you can now win two tickets for the Beijing Olympics by passing your virtual torch to other users in the Samsung Virtual Torch Relay Application. The real life Olympic Torch Relay begins of March the 25th, and it will be accompanied by protests and manifestations pro-Tibet. I wonder if the same thing will happen on Facebook.

PS Some weeks after this post, the application had disappeared. I guess for marketing you don’t need to go down in the streets, you just have to abstain from consuming, and that can be powerful enough.

“Position Art” is the name of the new game (is it a game? I suppose so) proposed by the latest Nokia campaign; you make your work of art by walking around, while GPS devices register your movements and transfer them to a satellite image.
Huge artistic possibilities, the new phone is the N82 model…

While the creation of yet another YouTube style network is not particularly original, I do love Will Ferrell, and most videos are really funny http://www.funnyordie.com/

Jesus Mii is a videogame, and you can have it on your Wii console if you attend church. OK, not ANY church, only the Mission Bay Community Church in San Francisco. The game will let you box, golf, and bowl with Jesus, and get Him turkey. Strange times we live in. Happy Easter to everybody!

Interview to Christy Dena on UniverseCreation101 , also available at BlipTV.

(courtesy of Buziaulane)

After “The Long Tail”, Chris Anderson’s new book is entitled “Free”, basically a new economic theory. The “freeconomy” can develop as “transversal subvention” (like when phone companies give a free cell phone to gain profit from your traffic), or as an ad-supported business model, like free press.
Then Anderson talks of “Freemium” (Free and Premium), typical of the web, where 99% is free and you pay 1%.
Finally, in the online culture of gift (check my post on Radiohead in February) the traded value isn’t money but collaboration and reputation, and Anderson mentions Wikipedia and open source software.
I understand parts, if not all, of the book should be available of line. For Free?

Technorati Tags: books

Some definition efforts at Adverblog: check these two posts Crossing Over: Viral Marketing and Alternate Reality Games 1 and 2

The new call for contribution for the next Come Out and Play Festival is out, this time back in New York is out at the Come Out & Play site

Technorati Tags: Call for papers, conference, locative games

A new book on games is out, Jeff Howard’s “Quest: design, theory and history in games and narratives” I haven’t read it yet, here is what Barnes & Noble say:

This unique take on quests, incorporating literary and digital theory, provides an excellent resource for game developers. Focused on both the theory and practice of the four main aspects of quests (spaces, objects, actors, and challenges) each theoretical section is followed by a practical section that contains exercises using the Neverwinter Nights Aurora Toolset.

Finally one intervention employing the word “cross-media”, there aren’t many, especially in the States where the influence of “transmedial” seems particularly strong - could it possibly be that Alternate Reality Games and their set tend to use the term “cross-media” because their consider the platform before the story structure? (actually that’s quite a debated topic among ARG creators, about which should come first, the structure or the story)
Anyway, here are the two panels, links borrowed from ARGNet: Cross-Media Cross-Pollination: Mashing Up Video Games and ARGs and Core Conversations: What can the Video Games Industry Learn from Alternate Reality Games?