Back in April, I defined the term Digital Theatrics. Since then, I’ve had slews of conversations talking about the finer points of DT.
I’m often asked to expand on the concept of “the stage”. Everyone is familiar with seeing theatrical productions in the theater, on television, or in books. We embrace the opportunity to get to know new fantasy characters. We enjoy learning the story of their imaginary lives.
Digital Theatrics is a character-based story-telling process that happens through social web sites. They can be social media sites like Flickr and Youtube. They can also be social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. In fact, it can be anywhere people meet each other online. It can be based around anything from a classified ads site to a directories of businesses - so long as users can interact.
Now that you know the stage, how do the characters come to life?
Interestingly enough, it’s easier just to show you what “role playing” a digital theatrics character looks like - rather than describe it in words. And, fortunately, some other Internet user already created a perfect example for me. Lets look at the micro blogging social service known as Twitter. As a regular, everyday Intrawebs user, I tweet. You would expect me to, I’m a computer geek. However, who would have thought I would be tweeting along side Chuck Norris? As you may have guessed, that’s probably not really Chuck Norris.
The Norris example clearly shows what it means bring a character’s voice to life on “the stage”. The performance art falls somewhere between being a live actor/actress and being a writer. The “world” of the character expands to “the stage”.
Our Digital Theatrics experiment takes the process one step further by telling a pre-defined story in a real time way. While the performance requires a great amount of improv, there is a core story line to follow. The current project has 4 agents playing a total of 7 key characters. After more than two months of activity, the story is just beginning. Anyone who happened to meet one of these characters has the opportunity to discover the story.
While Digital Theatrics sounds a bit like an Alternate Reality Game, it is a distinctly different process. Most profoundly, Digital Theatrics lacks any “game”. There is no puzzle to unlock nor mystery to solve. Digital Theatrics is merely an interactive performance piece. That said, a DT campaign can easily serve as a huge asset for an ARG project.
From a marketing point of view, we’re still learning the potential value in Digital Theatrics. So far, the experiment is producing exciting results. I’m already imagining campaigns with hundreds of characters. We’re also trying to define clear ethical guidelines. There do seem to be black hat and white hat opportunities. I would like to be known as a company of integrity; understanding the ethical boundaries seems crucial.
From a cultural point of view, Digital Theatrics is already happening - regardless of what you call it. Unless, of course, Mr Norris really does sit in his basement talking trash on the Intrawebs.
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