christy Most of you would be aware that the Halo 3 ARG has begun. It has received quite negative reviews from many gammer-community-ARG-crossovers. It seems that the ARG is breaking design techniques such as: progressive disclosure, choreography of the rollout, audience tiering and player-production facilitation. Conversely, alot of the posts seem to be by people who … Read moreHalo ARGs & Parodies
In 1980, on a November evening in Los Angeles, pedestrians who walked past the glass windows of the Broadway Department Store noticed something strange…they did not see their reflection. There were other people walking by, just not them. They ended up talking with the alien reflections and realized that they were in two different locations, … Read moreThe Hole in the Wall: How Humans Connect No Matter What
For the past few months I’ve had the pleasure of mentoring a best-selling UK author through the fabulous De Montfort University Online MA in Creative Writing and New Media program (a course I’ve been a guest lecturer for). Alison Norrington has written many novels that could be described as ‘chick-lit’ (is it still OK to use such a … Read moreCross-Media Story: Staying Single
A month or so ago I gave a talk at Sydney University called ‘Multi-Platform Art Versus Commodity Intertexts’. The aim of the talk was two-fold: to explore just what has changed in the object (entertainment) from so-called marketing tie-ins of the past and ‘transmedia’ forms of the present as espoused by Henry Jenkins and myself among … Read moreFrom Tie-Ins (marketing) to Transmedia (art)
My grandmother, who passed away just a couple of months ago, was a late-comer to ‘new media’. But at the age of 95 she was teaching computers to the ‘oldies’ in her village. She used to dazzle us by insisting she had the latest software, reeling off features like a car fanaticist would engine parts. … Read moreIf 91 year old Mavis from Mudgee can do it…
SL and RL colleague Angela Thomas — who was on TV with me last year (see the 7.30 Report link in my press page), edits the Slate Night magazine I write for and is at the same university as me! — was flown to the US recently to deliver a talk on ‘Pleasure, Play, Participation and … Read moreAngela Thomas on Pleasure, Play, Participation and Promise in Virtual Worlds
In a previous post I mentioned video trailers being made for books: Harper Collins Trailers and the wonderful Vidlit. Now Simon and Schuster have started doing video podcast (a type of vlogging) on books: BookVideos.tv. BookVideos.tv offers compelling video stories that give readers insights into some of the world’s best authors. The social media video site … Read moreVlogging for Book Publishers
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Back in 2005 Seth godin put together a nifty post that explained what makes an idea viral. For an idea to spread, he said, it needs to be sent and received. No one “sends” an idea unless: a. they understand it b. they want it to spread c. they believe that spreading it will enhance … Read moreThe Art of Viral Videos
In October 2006 Pierre-Alexandre Garneau started a blog in which he shows us his attempts to train himself in game design: While I already have a few years of experience as a videogame designer, I’m not at a world-class level. I want to reach that level however, so I decided to train myself. A sprinter … Read moreGame Ideas Training