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Players and Puppetmasters Producer/Consumer Relationships in Hollywood’S Promotional Alternate Reality Games

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Royal Holloway, University of London PhD Media Arts Players and Puppetmasters Producer/Consumer Relationships in Hollywood’s Promotional Alternate Reality Games Stephanie Janes 1 Declaration of Authorship I, Stephanie Janes hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 Acknowledgements Firstly, this thesis would not have been possible without generous scholarships provided by Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London for which I am extremely grateful. I would also like to express my thanks to my supervisor Professor Barry Langford for his support, guidance and advice over the past four years on anything from conference papers to article drafts and teaching advice as well as advice on the thesis. The support I received from the Department as a whole was invaluable and greatly appreciated. The project could not have been completed without the assistance of interviewees and survey respondents who took the time to talk to me about their experiences of ARGs. I would therefore like to express my immense gratitude to Adrian Hon, John Christiano and especially Sean Stewart, who took a genuine interest in the project and provided me with supportive and informative feedback throughout. I am also grateful to all members of the ARG communities on Unfiction forums, Cloudmakers Yahoo! Group and Superherohype. They have all been extremely generous with their time and provided fascinating responses to survey questions and forum discussions. The Unfiction community in particular was very open to participating in my research, for which I am very thankful. Finally to everyone who listened to me talk incessantly about ARGs for four years, everyone who proofread chapters, sat through rehearsals of conference papers, celebrated the highs and comforted me during the lows. This is by far the hardest project I have ever attempted and I could not have done it without the support of friends, family and loved ones. 3 Abstract ARGs exist in many formats, including standalone, grassroots, fan-produced and monetised ARGs. However, the genre's history is as rooted in advertising as narrative storytelling. This thesis focuses on promotional ARGs, the first of which is widely regarded to be The Beast, part of a wider marketing campaign for Steven Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001). Since then films including The Dark Knight (2008 Christopher Nolan), Cloverfield (2008 Matt Reeves) and Super 8 (2011 JJ Abrams) have launched promotional ARGs. One remarkable feature of these immersive games is the relationship which develops between player communities and game designers (known as Puppetmasters). The games play out in real-time and designers often respond to player activities as the games progress. As a result, players may affect the storyline, character behaviour or even the final narrative resolution. This close relationship challenges received notions of power relationships between fans and media producers. This thesis uses textual analysis of three case studies to establish the role ARGs play in promotional campaigns for Hollywood films. It then takes interviews with game designers, audience surveys and close analysis of player forum discussion to examine the manner in which the games are used by players in comparison to the intentions of media companies and PM teams. This reveals more about the nature of the producer/consumer relationship which develops and the implications of that relationship on contemporary theories of fandom, including the ‘mainstreaming’ of fannish consumption practices or ‘fanification’, the potential for consumer empowerment in the contemporary media environment and understandings of fan communities’ relationship with consumer capitalism. The thesis finally questions how we might rework or reconceptualise those theories in light of the example of promotional ARGs to better understand the diverse experiences available to media audiences today. 4 Table of Contents Table of Figures pg 6 Introduction and Overview pg 8 Chapter 1 – Literature Review pg 14 Chapter 2 – What is an ARG? pg 55 - The Beast pg 61 - WhySoSerious? pg 70 - Super 8 pg 85 Chapter 3 – Producers pg 139 Chapter 4 – Players pg 188 Conclusion and Notes for Further Research pg 244 Bibliography, Filmography and Other pg 286 Sources Appendix 1 – Player Survey - Survey Monkey pg 315 Summary Data 5 Table of Figures Figure ARG Details URL - (accessed via Web Archive where necessary) Date Accessed http://web.archive.org/web/20130123151409/http://bangaloreworldu- 1 The Beast Jeanine Salla's university profile 05.01.2015 in.co.cloudmakers.org/salla/default.html http://web.archive.org/web/20130604083103/http://familychan.cloud 2 The Beast Evan Chan's family homepage 05.01.2015 makers.org/evanchanpage.html Mother's email with secret message https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/cloudmakers- 3 The Beast 05.01.2015 revealed moderated/files/Game%20Emails/ http://web.archive.org/web/20140914065141/http://donu- 4 The Beast Donu Tech employee sign-in page 05.01.2015 tech.cloudmakers.org/ http://web.archive.org/web/20070816045507/http://donu- 5 The Beast Evan Chan's Inbox 05.01.2015 tech.cloudmakers.org/employees/e~chan/default.html http://web.archive.org/web/20131217081608/http://familiasalla- 6 The Beast Laia's Memorial Page for Evan 05.01.2015 es.cloudmakers.org/inmemoriam.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20131217080121/http://familiasalla- 7 The Beast Chemistry Puzzle 05.01.2015 es.cloudmakers.org/letter.html http://web.archive.org/web/20070715011033/http://ibelieveinharvey 8 WhySoSerious ibelieveinharveydent.com 05.01.2015 dent.warnerbros.com/ 9 WhySoSerious ibelieveinharveydentoo.com http://batman.wikibruce.com/Ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com 05.01.2015 ibelieveinharveydentoo.com - Ledger 10 WhySoSerious http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/ibihd2.htm 05.01.2015 image revealed 11 WhySoSerious Jokerised Dollar Bill http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/sdccevidence.htm 05.01.2015 12 WhySoSerious Joker Recruitment Advert http://batman.wikibruce.com/Image:Instructions.jpg 05.01.2015 http://web.archive.org/web/20070807154903/http://www.rent-a- 13 WhySoSerious Rent-A-Clown.com 05.01.2015 clown.com/ 14 WhySoSerious Gotham Times http://batman.wikibruce.com/Image:GothamTimesPapers.jpg 05.01.2015 http://web.archive.org/web/20141011073153/http://www.thehahahati 15 WhySoSerious hahahatimes.com 05.01.2015 mes.com/ http://web.archive.org/web/20071125174343/http://www.gothampoli 16 WhySoSerious gothampolice.com 05.01.2015 ce.com/ 17 WhySoSerious wearetheanswer.org http://batman.wikibruce.com/Wearetheanswer.org 05.01.2015 18 WhySoSerious Joker Cake http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/cakeswag.htm 05.01.2015 19 WhySoSerious Joker Phone in Cake http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/cakeswag.htm 05.01.2015 20 WhySoSerious Joker Phone http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/cakeswag.htm 05.01.2015 21 WhySoSerious Dent supporters http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/dentswag.htm 05.01.2015 22 WhySoSerious Dent campaign materials http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/dentswag.htm 05.01.2015 23 WhySoSerious London Bowling Ball and Joker Phone http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/bowlingswag.htm 05.01.2015 24 WhySoSerious acmesecuritysystems.com/delos http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/delos.htm 05.01.2015 25 WhySoSerious ccfabg.com http://batman.wikibruce.com/Ccfabg.org#April_13 05.01.2015 26 WhySoSerious Joker's Checklist http://batman.wikibruce.com/Whysoserious.com/Checklist 05.01.2015 http://web.archive.org/web/20140427220405/http://www.whysoserio 27 WhySoSerious Fortune teller game 05.01.2015 us.com/bamboozle/ 28 WhySoSerious Gotham Map http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/map/clues.htm 05.01.2015 29 WhySoSerious Exit http://www.whysoseriousredux.com/investigations/bamboozle.htm 05.01.2015 30 WhySoSerious Overture Ticking http://batman.wikibruce.com/Whysoserious.com/Overture 05.01.2015 31 WhySoSerious Overture Exploded http://batman.wikibruce.com/Whysoserious.com/Overture 05.01.2015 http://web.archive.org/web/20110714070523/http://www.gothampoli 32 WhySoSerious GPD site vandalised 05.01.2015 ce.com/ 33 WhySoSerious Cfabg.com vandalised http://batman.wikibruce.com/Ccfabg.org 05.01.2015 34 Super 8 STIES desktop http://www.scariestthingieversaw.com/ 05.01.2015 35 Super 8 STIES Printout 1 http://super8.wikibruce.com/Scariestthingieversaw.com 05.01.2015 36 Super 8 STIES desktop - RSCOM8.dat http://super8.wikibruce.com/Scariestthingieversaw.com 05.01.2015 RSCOM8 Printout (highlights by 37 Super 8 http://super8.wikibruce.com/May13-Newspaper 05.01.2015 wikibruce administrator) 38 Super 8 STIES Printout 2 http://super8.wikibruce.com/Scariestthingieversaw.com 05.01.2015 39 Super 8 Craigslist Images http://super8.wikibruce.com/Craigslist_Estate_Sale 05.01.2015 40 Super 8 Memorial Invitation Fragments http://super8.wikibruce.com/Craigslist_Estate_Sale 05.01.2015 41 Super 8 Rocket Poppeteers Letter of Enrolment http://super8.wikibruce.com/File:Rocketpop_letter.jpg 05.01.2015 42 Super 8 Rocket Poppeteers Twitter Account https://twitter.com/RocketPoppeteer 05.01.2015 6 Table of Figures - Continued Figure ARG Details URL - (accessed via Web Archive where necessary) Date Accessed 43 Super 8 Rocket Poppeteers at Comic Con 2010 http://twitpic.com/27xvlp 05.01.2015 44 Super 8 Rocket Poppeteers at Comic Con 2010 http://twitpic.com/27yfl3
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