“We actually built an A.I. fighting game for the Xbox, a racing game for the Xbox, and a gladiatorial combat game for the Xbox. And the problem with all those games was that an audience isn’t going to know how those fit together. They’re not gonna understand how the characters kind of move from one game, to the next game, to the next, especially with a franchise where some of them may not have even seen the movie.
So we thought, what we really need is just kind of like, the glue between those properties. So we thought, what if we built a game that didn’t actually live on any platform, it just sorta lived everywhere. And characters could call you, and characters could send you email, and the characters that you saw in one game could hop out of that game into the real world for a while, and you’d play along with them. And then they’d hop into the next game, and that’s episode two. Episode three they’re gonna hop back out into the real world, play with you, and then episode four they jump into the next Xbox game. So we built that, and we called it The Beast, because we didn’t know what else to call it and we thought it would be cool.”

“Then we saw the movie A.I., and… I don’t know if you’ve seen the movie A.I., but umm, you don’t exactly… It’s a movie about a fake boy who really wants the love of his mom and would do anything to be real, but at the end we realize he can’t actually be real and his heart is broken and he’s buried at the bottom of the sea forever… No one walks out of that movie thinking, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to play the Xbox game!’ right? You’re screwed. So me and my team walked out of the movie and just thought, ‘Oh, we’re so f**ked!’ We have nothing.
So we went back to Redmond and we canceled all the games. We just killed them that day cause we thought, ‘We have no chance, no one’s gonna buy these things.’ But as we’re slashing these games, we kinda realize ‘But that other thing, the glue, that’s still kinda cool. That actually has emotional resonance, and actually fits in really well with the movie, because it’s all about people’s real lives. And their passions and their hatreds and their conflict, and, it’s just gritty and real and awesome.’ And so we thought, ‘Well, we own the rights anyway, so let’s just release that, even though it’s not promoting any of our games.’ Even though it’s not carrying characters from one piece to the next. We built it anyway, so we might as well just launch it. And so we did. And it wasn’t meant to be promotion for the movie… it was meant as a clue for these other Xbox games, which no longer existed. So we had no agenda. I mean, absolutely no agenda.”

Lee explains EDOC Laundry.

22
Definition-storyworld:
Sources and names!

23
Definition-fictional world:
“the term fictional world is employed to denote the sum of all the content and expressive planes (all compositions) that are constructed to adhere to the same internal logic.”

6
Definition-narrative:
“How do you communicate pattern-type information to a pattern-recognizing mental module using a sequential medium such as language? In computer terms, the data is in the wrong format for the communications link!
What’s needed is a reformatter, something that converts one thinking format to the other. Narrative is that reformatter. It’s an ad-hoc solution to an ugly interfacing problem that arose early in the development of language.”

“Any way that humankind has invented to lie to each other should be part of your storytelling toolkit.”

Storytelling generations

Bard 1.0 – old dead Greek blind guys
Bard 2.0 – Greek theatre – parallel bards
Bard 3.0 – book – scalable bards
Bard 4.0 – cinema – parallel scalable bards
Bard 5.0 – digital storytelling (not the Hartley type)

9
Definition-ARG:
“An interactive drama played out online and in real-world spaces, taking place over several weeks or months, in which dozens, hundreds, or thousands of players come together online, form collaborative social networks, and work together to solve a mystery or problem that would be absolutely impossible to solve alone.”

10ff
“6 key terms that describe ARGs”:

• cross-media
• pervasive
• persistent
• collaborative
• constructive
• expressive

Explains the advantages and disadvantages of the following technologies.

Absolute Positioning

• GPS
• Cell Positioning (mobile phone towers)
• WLAN Positioning
• Self-Reported Positioning

Proximity Recognition

• RFID
• Bluetooth
• Infrared Communication

Wireless Communication

• WLAN
• GPRS
• Bluetooth
• Infrared Communication

Virtual Content

• Triggered Content
• Augmented Reality
• Mobile Augmented Reality

xix
“it was the recent advances in communication technologies – in particular the adoption of the Internet, mobile communication, and positioning technologies – that opened new design spaces for pervasive play.”
“Researchers and companies around the globe come up with new playful ways of using mobile and positioning technologies. Even mainstream conventions of what it is to play a game are shifting. Playfulness is seeping into the ordinary. Everyday life is becoming interlaced with games.”

xx
“The plethora of similar yet not identical labels illustrates not only that pervasive games are part of the zeitgeist, but the difficulty of grasping this new playing field.” Very good!
“As with all game design, pervasive game design is second-order design: The designer does not design play but the structures, rules, and artifacts that help bring it about.” Very important for entarchs!
“Activities that blur the border between ordinary life and game are almost automatically packaged with numerous ethical issues.”

xxi
“[There are] major shifts in how the struggle for public space, the blurring of fact and fiction, and the rise of ludus in society are changing the way we perceive the world.” Societal change!

xiii
Definition ARG: “[ARGs] are interactive stories in which you, in the audience, are also a crucial character, and your decisions drive the narrative.”

xiv
“In my career as a novelist, at best I have gotten the occasional fan letter. After several of our ARGs, I have been invited to the weddings of people who met and became engaged in the course of the game.”
“The nature of a pervasive game, in all the many varieties discussed in this book, is to make the “magic circle” of a game not a barrier, but a membrane; to let game and life bleed together so that game becomes heavy with the reality of life, and life becomes charged with the meaning of game. As Elan said, “The player’s life should be the game board.” An interviewer, talking to one of the players, asked, “When you are playing one of these games, who are you pretending to be?” To which the player replied, “Basically, you’re playing someone who is exactly the same as you in every way, except they think it’s real.“”

xv
“”Come. Play with us. If you are willing to suspend your disbelief, we will make it worth your while.”"
“To live, this kind of entertainment needs access to your life. Pervasive games, like vampires, can only enter if you let them in.“