November 13 Qs – Alex
I’m going to yoink questions from the Dark Knight reading because I think they’re pertinent to our discussion of ARGs. “Do these storytelling experiences stand on their own as art, or are they just shiny pieces of branded content? A bold new narrative genre, or a flashy trend? Do they challenge curious internet-dwellers, or cater to entitled fans?”
The article also mentions that there must be some kind of reward for participants at the conclusion of the ARG—players won’t continue to chase the carrot on the end of the stick forever. What are some other must do’s/ mustn’t do’s when it comes to planning an ARG? Examples of unsuccessful ARGs?
I’m not hugely familiar with ARGs, and it seems like they are used overwhelmingly as an extension of the marketing budgets for upcoming releases. Ultimately, are ARGs just an alternative to slapping a poster on the side of a bus or erecting a billboard? How can the creation of an ARG be distinct from a marketing campaign?
Jenkins suggests the possibility for a singular Black Box containing all possible media content may not be an eventuality, and we seem to be trending in the opposite direction as numerous Black Boxes containing some media content (video game consoles become Netflix machines, Echos/Assistants/Alexas etc) has become the norm. Is it possible to conceptualize a “one Box to rule them all” situation, or has the all but complete collapse of monoculture thwarted this possibility?
Also, this morning I saw a video about a researcher who has developed an algorithm to remove the water from underwater photography. Seemed neat and relevant to what we’ve been talking about for the past couple months! Here’s a link to the video and her research paper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExOOElyZ2Hk
http://openaccess.thecvf.com/content_CVPR_2019/papers/Akkaynak_Sea-Thru_A_Method_for_Removing_Water_From_Underwater_Images_CVPR_2019_paper.pdf