Vancouver International Digital Festival

Entertaining Connections

42 Entertainment is coming to VIDFEST this year and with them you can get a glimpse into the future of interactive entertainment. They are the company responsible for the groundbreaking and wildly popular ilovebees project, which used a range of digital media to blur the boundaries between game play and real world environments.

To date, they’ve produced a number of promotional ARG’s (alternate reality games) for companies like Microsoft, Disney, Warner Bros. and even musician, Trent Reznor aka Nine Inch Nails. Get the scoop on the tres cool Year Zero Alternate Reality Experience they designed for him at their session.

What’s cool about them, and perhaps not so groundbreaking after all, isn’t their technological wizardry. It’s their understanding that digital media is at its most powerful when it makes us a part of the whole, invites us on a journey, and makes it fun, productive, and rewarding.

To do this to the greatest effect, they deploy the most commonly used technologies and devices - email, websites, movies, billboards, cellphones. This is pretty pedestrian stuff for most of us. But they and others like them use this ‘everyday’ digital media to get masses of people to play a game together, to create mystery, and tell a ripping good story. Most important of all, as quoted in Wired’s interview with 42’s founder Jonathan Weisman, “these games are about engaging with the most entertaining thing on the planet…which is other people.”

Yep, the most entertaining thing on the planet. As a chronic coffeehouser and people watcher, that rings pretty true. How about you? How might the ARG model motivate you to rethink how you and your company are making connections, creating story and engaging mystery with the tools you are using? Let me know. Better yet, get your tix to VIDFEST and chat in person with 42 Entertainment’s President and Executive Producer, Susan Bonds, and Chief Creative Officer, Alex Lieu. They’ll be there.