Transmedia and Gamification

TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING

AND GAMIFICATION

Dr. Amber Hutchins

Transmedia Storytelling “Transmedia storytelling

represents a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience.”

Story is told across multiple platforms

Synergy Economics of media

consolidation or "synergy."

Modern media companies are horizontally integrated - that is, they hold interests across a range of what were once distinct media industries.

In a World… Based not on

individual characters or specific plots but rather complex fictional worlds which can sustain multiple interrelated characters and their stories.

Extensions may serve a variety of different functions Fill gaps in time between

productions

Provide insight into the characters and their motivations.

Flesh out aspects of the fictional world.

Bridge between events depicted in a series of sequels

Everything Old Is New Again

Marshall McLuhan

The Medium is the Message

Each medium creates new environment situation for understanding

Global Village: Peace and harmony, or “Ann Landers column writ large”

Media are extensions of human faculties

Electronic media/brain functions

The Blair Witch TM Explosion

Had tons of footage

Mythology and back story

Utilized the Internet in a new way

Purposefully deceptive (DEAD Actors?)

“Hacking” reality

Twin Peaks: Pre-Internet

Changes in Media Use, Producers & Consumers Fan fiction

Interactivity

Ownership, participatory culture

User-generated content

Fan communities

TM: ideal aesthetic form for an era of collective intelligence.

Pierre Levy: collective intelligence New social structures that enable the production and circulation

of knowledge within a networked society.

Participants pool information and tap each others expertise as they work together to solve problems.

Functions as a cultural attractor, drawing together like-minded individuals to form new knowledge communities.

Transmedia narratives function as textual activators - setting into motion the production, assessment, and archiving information.

Transmedia in the Field CampfireNYC 42 Entertainment

True Blood Game of Thrones

From the “fringe” to traditional firms

HIMYM

Disney Marketing: Building Nostalgia “Disney Has Been

Virally Marketing Jason Segel’s Hard-to-Make Muppets for 18 Months”

Lotso Huggin Bear

Creating History, Nostalgia

Gamers Increase in gaming,

changes in gamersFarmville

“My online life IS my real life!”

More gamers: More immersive storytelling

Games are…

Sticky Cooperative Require active

participants Have a goal

Now, social

Gamification

Seth PriebatschThe Game Layer

Jesse SchellEverything is a game, even Weight

Watchers!

Incentives Strategic moves (Game

theory) Jane McGonigalSolve the World’s

Problems

ARGs: Transmedia Storytelling Beyond

video/Product

Immersive Experience

Combined promotional, marketing efforts

ARGs: Art, Game or Promotion?

Ancillary or essential to the storyline?

NIN Year Zero

Lost Experience

Beyond Viral: Embracing the Social Web

Audi: The Art of the Heist

Blurring the lines between reality and fiction– when is it too much? Deceptive?

Everything Old is New Again “What we do isn't new; it's timeless.

Telling stories is one of mankind’s most enduring traditions, and our increased connectedness has only made spreading them faster, more pervasive, and more effective.”

Campfire NYC