Robin D. Laws - Play By E-reader

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November 28th, 2007

09:20 am

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Play By E-reader

Let’s once again return to an imagined near future, when wireless e-readers roam freely across the land, fulfilling promises of which the benighted souls of late 2007 could only dream...

So, the next question is, how do we use these devices not just as delivery mechanisms for gaming books (as we discussed on Monday) but as gaming platforms?

The subscription aspect of the Kindle has immediately suggested the possible return of serialized fiction. As someone who has written serialized fiction for the web and has another such project in development, this seems an exciting way to “push” material of this kind to additional readers.

Can we go a step further, I wonder, and turn serialized fiction into something like a mass market play-by-blog? Since wrapping Angels and Operators, I’ve been idly thinking about what would be required to reach a larger audience with a similar experience in vote-driven fiction. My feeling is that you’d need the following elements:

1. a more accessibly escapist subject matter than Angels and Operators—less mindfucking, more wish fulfillment

2. a wide promotional net to draw people into the experience (possibly via a media tie-in, where you get to adventure in a high-profile, established IP with big name recognition, whether that be Star Wars, The Office, or Hannah Montana)

3. (possibly) A clear competitive goal—you control one of a number of forces/characters, struggling in real time against other massive teams to achieve a clear goal

4. Frequency, frequency, frequency. To become addictive, you’d need multiple episodes a day. Find the Skinner Box breakpoint between stimulus and reward. The ideal is to have people frantically, even covertly, checking their devices to see if a new development has beamed in since they last looked. This would be the defining element of the new experience—unlike vote-based narrative on a blog or website, the choices come at you, demanding action. If you miss one, you let down the team. This would require the full-time efforts of one or more writers to act as GMs for all participants. Which would entail paid work, requiring a funding model, whether from subscriptions or sponsorships. (You might even borrow a page from the CCG play by pay model, granting a measurable but non-determinative advantage to players who pay a premium—perhaps for extra votes.)

A wireless e-reader would seem an ideal platform for this—as would the smartphone.

On a creative level, this would be a blast to work on. Exploring new territory for the form is always inherently rewarding. If it got talented people paid, so much the better. And it could provide yet another entry point into the hobby, turning our abstruse activity into something your Aunt Shirley not only understands, but participates in.

“Not now, honey! My stories are coming at me!”

Tags: e-readers, gaming hut, play by blog, tech

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Comments

From:	nearside
Date:	November 28th, 2007 02:56 pm (UTC)

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Lurky McLurk here.
The Kindle? I wish to be impressed by it. So far, it's too strange and costly, and I'm not paying $.10 for my own pdf's to be converted over.
Do you have high hopes for it?

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From:	robin_d_laws
Date:	November 28th, 2007 03:26 pm (UTC)

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See my post from Sunday.

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From:	nearside
Date:	November 28th, 2007 03:32 pm (UTC)

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Ah yes, thank you.
Well, I don't disagree on many of your points. However, I find the E-ink very exciting. I'm in my local Borders enough to play with the Sony ebook that they have on display there, and I'm constantly impressed with the look of the thing. having used a pda in one form or another since 1990 (I had one of the original Psion's!) it's nice to finally have a real paper feel to what I'm looking at. I never really did get used to the back-lit screen for reading a lot of material, though I do love my iPhone screen for surfing and short term stuff.

I feel that the "iPod of eBooks" isn't here yet - the Sony model and the Kindle are perhaps the first rumblings of a revolution, but it's not here yet.

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From:	fengshui
Date:	November 28th, 2007 05:31 pm (UTC)

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You don't have to pay $0.10 to upload PDFs. That's just if you send them over the wireless network. If you convert the PDFs to Mobi documents and copy them over with the USB cable, there is no charge.

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From:	nearside
Date:	November 28th, 2007 05:33 pm (UTC)

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Aha, that's interesting. Do you know how compatible they are with the Mobi conversion process? That could make a big difference to me, personally.

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From:	fengshui
Date:	November 28th, 2007 05:51 pm (UTC)

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I'm not sure. However, Mobipocket provides all of their software, including both converters and mobi readers for free here: http://www.mobipocket.com/en/DownloadSoft/default.asp?Language=EN

You should be able to convert some of your PDFs in question and test them on the software reader.

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From:	nearside
Date:	November 28th, 2007 05:52 pm (UTC)

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You rock, sir. Thanks!

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From:	wickedthought
Date:	November 28th, 2007 03:18 pm (UTC)

"A Clear Competitive Goal"

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This gives me an idea...

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From:	rpmiller
Date:	November 28th, 2007 03:42 pm (UTC)

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I don't see how this would be different than the huge number of play by post games that are already going. Check out http://herocentral.net for an example of a site dedicated to online gaming with very busy games running almost 24/7 and emails are sent to participants allowing them to reply via whatever mechanism they want to use.

Then of course there are the Virtual Table Tops like MapTools that I mentioned in your previous blog that allows gamers to play in real time over the internet for free.

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From:	robin_d_laws
Date:	November 28th, 2007 03:54 pm (UTC)

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The difference is that you could push them to a new audience.

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From:	louprosperi
Date:	November 28th, 2007 04:00 pm (UTC)

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And if you could secure an IP like Hannah Montana or High School Musical, it could be a freaking HUGE new audience.

I wonder if something like this could be done via text messaging. Or is that too basic a tool?

Take Care,

Lou

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From:	rpmiller
Date:	November 28th, 2007 04:40 pm (UTC)

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See my reply below.

We have to remember that gamers are really a very small minority. I talk to my kids' friends and other people about interactive fiction/role-playing fairly often and if there is any interest it immediately goes to the console gaming community of flash. The rest have no interest in spending their time doing the hobby that we enjoy.

That said, Doc has an interesting idea below. I have no experience discussing interactive stories with soap opera addicts. Most of my friends and acquaintances consider them a waste of time. There could be a market in getting that particular demographic into an interactive story where they can become "part of the show/story".

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From:	rpmiller
Date:	November 28th, 2007 04:34 pm (UTC)

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Hm... so instead of having specific players, you are thinking more like an MMORPG like setting where people subscribe to the game and are sent the story to respond to?

You would really have to get a whole new demographic I think. I'm still not seeing the benefit of going this route over the currently established gaming methods that are available, but I'm totally open to the idea that there could be something better put into place. Just the logistics of this proposal sound like the capital investment would be so enormously high that the players' subscription would have to be fairly pricey to compensate and at that point I think people are going to expect a lot more flash.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to dash the idea on the rocks, but I'm just not seeing the draw or advantage to this. As it is now, I can walk around with a phone that receives email for the online game that I'm in. Reply to that email with my "move" for the game and it only costs me the standard amount for my phone service.

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From:	doccross
Date:	November 28th, 2007 04:29 pm (UTC)

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I can see this form of gaming/storytelling becoming insanely popular and very addictive. Hell, just grabbing the soap opera addicts via a "Create A Soap" game would be huge.

As for it being fun to write for, I agree, it would a kick.

Now we just need for that pesky future to arrive.

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From:	bryant
Date:	November 28th, 2007 04:41 pm (UTC)

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The prior art for this is probably the ARGs that Sean Stewart and Jordan Weisman pioneered. They aren't exactly the same -- in the typical ARG, you aren't roleplaying, but you are advancing plot via your actions. I think it's similar enough so that the techniques would be relevant.

Also, ARGs are a clear indicator that it's feasible to attach game-like experiences to a mass market IP. The other clear indicator is a look at the rise of fan-oriented roleplay communities on services such as LJ or Google Groups. This is not roleplay as we generally think of it, but it's what roleplay is coming to mean to the tweeners of today.

The difficulty there is that they play canon characters. Buffy RP communities don't have people playing new characters in the Buffyverse, they have people playing Buffy and Xander and Spike. I'm not sure how you bridge the gap between that and commercially-oriented gaming backed by the IP holder.

Edited at 2007-11-28 04:45 pm (UTC)

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From:	varianor
Date:	November 28th, 2007 06:21 pm (UTC)

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Key point:

If it got talented people paid, so much the better.

Volunteers are not dependable the way employees are.

Key Point #2:

it could provide yet another entry point into the hobby

Harry Potter and the Old Curiosity Shop

Coming soon!

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From:	zonemind
Date:	November 29th, 2007 12:14 am (UTC)

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Television will do this kind of stuff before RPGs will.

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From:	madmanofprague
Date:	November 29th, 2007 12:42 am (UTC)

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Television is defined by its passivity. The 'sit back and leave it on' factor is a key element.

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From:	zonemind
Date:	November 29th, 2007 12:56 am (UTC)

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American Idol.

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From:	(Anonymous)
Date:	November 29th, 2007 01:26 am (UTC)

Control RPG (conspiracy gaming)

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The Control RPG that deals with conspiracy gaming would be ideal for this type of gaming. Everyone takes on a character who is vying for the controller/GM's seat. For that matter the Amber RPG would also work well with all the intrigue, infighting and conflicting forces vying for the throne. Looking forward.

Control RPG: http://www.amazon.com/Control-Absolute-Corruption-non-d20-Role-Playing/dp/0972251162/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196299417&sr=8-1

Amber Dicelss: http://www.amazon.com/Amber-Diceless-Role-Playing-System/dp/1880494000/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196299482&sr=1-1

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From:	robertprior
Date:	November 29th, 2007 01:29 am (UTC)

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Frequency, frequency, frequency. To become addictive, you’d need multiple episodes a day.

That would count me out. I don't have enough dependable spare time to commit to something like that (nor the desire to make the effort to free up that much spare time).

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