Hello Gameful.org!

In this blog post I would like to give you the background behind the live, infinite, global gameful alternative reality zame I published on Facebook yesterday.

As you read the following consider this: what if this is history in the making?

In turn I pledge to sincerely consider: what if it actually works?

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0Hold on to your butts.

After working my ass off in a public high school to get to my dream Ivy League
college, I really didn’t know what else to do.  I took advantage of the
fact that Brown University does not have required courses other than
those of your major.  So I studied planetary geology, organic chemistry,
microbiology, creative writing, Mayan anthropology, economics,
comparative politics and worldview philosophies.  However, none of that
compared to the addictive qualities of massively multiplayer online
games and the depth of my depression at the time.  Since I couldn’t
decide on a major and I was sick, I left Brown and my parents pulled my
tuition (long story short).

What kept me alive was people I have never met, never seen a picture of
and can only recognize by voice.  These players hosted teamspeak servers
and led corporations in the mmorpg EVE ONLINE and I have been playing
with them for over five years:  Geekwarrior, Trespasser, Bill (to name a
few).  Behind our mutual anonymity and gamefulness, they tolerated and
even reveled in my quirkiness, though I didn’t tell them I am bipolar
until two months ago. Being Yonos, the 1337 space scoundrel who always
sought the epic win were some of the most exhilarating moments of my life.

As a compromise I transferred to UC Davis, where, long story short, I
was introduced to marijuana and encountered severe boredom with the
curriculum.  I retreated even further into my innernet domains where I
found meaning, friendship and wonder.  Then my paternal grandfather, a
Holocaust survivor, died and I felt a generational shift begin to weigh
on my shoulders.  I looked at myself in the mirror and found the person
staring back to be wanting.  In deep despair I simply packed up my stuff
and left without a word to the school.

I have been living in relative poverty with my gaming computer and book
collection for about two years now.  I have been medicated (over the
years) with Zoloft, Prozac, Effexor, Zyprexa, Lithium, Lamictal,
Wellbutrin, Cymbalta, Seroquel, Abilify and been through multiple
therapies and hospitalizations.  Late last year my doctor put me on
three medications simultaneously and the toxicity left me moribund and
unable to summon the slightest interest in life.  But I don’t believe in
suicide, so I just kept playing games.  I couldn’t hold down a job and
rarely could get hired when I did feel well enough to work, so my
parents have been subsidizing my minimalist gamer lifestyle while I have
been on disability.

At the beginning of 2011 I decided I really wanted to change my
outlook on life, so I tried some zany strategies to force myself to
confront what I considered to be many personal failures.
In desperation, I went to Oaksterdam University in Oakland, CA and got a
medical marijuana recommendation from a licensed doctor. (Please
note: I do not want to promote or dissuade people in regards to illicit
substances, there are very severe consequences to using Schedule I
drugs).  My experiences at Oaksterdam and my marijuana, LSD, salvia
divinorum, ecstasy and synthetic cannabinoid use was enlightening,
harrowing and extremely irresponsible.  BUT it did enable me to write a
roughly two page story written in a pseudocoded sci fi style that I
posted on the DailyShow.com, Reddit.com, Facebook and my own
websites.  I called the story: 0z

Then something wonderfully stupid happened.

A month later, one day, I smoked some hash and medical marijuana at the
Love Shack in San Francisco and started walking back to public
transportation.  About two blocks away from the marijuana clinic I saw a
flyer taped to a telephone pole that had the letter Z printed all over
and a single URL to a mysterious and urgent sounding message that
claimed was intended for me and that I should keep it secret and that I
was under surveillance.  I was so high and so needing to believe in
something (what if my short story 0z had actually attracted the
attention of someone with enough resources to devise a message that I
would recognize and respond to?) that I made an assumption:  Someone had
reached out to me and I had to answer.

The Message from Z introduced me to “Alternate Reality
Gaming” and the concept of transmedia storytelling.  I realized that I
was trying to do something that other people had already developed
into real-life action oriented campaigns!    Now that I think about it,
what made the Message from Z ARG so compelling was that it 1) felt
like it was intended for me (which it was, in a sense) 2) cut through
all the hypermedia noise 3) presented a compelling narrative and
4) was fun!  As a long-time gamer dropout frustrated smart dude
who barely remembers a time before the personal PC, I knew I
was on to something.

After two months of constant emailing and participation in the Message
from Z ARG, I got a concession from the game moderators and they
answered me personally.  It turns out, it has nothing to do with me
other than my involvement as a player and it was me who got carried
away.

Discouraged, but still glowing with inspiration, I decided to write my own ARG. 
One of the questions I asked myself on my headtrip was: if I am so good at playing
computer games why aren’t I good at playing life?  I hadn’t heard of ARGs before, so I
used performance art techniques and for the month of May presented myself as an avatar from a
self-made game I called 0z.  The idea was to then write a book about
what happened when I unleashed my creativity to extremes and actually lived out
my fantasy without telling anyone in advance.  Here is not the place to tell you about the
wackiness and adventure I had.  It is a tale for another time.

Then, two weeks ago, I answered a somewhat cryptic craiglist ad in the writers
gig section for people who were creative, but lacking in job
experience.  It turns out the poster was a sort of talent headhunter and
self help guru who encouraged me to finish the 0z game.  He also
networked me with Taco Bell Corp. and in two weeks I will be presenting
my masterpiece gameful zame to their marketing division at their
corporate HQ in Irvine, California.  Yea, this has a happy ending
folks.  From zero to one epic win, so far.

Now I have my direction in life and I want to reassure people that I am OK
and under medical supervision.  If this seems like a lot to take in, it’s because
it is.  I have left out a lot, but what is important to stress is that I
am of sound mind and have been detoxing for over a month.  I want to
challenge everyone to think about their place in the world and how
computer games can make it better.

To my friends, family and neighbors: thank you for all your
encouragement.  I have had some amazing, though at times terrifying,
embarrassing periods of disabling depression and mania that led me to question everything. 
One day I will have a proper book so you can better understand wtf my life’s trajectory
has brought me to. It has always been my inclination to help people, be creative and work
with computers.  The 0z game was the permission I needed to re-enter my life before I gave up.

And now the zame is ready for you to play.  Please join my 0z group,
friend me on Facebook and send me treats!  0z is published open source
and creative commons so that anyone can collaborate with me or make
their own local gameful zames to champion humanistic causes and dreams.

Sincerely,

Nathanael

Are you looking for a job or next venture?  Are you ready to discard the job you hate and pursue your passion?  I am.

1. To make the parts of identifying a next job easier and help the job seeker identify a position they’ll enjoy.
2. To help the user identify their personal narrative that they can use to persuade people they’ll be valuable in a work process.
3. To support the user through multiple rejections and give them feedback on their ideas.

Design and develop up to seven (7) level that fit into one narrative and help job seekers find a job, including:

1. Level to identify personal narrative that helps sell why the job is the needed next step in one’s career
2. Level researching potential bosses
3. Level to get people who can help you clarify your interests to talk to you
4. Level to analyze what info will clarify your career objectives
5. Level to do a mini version of the job before you get it
6. Level to help you prepare the materials
7. Level to help you recruit friends/colleagues to submit the application for you

Sample rules for level 1:

Rules:
2+ teams
2-3 players per team

To begin:  Each player takes a minute to write down their career searching goal (e.g. (mine) Find a job in the ed/tech space with a team who will mentor me).  Each player then counts off into teams of 2-3 players (exact way to do that TBD depending on how this game is developed (e.g. online v. in person)).

Goal of level: Each team has to create the best story possible for each of their teammates.  The story should connect their job search goal with their personal narrative.  It should have three main parts:  
1) Show why the person is passionate about their goal (e.g. I grew up as a gamer and when I graduated from high school going to school never seemed like a connected next level.  So I took time off to try a myriad of interests professionally.)  
2) Give an example of the candidate’s success in the space (e.g. In college I produced an alternate reality game using an interactive narrative to get others to learn about the environmental sustainability movement).
3) Show why the job/goal is the only possible next step in your career (I’ve spent my last years working outside of education and if I want to innovate I need to understand the ways in which school districts are currently funded and structured).

Gameplay:  
The first three rounds are played by turning over one of the Rally cards and taking 2 minutes to write down as many response to each rally card as possible for all players on the team.  At the end of each 2 minute period each player gets one point for each idea they write down (not sure what the points do yet or if they’re 100% necessary but I like them now).  

At the end of all three turns the players have 2 minutes to examine their list and take one response from each prompt (players can combine elements from other responses into that response).  They then have 1 minute (ideally 30 seconds) to tell their story to the other players on their team.  The players vote on which story is the most ready (it connects the goal to the person’s narrative the best) and then the two teams have their chosen player present the story for the other team.  At that point the teams discuss which stories worked and why and then work on their individual stories.  This time the other players on the team tell their story internally and the winner from each team presents their story.

Once all of the team members have developed their stories, a camera is grabbed and each player works to film their 30-60 second story as a record for the next level of the game.  It is ideal to do this behind wall of a solid color other than white for future editing purposes.