In related news I have a new post up at my blog titled, ” Geoblocking, Sony, Gemini Division, and You”. (Just click my name.) :)

I think that Gemini Division is both something more and something less than a full fledged ARG-only type of experience, an experience that requires players to actively participate in order to advance the story line.

Gemini Division is different in that it involves viewers at the level they desire to be involved and it doesn’t require its viewers to actively participate in order to advance the storyline. This allows it to reach a larger audience.

I think Gemini Division will be incorporating elements of alternate reality gaming and infusing them into their immersive multi-platform interactive experience as a supplement to the main content. They should also be releasing Graphic Novels that will further deepen the story.

In regard to a replicate ARG-like experience, NBC did this with Heroes Evolutions. The fictional character Hana was introduced in the US, and later a different fictional character Bridget Bailey was introduced in the UK. They each had similar super abilities and functioned in parallel though time-shifted ARG-like arcs. This is an example of a replicate ARG-like experience staged at different times for different global communities.

It will be interesting to see what EFE and Sony do in regard to providing a replicate experience. I know that I am looking forward to acquiring my fictional PDA when I join up with Gemini Division and begin participating.

Nice to hear from a fellow fan of Gemini Division in particular and of new media in general. I signed up for Deleted: The Game, but haven’t had the time of late to really dig in yet.

Thanks for the interaction. Definitely room for more thought, for questions, and for interaction.

As a result, I do think the internet deserves a rethink. Not that we have the answers but we are trying to do different things differently.

I have immense respect for Brent and the EFE team for their previous work and pulling together an amazing project, casting Rosario Dawson … genius(!!), and for pulling of the NBC and the Sony deals. Perhaps it will be clearer down the road but I struggle to see how the same or slightly tweaked versions of the same ARG can be effectively played around the world at different times. I’ve always thought of ARGs as quite perishable, non-repeating events.

Nevertheless, I am a fan of Gemini Division and while I may appear to not understand everything, I am without reservation wholly desirous that it succeeds.

@ Liz – that’s a shame. I really do think it would serve them better to allow downloading and embedded players even if the streams were geoblocked outside the USA. Of course, if they do have a larger marketing budget then their tactic might well be to force visitors to their sites for other benefits.

@SR on August 21st, 2008 at 11:20 pm – I certainly hope you’re wrong and do hope Gemini Division rocks all over the world so people will start looking for little indies like ours :-)

I agree that a simultaneous rollout in all markets with local advertisers on board would be the best way to go. But I think you overestimate NBC’s ability to coordinate something like that globally.

“By then just about everyone with an interest in it worldwide will have seen it WITHOUT ads.”

I doubt any web series has ever really exhausted its potential audience. “The Evolution of Dance” on YouTube has been viewed 95 million times; even if that number represented 95 million uniques, that’s still only about 1.5% of the world’s population or less than 7% of the world’s total wired population. (http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm) And, of course, I think Gemini Division will get far fewer uniques than that.

In fact, I’d be very surprised If Gemini Division gets more than half a million uniques from non-English territories. Wouldn’t a dubbed/subtitled version distributed by a regional portal, social network or TV channel reach a much larger audience in those territories?

Tim Todd
PrimeTimeForChange

@SR do you really still think in domestic terms?

The problem in geo blocking hurting each domestic market’s ad revenue severely is that once it’s out. It’s out and won’t come back. It would have been trivial to set this up with NBC’s global partners and launch it without restrictions. This would have gotten NBC a couple of millions extra revenue and would have lived up to the old model of domestic-only advertising vs geo-aware advertising.

Thanks for the comment and the continued conversation. From what I understand, Gemini Division they will be releasing Graphic Novels and mobisodes (lite versions of webisodes) for mobile devices.

In regard to geolocking (interesting subject):

The content that is Gemini Division seeks to leverage itself across multiple platforms and technologies while at the same time providing an ARG-like experience. It is important to remember that as we get closer to converged and interactive content, the complexity and diversity of that content increases as well.

Old media content was and is relatively easy to distribute to a global mass audience. There were less moving pieces and traditional media emphasized mass consumption of that content. New media content on the other hand emphasizes interactivity and active participation while catering to niche audiences and communities.

As new media becomes more technically complex and grows to exist across multiple technological platforms, the task of producing and distributing that content internationally becomes more difficult and costly. We can’t just flip a switch and solve the problem. It isn’t that easy. There will be growing pains no doubt about it as we rethink, produce, and distribute new media. The global distribution of complex, cross platform interactive content is one of those hurdles and there is definitely room for more thinking on the issue.

One of the interesting notes from the pre-screening conference call that I was able to be a part of, is that Gemini Division will be released to other territories and that each territory will have its own replicate ARG experience.

I also found a quote from Brent Friedman detailing the reasoning for a staged territory release of the show. It appears to match the reasoning above.

“G-D is geo-blocked because Sony will be releasing the series outside the U.S. in the very near future. In order to give the show the best shot, Sony is creating a unique multi-platform release for each territory. This means translating the content into many languages, managing the marketing and customizing the experience depending on local distribution partners. Coordinating this kind of effort on a global scale is not impossible, but it’s not realistic for a project of this (relative) scale. Although this approach does not fully embrace the potential of the worldwide web, it was very effective on our first show, Afterworld, in building a brand and an international audience. Bottom line: if it ain’t broke…”

Tim Todd
PrimeTimeForChange