Ever one to be on the bleeding edge of what’s going on in tv today, I’ve just finished watching Veronica Mars. I’m not gonna go on and on about this, but I have to ask: how on earth did that show suffer viewing figures low enough to cause it to be cancelled? Was it badly promoted? Terrible time slot? Cos I don’t get it – VM was every bit as clever, fun and teen-swoony as Buffy was, so why didn’t it take? (I hope for their sakes that Rob Thomas and the CW think that one over hard while planning the spin-off to 90210.)
But more to the point: if heavies like Stephen King and Joss Whedon loved the show, and fans are devoted enough to keep their fansites alive a year later, shell out a whopping £78.50 plus travel to see Veronica and Logan at a con in the UK (compare with £55 for the WoW Invitational) and $800+ to take a VM-themed cruise… then why has Veronica’s story skidded to a halt? A tv series demands a lot of infrastructure and investment: in crew, locations, promotional stuff – but a story just needs, well, a story, and a way to tell it, right?
Continue reading ‘Keeping Veronica alive – on the cheap’
Rachel Clarke Bibrik Ltd
Jeremy Ettinghausen Digital Publisher, Penguin Books
Roo Reynolds Metaverse Evangelist, IBM
Dan Hon CEO, Six to Start
Dan Heaf, BBC, moderator
Heaf: How can games, stories, puzzles etc. help engage users with your brand? We’ve seen in film and tv that these techniques have been put in place to great effect. Outside of those genres, can such tactics be effective? Continue reading ’sxswi 2008: day 2, Stories, Games and Your Brand’
Was very lucky to even get to the first panel, having left late with no thought for probable queues for the parking garage! (I’m staying at the Hyatt Place, about a 10-minute drive away from the ACC.)
Today I went to:
What Teens Want Online & On Their Phones: No ads, Flash games. High text allowance. Wholesome kids. Dan liveblogged it.
You Are Here: Gaming and User’s Geolocation in Web 2.0: Really, really interesting stuff. Liveblogged at NowPublic (scroll); überthings, socialight
[Laptop battery went flat and I'd left the charger in the hotel. Spent rest of the day scribbling on various surfaces.]
Opening Remarks with Henry Jenkins and Steven Johnson: Funny, hopeful, inspiring. Summary at Geek Gestalt
Cross-Media Cross-Pollination: Mashing Up Video Games and ARGs: Dan’s panel with Tony and Dee, lovely people I met at lunch. Great overview of ARGs and what they can learn from videogames; gears turning. I’m sad that I have to head back home before Jane McGonigal’s keynote.
Social Network Coups: The Users are Revolting!: Turned out to be even more entertaining than I expected. Examples of how CMs at Metafilter, Lifehacker, Second Life and io9 handled community uprisings. I’ll post the podcast when it’s up.
