Update on Movie about Avatars

This is an update on a report I gave earlier regarding a science fiction film hitting the theatres this fall.

Surrogate is a film about people using robotic avatars to live in the real world while they control them through mental cybernetics at home. When you watch the trailer embedded below, you can see how the characteristics and conventions of avatars in virtual worlds, such as Second Life, as well as the hopes and fears of what such avatars can do, are interestingly played with to produce a moral play about the dangers of not being yourself in reality...

SURROGATES trailer in HD

Making Sense of Moving in 3D

The title of this post points out the curious occurrence I had today while in the midst of conducting my study on sense-making in virtual worlds.

The facts are these -- highly abridged:

In the study, people of various experiences levels with various types of virtual worlds are being asked to engage in four situations with four media -- two of which require the use of a keyboard to navigate a three-dimensional virtual environment: an MMORPG and Second Life. A third requires them to use the Nintendo Wii interface, which combines joystick with buttons.

What is interesting is how much easier the people with the least amount of experience with these types of virtual worlds have an easier time manipulating the Wii remote than they do the keyboard in order to move around in a 3D world.

In the computer games, the individuals moved in zig-zags, using most commonly the keys to move up, down, left, right -- rarely using the keys to spin around so as to orient themselves to a particular point on the horizon and move straight towards it. Instead, the would run forward, have to stop and move either left or right before continuing forward, and oftentimes instead of turning around they would move backwards.

For comparison, in the Wii game, they would move haltingly, but they would not zig-zag quite so much. They would circle around when needed to take on opponents and would turn to face the direction they need to go.

The first thing to note from this observation is the difference in manipulating the movement of the avatar. The joystick of the Wii remote requires the use of one thumb, and the joystick is built to promote fluid movement -- besides just the standard four directions, the joystick can be rotated rapidly by the thumb in 360 degrees. A little experimentation with this and the maneuvering can be learned because the design of the joystick promotes it.

On the other hand, to accomplish the same movement in the computer games (MMORPG and Second Life), several keyboard buttons are required. For the MMORPG, 6 buttons and the mouse. The individuals have indicated confusion about learning how to operate the keyboard's controls to generate a more realistic movement. They have discussed that the tactile memory is not strong -- they are not used to manipulating movement this way, of interacting with a keyboard this way, and it requires far more experimentation and experience with the controls for their fingers to become learned enough to accomplish more realistic movements without their having to overly cognate about it.

This observation has led me to think about what we mean when we say sense-making. Typically the conceptualization applies to meaning-making or thinking or cognating, and sometimes brings in the idea of emoting and understanding affect as part of the meaning-making process. But what these issues about controls and tactile memory demonstrate is the need to consider the body as part of the sense-making process.

How does the actions of the body, both intentional and unintentional, figure into how we make sense of something -- especially something that requires such a physical interaction as these games do. The idea of actions being embodied is something Bourdieu and others have discussed, but just how does such embodiment happen? How does a person make sense of what they need their body to do in order to perform some action? How does a body's action become embodied?

I thought this was curious today because after these sessions, I found myself walking around cleaning up – and instead of turning, I would just walk backwards, like I had just seen their avatars do.

So I wonder, is it just too much to be asking to believe that people with no experience can become learned enough on how to move in a virtual world within 30 minutes? We don't expect babies to be able to do that in physical world. Of course, movement in the physical world is governed by evolution and physical laws, such as gravity. Movement in a virtual world is arbitrary, and here governed by the controls determined by the games' designers.

All of this leads to the question: how does this process of embodying relate to the person's overall reception of a media product like a virtual world?

Seeking Participants -- Watch Movie, Play Games, All About Superheroes!

As part of the Virtual Worlds Research Group, we are looking for young men and women, ages 1-55, to partake in an exciting new study all about virtual worlds and superheroes.

My research is concerned with how people engage with movies, video games, online role-playing games, and the virtual world Second Life.

Over the course of the study you will be asked to engage with each of these four types. Across all of these types, the content will focus on superheroes.

You watch the movie at home, you do the other three sessions at Roskilde University in Roskilde. We can reimburse for travel within the Sjaelland region.

After you complete all four sessions, I will interview you about your experiences with the media. At the end of this study, wyou will receive a thank you gift from us, your choice from a list of options.

You do not need to have ever had any experience with superheroes, games, or virtual worlds -- and if you've had a lot of experience, you're just as welcome.

The study will run from now to the end of June, scheduled to make it easier on you.

If you are interested or have any questions, then please contact me, CarrieLynn Reinhard, at carrie@ruc.dk.

There Really Is a Red Dwarf Special -- New Marketing Game!

If you are a true science fiction fan, and a true Anglophile, then you know and most likely love the series Red Dwarf.

The series ran end of the 1980s, early 1990s -- perhaps not the best production values until the end of the series, but it was the comedy and characters that were primary. For years the crew tried to put together a feature film of the series, but nothing ever amounted from it. Then this past year one of the actors began appearing on YouTube and at conventions talking about an upcoming television special. Still, given all the problems with a movie, there was skepticism that it would actually come out.

Enter today, when skimming through my spam box for my email I come upon an email from the Red Dwarf website that leads to this website: http://www.listerscominghome.co.uk.

What this link does it apparently start the game, and provide information about the content of the program. From this link you are sent to another that portends to be an actual scientist working on holography who just happens to capture the transmissions the RD crew is sending to one another. There is also a bit of an interactive element, in that if you print out something and engage with the site via webcam you can receive an important message about what to do next in the game in version of holography.

But even without the webcam, a normal version of the video appears, asking you to register, at which point you will receive a special code that allows you to have access to production information -- including behind the scenes videos.

According to IMDb.com, the new episodes are scheduled to air in the UK beginning on April 10th. But the game is not just limited to UK residents, as I am accessing it via Denmark. So they must be preparing for a wider distribution (or realizing that international fans like me will torrent the episodes as soon as they air).

As I am a huge fan, I will pay attention to how this game unfolds, and will report on any unique characteristics that the game takes on.

District-9 -- Remediating Blog Structure

I found this from an advertising link at AICN. A website designed to be a blog to counter the website of Multi-National United, the site for the upcoming District 9 movie. This new site, called MNU Spreads Lies, has all the markings of a blog, and it also has this fake YouTube video embed, which if you look real closely, was shot in San Diego because there is a ComicCon ad up:

Not Just Viral, Not Just Gameplay -- Virtual Reality Marketing?

Cloverfield used it back in 2007/8 to give us the Slusho! drink and its parent company. Wall-E used it to give us BuyNLarge, the company responsible for destroying the Earth. In some ways, The Dark Knight had it as well, especially with the site for Gotham Cable News.

So far this year, I've found two more.

The Surrogate website, www.chooseyoursurrogate.com, which I have already discussed.

And now the website http://www.d-9.com/, which is a promotion for a low profile scifi flick being released by Sony Pictures this fall, District 9. As with Surrogate, and the other company websites listed above, this site purports to belong to a real fake company, Multi-National United, and provides information for humans and non-humans. There is also a website specifically for the fake company. As with Surrogate, there has been no official trailer released for the film, and this site is the movie's official site according to IMDB.com.

But why advertise a film this way? Why create a fictional company website that does not clearly provide information as to what to expect in the film? Why the misdirection by premiering an extended experience before the actual experience is provided?

This form of marketing got me thinking about what I've written about (paper to be presented at ICA, will provide edited version soon...) in the past, as well as the current research I am doing into virtual worlds.

In a way, we could say these "fake company sites" are extended experiences, with elements of viral marketing implied (idea of passing around word of the site, perhaps sharing something from the site, such as downloads or the create your own surrogate application). But the sites are also more than just your average viral marketing (they don't reach the level of gameplay marketing found in The Dark Knight, because there is no toggling between online and offline behaviors.)

The creation of fictional companies could be seen as the creation of a virtual experience -- an attempt to replicate the conventions (structure, parameters, etc) of a real company's website to provide the fictional company with an authentic presence online.

Just as a virtual world (environment, game, etc) attempts to replicate the structure of the real (physical, material, etc) world to increase the sensation of immersion, realism and interest in that construct, the creation of such websites may likewise be an attempt to remediate company websites so as to make transparent the content -- ie, to not hypermediate or draw attention to the fact that this is advertising.

The logic is that the modern, youth consumer (who are usually the main audiences for films in general and scifi/fantasy films in particular) is advertising savvy -- enough to recognize when s/he is being targetted by an ad and more likely to be turned off by such an obvious ploy of marketing.

Thus, to reach said consumerbase, marketers have to create transparent campaigns that simultaneously take advantage of a) the youth's social networking proclivities (I found d-9.com because it was advertised as Multi-National United at Facebook), b) recognize the active nature of such technologically skilled youth, and c) is not so obviously attempting to sell them on something, such as going to see a movie they may not have heard of.

But what to call such marketing ploys? It's not viral marketing simply. Perhaps virtual environment marketing? Remediated marketing? Virtual experience marketing? What exactly is this, and does it work as believed it should?

Gameplay Marketing, Viral Marketing, Avatars, and Bruce Willis

I will put aside the fact that whoever wrote this screenplay stole my idea, because this marketing tool is far too brilliant for me to quip.

Bruce Willis has a new scifi movie coming out this year called Surrogate. Released by Disney, it is about a time in the near future when you can buy an android and control it via some direct-to-brain interface and thus have a physical avatar to represent you in the physical world.

Of course there's more to the story, but since it is a September (aka Dead Zone) release, I don't hold much hope that it will be the new Blade Runner.

However, I do like their approach to marketing this movie with the creation of a website for fictional company, Virtual Self Industry. You can go on a company tour, learning more about the history of the company and even visiting a mock factory and showroom where you can find out more about these avatar androids.

But perhaps my favorite feature is the "Choose Your Surrogate" function, which allows you to create a virtual representation of your physical avatar. The best part is that you can upload a picture of yourself and create your Surrogate to look like you. As I, of course, had to do...


Thus there is the interactive gameplay marketing aspect, in they provide a little game tool to further explicate what the movie is about. It is also a good idea for viral marketing, as I immediately want to share with everyone my creation and see if they laugh as hard as I did upon seeing my face repositioned in this fashion. And I want to see the movie because of the subject matter (and the fact that they stole my idea, which, again, not so bitter about...really.)