Project: 
Pervasive games
Abstract: 
One of the most exciting developments in the field of new technologies, games and other media are crossmedia productions. New forms of interaction between the ludic and the narrative are being established, displayed via different platforms such as mobile phones, television shows, online games, websites, chats, blogs and forums, as well as physical locations. Sanningen om Marika (The Truth About Marika), a Swedish crossmedia production, employed those platforms to create a fictional universe with strong references to the real. As it turned out during the play course, the distinction between fiction and reality couldn't always and easily be made by the participatory community, since the blurring of the boundaries was one of the major design strategies of the production companies. Calling Sanningen om Marika (SOM) a participation drama, the producers clearly had the intent to actively engage the participants in the storyline, and to encourage them to imagine and immerse into the fiction as if it was reality rather than just engage in a game. This article will explore the strategies of the blurring of the boundaries between reality and fiction as it occurred in SOM and explain how the different platforms were contributing to its ambiguity.
Authors: 
Kocher, M., Denward, M. and Waern, A.
Published in: 
In eds. Sorg, J. and Venu, J.S. Erzählformen im Computerspiel. Zur Medienmorphologie digitaler Spiele, Transcript. Bielefeld, April 2009
Date: 
Thursday, January 1, 2009 - 00:00