Louisa-thesis outline

Thesis outline proposal to be submitted by Louisa Friederike Teichmann in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the final examination for the Master Experimental Publishing, 2022.

Draft, 15th November 2021.

Abstract

[150-200 words]

If we were living in a simulation, there wouldn't be so many commercials.

In this thesis I will document the process of building a location-based, pervasive game. The topic revolves around personalised, location-based targeted content under the veil of ludification. By analysing novelty game formats like Alternate Reality Games and Escape Games, and connecting them to methods of targeted advertisement, I am building a networked narrative through augmentation and modification of physical spaces. Idea of shared geographical markers.

Introduction

[500 words]

I am drifting in and out of a parallel state. I am getting better and worse at the same time. I have started to become overly aware of the funnel through which I am experiencing my surroundings, blinders encoded into my perception. The bottle falls, the dream is over. I am in the same space in a new timeline. The dreamer wanders through bridging fields. Consciousness has grabbed me by my hair and pulled you out of the dense swamp of non-linear experience, to hang you on to the threads of time to dry. How many dimensions have been stripped from me?

Frustrating experience as child of telling reality and dreams apart, core interest in making people doubt if something is real or part of a fiction to feel less isolated in experience. Creating games in order to activate people and change their state of mind and experience of their environment. Looking closely, everything could be a potential hint. Building on research of text-adventures and targeted advertisement. Making use of the group present and the things everyone could contribute to the game experience instead of making them passive spectators of a work.

Subconscious Drifting

PTSD: sensation of being a character, arms not belonging to you, like in a video game. Dissociation Sleepwalking: being able to move around in a real space without too much issues since the geographical markers are the same, sharing the same space. walking down long stairs

Chapter 1: Navigating Invisible Borders

[1200 words]

Invisible Borders

Video Game techniques of hiding the map borders

VR, geographical markers translated into fictional environment to make sure players are not walking against walls or outside of playing field. wall could look like abyss

subnautica, part of storyline why area is not reachable The Case Against Reality ~ Donald Hoffman

Pervasive Games

Alternate Reality Games

This is not a Game ~ Dave Szulborski

interest in mystery, collective storytelling/networked narrative. building a small ecosystem for storyline. Blast Theory

Escape Games

automated puzzles, unlocking, methods of gameplay, progressive storyline, immersion.

Tomo Kihara: Escape the Smart City (MA project 2018)

Roos Groothuizen: I want to delete it all, but not now

Chapter 2: Take a Leap in the Dark

[2000 words]

Geofencing

Location-based advertisement

"A geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. A geo-fence could be dynamically generated (as in a radius around a point location) or match a predefined set of boundaries (such as school zones or neighborhood boundaries).

The use of a geofence is called geofencing, and one example of use involves a location-aware device of a location-based service (LBS) user entering or exiting a geo-fence. This activity could trigger an alert to the device's user as well as messaging to the geo-fence operator. This info, which could contain the location of the device, could be sent to a mobile telephone or an email account." [2]

Dark Patterns

"Types of Dark Patterns

   Bait and Switch.
   Disguised Ads.
   Forced Continuity.
   Friend Spam.
   Hidden Costs.
   Misdirection.
   Price Comparison Prevention.
   Privacy Zuckering." [1]

Pokemon Gone

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism ~ Shoshana Zuboff

Interactive Fiction meets Surveillance Capitalism:

Surveillance Capitalism spilling into the city streets, leading you to where the algorithm thinks you should be going.

Chapter 3: The Game

pre-game

Forming a progressive storyline

[800 words]

Geographical markers connect alternate spaces

[800 words]

Playing the game results in subtle changes in public spaces of city

[800 words]

Game adapting to the way its being played

[800 words]

Play Tests

[1000 words]

EtherAxis

28th November + 5th December

The Overkill Festival

EtherAxis Game board, photographed by Emilia Tapprest

Development Week TETEM

January or March

TETEM

in-game

Documentation of actual Gameplay.

post-game

Analysis. I am planning to review the different game methods I have tested and applied and in what ways they have supported the progression of the narrative through lived experience. Based on the results of this analysis I will suggest areas of improvement and propose a future set-up of the game.

Conclusion

[500 words]

Based on my research on methods of location-based advertisement, I will formulate my vision of its potential and dangers, picturing a ludified smart city and celebrate ways of dancing on the structures of its system.

Bibliography

Books

This is not a Game ~ Dave Szulborski

The Case Against Reality ~ Donald Hoffman

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism ~ Shoshana Zuboff

Space Time Play http://www.spacetimeplay.org/

Tactical Tech https://ourdataourselves.tacticaltech.org/posts/inside-the-influence-industry/

Articles

http://aaaan.net/blast-theory-2/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-based_game

https://www.playtoearn.online/category/blockchain-gaming/

https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/geofencing

Games

Blast Theory: Can you see me now? 2001. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can_You_See_Me_Now%3F

Tomo Kihara: Escape the Smart City, 2018.

Roos Groothuizen: I want to delete it all, but not now. 2021.

Collaborators (to be confirmed)

Emilia Tapprest (film maker and performer)

"nvisible.studio is the independent research practice of Finnish designer and filmmaker Emilia Tapprest (b. 1992). She is currently enrolled at Filmforward’s Virjplaats residency and Stimuleringsfonds’ Talent Development programme 2021-22. Her research explores the role of value paradigms in emerging technocultural developments through worldbuilding and cinema, working closely with historian and music producer Victor Evink (S x m b r a). Their works as a duo Liminal Vision tackle themes such as human connectedness and agency in the quantified age, exploring how a system's underlying logic produces particular ‘affective atmospheres’ in interaction with its social fabric."

Tomo Kihara (game designer)

My name is Tomo Kihara — research driven designer making playful interventions that provides a new perspective to complex socio-technical problems.

Roos Groothuizen (artist & designer)

My name is Roos Groothuizen. I am an independent media artist and designer who dances on the borders of interaction, theater, intervention, web, film, games and animation.

Who is in control over what I perceive? Fascinated with the unfair distribution of information and how online algorithms systematically discriminate us, my work reflects on in-depth research and recent developments, often with interactive or game-like elements. Fun with a serious undertone.

Further Reading

Mazes & Monsters by Rona Jaffe

Appendix

Game Narrative

"I had to smile when I saw you, holding that mobile phone in your hand, big and heavy. You remind me of myself, many years ago. I should feel nostalgic for those years, but I feel anxious for you. For what is yet to come, until we finally meet again. Back in the 2020s, I was one of the gamers who started living entirely off of data provision, when the data ownership lawsuit guaranteed millions of internet users a constant flow of income. It was really: “The more you interact, the more you get paid.” and that came easy for me. I spent my teenage years consumed by video games, I would get drawn into the beauty of the digital landscapes and somehow, the thought that someone created it, thought of every detail and placed every single object with a purpose, made me feel a sense of intimacy and connection. I dedicated all of my attention to my favourite games and eventually gained international success by joining the esports team Dolphin Waves. The recognition I received for my performance was unimaginable and made me feel like I was floating above the world. But something felt off. I could never feel complete with the pressure of success and the real time ticking in the back of my mind. When I started to get paid for my time spent interacting in the metaverse, I would spend the money on minted in-game items and the worlds would get better and better.

Do you see the skyscrapers on the side of the water? What you are seeing is the vertical city. It was built to accommodate any need inside one massive structure, reaching only upwards. In your time, there were still many offices next to the living spaces. In the late 20s, a tech spa opened on one of the floors, with a small number of flotation tanks connected to the VR game Dream Chaser. The first time I tried it, I could never look back. It was like something clicked and I realised, this is all I need. I started investing most of my pay into XR, and with me many others, which finally allowed for completely invisible tech. Do you see the floating pavilion? Three translucent domes, interconnected to create a sheltered platform. In 2021, it became abandoned due to the covid-19 pandemic and was up for rent to anti-squatters for a while. Its best days as an event space were long gone, once the vertical city bought it as a part of their XR program. Look inside? Seems empty, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not, but you can not see it. It is a worlding space, we use it to move around in our hyper-individualised landscapes. We all see different things. It becomes exciting when we share the space. At the moment someone joins the space, they become non-playable characters in each other’s worlds, matching the aesthetics of the other. How, do you ask? We connected our brainwaves to a massive computer network run in the harbour. Everything is completely intuitive. The beauty of it is, now I am the creator of the landscape, and everyday, I am rediscovering myself inside of it.

I am trying to read what you are thinking right now. I am watching you from inside the pavilion. I wonder, what would your game world look like? Would you feel this same sensation of excitement of discovering yourself everyday anew? Would you, like I did, move beyond ideas in which only the physical is real and immerse yourself in infinite worlds? Would you allow artificial influences to help you shape realities?" (Earthrise, May 2021)

Climb the Firewall, 2020

Earthrise, 2021

EtherAxis, 2021