Scott Fisher

It was interesting the tangents we went on. Story telling with participants who do not know they are part of a ficitonal story.
Of course this brought into question the concept of fiction and then leads people into fiction becoming reality (see Foucaulty's Pendulum - Umberto Eco).

Overall this really focused my efforts on creating the next big hoax. E-mail was one of the first areas then we had profiles on Friendster/Myspace/Facebook...
What next? I would like to see a huge fiction (perhaps on Wikipedia) in which many people add on to it's creation... perhaps it will have a life of it's own.

To be honest, I still am not entirely sure what ubiquitous storytelling is. I understand what each word means, but the idea of embedding narratives in our everyday surroundings doesn't make any sense to me. I must have missed something.

For example, I don't see how a game that tracks your movements and and activities throughout your entire life would be a game. Wouldn't that just be your life? How would that be entertaining?

I think what it boils down to is that I just don't get it. :)

Just like I mentioned with regard to Augmented Reality, I think part of it has to do with a lack of a good application.

Nothing we talked about seemed like it would be very fun for me. I was serious when I said in class that some activities in my life do not require narrative or play attached to them.

This was sort of the problem with Majestic, if I recall. Many people got in trouble at their jobs when Majestic kept faxing them and paging them...

Is life that un-interesting that we need to mod it?

Via Kotaku there is a link to the website of an "Alternate Reality Game". It is called Last Call Poker and its an online poker game but you also receive cryptic phonecalls, emails and text messages from "contestants" in your weekly tournament. This sounds interesting and fun, anyone up to try?

The link: http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/last-call-poker/index.php

The mixing of reality and fantasy is a scary prospect. Confusion over what matters in our world has the serious danger of disrupting our fundamental beliefs of the world. But that danger is what makes ubiquitous games so thrilling. Just as Michael Douglas's character in "The Game," was thrown into a turbulent roller-coaster which left him second guessing himself constantly, even after he finds that he is in a game. I feel that most people would not be able to face this type of ambiguity. For people to being willing to play a game like this I feel that people assurance that a ubiquitous game wouldn't disrupt their real life, but not much that it breaks them from their disbelief. The player should be allowed to say that they don't want to play the game anymore. Without the player having a firm sense of control over their real life, I feel ubiquitous game devolves into manipulation, no different from the tactics of psychological warfare on a personal level.

Scott brought up an interesting point. What is next? Wikipedia seems like it would be a great way to promote a movie... much like the Blair Witch Scandal. Creating a false story or persona to make the movie content seem real. But does it stop there what is Sony Pictures made a deal with Britanica to add information to the legitimate encyclopedias? People get smarter and find ways to ignore advertising. So the advertisers are now finding ways to trick them into viewing and absorbing advertising. Many times in today's world advertising is confused with entertainment. The subservient chicken... the only point of that is to sell burgers. Same with the Price Is Right it’s just an hour long commercial. Advertising and entertainment have long been blurred together and it's scary how they can combine the two with technology now.

Ubiquitous storytelling makes sense when thought of in terms of marketing. Similar to how apple and starbucks extend their brand into physical space with their stores, the design of the experience can include a story.

With a story embedded into a product experience, the consumer may be more inclined to tell their friends about the product as they are eager to spread the story.

So then we agree, it's a marketing gimmick. Actually, I don't think there is anything gimmicky about ubiquitous story telling. I wondering if capturing the subconscious moments that we ignore. Think of a drive that you do everyday, or have done many times in life. There are times when you arrive at your destination, and don't remember anything that just happened. Capturing these hypnotic or subconscious states provides an interesting way that this technology can be used, beyond simply recording it on camera.