Gaming & Storytelling in the 21st Century

- Stories are a unique survival tool for showing us rather than telling us how the world works, yet the best stories are the ones that engage people on a

deeper level. -

Jon Radoffhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPyFg-GN5a8

HOMO LUDENS1938 Johan Huizinga

“Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes

human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing.”

Play Theory

(very) short history of games

Pok a Tok 2500 BC Maya Ball Game

Senet 3100 BC Egypt Board game

Nowadays: Simulation games 40% market share

GTA by Rockstar North Huge development

team (1000)

Pro evo soccer 2009 by Kunami Realistic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieSzsh4hJWI

Not all games have stories,most games have a tiny story

Bejeweled by PopCap. Every Platform, over 150 Million downloads. Casual Games

Not all games are virtual worlds

Second life by Linden Labs. No game– You can build anything (or pay people to build it for you)

World of Warcraft by BlizzardMMORPG– Full of challenges/ engagements/ story– 10 Million people playing– 5000 on the same server– Closed world– (you can cheat though)

http://www.southpark.nl/clips/sp_vid_155263/

Not all games are for boys

Petz Ubisoft All platforms

Farmville (facebook) Zynga 80 million players

Taking care of / growing things is fullfilling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odBDAcOEKuI&feature=player_embedded

Not all games are for Geeks26-34-24? late 20's

Not all games are just for funSerious & simulation games

Plenty more examples are out there ; e.g American Army (simulation), Dance dance revolution (exergames), Braintraining, Remission, Sugar Kids, de Verhalentafel

How to handle interaction/ content?

JFK Reloaded (Traffic Light)Mc Donalds Game (Molleindustria)

Super Columbine Massacre RPG (Danny Ledonne)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u8Sp1rHWp0&feature=player_embeddedhttp://www.columbinegame.com/statement.htm

Not all games are about Orcs, soldiers or gangsters, horses or football

Pixeljunk Eden (Q games)

Plenty more examples are out there, e.g : Echochrome, Flow, Flower, the Path, The Graveyard, Braid, Hotel, Everyday the same dream, Little Big Planet, Machinarium, Samarost, The Tulse Luper suitcases, The Unfinished Swan. Katamari, Crayon Physics deluxe, Noby Noby Boy

Can Games be Art? (digital distribution leads to more games for niche audiences)

The Marriage By Rod Humble (2006)

A Split Second Stedelijk Museum &

SubmarineChannel

'Educational' games

E.g : Palestine(Global Conflicts)

Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nds)

The Total War series (Creative Assembly)

Sneeze (Channel 4)

QiGame (TMJ & Submarine)

http://www.miniclip.com/games/sneeze/en/

www.qigame.nl

Cross media content production

1.0 : Pushed. Same content, different platforms (tv, broadband, mobile)

2.0: Extra's. Each version uses strenght of platform, independently.

3.0: Bridges. Content is teasing you to move platforms.

4.0: Experiences. Co- creative collaborate play. Story environments. Transmedia/ ARG.

Transmedia Strategy's

How to make people immerse in the story?

An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform,

often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by

participants' ideas or actions.(Or pretends to be at least partial in reality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfOUhwhdUV0&feature=player_embedded

Examples

Lost Experience, (ABC) played out during second season. Hybrid between marketing and content.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PPCCcXarkc

The Truth About Marika (SVT, The Company P 2007)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_ZJkwvKR8

The Dark Knight, Why so serious? (42 entertainment)

Costs & effects

1, 9, 90 rule : expensive and time consuming.

Versus hypersociability: lessens the need for a producer to offer fixed media: Pokemon/ Animatrix.

Leading to decentralized authorship: death of the author (Barthes 67).

So what about Branding?

Play theory = Fun Theory:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

And just to close of with a nice match:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UfGpt-0ncc&feature=player_embedded

Heleen Groenendijk Heleen@portmantoo.nl www.portmantoo.nl

Thank You !