Lost in Narrative Story Architects and

Experience Designers

Story Shapes

Story Shapes

“There is no beginning, no middle, no end, no suspense, no moral, no causes, no effects.

What we love in our books are the depths of many marvelous moments seen all at one time.”

Vonnegut, K. Slaughterhouse Five (1969)

Man In Hole

Image from Maya Eilam

Boy Meets Girl

Image from Maya Eilam

From Bad To Worse

Image from Maya Eilam

Which Way Is Up

Image from Maya Eilam

Creation Story

Image from Maya Eilam

Old Testament

Image from Maya Eilam

New Testament

Image from Maya Eilam

Cinderella

Image from Maya Eilam

What is Transmedia

“where the power of the media producer and the power of the media

consumer interact in unpredictable ways.”

(Jenkins 2006:

Lost in Lost

Lost in 30 seconds

Lost, in its complex narrative structure,

creates a new form of textuality

It creates what we could think of as a ergodic

television

The Mystery Box

The narrative sprawls across platforms both

actual and virtual

It creates a labyrinthine transmedia experience

for the viewer to explore and experience

This is not

“360 commissioning”

This is not “cross media”

The textual structure resembles more of a

network or game than a traditional TV Show

The narrative becomes dispersed and

architectural within the discourse this is

“world building”

“integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across

multiple delivery channels”

(Jenkins 2007:

“[to create] a unified and coordinated

entertainment experience.”

(Jenkins 2007:

Lostipedia

The text creates a blended space between

texts and the world outside the text

Advertising Space

It relies on intertextual and paratextual

approaches to interpret the narrative

Lost Book Club

This has the potential to create new forms of

mediation and blended narrative

Bad Twin

This is less of a textual threshold and more of a

sprawling textual encounter

Mobisodes

The Lost Experience

The structure is a product of media

convergence but also exists “because of the

network”

Reverse engineered story shapes to map the

network past the mono-media

A move from writer and director to experience

designer for media

“When you strip away the genre differences and the technological

complexities, all games share four defining

traits…”

…a goal, rules, a feedback system, and

voluntary participation.” (McGonigal 2012)

“playing a game is the voluntary effort to

overcome unnecessary obstacles.”

(Suits, B. 1990 p41)

“Games are an exercise of voluntary control

systems, in which there is a contest between

powers…

…confined by rules in order to produce a

disequilibrial outcome.” (Avedon, E. & Sutton-Smith, B. 1971)

“The player is actively pursuing some goal.

Obstacles prevent him from easily achieving

this goal” (Crawford, C. 1984)

“A game is a system in which players engage in

an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that

results in a quantifiable outcome.”

(Salen, K & Zimmerman E., 2004)

Deep Media?

Project Example1

The Beast is billed as the first Alternative Reality Game, it was developed by 42 Entertainment to promote the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) and was one of the first instances of a mixed reality entertainment experience

Project Example 2

Conspiracy for good was developed as a “mixed reality drama” by Tim Kring (the writer behind Heroes). It was marketed as “Social Benefit Storytelling”. It was nominated for the Digital Program: Fiction EMMY in 2011. Conspiracy For Good was a collaborative project between Nokia, TKE Imperative and The Company P.

Project Example 3

I Love Bees is one of the most famous Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), developed by 42 Entertainment to promote the launch of the game Halo 2. We will be returning to I Love Bees to deconstruct it’s narrative path, play elements and community

Project Example 4

World Without Oil was an Alternative Reality Game which ran for 32 weeks in 2007 and was billed as a game for social good. It simulated the global oil crisis through the media and real world events.

Project Example 5

Why So Serious, (again) developed by 42 entertainment was a massively expansive ARG developed to promote The Dark Knight (2008)

Project Example 6

[in]visible belfast was the longest running Alternative Reality Game in Northern Ireland. It ran for 6 weeks and had a number of live events, performances and websites, an achieve is currently being constructed.

Project Example 7

Where’s Wally UUC was one of the most successful Alternative Reality Games to be produced in this module, it lead to commissions by festivals and still sits as a portfolio piece for the students

TINAG This is not a game

TINAG is a core aesthetic to the

Medium of ARGs

The edges of the experience are

blurred

Rabbit Hole or

Trail Head

The rabbit hole is the first point of contact,

but also the start of the voyage for the player

Transmedia Models

4 Layer Model

Experience Layer

4 Layer Model

Narrative Layer

4 Layer Model

Presentation Layer

4 Layer Model

Interactive Layer

Techniques

Hub and Spoke

Techniques

Tasks for participation

Techniques

Unlocks

Techniques

Bottle neck