the message
Keeping an eye on emerging mobile social technologies will allow us to create new forms of narrative
Now, my personal experience with StarTrekARG
The narrative is still surfacing as I write this slide
My interpretation of characters and events is possibly totally wrong, and probably influenced by me writing this presentation
I’m now addicted so don’t take the piss
Let’s focus on h ow the technology has influenced the story so far

Star Trek Dance Party
Photos posted on the internet

http://thecobrasnake.com
Some photos have been airbrushed to include website addresses, e.g. 01001111.com

http://01001111.com
This website plays a flash movie of mostly static, but including some imagery from the upcoming movie
and codes: Fe Ca Si Al which translate to more websites

Ca = http://0100001101100001.eu
Variants of the flash movie, including an encrypted message which resolves to the IP address of another website …

http://97.74.158.186/
This site (after a few days) displays a chat room conversation
PHPChatUser2 mentions an intersection in Paris
PHPChatUser1: テスト中、テスト中。誰かいる？僕が時間より早いのはわかってるんだけど、誰か応答もらえた？ ____PHPChatUser1 has disconnected____ PHPChatUser2: Carrefour de la Rue de la Fédération et Rue de Presles ____PHPChatUser2 has disconnected____

http://bit.ly/2387-42
Someone called Malak0 posts on LePost.fr that he has found a strange device at that precise location
Bob’s contribution: it’s all about Kronenbourg lager (my link got 1,200 clicks over 3 days)

http://lepost.fr Lost & Found
Malak0 asks for the owner to email him to arrange the return of the device
Emails reveal Malak0 could be playing the character of The Little Prince
Bob’s contribution; according to the Twitter API, Malak0 has a Twitter account @MaLaK0 created at the same time, and is a student at Boston

Meanwhile, @ aliceforrest700
Character is Alice through the Looking Glass
Twitter seeded with hashtag #StarTrekARG
Bob’s contribution: if an ARG agency wanted to create some viral (and measurable) buzz around a movie in Q1’09, of course they’d use Twitter!

http://97.74.158.186/ updated
@PHPChatUser5 is common Twitter syntax
PHPChatUser1 … 5 are found to have Twitter accounts
Talk of posting locations and time … real-time mobile geo social 
PHPChatUser5: I’ll post locations as I find the key fields. I’ll need you to go them exactly when I say. … PHPChatUser5: Pictures are tough here, but we must start sending each other the access points - @PHPChatUser5 . Not sure yet how to get Ca’s – but the input site will soon be live for all our fixes, hopefully generates something that works.

Some observations
Truth of Fiction: is Malak0 in-game or OOG?
Audience struggling with “old new media” forums for communication
Signal / noise ratio is not good
Setting up wikis
Setting up live chats to talk faster
Bob’s contribution: suggesting everyone move the conversation to Twitter
Actually FriendFeed would be better but Twitter is a good first step into real-time social media

Game moves inside Twitter
Game characters talking to each other on Twitter
Profile image contains an image of Johann Christoph Bayer, plus a watermarked QR code which decodes to the message “APUS01:05”
APUS is a constellation of stars discovered by Johann Bayer

Audience moves inside Twitter
Game characters talking with audience
Massive viral distribution
Measurable
Potential for pictures, video, mobile, geo, etc.
New forms of narrative?

[updated 22 April 8am] MaLaK0 posts a video of the device on YouTube
The device has a QR code visible underneath…

Mobile Social Technology & Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) Bob Hitching Director of Technology, Xumii 22 April 2009 Twitter: @hitching That’s all for today – any questions? Stay connected by following @hitching and #StarTrekARG

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Mobile Social Technology & Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG)

by Bob Hitching on Apr 22, 2009

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Mobile Social Technology & Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) — Presentation Transcript