[NetBehaviour] _Active Narrative Gathering: The Attentional Will Not be Televised_

[mez breeze]

Active Narrative Gathering: The Attentional Will Not be
Televised<http://arsvirtuafoundation.org/research/2008/05/09/active-narrative-gathering-the-attentional-will-not-be-televised/>

Alternate Reality Games [*ARG* <http://www.giantmice.com/arg-defined/>s] are
forms of entertainment that derive their structure from a mix of *fictionalised
world framing
<http://www.games.net/blog/24713/transformers-new-promotion-its-more-than-meets-the-eye/>
*and *real-world narrative
components<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_timeline_of_the_Year_Zero_alternate_reality_game>
*. Players create a required *suspension of
disbelief*<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suspension_of_disbelief>when
connected to an ARGian world construct. This construct operates "…via
interconnected narrative threads/cues beyond exclusive parent forms or
individualised game parameters. ARGs make players step outside the
restrictions of *mono-genre game
boundaries*<http://www.hz-journal.org/n7/mez.html>and narrative-seek
through the use of webtrawling, email, phone/sms contact,
real-time interactions and extensive online engagement to glean cues +
puzzle pieces. These games work within a collusive reaction principle; that
arousal, curiosity and search-behaviour will result if info-schooled gamers
are offered teasing data as narrative tip offs.".

ARGs display *commonalities <http://viralsxposed.blogspot.com/>* with *Viral
Marketing* <http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Viral_marketing> and
*Viral Media <http://www.aftrsmedia.com/digimedia/?p=52>* campaigns. All
three forms have structural similarities that attempt to promote meaning
formation. ARGs use a *Gestalt
<http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/gestalt.html>*system pieced
together through
*pervasive*<http://csdl2.computer.org/persagen/DLAbsToc.jsp?resourcePath=/dl/mags/pc/&toc=comp/mags/pc/2006/01/b1toc.xml&DOI=10.1109/MPRV.2006.11>content.
*Cross-media Specialist* <http://www.cross-mediaentertainment.com/> Christy
Dena views ARG cohesion and player participation through a
*tier-based*<http://www.christydena.com/research/Convergence2008/Tiering.html>perspective:
"In the context of ARGs, world tiering is evidenced in the
so-called *transmedia <http://www.projectnml.org/node/151>* extensions of
existing properties."

Successful ARG navigation requires the employment of *Active Narrative
Gathering* [*ANG*]. ANG involves *genre
amalgamation<http://www.argn.com/archive/000709video_games_and_args_what_can_they_learn_from_each_other.php>
*, *prosumerism*<http://www.proz.com/kudoz/english_to_spanish/marketing/35648-prosumer_prosumerism.html>,
and attentional layering. The Social Networking software _Twitter_ is a
contemporary example of one variation of prosumerism in action.
*Twitterers*<http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/04/04/twitterlocal-find-fellow-twitterers-in-your-neck-of-the-woods/>micro-blog
via text snippets [tweets] of 140 characters in length. Users can
respond in the public communication stream/timeline, direct message others,
or restrict their tweets from general view.

Twitter users create and absorb in *concentrated
attentional<http://www.seriosity.com/home.html>
* narratives. These tweetstreams blend observations and user-regurgitated
facts. Content occurs with attentional "tasting" as users choose to
collaboratively incorporate snippets into their streams. Alternatively, they
can express introspective or otherwise nuanced updates without accounting
for replies or additional user interactions. These integrative comprehension
streams represent Synthaptic units - a synthetic network measurement that
gauges attentional consciousness.

Prosumerism, like successful ARG navigation, is not passive but active in
intent. Synthetics embody the attentional as an extension of a
fiction/non-fiction meltdown within streams of
*ego-consciousness<http://simon_king1.tripod.com/Hyperlinked%20Pages/Chapter_09.htm>
*. Should notions of pop culture be replaced by a corresponding attentional
conception of entertainment?

-- 
: http://augmentology.com
: http://knott404.blogspot.com
: http://netwurker.livejournal.com
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