On October 6, 2009 at 2 PM Pacific Standard Time, everyone on the planet blacked out at exactly the same time (called the Global Blackout or GBO). During the 2 minutes and 17 seconds that passed, every person experienced a vision of where and what they were doing on April 29, over 6 months later. These visions are deemed by a government task force created to investigate the GBO as FlashForwards.
And thus begins the ABC series named after these visions: FlashForward. Co-created by Blade and The Dark Knight writer David S. Goyer and Star Trek writer/producer Brannon Braga, the series is slated to premiere on September 24th. But like a few other television and film projects, the series is integrating an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) to promote and build a community around the series. Using Internet videos, live events, original websites, and social networking sites, the FlashForward ARG strives to give players a truly immersive experience.
The game is currently two-pronged, having begun on July 23 with the launching of TruthHack.com, a video blog series reporting on the Global Blackout and run by Oscar Obregon, who according to his bio is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and author of the international bestsellers ‘Parties/Over’ and ‘Fire Sale’. He has worked as a print and broadcast journalist for CurrentTV and the Los Angeles Bulletin, where he won the George Orwell Courage in Journalism award twice, in 1999 and 2001. Obregon is your classic middle-aged film noir journalist with a modern-day twist: he vlogs from what looks like his home office, asking his viewers to help with his investigation. The character is likable and the videos are well-shot and well-written.
The launching of TruthHack.com coincided with the beginning of ComicCon 2009, a tactic has been used by several other ARGs including The Fringe ARG of 2008, The Dark Knight ARG of 2007, and The Lost Experience of 2006. Employees of The Mosaic Collective recruited attendees to enter booths with a camera where they could share their FlashForward experiences and explain how they wanted to learn more about them. The idea here is that the more FlashForwards recorded, the more connections can be draw between them, eventually forming a clearer picture (or “mosaic”) of what occurred on April 29, 2010. And Obregon was there to report everything he had seen, even interviewing those who had been asked to participate in mysterious “follow-up interviews”.
The second prong of the game began with the launching last week of www.jointhemosaic.com, which contains all the data that The Mosaic Collective has gathered thus far as well as the ability for users to create profiles and add their own FlashForwards to the site. It’s a beautifully designed site and very easy to navigate. The soothing music playing throughout can get grating but it adds to the feeling that things may not be as they seem…
…because as Obregon notes, for a government-run project, they sure are putting more focus on the positive FlashForwards for his liking. As of this writing, he’s looking for help decoding an encrypted message he has received from an unknown source. So if you’re ready to jump down the rabbit hole of this game that would be the place to begin.
All in all, this is a very well-designed ARG that has an easy enough entry point (at least so far) for novice players to get involved quickly but a rich enough storyline to challenge veteran players. Because the premise covers every person on the planet, it appeals to a wide player-base and there is a lot of opportunity for player involvement. I only question the inclusion of the Obregon character. Though I enjoy the character and he does function as a connection to the audience, this is the third time in a short period where a reporter character is serving that function (the other two being Harper’s Globe and The
Vampire Diaries – A Darker Truth).
Perhaps my thoughts can be summed up best by the words of Obregon himself: “Being optimistic and maintaining a healthy sense of skepticism are not mutually exclusive. And being snarky just for the sake of being snarky can distract you from the detail that might help you crack the case.”
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Flash Forward looks like it’s going to be another ABC hit – I hope! I really like how they are working in these ARG elements, much like what addicted me to Lost, and what keeps the audience captivated even after the show’s hour finishes. Can’t wait for the premiere!
This is getting a little nuts. I think it’s a little more tame than it should be but hot damn it’s thought out. I’ll play along until it feels too Disney.
I’m sorry I don’t want to be negative about online videos but this video really hurts our cause.
This video does nothing to engage viewers in the story.
It is explanatory dialogue with no content.
Why do I care about this guy?
Why do I care about the story?
Why do I want to spend my precious time with him?
He’s a good actor. It looks like it could be interesting… But you have to be kidding me.
If you are going to make a video to explain your ARG or any online video series, make a video that has spectacle, conflict, moves two or more emotions and engages your audience in your story. Otherwise you are wasting your time and everyone else’s.
While this video has nice lighting and production values it makes it feel like work to participate in this ARG.
DO NOT MAKE THINGS SEEM HARD!
Entertain your audience.
Emotionally engage your audience.
Give them a show. Not a tell.
Make your audience care.
Good points Tim and don’t take this as me trying to downplay them at all but this is the fifth video in the Obregon section of the game and served only as an introduction to the Join the Mosaic website…which I think will serve as the point at which the ARG really has a chance to take players somewhere really fun.
But like I said, I myself question the necessity of the Obregon character at all, when the other aspects of the game seem far more fascinating. I think the game designer was trying to focus on creating a universally likable character that would serve to guide the audience on their journey and has ended up only being moderately successful at it. It may end up as a detriment to the entire game.
But there seems to still be a lot of game to go for those willing to stick with it.
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