Category: Creative Practice & Strategy

Theatre-goers have been having fun playing ‘crowd gaming’ at the cinema, courtesy of MSNBC.com. The official press release explains:

Msnbc.com liberates movie audiences from the out-of-date trivia, static billboards and the impatience of waiting for the summer blockbusters to begin with NewsBreaker Live, the first in-theater, audience participatory video game. Modeled after classic video games, NewsBreaker Live combines live msnbc.com RSS newsfeeds, the movement of the audience as a human joystick, and the big screen as a game board to bust audiences out of their pre-movie doldrums with an interactive game that delivers real-time news headlines to kick start the moviegoing experience.

Here is a video of the game in action:

Continue reading “Cinema Games: MSNBC’s NewsBreaker“

Excellent virtual world consultancy Kzero have a site with some interesting content. They are the people behind the Second Life Brand Map:

They’ve got some interesting case-studies and population demographics of Second Life that seem pretty accurate, though I don’t know how they determined that information. (Most female avatars are actually real life males!) I sent them a query but haven’t heard back from them yet. Anyway, they have started a series of posts about what they call ‘metabrands’.

A Metabrand is a brand that is created to exist solely in a virtual space. It lives only on servers, is powered by electricity, experienced only on a computer screen and serves to provide a service, solution or product to avatars living in a metaverse. A Metabrand satisfies a demand that exists purely on a virtual basis.

Post explaining metabrands: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=717

First metabrand case-study: http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=752

Here are some new sites or sites that now have blogs that readers of this site may find interesting:

• Ian Bogost’s blog

Well known serious game designer at Persuasive Games, co-editor of serious game site Water Cooler Games and ludologist Ian Bogost has started his own personal blog. Indeed, it is part of a full-blown personal site aggregating his writing, books, teaching etc. Good stuff.

• Evan Jones’ blog

I’ve mentioned alternate reality game designer Evan Jones’ site Stitch Media before. Previously, however, you could just signup for a mailing list. Now Evan has a blog where he comments on the latest happenings in the TV, alternate reality gaming, extended entertainment etc sectors.

• Propagating Media

We are John Hartley, Jean Burgess and John Banks, a research team working on an ARC-funded project called The Uses of Multimedia. The main purpose of that project is to explore the extent to which new media allow for wider participation in creative innovation, and thence in the growth of knowledge.

Enjoy!