[arg_discuss] Interactive story-telling via podcast

[Patrick O'Luanaigh]

Sounds like a great idea to me... Imagine an interface where you get taken
to user-friendly 'detective tools' depending on what you click on. Pause an
audio file on someone's voice, and it'll bring up an online voice analysis
tool.... Pause a video file on a frame, and it will let you interact with
objects in that frame. I've got a game development background, and can
imagine the entire video being created in 3D by an application - so it looks
like a video, but if you pause it, you can then enter the scene and move
around within the frame, with all the characters/objects frozen in time.... 
How cool would that be?


-----Original Message-----
From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org] On
Behalf Of Colin McNee
Sent: 22 February 2008 02:15
To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG
Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] Interactive story-telling via podcast

A friend of a friend of mine is evidently working on productions for
hand-held devices and has a connection to Disney. Hmmm... Veeeery
interesting. But likely just vapor-ware at the moment. 

On a more serious note, I have another question for our tech-savvy members:
How feasible is it  to create something like the following? What I have in
mind is something I'm provisionally calling the [pause]...[poke] interface.
If you've watched any of the Find 815 videos you may find yourself pausing
the video and backing it up to try to isolate and view specific frames which
seem to carry information. I've Lost hours this way. There is also a Hunt
for Clues site where certain objects in a room are hot-spots and are linked
to various snippets of information. Now, imagine if these were combined such
that certain single frames in a video  were active in this way. The
viewer/player pauses the video and pokes a certain object and is rewarded
with a clue. Moreover, what this Apple patent implies is that different
players get different active frames, necessitating collective ARG action. 

There are a couple of implications of this (given that it is possible):
Revenue streams. Both product placement and a cut of the iTunes download
fee.

More interesting is the possibility for the player/viewer to become like a
ghost in the machine. Imagine a scene in a bar, the protagonist enters and
someone else exits. The player/viewer pauses the video and pokes a
surveillance camera. They enter the camera and rewind the tape to see when
and with whom the second person entered the bar.  

I foresee such a thing being able to facilitate the "Hey! What the hell was
that!?!" Feeling that is so exhilarating. Did anyone else pause the dvd
during Locke's blast-door scene? Now imagine that you could interact with
that map and solve the puzzle it represented without having to go to your
computer. 

What say we all?
 
"D. Cook" <me at addlepated.net> wrote: That's interesting!  I just read a
rumor that Disney is trying to get  
an interactive thing going on with its Haunted Mansion attraction,  
where you can "download" a ghost as you ride through and take it home  
like a pet.  Not sure if it's a pipe dream from a Disney fan or  
something that's actually in the works.

On Feb 21, 2008, at 6:59 PM, Colin McNee wrote:


> Hi all,

> I happened across this item this morning about customizing podcasts.  

> It's a step closer to bringing interactive story telling to hand- 

> helds like the iPhone/iPod Touch.

> Apple looks towards personalized on-demand podcasts - AppleInsider

> The caveat here is that for an interactive podcast to work as a  

> hypertext story, it would have to do all of these things on the fly  

> and from within the frame of the media viewer. As I red it, the  

> viewers must pre-configure their choices prior to downloading it.  

> Not what I'd define as fully interactive, but it's a step in the  

> right direction, anyway. It isn't isn't quite ready for prime-time  

> yet and isn't explicitly ARG-related, but I thought that it is one  

> more way in which new media are blurring the distinction between  

> games and narrative.

>

> Have fun at the conference!

> Colin


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