Gamers FTW!

While I am currently deeply immersed in  "Real World Education" at renown top new media institution, Full Sail University, I am also engaged in a "Gamification" course at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and "Networked Life" a course also at UPenn. 

Networked Life insightfully details: how real networks work, the effect of human behavior on networks, game theory, games on networks, trading within networks, and how it all comes together to create the current technological state of the world we live in. The Gamification course, taught by Associate Professor Kevin Werbach, plunges deep into the history, design, and methods of gamification and how this concept is being used by businesses attempting to cut through the clutter of advertisements and engage individuals with a brand (think Nike + or Foursquare). The course obviously goes MUCH further than just how those two basic examples are successfully implementing the concept of gamification in business, but that's "a whole 'nother Oprah" that I will detail in a future post directly relating the seemingly intertwined futures of gamification in business and transmedia entertainment experiences. 

Today, I'd like to talk about how transmedia storytelling relates with games, more specifically, how games utilizing transmedia methods can EVOKE social change in the real world. I recently had the opportunity to listen to TED Speaker, Jane McGonigal deliver an excellent speech about how we as a society can use games to create a better tomorrow, solving many of our current world problems. 

McGonigal begins by showing a picture of a gamer on the verge of what she refers to as an "epic win", "…an outcome that is so extraordinarily positive that you had no idea it was even possible until you achieved it." Jane's PhD. research has lead her down some very interesting paths, and led her to come to some even more interesting conclusions, namely, needing to "game for at least 21 billion hours a week by the end of the next decade in order to solve the very real world problems of hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, and obesity." 

The major point of the whole speech is that we live in a world in which a lot of people feel almost helpless to make real world impact, yet at the same time, work adamantly to problem solve, collaborate, and "win" within the virtual game environments. McGonigal's whole goal is to bridge that gap by using gaming as the platform to create social change through new behaviors derived from what we learn within games.  

Dr. McGonigal goes through a historical reiteration of Herodotus (Greek Historian), and how the king of Lydia used dice games to successfully combat the internal fighting caused by far-reaching famine in the kingdom. The king of Lydia directed the people in the kingdom to alternate days between a day of fasting and a day where they would do nothing but play dice games for over 18 years. This particular use of games to create behavior change possibly saved the kingdom from imploding on itself at a time of wide-spread strife. In the end, further measures were needed to save the kingdom, but this is a great example at the power games have on the human psyche and capacity.  

She further relates this directed escapism with the usage of modern games like World of Warcraft and the amount of time an average gamer spends on games by the age of 21. 

10,000 hours

Interestingly enough, this 10,000 hour mark that the average gamer spends playing games by the age of 21, also correlates with research attributed to Malcolm Gladwell's theory of success. Gladwell's theory states that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of practice at any given task to master it. McGonigal makes this connection and claims that now, in theory, there should exist "an entire generation of young people who are virtuoso gamers." 

So…what are the skills that "digital generation" have perfected? 

McGonigal has just begun to try and unravel just what exactly these skill sets may include, but for now has come up with four main high-skill areas that have been developed by the current 500 million gamers worldwide; this figure is projected to balloon upwards to 1.5 billion gamers within the next decade.

She says that these virtuoso gamers skills are:

1. Urgent Optimism

2. A Tight Social Fabric

3. Blissful Productivity

4. Epic Meaning

As a member of this group of individuals, I believe she's on to something here. There is a good reason that colleges such as Full Sail, Wharton, and many others are seeing such great success in curriculum designed around the Entertainment Industry, and why businesses worldwide are implementing more and more game concepts into their business models. The answer is because it works to cut through the clutter and offers meaning to the individuals using the products or services. A school like Full Sail, specializing in the various facets of entertainment can succeed because people demand choices in entertainment. Even traditional, moderately "stuffy" schools like the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business have courses on Gamification because the times have changed so significantly, right before our eyes, that many of the traditional avenues of brand extension no longer have the same impact as they use to.

We live in a hyper-connected world, with stark generational contrast. Being on the older end of the younger generation, I consider my peers and myself more prone to lean towards optimism, doing more of what we love and are passionate about, creating and sharing with anybody willing to listen or watch, and having more of an interest in connecting with other people whom we share common interest, rather than our potential companionship being dependent on what country someone is from or what color their skin is. Those things simply don't matter to us. We want to share and derive meaning from bonds that we can now establish at the speed of our broadband network connections. 

Bing Gordon, ten year Chief Creative Officer at Electronic arts and current partner at venture capital firm in Silicon Valley Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, in an interview with my Gamification instructor says this VERY well, he says:

 "Kids who've grown up digital believe that the purpose of the world is to be the best version of yourself that you can be. That life is not hierarchical, so we're going to a peer-to-peer world, and if you can find ways to communicate more effectively, build relationships more effectively, and learn more effectively…why not? Because we probably only have 100 years on the planet, and if you could save years by getting clearer feedback or being more motivated…why not?"  

It seems to me that even with an economy in dire straits and the real world problems that McGonigal outlines above, we also have come up with the necessary tools to reverse all of the dystopian potentials. We only need to learn the right techniques with which to apply the tools we have. I believe this will be a challenge met more and more often by socially conscientious businesses that realize that a long-tailed vision on their bottom-line revenues is the way of the future, and it will become a steadily more mainstream expectation  from a businesses potential consumers.

Act of Cr3ation

Let there be light….

If only the causation of the lightbulb in your head bursting forth in the form of your grand idea were enough to manifest a successful project at the end of the day.. we would all be awarded Emmy’s, VMA's, Webby’s, Grammy’s, Nobel’s, Medal’s of Honor, etc.. 

While it is a romantic thought, the causation is only a step on the path to realization. There are seemingly endless aspects to actually delivering a transmedia experience that attracts a dedicated following and makes them yearn for more of the world you are offering. It is the astute delivery of the story elements delivered in pieces across logically used devices and physical reality that the would-be success transmutes into a real world success. 

First, a pop quiz... 

What is the most important tool(s) at the disposal of the group or company producing the transmedia storytelling experience??? 

If your first thought was some particular computer program for the design, implementation, coordination, maintenance or countless other elements relating to a particular software package or action step….I'm sorry, there is no gold star for you today. 

Those are all very important to creating something engaging that people flock towards and immerse themselves in, but seriously, it's PEOPLE. You absolutely positively MUST have a core team of talented individuals. Just ask Scott Walker of Transmedia 101. He was asked this very question at the FMX2012 conference in Stuttgart Germany during the Q&A session by a very astute lady by the name of Inga von Staden. His response? "It depends." Now, Scott is a highly respected professional and a transmedia storytelling genius, he wouldn't have been a presenter if he wasn't, but he got a bit stuck and took the question out of context, thinking it more technical or logistical. This is very important, and a lesson I'm sure that he has since become even more aware of as it directly applies to the industry itself, you must be flexible and mercurial of mind when working in transmedia. 

It is coordinated chaos…at least that's what the production feels like. Andrea Phillips, author of "A Creator's Guide to Transmedia Storytelling" (*Note: digital edition is the same price on iTunes), creator of the ongoing Twitter horoscopes character Madame Zee, and with work on "The Maester's Path" for the HBO hit series Game of Thrones and much more says, "Producing a transmedia project can feel a lot like planning a wedding and shooting a feature film at the same time". That is Andrea's opening line in the above mentioned book in chapter 17, titled Project Management: The Unsung Necessity. This seems a particularly useful topic for me at this point in both my education and infant stages of my own collaboration project. This is precisely where the necessity of having a solid core-team of talent intersects with dynamic and unwavering leadership. 

This chapter of Andrea's book (which I HIGHLY recommend) lays out a few project management subjects to be aware of for any transmedia project:

1. Budgeting

2. Organization

3. Quality Control

4. Metrics

It's pretty obvious that these factors are important to success in every business venture that I can think of,  but perhaps more so due to the shear amount of details that are inherent to transmedia projects. It certainly isn't an easy feat to juggle with so many balls in the air, but the judicious project manager executing a plan with great foresight can make all the difference in the world towards making a successful transmedia project. First, however, they absolutely MUST surround themselves with talented and dedicated go-getters prior to the project commencement of pre-production.

Transmedia and Convergence: What, When, and How

The transmedia market is as broad as the definition of transmedia itself...and is often confused for the multitude of non-integrated entertainment and narrative experiences that have been around since the Japan Media Mix of the 70’s according to the author of “The Art of Storytelling” Frank Rose, in an interview with Transmedia Storytelling expert Henry Jenkins. 

Transmedia narratives aren’t simply rehashing stories for different devices or platforms. Instead they are about building an experience that uses each device or platform to its strongest function, and delivers a piece of content that when assembled, create a sum greater than its individual parts. 

Alternate Reality Games (ARG) provide us with a great look at how this successfully works to drive user engagement through the roof, and hence create a marketing buzz that can generate millions of additional dollars for what could already be classified as a blockbuster entertainment release.

ARGs like 42 Entertainment’s campaigns “Why So Serious?”, which triggered buzz about a year before the film’s launch, or Halo 2’s “ilovebees”, both were responsible for gathering a tremendous following. 

These campaigns immersed and engaged fans of the franchises into the respective worlds that had been created by the producers of the film “The Dark Knight” and core video game “Halo” in a way the not only made sense, but added to the depth of the storyworld that was created.

Elan Lee and a couple of key performers, Jim Stewartson and Sean Stewart, formerly of 42 Entertainment and leaders of the above mentioned ARG campaigns, left the company to start Fourth Wall Studios in 2007. Founded by these key individuals, Fourth Wall Studios realizes that as a society, we are really just beginning to crack the surface of what the future brings for what these deep and immersive ARG experiences can bring to the entertainment table. For a more clear illustration of what is in store for fans click play in the header video [here].

Henry Jenkins, a brilliant mind credited with the term “transmedia”, says in his book “Convergence Culture”: 

“For the foreseeable future, convergence will be a kind of kludge- a jerry-rigged  relationship among different media technologies- rather than a fully integrated system. Right now, the cultural shifts, the legal battles, and the economic consolidations that are fueling media convergence are preceding shifts in the technological infrastructure. How those various transitions unfold will determine the balance of power in the next media era.”

 Convergence plays a vital role in transmedia storytelling and ARG experiences both. Without the ability to seamlessly transition across devices, deep media just doesn’t hold the same appeal. It is my view that this could be part of the business decisions of many of the biggest names in technological platforms who are seeking to copy what Apple began with the launch of the iPod. An integrated ecology that allows the individual this smooth experience between devices. 

The battle for the time, attention, and wallet has been forged for many years now, but the advances in technology have also led to information overload. The new leaders will have found the ways to break through and impact the lives they seek attention and market share from...I believe that transmedia storytelling and ARG experiences are a developing mechanism to do just this. 

Gamification of what 42 Entertainment calls “The World as the Platform”.