Yeehaw, it's finally happened! I have procrastinated for weeks, reading articles about interactive media companies, trying, willing myself to care about their great "breakthroughs". But I couldn't. Because they are breakthroughs that are slowly, very slowly, making TV capable of doing things the internet was able to do years ago.
For instance, ActiveVision and Videon Central are entering a new partnership which could see greater depth of content for web-connected TVs, well that's dandy, except that I have the web and all its depth of content on my computer already, and between a $1,600 computer and the + $5,000 TV/DVD/Blu-Ray setup ActiveVision would have me buy, I know which one I will always, always, always choose!
In other spine-tingling news, TAG Networks has developed a way for people to play multiple games concurrently on their game-based interactive network. So now, I can pause mid-poker-hand to make a move at solitaire. And I am over the damn moon about it, because the hundreds of online poker games, and the solitaire game I got free with Windows just couldn't exist at the same time on my computer and made it blow up.
This is what Interactive TV people get excited about. Because their breakthroughs are just ways to repackage their nonessential fluff to make themselves some more cash. It's never to enhance the viewer's experience of their favourite shows, to make them more engaging. Until now!
Yessir, the wonderful, beautiful people at NBC have announced that the next season of "Heroes" will feature a 10-episode multiplatform, interactive storyline. Yes, interactive AND multiplatform. The storyline will contain:
Graphic novels for mobile devices.
Interactive SMS, synched to broadcast.
Interactive storylines from which Sprint [telecom] users will receive clues to unlock a mystery.
A $25,000 sweepstakes which links the interactive story.
A "Heroes" survival game.
One-minute Internet video scenes, tied to the on-air version of the show.
A microsite for the show's carnival storyline.
Carnival-themed online games.
What does all this mean? Greater emotional connection with characters, deeper engagement with the story, and wholesale escapism which, after all, this kind of show is all about. It amazes me that the best so many shows can do is to make websites full of "Whacky behind the scenes footage!" and create phone numbers leading to answering machine messages "By the actual characters!". No one ever thought of using all this other media to actually tell the story? Well that's just sad, and I'm glad that we will have some forward thinking that ACTUALLY MOVES THINGS FORWARD.
Too bad we in Australia probably won't see the series for another 2 years, each episode preceded by warnings that all references to phone numbers and websites are no longer applicable.
Dammit.
REFERENCES:
http://itvt.com/story/5675/nbccom-sprint-team-multiplatform-interactive-heroes-storyline
http://itvt.com/story/5677/activevideo-videon-partner-bring-interactive-tv-consumer-electronics-devices
http://itvt.com/story/5651/tag-networks-launches-new-version-its-interactive-tv-games-platform
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