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

The current state of play

At the moment the ARG project stands as follows:

1. I have been researching previous and currently running ARGs both mainstream (well as mainstream as ARGS get):

• Superstruct designed to create a collective forecast of 2019 based on predetermined global threats (I have registered to play but have yet to contribute :S)
• ilovebees designed for promoting the release of Halo 2
• The Lost Ring was based around the Beijing Olympics
• The Beast was the original ARG, named by fans and used to promote the film A.I.
• The Heist was a marketing ARG used by Audi to promote the A3 in the US
• World without oil had players simulate how they would behave during an immerging oil crisis

 and in education:

• Suit Keen Renovator/Ipskay (University of Queensland, School of ITEE) which uses an ARG structure to enable students to examine how they might apply their creative skills in a industrial context
• ARGuing (University of Paisley, School of Computing) which is being designed to aid in the teaching of foreign languages to secondary school level students

2. I have conducted background reading based on these which may be of use in creating the design so far including:

• Suit Keen Renovator: Alternate Reality Design by J. Turner and A. Morrison. I found this paper incredibly useful given the remit for my design
• Exploring the Edge of the Magic Circle: Defining Pervasive Games by M. Montola. This paper seemed more of an overview looking at the “spatial expansion”, “temporal expansion” and “social expansion” elements within the field.
• Why I Love Bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming by J. McGonigal. This case study of ilovebees was incredibly useful in helping me see the potential for team based learning or as McGonigal puts it “collective intelligence”. Though she uses it in a large scale way, we would be looking to apply it in a more structured, team based way
• The Puppet Master Problem: Design for Real-World Mission Based Gaming. This paper helped me to realise the importance of being able to react to the players and their imput into the game. Although we can design in advance (and need to quite heavily) the actions and reactions of the players can never be predicted 100% and so the need to have someone monitoring the game as it progresses as “puppet master”.
• Beyond Reality: A Guide to Alternate Reality Gaming by J W Gosney. While giving me a few ideas about how to approach aspects of our ARG the book is not really written for designers but as an introduction for new players and seems a bit heavy handed in reminding them to keep the game and reality seperate and not to take it too seriously.

3. We have established a unit which we are going to adapt.

The unit calls for first year undergraduate students to work in teams of 5 and are assigned roles through use of Belbin tests. They are then tasked with creating a rescue plan for a failing business which will be based on one or more company case studies as yet to be determined and set within the alternate reality we create. Students will use websites (some fictional, some genuine) and interact with the game via email, phone calls, text messages and real world events in order to find the information they need to fulfill the assessment criteria set out within the unit descriptor.