Posts
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Fantastic Case Study on Role-Playing the Transmedia World of Continuum. On DELVERINTOVIDEOGAMES
Not sure who wrote this - fantastic detailed critical case study! thank you - bookmarking for my own archives!
"Introduction
New TV series Continuum explores dystopia of corporate hegemony, time travel and human augmentation and establishes a compact transmedia world with strong gaming elements. Even though Canadian network Showcase does not break any new ground, it ties various transmedia episodes in interesting ways and in many occasions creates unclear situations on the borders of the fictional and the meta-fictional discourse. I will try to describe how this small-scale transmedia storytelling works, what are its specifics and how collective intelligence maintains ARG role-playing among various platforms...."
"...Visions of Future
Visions of Future is a series of blog posts from active Canadian bloggers about various concepts (family, community, leadership, beauty, food...) in the future timeline of Continuum. Bloggers take different approaches to these articles - some write short stories set in the fictional world of Continuum, others try to predict the situation of 2077 in genre of essays. Vast majority of these blogs are focused on female demographic which can come as a surprise if we consider that Continuum is a sci-fi/crime investigation/conspiracy TV show. On the other hand, Showcase may broaden its audience by using opinion leaders from different areas of interest.
While syndicating content to blogs is not a new thing, Showcase achieved more than just marketing of its new TV show. Seven of 10 articles from Visions of Future are written as fictional stories set in the world of Continuum, therefore broadening and enriching the whole transmedia storytelling. The fact that the blog posts are syndicated and not fan-created, helps to establish their canonicity...."
read the full post here
http://videogamedelver.blogspot.fi/2012/08/role-playing-transmedia-world-of.html
Any MMO Can Take You to Hell. The Secret World Takes You to an Amusement Park
via kotaku.com
Excerpt from kotaku.com:
"My first guided tour of Funcom's upcoming paranormal MMO The Secret World saw me descending into the depths of hell. Many massively multiplayer online role-playing games go there; it's a popular spot. But only The Secret World follows up hell with a visit to a demented theme park.
Funcom's Craig Morrison escorted a group of game journalists through this dark and twisted amusement park last week, and I was fortunate enough to be on that ragtag Scooby Doo crew as we saw the sights, went on rides, and killed creatures born of nightmare. You know, the usual...."
full post here:
http://kotaku.com/5919633/any-mmo-can-take-you-to-hell-the-secret-world-takes...
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Trapit Promises Better Browsing And Targeted Content On IPad | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce
via fastcocreate.com
Via FastCompany.com:
'...Why is it innovative? Because Trapit for iPad finds articles on very specific topics that you’re interested in rather than just serving up content from your own social feeds, like competitor Flipboard. As the folks at Uncorked Studios say, “born from DARPA-funded research at SRI and a sibling to Apple’s SIRI assistant tech, Trapit’s machine learning bypasses the web’s SEO-driven priority by harnessing peoples’ behavior to hone discovery of articles that match the user’s passions.”
“Trapit combs through its hand-picked sources using relevant keywords,” explains Alvarez. “At first it provides you with a huge list of content it thinks might be relevant to you. The case of ‘apple’ is a good example. There are multiple uses of apple out there and more often than not it’s going to be the tech focused Apple but it might also give you results for the food. So when it delivers the first batch of content you can specifically train it find just find articles about Apple the tech company. And then even more so, if you’re interested in apple iPad apps, you can get very granular with what you’re searching for.”...
read the full article here:
http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681437/trapit-promises-better-browsing-and-targe...
Excellent Article: Dispelling The Eureka Myth: Big Ideas Take Time And Space | TechCrunch
via techcrunch.com
By Peter Arvai - excerpt from Techcrunch.com:
"Editors Note: Peter Arvai, CEO of Prezi, is passionate about helping people create and communicate big ideas. Peter is a serial entrepreneur, prior to joining Prezi, he established healthcare startup omvard.se and was part of creating the first mobile news reader.
Big ideas fuel the entrepreneurial spirit. An idea passionately pursued through a labyrinth of “what-ifs” can be the launch of the next great company, the new skyrocketing startup. Apple, under the leadership of Steve Jobs offers an example of a company built on a foundation of big ideas. With a storied reputation of innovation, Jobs and Apple seemed to have captured the magic of having the right idea at the right time over and over again.
But this magic is misleading. We applaud the genius of those like Steve Jobs for big ideas that transform our perceptions about what is possible. However, we fail to recognize the work that got him there. For every ‘Steve soundbite’ we remember today, there were weeks of intense development, preparations and actual rehearsals – all that just to present the idea. It was never the right idea at the right time but an idea that was thoroughly explored and improved over a period of time....'
full post here:
http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/11/dispelling-the-eureka-myth-big-ideas-take-ti...
Monday, August 13, 2012
This new Assassin’s Creed III trailer sounds like a TED Talk | VentureBeat
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Jeremy Grubb (Excerpt):
Developer Ubisoft Montreal is taking a cue from other works of science-fiction for its open-world stealth game Assassin’s Creed III.
Publisher Ubisoft has released a new video to promote the historically set sci-fi title, which is coming to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 30......
Alt-Minds and the promise of 'transmedia' | Conspiracy Thriller will play through 10 Webisodes
via guardian.co.uk
Technology | guardian.co.uk
The term 'transmedia' has been derided in the past, but a Parisian developer reckons it may be the future of gaming, and Alt-Minds is the first instalment.
Developed by French studio, Lexis Numérique, Alt-Minds is a conspiracy thriller about the abduction of several young scientists. When the government shows little interest in their retrieval, their agency decides to investigate itself. The main narrative will be told via ten weekly 'webisodes', but players will also be able to subscribe to a newsfeed on their PC or tablet, providing background information and updates....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/aug/10/alt-minds-transmed...
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Very Cool Interactive Social Film: The Beauty Inside Official Trailer - Audition Now for the Lead!
via youtube.com
WATCH ON FACEBOOK STARTING 8/16. The Beauty Inside is an interactive social film, presented by Intel and Toshiba, directed by Drake Doremus, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Topher Grace, and all of YOU. It's Hollywood's first film that gives the audience a chance to play the lead role.
Audition Now at http://www.facebook.com/thebeautyinsidefilm/
Saturday, August 11, 2012
AweSummit Boston: You don’t know what you don’t know - Global Business Hub
via boston.com
Great summary post from The Awesome Summit:
'The Awesome Summit occurred for the very first time at the end of last month. Aside from a great name, the AweSummit is the culmination of years of work by the Awesome Foundation, which gives $1,000 micro-grants to awesome ideas once a month in each of its many chapters. Seriously awesome. Not knowing what to expect when I arrived at the MIT Media Lab, I went with some mild expectations for the talks around micro-giving, crowdsourced funding and investing, philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, collaboration, branding and more. I got significantly more than I bargained for....
...The Harry Potter Alliance: The most entertaining speaker of the day, and one of the most insightful was Andrew Slack, founder and creator of The Harry Potter Alliance. He had some great advice for organizations based on his experience founding a nonprofit that “takes an outside-of-the-box approach to civic engagement by using parallels from the Harry Potter books to educate and mobilize young people across the world toward issues of literacy, equality and human rights.” If it was obvious through the founding principle of his organization, he is a firm believer in playfulness. On the panel he stated that, “if playfulness isn’t baked into your organization then it’s time to re-bake it.” That resonated with me as someone who works with a few non-profits, particularly around engaging young members. The more fun you’re having the more people are likely to join and actually support a cause or movement....'
read the full post here:
http://www.boston.com/business/blogs/global-business-hub/2012/08/awesummit_bo...
Friday, August 10, 2012
What Hunting For A Mate Teaches You About Great Design | Co.Design: business + innovation + design
via fastcodesign.com
WRITTEN BY: Ayça Çakmakli
IF SOME OF THESE IDEAS SEEM FAMILIAR, YOU’RE RIGHT: WHAT YOU LOOK FOR IN A PARTNER IS ALSO WHAT YOU WANT IN A PRODUCT, ARGUES SMART DESIGN’S AYÇA ÇAKMAKLI.
...To better understand the attributes of a product or service that matter most to people, I studied the traits we look for in an ideal mate or long-term partner. I combed through scientific studies from the fields of sociology, anthropology, and psychology, bubbling up seven universal traits that most of us look for in a mate. Then, using my experience as a design researcher, I mapped these traits directly to people’s experiences with brands, products, and services:
1. SOCIAL STATUS
We are often drawn to partners that project the type of lifestyle to which we aspire. Brands understand this desire; they create elaborate worlds for us to be a part of. For instance, there is truth in the saying, You are what you drive. A Prius owner predictably has a different set of values than someone who drives a Mercedes. So if it turns out a brand doesn’t align with your core values, the relationship will inevitably fail. That’s the difference between a short-term and long-term relationship....
Read the full post here (one of a series!):
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670458/what-hunting-for-a-mate-teaches-you-about...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Super Hi-Vision Will Transform the TV Landscape (via thenextweb.com)
via thenextweb.com
via thenextweb.com
No sooner are we getting to grips with 3D and HD, and we’re already being told about the “next big thing” in televisual technology. But keep your hat on, this next one is some years away yet.
Super Hi-Vision (or Ultra High Definition) has been getting a fair bit of coverage of late, largely due to the BBC’s partnership with Japanese broadcaster NHK for the 2012 Olympics.
The technology underlying Super Hi-Vision has been developed in large by NHK’s Science and Technology Research laboratories, which the BBC borrowed to showcase its potential as a broadcasting medium. While the BBC did a tentative test with the technology back in 2010, it was all really gearing up to the Olympics.
Super Hi-Vision defined...'
full post here:
http://thenextweb.com/media/2012/08/03/with-super-hi-vision-the-tv-landscape-...
Saturday, August 4, 2012
6 Tips For Writing A (Money-Making) Script From A Billion Dollar Screenwriting Duo | Co.Create: Creativity \ Culture \ Commerce
via fastcocreate.com
BY: JOE BERKOWITZ (excerpt)
You may recognize Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant from “Reno 911,” which they created and starred in. What you probably don’t know is that their movies have grossed over a billion dollars at the box office. Here, their tips for writing a movie that sells.
Every day dozens of novice screenwriters are born, ideals fully intact. They carry visions of the ultimate cinematic experience, along with their laptops, into Starbucks to pour ideas onto the page. Almost all of them are doomed to fail. Not for the reasons you might think, though....
FORMULA IS YOUR FRIEND
Garant: "You have to be incredibly original in your idea for the movie, but the formula needs to be a movie formula. You have to think of a movie that the trailer will explain in 30 seconds, and movies like that all have the same structure."
Lennon: "Ben came up with a pretty simple way to express it: You take a guy and put him up in a tree, then you throw rocks at him, and then you get him down from the tree. Die Hard, The Matrix, Casablanca: all of these movies have heroes pulled into a situation against their will, who then end up winning. That’s structure. It can be liberating, though, because following structure gives you less to have to worry about."...
full article here:
http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681393/6-tips-for-writing-a-money-making-script-...
Friday, August 3, 2012
Nice post from Eva Dominguez: ‘Newsgames’: playing with the news - The Fourth BitThe Fourth Bit
Eva Domínguez | 31/07/2012
Two Pulitzer Prizewinners are preparing a game in order to make the world aware of the conditions of inequality in which women and children are suffering in many parts of the world. It will be released in the autumn and it’s another example of the use of ludic strategies in journalism, a tendency known as newsgaming.
The journalistic partnership made up of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, who won the Pulitzer for their coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, are preparing a FarmVille-type game in which actions will also have a real effect through donations, as Kristof explains to FastCompany.com. Apart from the game, which is based on the book Half the Sky, they are working on a documentary.
Three classics, a decade later
Using a game as a narrative resource in journalism is nothing new, although it is a minority pursuit. In The Fourth Bit in January, 2003, entitled The Game is the message, I discussed three notable examples of this formula, all published in 2002: The Enron Blame Game, Can You Spot the Threats? and Find the Terrorist. Ten years on, The Enron Blame Game, created by Slate.com based on the scandal at that corporation, is the only that cannot be consulted.
The other two were published as a result of the consequences of the attacks on the Twin Towers. In the middle of the debate on airport security, MSNBC.com launched Can you Spot the Threats?, in which the user has two minutes to detect guns, knives or explosives through the use of the airport baggage control device....
full post here:
http://blogs.lavanguardia.com/thefourthbit/newsgames-playing-with-the-news/
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Wow! Versailles 3D, Created by Google, Gives You an Impressive Tour of Louis XIV’s Famous Palace | Open Culture
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Excerpt:
'With 3D scale models, music, and video, Google’s Versailles 3D brings the best of 21st century web arts to 18th century art history. The palace was built by Louis XIV, the “Sun King,” who exemplified all of the authoritarian excesses of the French monarchy. Fortunately for posterity, he was also a patron of the arts, to whom we owe much of the work of Moliere, Racine and painters such as Charles Le Brun. And then there is his architectural legacy, the palace of Versailles, which started out as a humble hunting lodge, built by his father Louis XIII in 1624. In the next several decades, father, then son, commissioned the elaborate set of buildings that constitute Europe’s largest chateau and the seat of French government from Louis XIV’s ascension until the Revolution of 1789. If you’re thinking of visiting, the official chateau de Versailles website has slideshows of grounds and galleries, a boutique, and some worthwhile interactive features. But Google, as usual, has tried to outdo its competition, this time by partnering with it. In connection with the Versailles curators, The Google Cultural Institute has created a multimedia almost-substitute for a real life excursion to the gargantuan and enduring symbol of Ancien Regime France....'
Comic-Con and the Transmedia Future: 'Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture' < PopMatters
via popmatters.com
By Jeremy Estes 1 August 2012 (Excerpt)
'By the time you read this, the 2012 San Diego Comic Con will be over and preparation will have begun anew for next year’s event. “The Con” now operates in a cycle comparable to the perpetual campaigning of American politics. There are badge numbers, online sales and hotel reservations to secure, not to mention getting to the actual event itself, where endless lines and throngs of assorted humans and aliens occupy San Diego every July.
Rob Salkowitz’s book, Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture, is a fascinating look at this experience. In it he explores his own personal encounters with the Con (he and his wife have regularly attended since the late ‘90s) but also the event’s ascendance as the epicenter of entertainment business and culture. Being a comic fan, Salkowitz avoids the pitfalls of the “ZAP! POW! Comics Aren’t Just for Kids!” stories which annually announce the arrival of the Con. Despite the event’s recorded attendance of 130,000 in 2011, actual comic books—the staid monthly print magazines sometimes obnoxiously referred to as “floppies”—aren’t exactly doing a booming business. Comics-related properties generate billions of dollars in licensing revenue, covering everything from movies and games to socks and breakfast cereal. Best-selling comics however,, Salkowitz writes, rarely sell more than a few 100,000 copies....'
read more here:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/161060-comic-con-and-the-business-of-pop-...
Cool!! time to test!! Muvizu | Free 3D Animation Software
via muvizu.com
From the site:
"It’s easy to use but sophisticated and powerful
Make 3D animated movies in hours, not months
It’s free for non-commercial and educational use
Muvizu means animation is for everyone.."
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Will Bryan Singer's Upcoming Sci-fi Project 'H+' Offer a Look at the Future of Web Series? | Filmmakers, Film Industry, Film Festivals, Awards & Movie Reviews | Indiewire
via indiewire.com
BY VALENTINA. JULY 31, 2012
Excerpt:
'If we’re all going to our computers these days to watch content we used to only be able to access on a television, why not put the efforts (and money) there in the first place, with content that's tailored for an online experience?
The upcoming Warner Bros. web series "H+" -- a not-so-distant futuristic tale premiering on YouTube on August 8th -- aims to do just that.
The reason, according to producer Bryan Singer, is simple: the huge audience. “Through YouTube we have a potential worldwide base far greater than any other content platform,” Singer explains. “I want anyone with an internet connection to be able to experience this world.”While web series are faced with the challenge of trying to both compete with the quality of programmed, full-length television and stand unique on their own, the heavily backed "H+" team are taking a different approach.
“We set out to do something that had a large scope and a level of production value that's unusual for a web-distributed project,” says series’ director Stewart Hendler, who also happens to be the director of another large-scale action web series releasing this fall -- "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn." “We look forward to a time when the web is full of gorgeous, intelligent, complex content, and lately it finally feels like the trajectory is moving that way.”...
read more here:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/television/h-bryan-singer-web-series-warner-...
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