Interactive & Participatory Social Gaming in Mass Media

Raimo Lang, Steve Bürk and Niels Wolf

Lectures, Case Studies & Project Work

Module 2: Friday, July 26th through Friday, August 2nd 2002 including Saturday, July 27th

Abstract

Narrative and design for user centered interactive environments

interaction + game strategies + roles
social play + structures + processes
launched and generated narratives + moderation
cross-media + formats

This session will look into interactivity with emphasis on social play and game.
Most interactive multiuser applications in new media follow various patterns of traditional analog games, plays and rituals. User motivation, tasks, roles and tools are designed to form a succesful playground for a number of audience participants.
Why do some playgrounds work better than others? How do they launch a certain mood and motivational base from the beginning and direct the process in an appropriate way?
This session with supervised project work focuses on writing and designing interactive mass media environments that can give and keep a promise of a rewarding and productive experience.

Workshop goals

to understand different possibilities of communication environments with interesting user generated content (www, (digital) television, radio, mobile / as cross media)
to create thematic content and user-centered communication strategies for such an environment
to define clear motivational tasks and design a collective process for users
to build detailed elements for the environment: GUI, entering gates, roles, tools, rules, subjective tasks and reward mechanisms
to elaborate possible cross-media concept synergies and platform specific functions
to create quick prototypes during the workshop that can be tested by the other groups
to build a descriptive demo and pitch for a final presentation

Project framework

The participants will be given 4-6 clear formats for content/interaction/technical platform so that all the groups

can select the publishing platform that suits their interests for content and interaction design
can concentrate on content creation and specific design challenges within a set framework
have a possiblity to come up with refined concepts to pitch after only one week work time

Thus their concepts would be loosely targeted to certain big players in the industry like broadcasters, game developers, public services, companies with heavy web strategies, telecommunication companies and other.

Course Outline

Friday, Day 1

getting to know each other
individual and group interests - where are we now?
interaction as action, dramaturgy, story creation and design
content formats presented, explained and discussed (classical interaction formats and hybrids)
genres and structures of interaction presented with practical examples and then discussed
quick excercise

Saturday, Day 2

Steve Bürk introduces role playing and works on character generation
playing with the roles to get first hand experience

Monday through Thursday, Days 3 to 6

tutored working on week project in groups (concept/content developement, sketching and prototyping in paper)
small quick lectures on specific subjects if needed (otherwise further information comes along with the practical work)
paper mock up's and prototypes tested and played by other groups, then evaluated and discussed shortly + developement strategies made
building up electronic prototypes: preferably in drawn and written form to Flash (Flash, Photoshop, maybe Freehand), also still photographs and digital video could be used if really necessary (and if this is possible technically). Evaluating and redeveloping prototypes from user's point of view

Friday, Day 7

rehearse the pitching presentation as materials and strategy
pitching for audience
course evaluation

final presentation

audience of 10-20 per buyer/evaluator should be invited
Raimo Lång presents himself and the workshop shortly (5 min)
group presentations 10 min. each group + discussion 5-8 min. max
possibly a short coffee break (20min) afterwords in order to give time for further informal inquiries and discussions. Each group could have their own desk and a laser-printed mini leaflet to deliver