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New Videogame Player Psychometric Model – 5 Domains of Play

March 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Big Five

As I prepare to head off to GDC 2013 in a couple of weeks' time, I am reminded of a fantastic presentation that I saw at GDC 2012 by Jason VandenBerghe, Creative Director of Ubisoft. The presentation was called, "5 Domains of Play", and its purpose was to redefine the model that is used to analyse player behaviour. In particular, to rid it of its obsession of player 'demographics'. The point is - we all know that our playing behaviour changes over time as we move through different stages of our lives, but some of our core, fundamental playing behaviour does not. By slicing and dicing our audience by demographics, we ignore the psychometric aspects that players of different ages, sexes, and education have in common. In other words, can we group players by some other means that will be … [Read more...]

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New Storytelling Projects

July 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Book 1 in our comedy, action-adventure series

This has been a busy past few months for SEAM. We are preparing two books for publication. The first one - as you can see by the cover image is called, "Endangered Species" - and is the first novel in a series. It's an action-adventure, comedy-thriller - full of outlandish characters and bizarre circumstances. If you've been following the project on SEAM, then you know what you're in for! The second is a non-fictional book on Story Design. It covers how to craft a better story by design, rather than by accident. It's chock full of practical exercises born from years of experience amongst the SEAM mentors. Yes, I am one of those mentors... and have been heavily involved in the crafting of this book. A great deal of the process comes from what I learnt at the EON Screenwriters Workshop and … [Read more...]

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Jane Wright & Paul Grindey – Independent Feature Films

February 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In this podcast, I brought together Jane Wright and Paul Grindey to discuss feature film development, finance and distribution. I was particularly interested in their advice for the independent producer, given that they have worked both as independents and for large organisations. Jane Wright has worked for the BBC for 15 years, most recently as Managing Director for BBC Films. Paul Grindey has worked for Channel Four and Film Four for the past nine years. Both are now independent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcvTViCi9gU … [Read more...]

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Liz Rosenthal – What is Transmedia?

February 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Liz Rosenthal

I'm starting a new series entitled, "State of the Union", to examine how the entertainment business is developing in the European Union. I'm doing this because I feel that we are lacking shared resources here on this side of the pond, compared to what's on offer in America. My hope is that by holding roundtable discussions and interviews with professionals and mavericks in the business that we will begin to build a brain trust and "best-of-breed" knowledge base for innovation in our industry. We face different challenges and opportunities in Europe, despite working in a global market. I will be talking to filmmakers, game designers, storytellers and anyone involved in the entertainment industry in order to figure out what works, what doesn't and what we can do to make us more effective in … [Read more...]

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What the Transmedia Producer can learn from Social Network Gaming

April 20, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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As promised, here are my notes from GDC in San Francisco. Most of my time was spent hobnobbing with Social Network gaming companies, as this was an area of interest to me. Not Invented Here My first observation was that Social Networking Games Companies (SNGC) are not very interested in other people's IP at the moment, as they are having phenomenal success with their own. Indeed, they would rather charge brand owners a fee to gamify their franchise, instead of the other way around. As they see it, they would be using their hard-won and highly honed skills to promote someone else's brand. A Shifting Wind This isn't great news for storytellers and writers. However, I imagine that there may come a point when this attitude will change. The reason being that they are obsessed with ways … [Read more...]

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Field of Streams

February 4, 2011 by 2 Comments

Build it and they will come... There was a time in Internet Space when this was true. You put up something amusing, arresting, or outrageous and you could attract a lot of attention. Now, you have to create 'compelling content', post frequently, inter-link, out-link, back-link, guest post, optimise SEO, engage multiple social media platforms... you get the picture. In some ways, anyone who runs a website of any significance has become a transmedia producer. This is to say, artistic people who have something meaningful to say have to find new ways to say it AND sell it across multiple platforms. I was at a cocktail party where a producer of note told me that they were tired of hearing everyone talk about 'content creation'. In his mind, it was demeaning and commodifying... "Why not just … [Read more...]

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Maureen McHugh – Power to the Pixel – Day 1

November 12, 2010 by 2 Comments
Video Games

Maureen McHugh has been in the cross-media business for a long time and is a partner at ARG specialist, No Mimes Media. Her opening gambit at the Power to the Pixel event: Transmedia is an omnivorous artform. It is eating us all. And it is the future of what we do. I say this intentionally in a very, very threatening way. Art arises out of technology Novels came into existance because of the printing press and a reduction in cost of the manufacture of paper. Like all new artforms - Transmedia included - it brought with it a tremendous learning curve. Since the 'novel' was not yet a familiar format, it had to be created based on existing conventions. Daniel Defoe wrote a long title page to 'Robinson Crusoe' that explained what it was in detail - a memoir by Robinson Crusoe - which was … [Read more...]

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Thomas Hoegh – Power to the Pixel – Day 2

November 10, 2010 by 2 Comments
E-Business word cloud

Thomas Hoegh gave the keynote address to the Pixel Pitch event at Power to the Pixel and with it some sober food for thought on the economic viability of Transmedia. His main concern was that we were in the midst of the birth of a new art form - one that still defies classification - and one that won't succeed unless it develops a market clearing formula to enable investment. Simply put, he defined a market clearing formula as when two parties can agree on a transaction. The expectations of one party are met by the demand of the other. Successful media companies already have this in place. Feature films, during the 80's and 90's, were assembled in a familiar manner. They were 90 minute stories, packaged in familiar genres and marketed to well-understood demographics. The result was a … [Read more...]

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Lance Weiler – Social Entertainment – Power to the Pixel – Day 1

November 8, 2010 by 3 Comments
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Lance Weiler began his speech at Power to the Pixel optimistically, "Now is an amazing time to be a Storyteller." And the reasons he gave had to do with the freedom he has achieved from divorcing himself from format and running times, and the excitement of collaborating with audiences in real time. But, of course, these new opportunities are not without challenges. "I like disruption and the challenge it creates." Build a world that the audience can populate One of the challenges of Transmedia is to embrace the shift in authorship. What does it mean to be a Storyteller in a world wherein everybody thinks that they are their own media company? Weiler's answer is to architect a singular vision (as the Storyteller) but to allow room for audiences to enhance and add to that story by … [Read more...]

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Creative Brilliance from the Hive Mind

November 4, 2010 by 1 Comment
Thinking man

There's been a lot of buzz this week on Steven Johnson's book, "Where do Good Ideas Come From?" In an interview he gave to the FT (click here for the podcast), he answers his own question: good ideas come from crowds; from networks. When people are around other minds in different fields with colliding ideas, they generate breakthroughs. The perception of the lone genius is a bit of a fallacy. He quotes a conversation with Ray Ozzie (software guru extraordinaire) wherein he identifies two types of creativity: emergent and focused. Emergent is when you come across something by surprise; Focused, by design. In the former, ad-hoc networks help in creating 'Eureka' moments. In the latter, it makes sense to hole-up a team in some disconnected place to put all their faculties to bear on a … [Read more...]

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