This document discusses a pervasive game called "Reality Starts/Ends Here" played by students at the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2011. It was designed to encourage collaboration across disciplines by having students produce media in response to prompts from playing cards. The game aimed to break down silos between departments through mystery, social play, and creative projects shared online. It succeeded in sparking tribalism, organized card banks, and a "productive chaos" as players formed connections and partnerships through game experiences. An evaluation schematic shows how the game dynamically engaged the community through buzz, creative collaboration, and digital/real-world artifacts that were shared.

1. Transforming Community Through Pervasive Play
Jeff Watson
@remotedevice
PhD Candidate, Interdivisional Media Arts and Practice
USC School of Cinematic Arts
February 2, 2012

3. School of Cinematic Arts
interactive media
film/video
Broader USC Community
production
fine arts
communication critical studies
engineering
animation
screenwriting

4. Alternate Reality Game
Reality Ends Here 2011

5. Graffiti, Old Lucas Building Walkway
1980s

8. USC School of Cinematic Arts Buildings
1930s, 1970s, 2000s

9. Pervasive Games

10. per·va·sive adj pər-ˈvā-siv, -ziv : existing in or
spreading through every part of something

11. The transformative potential of pervasive games
lies in the fact that they can be more than just a call
to action -- they can be the action itself.

12. The Future
Committee
March, 2011

13. The Future Committee: Mandates
• Jump-start collaboration and discovery among students across divisional
and disciplinary boundaries (ie, break down the silos)
• Provide incoming students with an opportunity to experiment with media
making across the range of practices represented at the SCA
• Connect students to faculty, resources, and the broader community,
especially alumni and industry mentors

14. “ARG 2.0”

15. Pitch to the Faculty
May, 2011

16. Pitch to the Faculty: The Game
• A collaborative production game
involving students making media
representative of the 5 divisions of
the SCA
• Played in students’ spare time (not
in class)
• Mechanics of the game will drive
students to constantly explore new
partnerships and ideas
• Encounters with alumni and other
mentors will be integrated into play
of the game

17. Pitch to the Faculty: The Game
• A collaborative production game • Secret & underground
involving students making media
representative of the 5 divisions of
• Less Hollywood, more Godard
the SCA
• No grades, no affiliation with
• Played in students’ spare time (not
class
in class)
• Completely optional
• Mechanics of the game will drive
students to constantly explore new
partnerships and ideas • No overt invitation to play
• Encounters with alumni and other
mentors will be integrated into play
of the game

18. A project like this is an intervention, and it needs
allies.

19. Reality Starts Here Reality Ends Here
CNTV-499
Symposium class for Secret collaborative production
all freshmen game
Institutional cover Institutional intervention
story
Covert
Overt

20. Summing up the formal characteristic of play, we might call it
a free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary'
life as being 'not serious' but at the same time absorbing the
player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no
material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It
proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and
space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It
promotes the formation of social groupings that tend to
surround themselves with secrecy and to stress the
difference from the common world by disguise or other
means.
J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens

21. Summing up the formal characteristic of play, we might call it
a free activity standing quite consciously outside 'ordinary'
life as being 'not serious' but at the same time absorbing the
player intensely and utterly. It is an activity connected with no
material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It
proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and
space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner. It
promotes the formation of social groupings that tend to
surround themselves with secrecy and to stress the
difference from the common world by disguise or other
means.
J. Huizinga, Homo Ludens

22. Pull instead of push.

23. Tone
Activating curiosity

24. Worst. Colors. Ever.

25. Worst. Colors. Ever.

26. Tone touchstones: the 60s and 70s at USC cinema

27. Tone: Contrasts
USC Game
• Hollywood • Situationism
• Friendly • Indifferent/menacing
• Transparent • Opaque
• Accessible • Hidden

28. Mechanics
Where the rubber hits the road

29. Wireframes for web-driven collaborative production game
May 2011

30. Hyperlocal context: markers indicate SCA building (L) and student
housing (R)

31. Illuminati
Steve Jackson Games, 1980s

32. Card interaction prototyping and testing
June 2011

33. Card interaction design mockups
June 2011

35. Reality card pack - 10 playable cards + instructions

44. Jane Student

46. Jane Student
Card-based combinatorial
creative prompting system
Final version
July 2011

47. generate prompt
Jan
Schematic: complete play cycle

48. generate prompt produce media
Jan
Schematic: complete play cycle

49. generate prompt produce media share to game site
Jan
Schematic: complete play cycle

50. generate prompt produce media share to game site unlock experiences
Jan
Schematic: complete play cycle

51. buzz
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

52. buzz
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

53. buzz
card game
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

54. buzz
card game
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

55. buzz
card game
creative
collaborations
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

56. buzz
card game
creative
collaborations
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

57. buzz
card game
creative
collaborations
media artifacts
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

58. buzz
card game
creative
collaborations
media artifacts
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

59. buzz
card game
website, social creative
media collaborations
media artifacts
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

60. buzz
card game
website, social creative
media collaborations
media artifacts
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

61. buzz
mentorship
card game
experiences
website, social creative
media collaborations
media artifacts
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

62. buzz
mentorship
card game
experiences
website, social creative
media collaborations
media artifacts
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

63. Implementation
August - December 2011

64. Mystery Postcards
July 2011

65. Courtyard flag

66. 8mm Camera/Puzzle Box

67. Flag advisory and courtyard flag

69. Game Office August 22, 2011

73. Call and response

74. Call and response

75. The floodgates open

77. The secret mark: Game logo on bodies
August/September 2011

79. Mentorship experiences and serendipitous encounters

80. http://reality.usc.edu

83. “A productive chaos”
Tribalism, card banks
gamejackers, and other signs of
life

84. Card banks and credit unions

90. Danger and Menace: Echoes of the Reality Committee

91. Player-designed poster for film project about the game -- one of 10 such projects submitted.

92. Wrap party
December, 2011

93. USC School of Cinematic Arts
2011

94. buzz
mentorship
card game
experiences
website, social creative
media collaborations
media artifacts
Schematic: pervasive play dynamo

95. story of
community
reflection social engagement
creative
participation
Schematic: narrative placemaking dynamo - a virtuous cycle

97. Special thanks to Simon Wiscombe, Tracy
Fullerton, Tara McPherson, Anna Lotko, Gabriel
Peters-Lazaro, Elizabeth Daley, Michael Renov, and
Holly Willis.

98. More info: http://reality.usc.edu
Jeff Watson:
@remotedevice
http://remotedevice.net