ALTERNATIVE REALITY GAMES TO TEACH GAME- BASED STORYTELLING

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1 ALTERNATIVE REALITY GAMES TO TEACH GAME- BASED STORYTELLING Dean O Donnell, Worcester Polytechnic Institute Jennifer dewinter, Worcester Polytechnic Institute INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Alternative Reality Games (ARGs), sometimes referred to as pervasive games, layer puzzles and story elements into our everyday lives. In many ways, Nicholas Cage is playing an ARG in the movie National Treasure (Turteltaub, 2004), looking for clues and unfolding events that intersect with everyday life. McGonigal has spoken to the power of alternative reality games in her white paper The Engagement Economy, and she takes it up in her TED talk Gaming Can Make a Better World. While McGonigal is speaking to the ways that gamification can alleviate the problems and challenges of the world, we will make no such claims. Rather, ARGs are an excellent way to teach students how to make a story- based game without the substantial time and resource investment required to create simulated environments populated by computerized people and objects. This assignment is designed for a first- year course in Interactive Media and Game Development (IMGD) entitled Storytelling in Interactive Media and Games, and it has been used successfully in sophomore- level creative writing courses. This course fulfills a distribution requirement in IMGD for majors and can be taken to fulfill free electives in a student s undergraduate course of study. The goals of this assignment are as follows: Students will be able to work in large groups to produce an alternative reality game for play. Students will marry storytelling techniques with game elements. o Storytelling techniques need to follow basic three- act structure and include characters from the classic hero s journey cycle (villain, sidekick, mentor, goddess) o Game elements need to cater to multiple interests and skill levels to accommodate many types of users, such as encrypted puzzles, historical research puzzles, riddles, and so forth. o The game is time limited, and must end after five days. So while many traditional ARGs extend over months, students must constantly monitor their players and adapt the game to the level of play. Students will run and maintain an alternative reality game, responding to player actions promptly to provide an immersive play experience. 1

2 Students will play in an alternative reality game with consideration. To accomplish these goals, students have to write creative stories that are player- focused, create art assets, create web- based and material texts, and adhere to good storytelling practices. ALTERNATIVE REALITY GAME ACTIVITY This unit often comes at the end of a course as a culmination of storytelling techniques. Previous to this unit, students are asked to: Train and improve to learn character development; Study the three- act structure and the hero s journey to learn narrative development; Write a short story that employs the hero s journey structure and characters; and Write a table- top role playing game module that others will play (such as a D&D [TSR, 1974] module). All of these projects are either individual or done in pairs. Only the Alternative Reality Game is done in a large group. This project is broken into two one- week parts: 1) building a game, and 2) playing a game while simultaneously running a game. When the game comes to a conclusion, students meet together in a class period to conduct what is referred to as a postmortem: what went right? Wrong? What would you do differently? We have conducted this unit in two different ways. One is to run two concurrent courses of Introduction to Interactive Storytelling, both capped at twenty- five students and have them design for one another, and the other is to take a single course of twenty- five students and split the class in half to have them design for the other group of twelve. Week 1: Students spend one week building the structure of the game, defining the narrative, determining the first set of challenges and puzzles, and creating the rabbit hole (see terminology later in this paper). Week 2: Students launch the ARG and respond to player actions and feedback to dynamically create the game. Simultaneously, the group of students has to actively participate as players in the other class or group s ARG. The game can only run five days and must resolve by 5pm on the final day. Puppet masters must construct a lose outcome that is just as interesting as a win. Final Class: Students meet together and have a postmortem session, a time when they talk about what went right, what went wrong, and what they would do different the next time. All secrets are revealed. This is also a time that students can hear from the other group and get player feedback. This only lasts one day. Each member of the team writes an essay detailing their part in the game and their individual observations on what went right and what went wrong. 2

3 ARGS & NARRATIVES Reality is created via narratives; thus, narrative structure is very important for ARGs. The gamic elements of ARGs provide the rising drama and the tension needed for narrative structure, but ARGs are not necessarily defined by the gamic elements. This is taken up strongly in these two books: Szulborski, Dave. This Is Not a Game: A Guide to Alternative Reality Gaming. New Fiction P, Montola, Markus, Jaakko Stenros, and Annika Waern. Pervasive Games: Theory and Design. CRC Press P, Also useful in teaching ARGs is screenwriting s organizational three- act structure: McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. New York: Harper Collins P, Three Act Structure breaks down thusly (there are images available online for teaching purposes as well): Act 2 Act 3 Act 1 Act 1: Step Up The introduction of the situation, characters, and situation that leads to the main conflict of the story. Act 2: Confrontation The continuation of the conflict and tension, along with character building. Romantic comedies are an easy place to see this. The twist is introduced in act one ( I bet you $1000 I can date her ) and the second act is all the relationship building and the main conflict (she finds out you made a bet). Act 3: Resolution The outworking of the story in which the characters are able to close the narrative (the couple forgives one another and ends up together). In many ways, this is a simplification of Campbell s The Hero s Journey or the monomyth. Summaries of this can be found online, but germane to this article is the marriage of The Hero s Journey with the Three Act Structure: 3

4 Act 1 Act 2 Act 3 Ordinary world Call to adventure Refusal Meeting with the mentor Crossing the threshold Crossing the threshold Tests of allies and enemies Approach to the inmost cave Ordeal Reward or the seizing of the sword The return journey or the road back The return journey or the road back Resurrection Return with the elixir CHARACTERS & ARGS ARG designers often design characters (both Player and Non- Player Characters) using Campbell s structure from the monomyth. Just to jog our memories, here are the main archetypes: Hero: The protagonist who must cross the threshold, do stuff, and return with the elixir. Villain: The person against the hero. This character can also be a SHAPESHIFTER. Herald: This person often calls the hero to adventure. Also, this person acts as a MENTOR (which is what I often call this to my students) or as a SIDEKICK. Ally (mentor or sidekick): These characters often teach the hero important facts or skills, or they help by doing things that the hero cannot. Sometimes the mentor can provide supernatural aid. Shadow: This character is often the villain or one of the subordinates of the villain and is interested in showing the hero his or her darkest desires, untapped resources, or rejected qualities. Trickster: This character disrupts the status quo and often forces change. Goddess: This is a character that appears briefly to offer the hero a way to recognize his or her duality and reconcile that duality. The Goddess stabilizes the hero for the quest to continue. Note: Students often get this confused with the mentor, who provides skill training, not spiritual guidance. 4

5 Some ARG designers choose to put the player into the Hero role, and others relegate the player to a sidekick role, asking the player to do things that the Hero is incapable of doing. Regardless, the trick is to design a role and support that role within the narrative structure that people tend to understand. SOME SPECIALIZED ARG TERMINOLOGY Puppetmaster (PM) or Game Master (GM): This is the person or people designing and running the ARG. They have to fulfill a number of narrative roles, asking them to both act out ally and adversary roles. The Curtain: This is the separation between the PM/GM and the player (pay no attention to the man behind the curtain). Both sides are meant to remain true to the alternative reality of the game and not dispel the magic circle by referencing the rule structures or falseness of the experience. The Rabbit Hole: This is call to adventure and the threshold at the same time. This is the hint that kick starts the ARG, inviting players into the fictional playspace. Also consider the types of players that you will attract with a rabbit hole. Not everyone who sees the rabbit hole will be like Alice and jump on in. And those who do may choose not to actively participate in the game as a whole. Consider this triangle first proposed by McGonigal in The Engagement Economy : Hard Core Casuals Drive Bys The bulk of people who happen on the ARG will probably look at it one or two times and then drive on. The challenge is to make more drive- bys become casuals (those people who watch but 5

6 don t necessarily actively participate in solving puzzles, going to live drops, and so forth), and more casuals become hardcore gamers. Another challenge is creating support for the casuals to keep them interested in staying. Most ARGs set themselves up for hardcore gamers only. However, good PM/GMs will maintain online sites where communities can come together and talk about the ARG, and there is enough of the story unfolding online that casuals can come and watch. ASSIGNING ROLES FOR STUDENTS Having done this a few times, we have found that five roles lend themselves well to classrooms and can be scaled up and down: 1. Producer: This is the person who knows what the deliverables are, what people s skills are, and what the timeline is. This person can also step in and help where needed. In smaller classes, we have found that fewer producers work better. 2. Writer: This is the person who writes the narrative, the prose for websites, and any other necessary materials to create the narrative reality of the game. 3. Gameplay Designers: These are the puzzle and challenge creators. They can create the ideas behind anything, from encrypted websites to word riddles, and depending on the student s skill levels, they can make the puzzles or ask the writer, artist, or tech person to create the idea. 4. Artists: This person makes all art assets, such as 2D pictures for the website or a small play- do sculpture that the players have to find. 5. Tech: This is the person who can provide technical support, such as building a website, coding puzzles, or other. Depending on the size of the class, you can then sub- assign roles to characters: Sidekick Mentor Goddess Villain 6

7 Thus, students can be assigned in a matrix might look like this: Producer Writer Gameplay Designer Artist Tech Lead Sidekick Mentor Goddess Villain A COUPLE OF USEFUL STRUCTURES RULE OF THREE Whenever a designer needs to get players to do something, they should carefully scaffold knowledge and skills. One way to do this is using the rule of three: 1. Show the player the dead easy way to do something (push the button to open the door) 2. Make the player do that same thing at least one time unprompted 3. Make it necessary to do the same thing with a twist (put a box on the button to hold open the door) Once the player learns the twist, then the twist becomes the next #1, so for example: 1. Put the box on the button (that time that you learned it from above s #3) 2. Put the box on the button again 3. Throw the box over the chasm to land on the button And so on. STORY BEATS AND PUZZLES There is a trick to balancing stories and gamic elements. One way to get around this is providing the following structure for students: 1. Introductory story beat ( I think that I can escape, but I need to know how to pick this lock ) 2. Puzzle or activity that responds to the call from story beat (research or lock picking puzzle) 3. Reward story beat ( Thank you, hero! I am moving through the catacombs now ) 7

8 The reward story beat can set up the next intro, but the danger of that is no time for process or reward for either the player or designer. It takes some practice to get pacing down. Also, this pacing can be manipulated to increase the social aspect of ARGs. If you know that there is only one cycle a day in a one- week ARG, then you might be more willing to tune in and participate (as opposed to possibly five cycles in one day and none the next). We continue to play with how many cycles seem appropriate per day. In larger classes, we have tried two and three cycles, as sometimes players miss only one and tune in after the single puzzle has been solved. Students have also experimented with parallel stories and hub and spokes models, where players have concurrent cycles available to them and can choose from multiple puzzles or cycles available to them. In earlier instantiations of this class, we did not use the story beat structure, and we saw that students had player- participation attrition: they stopped playing the other team s ARG. We saw participation uptick after starting this structure two years ago. SOME THINGS TO CONSIDER STRONGLY When we teach ARGs, we emphasize two things fairly strongly: 1. Don t be a jerk 2. Don t get the professor fired (see negative achievements) It s really the second one that you would need to sensitize your students to because many students see narrative conflict and real danger as similar. Also, they might not conduct adequate risk assessment for any of the situations that they are setting up. For example, they may create a midnight live pickup on campus, but midnight alone anywhere is not safe. We also had students chase a car and try to manually stop it because they thought it was part of the game. The rules of physics still apply in ARGs, and large bodies in motion can still hurt players, even if they ve got an imaginary force field in place. The other thing to be aware of is what is commonly referred to as scope creep the desire to add more and more to the ARG to make it more and more awesome. This will lead to ARGs that are large and unwieldy. ASSIGNING GRADES: ACHIEVEMENTS AND NEGATIVE ACHIEVEMENTS ARGs are fun, and they are time intensive for everyone involved. Everyone. One way to motivate players and designers is through the use of achievements. Here are ones that have been developed over the years that we have taught ARG design at WPI. As new technologies and social media sites come and go, the list changes. 8

9 Dean O Donnell has been refining this rubric for the last eight years and we have used a number of different measurements to determine grades. When we first started, we stipulated that students had to get above 100 points for an A, and both groups did. We thought that we had made this too easy, but it turned out that was an exceptional term. Students range from 75 to over 100 on this achievement points. The larger groups also tend to score higher and they have more person- hours to throw at creating content. Point values are somewhat arbitrary, but are meant to reflect the relative difficulty of creating that content or accomplishing that task. This list also provides some direction to students, showing them what they may consider incorporating into the ARG. Media Use posters/flyers 2 Use sidewalk chalk 2 Use Facebook 2 Use Twitter 2 Use Myspace 2 Use Google+ 2 Use Twitch.tv 2 Use Snapchat 2 Use a Minecraft Server 2 Use a 3DS Spotpass/Streetpass 2 Use a console friend message 2 Use Foursquare /Yelp/Check- in site 2 Use Reddit 2 Use photosharing (Flikr, Photobucket, Imgr, etc.) 2 Use Tumblr 2 Use a wiki 2 Get a Wikipedia page for a character/place/thing 5 Use public Google Doc 1 Safely show players private (so that they 5 cannot send as that person) Make a video, post it on YouTube, Vimeo, etc. 10 Use Spotify/Pandora/Last.fm 2 Use DeviantArt/Concept Art/Art sharing site 2 Use a blog 5 Use some other Web2.0/3.0 site professor hasn t 2 heard of Use product reviews to convey information about 2 characters/plot Use a dedicated domain name 5 ( Use 2 dedicated domain names 10 Use 3 dedicated domain names 15 Create a Facebook app 20 9

10 Create an iphone app 20 Create an Android app 20 Create a Windows Phone app 30 Create a personal message for a player (note, sign, 5 whiteboard, billboard, etc.) Use phones where players can call to get a 5 recorded message Use phones where players can call to talk to 5 characters live Have characters call a player 2 Have characters call at least 10 players 5 Use SMS messages 5 Use video with a single character or voice 2 Use video to show a scripted event 5 Have a live chat over IM or IRC with a single player 2 Have a live chat over IM or IRC with a group of 2 players Use GPS coordinates 2 Complete a successful dead drop 5 Complete a successful live drop 5 Stage a live meet- up with a character 10 Create and use a newspaper ad 2 Create and use a newspaper story 2 Create and show a TV commercial 5 Create and show a pre- movie commercial 5 Create and use internet radio/podcast 5 Create and use broadcast radio ad/story 40 Create a book for your players 5 Create some sort of art installation for your 5 players Create a painting for your players 5 Create some artifact/thing that is special for your 5 players Create a safe forum for your players to talk with 5 each other Create an online/offline coop event 5 Create t- shirts/merchandising for your ARG 5 Give players cool prizes 5 Get through entire ARG without a LoLcat post 2 Create a Flash game 10 Create a Java game 10 Players can tell the story you wrote at the end 5 Players tell an interesting story at the end 2 Change the ARG based on player input 10 People Have 5 unique players contribute to your ARG 5 10

11 Have 10 unique players contribute to your ARG 10 Have 20 unique players contribute to your ARG 20 Have 50 unique players contribute to your ARG 50 Attract 5 players who aren t in the other group 5 Attract 10 players who aren t in the other group 10 Attract 20 players who aren t in the other group 25 Someone who isn t in either class finishes your 10 ARG first Attract 5 people for a live event 5 Attract 10 people for a live event 10 Attract 20 people for a live event 20 Have users create YouTube videos for your ARG 5 get 1 Have users create YouTube videos for your ARG 10 get 5 Have users create YouTube videos for your ARG 20 get 10 Have users create a physical object for a character 5 Have more than 5 users create an object for 10 character(s) Get 1 player from outside the state 2 Get 5 players from outside the state 5 Get 10 players from outside the state 20 Get 1 player from outside the country 5 Get 5 players from outside the country 10 Get 10 players from outside the country 20 Get 5 players over age 30 5 Get 5 players under age 15 5 Negative Achievements (Unchievements) Get professor fired Get professor scolded by administration Players attempt collusion between classes Players look behind the curtain Use of zombies Use of ninjas Use of cafeteria poisoning Ask players to do something illegal Ask players to do something dangerous Being a jerk Unjustified player banning Get banned (justly) from forum Publicly post broken puzzle/activity each ARG who attempts to collude to your ARG

12 AND FINALLY, MORE USEFUL BOOKS Interactive Storytelling by Andrew Glassner. Pervasive Games: Theory and Design by Markus Montola, Jaako Stenros, and Annika Waern. 12