Battlestar Galactica Producer Ponders New Video Game

I’ve thought about doing something where you start a property across mediums, with Internet participation and role-playing video games,” he says. “Not every show or property will lend itself to that type of hybrid environment, but if you set it up from the get-go to design it that way, I think that’s a really rich and interesting place for the business to go.

That’s a potentially great idea. I’ve explored parts of this approach in DD7 and DD18. The natural conclusion to this line of thinking is the Ubiquitous Game. the Ubiquitous Game can be played online, through various clients on various platforms, including Browsers, SMS, IM and email. There would also be aspects of the game that are played or participated in offline. Scratch tickets and collectible card games that unlock in-game merchandise, television shows based-off (or the genesis of), which reference in-game events, and drop subtle hints to new in-game content, real-world team collaborations to solve puzzles, crossover experiences in other games and media.

No one of these ideas is particularly new, see Majestic, see X-Quest , see games based on movies based on comic books , see geo-caching and games like PerplexCity , Masquerade.

Alone they are interesting, crafted into a cohesive experience, they could become quite compelling.

(Thanks to John B for digging up this on teamXbox.com, and Bill B for the heads up on X-Quest)

Why We Need a Corporation for Public Gaming

However, serious games, like serious TV, are likely to remain a sidebar in the history of mass media. Non-commercial television floundered, despite millions of dollars of investment by the Ford Foundation, until the government stepped in and created a viable and long-lasting alternative. With similar vision and foresight, and a relatively small amount of funding, this could happen with video and computer games.

A Corporation for Public Gaming (CPG) could be established that would operate on a model similar to its broadcasting equivalent, providing grants to develop a diversity of games for the public good. Like CPB, the goal of the CPG would be to provide high-quality games, which “inform, enlighten and enrich the public.”

An interesting proposal from David Rejeski at Serious Game Source. A step towards Warhammer 401k?

(via BoingBoing )