1. The document discusses pervasive games, which blur the lines between games and real life by deploying digital content into everyday spaces and activities. 2. Examples are provided of successful alternate reality games (ARGs) like The Beast and I Love Bees that engaged thousands of players by hiding puzzles across websites and real world locations. 3. Both grassroots and commercial ARGs are discussed, noting the importance of community collaboration, dynamic storytelling, and managing player expectations.

1. Pervasive Games Deploying Digital Content into Everyday Life for Play, Participation and Profit David Fono Founder, Giant Dice www.giantdice.com

2. A Story Margaret’s Honey website gets “hacked” Interested visitors talk to Dana, the webmaster, about what’s going on Visitors find garbled “mayday” messages, fragments of a story in embedded code and corrupted images Ongoing blog/email contact with Dana, mysterious artificial intelligences deepen mystery

3. A Story, Cont.

4. A Story, Cont. Players come across puzzles hidden in the site, leading to more messages Players are lead to payphones across US Over 12 weeks thousands of players congregate at phones to hear story fragments, talk to an AI, and perform missions

5. A Question What’s the difference between a game and “real life”?

6. Pervasive Gaming Break / problematize the “magic circle” Spatial Temporal Social Simpler: “The world is the platform.”

7. The Spectrum of Pervasive Gaming cyberspace in-between meatspace also:

8. Interesting Numbers Tie-Ins / Marketing Art of the Heist: 45mil impressions The Beast: 1mil players I Love Bees: 2mil players Independent Chasing the Wish: 3k players MetaCortechs: 12k players Perplex City: 40k players

9. Play traditional MMO

10. Pervasive Play Low production barrier Low entry barrier Dynamic Flexible

11. Why is this so important? Immersion Games for multitaskers Social capital (x2) Massively scaled collaboration True call-to-action The old becomes news

12. Trends Cross-media Participation Culture Collective Intelligence Public Space Activism Ubiquitous Computing Social Computing

13. Cross-Media

14. Cross-Media (Gary Hayes) “bathing the audience in a sea of your original inextricably linked content across continents of devices, letting them find their own path to live their own story” 1.0 - Pushed 2.0 - Extras 3.0 - Bridges 4.0 - Experiences

15. Participatory Culture

16. Participatory Culture

17. Participatory Culture More than half of all teens are media creators (Pew) This is a culture: (Henry Jenkins, henryjenkins.org) 1. With relatively low barriers 2. With strong support for creating and sharing 3. With some type of informal mentorship 4. Where members believe that their contributions matter 5. Where members feel some degree of social connection with one another

18. Participatory Culture “ Scrap the focus groups, fire the cool chasers, and hire your audience.” Alex Wipperfurth

19. Collective Intelligence The network will “mobilize and coordinate the intelligence, experience, skills, wisdom, and imagination of humanity.” (Pierre Levy)

20. Collective Intelligence

21. Collective Intelligence

22. Public Space Activism “ We are dedicated to protecting our shared common spaces from commercial influence and privatisation. While some see the streets as an untapped source of advertising revenue we see protected public spaces as a fundamental pillar of a healthy democracy. If only wealthy advertisers have access to our visual environment, then freedom of speech suffers in our city.” (Toronto Public Space Committee)

23. Public Space Activism (newmindspace.com)

24. Ubiquitous Computing “ The most profound technologies are those that disappear. They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it.” (Mark Weiser)

25. Ubiquitous Computing

26. Social Computing “ Humans are fundamentally social creatures. From birth we orient to other people, and as we develop we acquire abilities for interacting with one another ranging from expression and gesture through spoken and written language. As adults, we are exquisitely sensitive to the actions and interactions of those around us.” (IBM Social Computing Research Group)

27. Social Computing

28. Applications Engagement Audience Customers Employees Taps current consumer behaviour Engenders a strong relationship Empowers participants

29. Applications Marketing Becoming virtually ubiquitous Highly memorable Gets you tons of buzz (even if it’s not that great) Audience becoming too cynical?

30. Applications Education / Training Bleeding edge Serious games point the way Develop real-world skills in real-world contexts Great for new media literacy, collaboration

31. Online Games

32. A Bunch of Words ARGs: Alternate Reality Games “ Help save the world, srsly” AREs: Alternate Reality Experiences “ Feel like you’re saving the world” 360 Campaigns / Extended Reality “ Enjoy the ride” Treasure Hunt Viral Marketing

33. Down the Rabbit Hole “ Alternate Reality Gaming (ARG) is a relatively new genre of games that encourages players (you!) to interact with a fictional world using the real world to do it.” (ARG Quickstart Guide, www.argitect.com ) A quick example: Email --> Website --> Hidden Number --> Live conversation!

34. Down the Rabbit Hole Key points through case studies For more info, check out the IGDA whitepaper (igda.org/arg)

35. Types of ARGs Promotional Grassroots Productized Single-Player Education / Training

36. A Promotional ARG The Beast By Microsoft, for A.I. The “first” ARG

37. The Beast

38. The Beast The Story Evan Chan was killed. Who, how, and why? Takes place in the future. Webpages http://bangaloreworldu-in.co.cloudmakers.org/ Phone Jeanine Salla’s voicemail Live calls to players Puzzles Simple: hidden text Complex: chemistry

39. The Beast The Curtain “ Not so much as a cough from whichever team is responsible for producing it (Evan Chan has a grandson called 'Lucas' who designs video games, so LucasArts is Netribution's guess)” This is Not a Game - performative suspension of disbelief The Community “ We've managed to keep this thing pretty well organised thanks to the hard work of a few individuals and a co-operative spirit… Personally, I hope we can keep this underground. We probably can't though. So, to all of us 'old timers' I say, be prepared for a flood of newbies.” Collective intelligence in action

40. Another Promotional ARG I Love Bees By 42 Entertainment, for Halo2 Rabbit Holes Halo 2 Trailer Funky packages:

41. I Love Bees The Story A weird AI has hacked into Dana’s aunt’s website. WTF? Players called to payphones across US Live events are big news Large part of story told through segments of radio play over payphones Storytelling through archaeology

42. I Love Bees

43. I Love Bees Not many puzzles at first, but added in due to fan response (e.g. killer.jpg) The game can improve on-the-fly Clever gameplay takes advantage of the particular media No blatant “Buy Halo 2 Message” Trust is important - the experience is paramount

44. A Grassroots ARG Chasing the Wish, Catching the Wish By Dave Szulborski The Story Dale Sprague is a web designer who lives in Aglaura, NJ along with an assortment of other characters. Dale has been having strange dreams, and bizarre phenomena are occurring around town. They need help.

45. Catching the Wish Heavily driven by dynamic character interaction ARGs easily do what videogames still dream about Run by a handful of people for about $1000 Agile development A lot of bang for your buck

46. Catching the Wish Various packages sent to players from characters, and purchased on eBay Players really get into games that cross traditional media boundaries

47. A Productized ARG Perplex City By Mind Candy The Story Perplex City has lost the Receda Cube. It’s somewhere on Earth, and they need your help to find it. The Product Puzzle Cards

48. Perplex City Mega-events… with helicopters! Spectacle is becoming a key element Competition Players get points for solving cards There’s a $200,000 prize at the end But there are still huge community resources where players help each other Competition and collaboration can live together (given the right conditions)

49. Perplex City Collaboration:

50. Who Wins?

51. Another Productized ARG Majestic By Electronic Arts Single player Subscription based The infamous catastrophic failure

52. Majestic Why did it fail? Ahead of its time Not enough content Arbitrary play-time limitations Developers scared off of subscription model for next decade

53. More Productized ARGs Cathy’s Book An ARG-in-a-book Edoc Laundry An ARG-in-a-T-Shirt-Line

54. An Educational ARG World Without Oil By various people Not your usual “game” “ What is your life like after the oil crash?”

55. World Without Oil Material packaged and distributed to schools With forethought, it is possible to have a lasting product Almost all content player-generated More evidence of incredible player dedication

56. When ARGs Go Wrong Underestimating the Difficulty Grassroots creators unprepared for unique demands of the genre Running the game is as much work (or more) as preparing it Professional creators underestimate the capability of the community to break the game Your game is going to break

57. When ARGs Go Wrong Drink Your Ovaltine Ethan Haas Was Right Fleshed out puzzle trail with websites, phone numbers, hand-delivered letters, a registration form and a countdown to the “next phase” The countdown ends… and it’s just an ad

58. When ARGs Go Wrong Poor expectations management Iris Microsoft’s Halo 3 promotion Much less intricate than I Love Bees, and riddled with technical problems

59. When ARGs Go Wrong

60. When ARGs Go Wrong Misunderstanding the Audience Save my Husband Mainstream competitive players confused by collaboration in ARG community Some mainstream players confused about fictitious nature of plot Golden Jigsaw Tried to shutdown player collaboration, provoking discontent

61. Nuts and Bolts Exposition Heavy narrative element compared to videogames Blogs (cheap and easy!) Websites (narrative landscape) Audio / video (nice reward) The world’s intrinsic weirdness Newspapers, TV, Movies, Posters, Skywriting…

62. Nuts and Bolts Interaction The defining characteristic? Chat (live / bot) Phone (live / message) Email (autoresponse / mass / conversation) Face-to-face interaction

63. Nuts and Bolts Challenges Puzzles Cryptography “ Hacking” Learning a system Etc. Games (easy to grok) Player Projects Social Engineering

64. The Audience Diverse demographics Community play www.unfiction.com Player-created resources Different levels of engagement Devotees Active Players Casual Players Curious Browsers

65. The Audience Different player types Character interactor Community support Information specialist Puzzle solver Reader Story hacker Story specialist

66. Challenges Plausible suspension of disbelief Respecting the audience Selecting / understanding the audience Dealing with the unexpected Managing expectations Preventing frustration Fostering accessibility & reusing content

67. Opportunities Incredibly dedicated fans An incredibly immersive experience Utterly remarkable collaboration A lot of buzz … for cheap!

68. Locative Games Big Games Urban Games Street Games Pervasive Games Mixed Reality Games “The world is a game board.”

69. What Are Locative Games Games that map a significant area of real-world space to game constructs Landscape Artifacts The space itself At least some players are within that space Technology not critical, but it can add tremendous value

70. Some Examples Cruel 2 B Kind Jane McGonigal & Ian Bogost http://www.current.tv/video/?id=25511301 Uncle Roy All Around You Blast Theory http://blasttheory.co.uk/bt/work_uncleroy.html

71. Big Games Doc What Are Big Games? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1394867462119324238 Learning Skills Through Play http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7206449325841236249 The Future of Big Games http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2135527604136480712

72. How Are They Used? These are mostly experiments / art But there’s a few commercial games employee / client engagement And there’s the potential for localized marketing / tourism education / training

73. A Commercial Game Bot Fighters Fight with bots in your vicinity $70k / month!

74. An Engagement Game The Go Game Operates across the US, running games for: Team-building Conferences Special Events Basic mission structure

75. The Go Game

76. Deriving Design Principles Difficult, because few games have parameters for success But, we have some Facilitate performativity Use the space Use the people Allow flexibility Balance the technology Respect “outsiders”

77. Facilitate Performativity “Drop your pants and dance”

78. Facilitate Performativity Performing missions instead of making decisions Players as actors Designers as puppet masters The illusion of the puppet master creates immersivity The reality is that the players have control

79. Use the Space New York is not Sydney Challenge: reusing content

80. Use the People The people who play these games are generally pretty friendly

81. Allow Flexibility Reality intervenes Technology breaks You have no control Don’t panic!

82. Balance the Technology Too much mediation defeats the purpose What tech can do Gosh wow! aesthetics Local feedback Distance communication Leaving traces Props Technology should be transparent

83. Balance the Technology Your technology is too hard to use Test and iterate in real contexts Automation is tricky Design beautiful seams

84. Respect “Outsiders” People don’t like to be used, or to be threatened

85. Tools of the Trade Mobiles (Phone / SMS / MMS) Mobiles w/ Location Sensing Mobiles with Bluetooth Mobiles with the Web PSP / DS with Wifi Laptops with Wifi RFID Semacodes

86. Tools of the Trade Portable Sensors Fixed Sensors Misc. Props The World Actors MP3 Players Projectors Large Displays Digital Cameras

87. A Few More Games 3001 Mobiles, Projector Control an avatar to create collab. music

88. A Few More Games CollecTic PSP Collect resources from wifi points

89. A Few More Games Navball Mobiles w/ GPS Find the ball, line up to kick it and score

90. A Few More Games OMMRPG Mirrors and lasers! Place the mirrors and guide the laser

91. TorGame’s Waking City 2-week online/offline game w/ 120 paying players Websites, blogs, email, live theatrics, live games, puzzles, etc. Goals: build community, knowledge of Toronto In between an ARG and a locative game The trailer http://youtube.com/watch?v=56uc1D_0VDw TV segment

92. Waking City: Day 1 Video Blog 1 http://youtube.com/watch?v=56uc1D_0VDw

93. Waking City: Day 2

94. Waking City: Days 3-6

95. Waking City: Day 7

96. Waking City: Day 8

97. Waking City: Days 9-11

98. Waking City: Days 12-13

99. Lessons Clear communication is important! So is clever crisis management You need to be open with your players There’s such a thing as too much fun Cross-media stories can be harder to follow Actors are more integral than usual Attrition is a reality

100. Successes Most players enjoyed the game Players reported an increased familiarity with the city Players formed new friendships Players indicated they would return to businesses they’d visited Plenty of buzz

101. Next Steps Further explore the online / offline hybrid Further explore urban engagement between players, the city, and local businesses

102. Questions?