17 replies to this topic

[sanman]

Here's a thought exercise I came up with, which I felt might be interesting:

These days, we so often see a videogame spinoff quickly released soon after the launch of a movie or TV show. But what further evolution of these 2 powerful media does the future hold?

I was thinking that one day it might be possible to overlap the interactivity of online videogames with broadcast mass media, so that your online videogame would allow you to participate in a TV show for added immersion. Imagine some future version of a BSG type of space opera, where they frequently feature space battles. They could simultaneously release a videogame allowing you to play as a space pilot in a massively multiplayer online space battle. Combat footage could routinely be taken from the game's servers and incorporated into the show (possibly re-rendered in finer detail). Perhaps players could have their own custom callsigns decal'd onto their fighters (subject to management approval, of course), and this would allow them to be cameo'd in the TV show.

One of the stimulating aspects of online competitive gaming is to be able to perform in front of an audience, even achieving some wider fame or distinction. One of the cooler aspects of social networking is in crowd-sourcing (eg. callsign names, or battle footage). One of the challenges for persistent world game campaigns is in getting enough players to show up regularly to sustain the campaign, as opposed to those who just show up occasionally and play briefly, without any sustained commitment. Likewise, a challenge for TV shows is in sustaining viewer interest and keeping them engaged with the story.

By converging games and TV shows, it could allow for a new level of audience immersion and participation in a storyline, while addressing some of these issues.

I was thinking of the SpaceOperaTV+SpaceCombatGame as the first example that came to mind for this type of merger. If you really wanted to do something like this, using the space opera and space combat game pair-up as an example, then what kinds of new rules, requirements, best practices and constraints should be imposed on the game and to the format of the TV show, in order to facilitate this new type of convergence in participative storytelling?

Any ideas/suggestions, people?

[sanman]

More thoughts:

It would be nice if such a TV show could be produced in a "just in time" fashion - or at least as close to that as possible. This would make the story seem less preconceived and more a product directly created by audience interaction.

Perhaps multiple possible endings could be filmed in advance, and the "correct" one aired, based on the outcome of audience participation through the videogame. I remember once seeing a show that did that, airing one of two possible endings, based on the audience phoning in and voting via touch-tone. The videogame would enable a more sophisticated version of audience interaction and participation, as part of our increasing technological trend towards media convergence.

Perhaps if the show were to re-air again, then its outcome would be different, based on new audience participation results.


One other idea I was thinking of, was that the videogame you downloaded would be able to make use of your computer's hardware for graphics processing purposes, as a distributed online render farm app. Think of something like FOLDING@HOME or SETI@HOME. This would enable the TV show's CG production crew to harness vast amounts of processing power from the viewerbase, to produce unprecedented quality CG fx for subsequent broadcast. It also might enable something closer to "just in time" high-quality CG rendering for the TV show.

Game developers often talk about "emergent behavior" in games featuring large numbers of units, and in the case of MMO games, the playing masses can also collectively generate "emergent behavior" from among themselves. This itself might have notable effects on the outcome of the space battles upon which the TV storyline is based, and might thus create a new form of feedback dynamic between story producers and viewers.

Sure, it may sound pie-in-the-sky (for now), but I thought it might be an interesting idea to discuss and flesh out. What do you all think?

[sanman]

Some years ago, there was an experimental BBC television show which tried to make videogames into a spectator sport.

http://www.bbc.co.uk.../fightbox.shtml

It sounded like a cool idea. Leave it to the 'beeb' to innovate something new like that. Unfortunately it fizzled out, because it was too goofy and boring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FightBox

One main problem is that videogames don't have a sufficiently established fanbase as a spectator sport, which makes it too much of an uphill battle. Robot Wars as a show on the Comedy Network was never a real appreciation of Robot fighting or technology. It seemed mainly there for cheap laughs and guffaws.

That's a big reason why I think the space opera format would work better, because it provides a dramatic storyline as the main draw for viewer interest. The idea of participating in epic space battles that are the backdrop to the dramatic story, and getting a cameo via the space combat footage would give added weight and meaning to the space combat, as a way to draw in gamers.

For added visual dramatic impact, you could have some kind of O'Neill Habitat or Gundam-style Colony-based story setting. That would allow more opportunity for the videogame space battles to be a visible backdrop for all kinds of dramatic storytelling scenes.

Ideally, I would like for the character scenes to be more intensely dramatic in style, like a theatrical stage play. They would be filmed on green screen of course, so that the appropriate sci-fi backdrop could be composited on. Some of the best old-school sci-fi had that intensely theatrical stage drama and dialogue - whether it was Star Trek, or Doctor Who, Blake's 7, etc. They depended less upon special fx, and more upon good dialogue, writing, and acting. They made more with less, in contrast to today's actors with their lame deliveries of lame lines, and heavy dependence upon CG fx to boost appeal.

So the idea is that the dramatic story would be the main draw for viewers, and the cool epic space battle fx would be the bonus eye-candy, relying upon crowd-sourcing of space pilots from an MMO videogaming community. The opportunity to be digital "Hollywood extras" getting a cameo in an epic space opera TV series would be the draw to get those gamer-pilots to contribute their time and effort in participating.

The cameos would consist of fly-by shots, fly-overs, and all the similar kinds of space combat footage that's typical of any space opera. These shots would give brief tantalizing glimpses of callsigns painted/decal'd onto fighters, squadron("clan") logos, etc.


Space pilots who showed their fighting prowess by scoring especially well in the game could see their names worked into the storyline, being mentioned in the dialogue, etc, as an appreciation. This gives the fan their reward of being incorporated into the story universe, albeit at a peripheral level. That's the Holy Grail of any space opera fan, isn't it - to be immortalized as a member of an epic story universe?

Well, isn't it?

Wouldn't you love to be Wing Commander pilot #753, who kamikaze'd the Kilrathi flagship in the season finale episode? Wouldn't you love to be one of the X-wing pilots who gets splattered by Darth Vader in the DeathStar trench thing? Wouldn't you love to be the 5th-to-last starfighter in The Last Starfighter? Wouldn't you love to be the Starfury pilot who does a flyby of the bridge during an episode's opening scene? Or see your callsign painted on a Hammerhead fighter during a panning shot of the hangar deck in S:AAB? Or be one of the pilots launching from the Galactica's belly during its fiery atmospheric entry in the Adama maneuver? Etc, etc.

Well, I'm just mentioning known story properties for evocative/illustrative purposes. But of course this thing would have to be based on its own original story universe - which shouldn't matter, just as long as it's epic, right?

I don't say that this would be the immediate next step in gaming and TVshow evolution, but perhaps it could be some future step down the road.

[sanman]

I've heard about the big Starcraft tournaments in Korea, and how some superstars even get paid as professional players. But I'd like a way to make a videogame more than just a videogame, otherwise then it ultimately only feels like being good at backgammon, or cards, or marbles, or parcheesi.

One of the coolest and most unique aspects of videogaming is in roleplaying and immersion, especially give the trend towards increased graphics and movie-like storytelling. The art of gaming is being increasingly merged with the art of storytelling. At some point, it should be possible to integrate gaming with live-action storytelling in a visual mass medium like TV or theater. This could help videogaming from becoming stale, repetitive and mundane.

Theater is the oldest form of drama, and arguably the most gripping. In its classical form, it has the beauty of being live and not pre-recorded. The quality of the actors generally has to be better than those found on TV. You'd never see starlets like Megan Fox doing theater, because she doesn't have that level of capability. When you see some of Patrick Stewart's scenes in Star Trek, or Ian McKellan's scenes in LotR, you're like - "Damn! Now that guy can act! The others look like amateurs next to him!"

Theater also tends to be more creative, experimental and groundbreaking in many ways. Remember Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast?
Perhaps it might sound silly or unproductive to incorporate the sounds from a live MMO videogame into a live radio drama play. But doing it for a visual storytelling medium like TV could be more fruitful, because of the opportunity for ordinary players to get a cameo. This could be a bold new way to allow mass-participation in a story epic, where videogame players get to be "digital extras". This new level of added interactivity would raise fan participation and interest, to create a hardcore fanbase while raising the profile of the TV drama. It would be a step beyond webisodes and fan-discussion forums, which are now routine forms of online fan interactivity.

Instead of talking with your friends about that epic space battle you saw on that cool sci-fi TV show you watched last night, you'd have personally been in that epic space battle.



Because epics tend to have an extended cast of heroes and participants, you would get a chance to be one of those heroic participants -- not a main hero mind you, just a lesser one. The main heroes/participants would be the actual acting cast in the show, but you get to be a minor background participant, like an extra, potentially earning yourself a cameo -- perhaps even an heroic cameo -- as a reward for supporting the story epic with your participation.

Quote

ep·ic
n.
1. An extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language, celebrating the feats of a legendary or traditional hero.
2. A literary or dramatic composition that resembles an extended narrative poem celebrating heroic feats.
3. A series of events considered appropriate to an epic: the epic of the Old West.
adj.
1. Of, constituting, having to do with, or suggestive of a literary epic: an epic poem.
2. Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size: "A vast musical panorama . . . it requires an epic musical understanding to do it justice" (Tim Page).
3. Heroic and impressive in quality: "Here in the courtroom . . . there was more of that epic atmosphere, the extra amperage of a special moment" (Scott Turow).

Sometimes you hear about some lucky fan who won a contest, being selected for a free trip to Hollywood to get a tiny cameo in a show/movie. But an online persistent world MMO videogame would allow for a more routine and continuous form of participation, rather than some one-off radio contest lottery.

At the company where I work, we once had some evening dinner event at a hotel, where they planted some actors/actresses to be seated among us, who mingled with us without revealing they were actors. They then staged some WhoDunnit type of drama event live in our midst, to our initial surprise and entertainment. The purpose was of course to provide a more immersively entertaining experience.

The MMO videogame might be able to put a new spin on this, planting you in the backdrop of the storyacting scene, but as a peripheral participant rather than as just a mere background spectator - such as a spacefighter pilot battling away in the backdrop of a story foreground scene.

Can anyone visualize what I'm talking about?

[alphadog]

There's a mishmash of ideas in your thread.

Cameos. Immersion. Delayed vs. real-time participation. Etc, etc, etc.

Also, the feasibility of all of this is questionable. It's hard enough to pull off a polished game *or* TV show, much less some combo thereof. Doable? Yes. Likely success? Less than TV or MMO taken alone.

I understand the excitement, but you won't be able to create a discussion from the above.

[sanman]

Well, I'm talking about giving the space opera story fan their ultimate wet dream. They would like to be incorporated into that story universe, not only so that they know they're in it, but so that others know they're in it.

I use the word "cameo" to describe the idea of being given visibility/recognition as a peripheral character in the great story. Not everybody would get that coveted opportunity, hence the role of both competition and chance in being granted it.

Regarding delayed-vs-realtime participation, I would make a comparison between a Hollywood extra, who gets some enjoyment out of showing up to participate and be filmed, even though the final polished product won't be broadcasted to the masses immediately. This delay then helps to minimize or filter out the "hi mom" effect on people's behavior.

The thing here is that all videogames are becoming alike. Epic sword-and-sorcery fantasy? Plenty available. Epic space opera? Dime a dozen.

The only thing that game developers know to do, is to push for ever more realistic graphics. That's obviously been the knee-jerk response of the console-makers. It was only Nintendo who dared to try and push things in another direction with their Wii.

But once the potential for graphics improvements have been exhausted, and even interface improvement as well, then where do we go from there?
Sooner or later, every developer will have AI that's good enough so that further improvements will only amount to diminishing returns. Epic storylines are a dime a dozen - everybody claims to have a "compelling, gripping" story.
The day isn't far off when graphics will become photorealistic enough that further improvements won't attract people. Eventually audience fatigue will set in.

So I'm saying that some new way has to be found to give the player an extra thrill, to take the experience to a new level. Otherwise, how will you keep games from inevitably falling into stagnation?

I think that turning the player into a "virtual athlete" competing in front of an audience -- even a delayed audience -- would add that extra thrill to keep them engaged. And since games are no longer merely about pong, but now often feature a backstory, the "virtual athlete" is able to become a "virtual hero" for that story universe and its fans, even if only in a peripheral way.

[sanman]

Here's another interesting variant on the idea, which I noticed in Wii Sports Resort:

http://www.gamespot....tml?sid=6213600

They mention at the end, that Sports Resort can pull in popular Mii designs off the internet. That's intriguing - what if we could take that idea further?

Suppose you had some game that could be played both as MMORPG or standalone, where everyone builds their own custom characters to either play in singleplayer campaign mode, or else take them online to play in the MMORPG. In the online game, you could have especially high-scoring/high-ranking characters being recorded by the servers. Then when anyone decides to play in singleplayer campaign mode, the game would download some of these best-scoring characters from the online servers, who would then appear as NPCs in the singleplayer game.

This would be a way of rewarding avid/dedicated gamers, by incorporating their characters into the story universe, for everyone to enjoy. The Poor Man's form of celebrityhood. Sound appealing?

You could obviously do some kind of weighted probability for the download of best players, whereby the more highly-ranked your online character is, the more likely it is to be selected for download to the singleplayer story campaign as NPC. But even not-so-high-ranking players could still have some chance of being downloaded to become NPCs in other people's single-player games. This would create a new aspect to the concept of Social Gaming.

Make sense?

[sanman]

So finally, somebody's actually done it - they are combining a TV show with an MMO game:

http://e3.gamespot.c...g-to-360-ps3-pc

http://dvice.com/arc...ing-this-vi.php

http://www.pcgamer.c...ew-mmo-shooter/


This means a game that will alter the script/evolution of a TV show, in effect allowing gamers to collectively interact with the TV show via a game. You could say that this brings social media to a new level of entertainment interaction.

What are the thoughts on this? Anyone?

[sanman]

Here's the trailer from E3:




Note that this is being done in conjunction with the SyFy channel. Not bad - hopefully it will make use of the cloud, too.

[rouncer]

well i guess they know what they are doing!

[alphadog]

It's definitely a cool concept, but I wonder how it will play out in practice.

Crowdsourcing often only yields metacrap.



PS: Wow, my most Web2.0 post of the week!

[sanman]

Ha, ha, metacrap - I'll remember that!

What I also remember is an old saying that "a camel is a horse that was designed by committee"

But in this case, we're talking about the enjoyment incentive and the intuitiveness of playing a videogame, so it would avoid the pitfalls described in your link.

Hey, maybe things like enjoyment, incentive, and intuitive response are possible solutions to avoiding metacrap in general.

Anyway, I hope a bold new experiment like this works out for SyFy Channel.

The story of Defiance seems to be about the Earth being invaded by an alien ecosystem (ie. not just the alien invaders themselves, but also their flora and fauna come to take over the Earth)

So the story seems to allow for a wide scope of game scenario possibilities. But the game is apparently a 3rd-person shooter.

[sanman]

Here's a feature look at the show:

[sanman]

Here's a description of the game backstory plot:

http://www.psxextrem...-news/9241.html

Quote

The solar system is collapsing and in a last-ditch effort, alien societies create arks and fill them with flora, fauna and inhabitants of their home world. The goal is to send these arks out into space and hopefully find an uninhabited yet hospitable planet. They find such a planet, but it ain't inhabited. It's our planet, and humans don't take kindly to the onslaught of arks hurtling towards Earth. Later, humans and aliens must find a way to coexist.

[alphadog]

sanman said:

They find such a planet, but it ain't inhabited. It's our planet, and humans don't take kindly to the onslaught...

Our planet is not inhabited? Someone needs a proofread at PSXExtreme...

[sanman]

Here's even more info:

http://www.escapistm...922-E3-Defiance

Quote

The game and the TV show are both episodic (obviously). If something happens in the show, it'll be reflected in the game, and players from the game will also be talked about on the show but both take place in different cities. Characters from the show might travel to the game for a while, where players can interact with them, and later they'll travel back and talk on the show about what happened in the game.

[sanman]

Here's more info:

http://www.product-r...or-multiplayer/

Quote

Trion’s global brand director, Alex Rodberg, told Kokatu that if you are a top Defiance player you may be featured on this show. We are quite intrigued about this unique feature.

http://www.kotaku.co...0-but-you-wont/

Quote

Within that televised drama, Trion’s Rodberg said, top Defiance players can expect to hear lead characters mention their gaming character. The show might demonstrate in some way that you, a top Defiance player is at the top of the game’s leaderboard, Rodberg said. You might be “featured”. And, in turn, as the TV series unfolds, the game will in some ways change.

[alphadog]

That would actually be kinda cool. I'm sure for some, it'd be major geek points for being mentioned...