HowlRound Theatre Commons: As artists who want to motivate thought, action, and the desire to change the world, we create alternate realities made up of interactive challenges and participatory events, which take on urgent social and political issues, such as climate change.
2 comments:
In challenging times such as these, it is easy to want to be in an alternate world. alternate world design provides a unique opportunity for people to live out this experience even if just for a short period of time. I have always loved interactive forms of storytelling, and Alternate Reality Games successfully bring the user into the story without being too unintentionally cheesy. Allowing for users to be more of an active player provides more participant engagement which allows for more of an emotional response, in most cases. I had not previously thought about the integration of gaming and performance, but it sounds like a really interesting way to work with what we have in the pandemic. Many people game for the combat, but I love it for the stories (and the graphics sometimes). Since learning more about Virtual Reality, I think there is a ton of unexplored territory when it comes to alternate world design, and capitalizing on these opportunities is a great way to expand the entertainment and performance communities.
As it has been almost a year into pandemic, bigger scale of projects seem to be revealing themselves, which is sad (to see the society adapting to the social isolation policies) but at the same time exciting. I have encountered a few interesting videos on YouTube during winter, and now I realize that those were actually some of the rabbit holes into ARGs. Although it got popular during COVID, alternate reality game looks like something that could persist even after the era of pandemic and become one distinct genre of the entertainment. There might be some problems if they become too popular, because there might be so many of them, reducing the fun part of discovering the hints. However, as long as the public continue to use their electronic lives, especially in the huge platform like Twitch, I think it would be very enjoyable. Of course, this will provide distinct experience from physically being in the area because everything happens within the small frame of electronic device. However, from the different perspective, it also means that ARGs are extremely accessible compared to the other entertainment events that are only provided at the certain locations, which would drag more participants.
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