Week 8 - Augmented Reality Games

Do not get me wrong. I have yet to attend a boring Digital Media lecture, and this week was no different. However as I sat there listening to what Laurie Petrou had to say, I was really confused as to how any of the discussions in-class related to the RTA program.

Perhaps the topic related to advertising and how it can be used when we need to promote an idea... Maybe it was to show us different ways of connecting with our audiences... Or maybe it was to simply show us how both industries are somewhat similar... Either way I'm completely guessing, and still not entirely certain on how it relates to me. What was the main argument for the lesson? What was it suppose to prove?

Nevertheless, the lecture was mesmerizing. Learning about ARGs for the first time seemed really intriguing and got me interested. The examples Laurie showed us (i.e. for Dark Knight and Halo 2), had really fascinating ad campaigns. The whole time I had this urge to research the competitions that the companies created, in hopes of finding a list of all the clues and details that were needed to organize an event like this.

Being a avid gamer myself also made the slideshow presentation more enjoyable than other lectures I've been to. Having played many genres of games, it was enjoying to have these discussed in university. Oddly enough however, this would not be the last time that video games would be the main topic in one of my classes.

After recently attending a lecture for my elective, Information to Technology and Society (ITM 277), games have never been so enjoyable to explore with other students. Kathleen Greenaway, my professor, created a whole topic on the virtual world "Second Life". Being awfully similar to ARGs, this on-line "game" felt very realistic. The whole time, while sitting in-class, I kept hearing descriptions which reminded me of Digital Media.

It is true that I have yet to make a complete connection between this particular lecture and radio and television. I'll keep an open-minded though, and still continue to enjoy the topics that are covered in our class.

Additional Sources
Greenaway, Kathleen. "Manpower and Second Life." Lecture. Ryerson University, Toronto. 05 Nov. 2009.
Petrou, Laurie. "Augmented Reality Games." Lecture. Ryerson University, Toronto. 27 Oct. 2009.