MashUP event

We gave a presentation on our work so far to the MashUP event being help in The Space, the dedicated gallery area at the univesity. The project seemed to be well recieved, generating some interest and possible future collaborations. The presentation was filmed so I’ll hopefully be able to get a copy of it to post up here. In the mean time here are the presentation slides…

The slide animations haven’t come up so if you want to see it properly I’d recommend a download. Please feel free to comment

Further reading and meeting results

Since my last post I have read This Is Not A Game by Dave Szulborski and have to say I’ve found this book to be far more useful in terms of it’s approach and content then any of the other materials I have read so far. If you’re looking into doing anything with ARGs or just want to know what it’s all about I would recommend this book.

 

I’ve also started reading Interactive Stoytelling by Andrew Glassner which is getting me thinking a bit about the narrative behind the game and how ARGs can potentially tie in with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey in terms of their story architecture.

 

After meeting with Simon, we’re now looking to move away from the rabbit hole used by the Ipskay ARG and are now looking to perhaps adapt the unit handbook in order to create the rabbit hole into the game while still retaining the information necessary for the students. After discussion we felt this could be best achieved by converting the unit handbook into a business consultancy firm’s promotional brochure, which sets out what the students (in their groups which will now become a junior consultancy team) will provide in terms of service to the failing business. This will most likely be a report with a number of proposals based around the information gained and events experienced within the game informed by research undertaken on real websites.

 

There will also be another, virtual consultancy in order to create a sense of competition within the game and to allow the groups to undertake analysis of market competition both for the failing company and their own.

 

The issues of tangible rewards was also discussed, with options for feedback from the game such as things sent from the company (possibly product samples depending on the company we choose) and then more superficial things like drinks and snacks at meetings.