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Redesigning the World with PICNIC

September 24, 2010 / DaniÃ«l van Gool

This article is the first installment in ARGNet’s coverage of PICNIC 2010. Over the coming days, DaniÃ«l van Gool will provide summaries of the sessions he attended as part of ARGNet’s media partnership with PICNIC.

PICNIC reinvented itself once more this year. The self-proclaimed largest conference on innovation and creativity in Europe, held annually at the end of September in Amsterdam, managed to pull off another rather spectacular festival. Reinvention was a prominent feature of this yearâ€™s conference, as seen through it’s theme “Redesigning the World,” focusing on changes that are going on around us on different levels and with different impact.

This is ARGNet’s fifth year in a row covering the conference, and while many aspects have been reinvented, some thing remain constant. Â The PICNIC Club, which serves as the central hub of the event, looks amazing. The Club was impressively decorated, brimming with things to do and see and buzzing with people lounging, networking, eating (in actual picnic fashion) and browsing the offerings of several high and low-tech innovators. There was the 3D Lounge, where you can submerge yourself in audio and video using Sonyâ€™s new 3D TV system, as well as a setup of Microsoftâ€™s Kinect (which, incidentally, if rumors are to be believed, will not feature the much-hyped Milo & Kate game that Peter Molyneux talked about extensively at last yearâ€™s PICNIC).

Over the next few days, I will be reporting on some of the sessions I attended, starting here with David Romanâ€™sÂ thoughts on emerging industries and the emerging markets they will (need to) be catering to, in a presentation titled â€˜The Next Generation Enterprise meets the Net Generation Consumer.” Roman is the Chief Marketing Officer at Chinese-based PC manufacturer Lenovo, and has a history working with companies including HP, NVIDIA, and Apple.

We Lost Our Gold: Pirate Booty Still at Large

September 22, 2010 / Jane Doh

As reported previously on ARGNet, a befuddled pirate-and-ninja crew lost a treasure chest filled with 10,000 gold-colored US dollar coins somewhere in the five boroughs of New York City. This past Sunday, incidentally International Talk Like A Pirate Day, the final episode of the eight-part We Lost Our Gold web series aired, bringing the plot to a close. However, the pirate booty is still at large.

In July, several trailers, media appearances, and hilarious press releases built up interest for the series until it began in earnest on August 1st. Over the course of the episodes, the crew retraced their steps through New York City to try and remember where they misplaced the treasure chest. Starting off easily enough with Episode 1, the clues clearly led treasure-seekers away from Central Park.

However, as We Lost Our Gold progressed, the clues became more numerous and more difficult and also rife with red herringsâ€”usually tributes to filmmakers. The episodes parodied different genres and popular shows, such as The Larry King Show, where it was revealed that the pirates had stolen the money from Glove & Boots, a web series-making puppet duo consisting of Fafa the Groundhog and his friend Mario.

From Story to Legend Initiative Brings Together Transmedia Talent

September 21, 2010 / DaniÃ«l van Gool

Do you know what distinguishes a legend from a mere story? A legend is a storyÂ that is carried by its audience, often gaining some of the audienceâ€™s own perspective. This definition resonates with the working definition for transmedia storytelling.

To discuss and expand on this topic, several parties in the Dutch professional film industry have teamed up to organize From Story to Legend,Â an initiative to get leaders in the transmedia realm together to talk about their experiences in creating stories and worlds and share these experiences with professionals in the field of traditional media.

On September 27, during the Netherlands Film Festival, prominent speakers will share their thoughts and experiences. Their combined input will be turned into a masterclass on transmedia and film, which, apart from professionals in the film industry, will also be open to students in the relevant field.

Seeing Red with Webishades: An Introduction to a Few Web Series

September 12, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Images courtesy of No Mimes Media

Last week, I got a phone call from Felicia Day . . . and you can too.

It all started with an interview with No Mimes Media by Jenni PowellÂ posted on Tubefilter, a news site dedicated to web television. While Tubefilter’s primary focus is web television, alternate reality games and transmedia tactics have been successfully utilized in the space since the early days of YouTube, when lonelygirl15 became one of the biggest breakaway hits for scripted web television.

In the article, Powell mentioned that she recently “had the pleasure to collaborate with No Mimes Media” on a project. And in response to Powell’s final interview question asking where someone could find an ARG to play, No Mimes Media cryptically replied that “you never know, a rabbithole might even be on this very page somewhere, if you look carefully enough!” Sure enough, below that comment was an advertisement for Webishades.

Webishades, it seems, are an amazing new form of sunglasses that let you watch web television on the go. The campy website behind the product fully embraces the aesthetic atrocity that typifies many infomercial pages, while featuring images of the cast and crew from popular web series donning the signature red sunglasses. By following a sequence of clues, players hop seamlessly across websites, email, Facebook, Twitter, and phone trees, punctuated by an automated call from Felicia Day herself.

This experience was highly reminiscent of another one of No Mimes Media’s projects, Mime Academy. Mime Academy was a comedic storytelling experience presented at ARGFest and South by Southwest that billed itself as a “10 Minute ARG” for its ability to tell a cohesive interactive story in a limited amount of time. Webishades succeeds admirably at replicating the condensed feeling of interactivity that made Mime Academy such a powerful exemplar for the potential of alternate reality games.

Interview with Mystery Guest 2010 Creator Heather Owings

September 8, 2010 / Jane Doh

Mystery Guest logo This August, the Finksburg Library in Carroll County, Maryland, finished up Mystery Guest 2010, its second alternate reality game to encourage summer reading for middle-schoolers and high-schoolers in the area.Â Linked with the summer reading program, players earned Library Bucks to use at the Auction Wrap-Up Party where there were prizes like a hockey puck signed by Washington Capitals right-winger Mike Knuble or tickets to Geppi’s Entertainment Museum in Baltimore, MD.

As reported previously on ARGNet in July, participants were challenged to identify (and deal with) the rather unpleasant Mystery Guest, a literary character that fell out of a book. The game played out mostly through the Mystery Guest 2010 blog, with 4 teen voluneers acting as main characters and liaisons, along with the Librarian to keep things in line. Just as the Mystery Guest was identified, however, he escaped from the library.

ARGNet had the opportunity to ask a few questions to the organizer for the library’s first alternate reality game, Find Chesia, and for Mystery Guest 2010, Library Associate II Heather Owings, about what it’s like to create ARGs for local teenagers.

ARG Workshop for Teens in London

September 7, 2010 / Marie Lamb

Going to the Thames Festival in London this week?Â Got a bored teen or two on your hands?Â Bring them to the BBC’s Blast tour stop where they can register for a variety of workshops, including one on creating their own alternate reality game. The BBC tells us that “[t]he workshop is suitable for young people aged 16-19, and provides hands on guidance and tips for designing your own Alternate Reality Game. For more information and to book a place visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/blast/208402.” The ARG workshop is on Friday, September 10 and runs from 1:45pm – 3:45pm.