Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

I've noticed some people are starting guilds, which "awakens" many different feelings in me. On the one hand,
its "evokes" thoughts of cheating and collusion, "gaming" the system and
taking advantage of flaws in the programming. Some people seem to have
done just that, with hundreds of power points and almost no blog posts,
photos, or videos.

At the same time, that doesn't mean thats what these new guilds will be about
at all. In many ways, it is exactly what Evoke is trying to inspire:
initiative, collaboration, dedication, and vision.

It would be ridiculous to assume people won't team up to win this game,
as that seems to be precisely what its geared towards. Evoke is filling a role that social networks have yet to attain: an interactive, socially beneficial game built through a network of humans. Different networks provide aspects of it, such as Evolver.net for the conscious netizens, or facebook for (originally) classmates, or the various app games that people spend hours on end playing on myspace and facebook.

As someone who has been a member of various social networking sites, I've also been fascinated out how information travels through them. Amateur anthropology is a hobby of mine, and 21st century social norms spread like epidemics, or memes, ViRAL videos and GUERILLA Marketing were subjects I had to study while getting my film and business degree at USC, and I still find them fascinating, if not particularly practical.

Memes, in particur, are mostly brainless and arbitrary. Their usefulness is not in what they accomplish (LULZ), but how they represent 'natural' growth patterns through human systems. While far from predictable or
necessarily useful, memes are very real and even sometimes
manufactured. There is this idea that human networks can be studied and
effectively 'programmed, part of what VIR.AL videos and Guerilla Marketing are all about

Marketers and publicists depend on it.

Politicians and financiers bank on it.

Comedians play on it.

What will we Evoke from it?

Views: 37

Comment by Raymond M. Kristiansen on March 6, 2010 at 6:49am
Great post, with some good points.

I am one of those who talk about guilds (who are the others? I mean others who talk about Creating guilds) and I am interested in the topic of how information travels through sites and through organizations within the site/game.

If you play WoW, it's like the difference between /2 and /g. /2 is the 'trade channel' which is actually used for most social banter while people are in cities. /g is used for chat within the guild. So you might be out in the wilderness, killing 100 evil dwarves for some quest or random item drop, and you can while doing that communicate with the others through /g. Social chat, jokes, but also a place you can discuss your current activities. "Perhaps there is a higher droprate of this item on other mobs in other zones?".

How do we translate that into a site like EVOKE?

There is hardly any real real-time elements to the guild. yes, you can see when your friends are online, and you can send them a message, which arrives in their inbox. But thats basically email, or in WoW-terminology - thats like sending the friend an in-game mail at the mailbox.

As such, I miss an instant chat feature on this site. we on AWAKE will have our own, be it a chat room somewhere, or use of a common IM system, but thats - again - guild-wide only.

Honestly, for me, the point with starting the guild discussion is Really to help others think in ways like this. To spark discussions. What does it Mean to have a guild on a site like this? Sure, they market this as a game, but it is not Really a game, is it? Well, something in-between. Ok. An ARG.

AWAKE is real, however, and will be real. We will force ourselves to push ourselves down certain paths, and basically - see what we find.

Guerilla marketing has interested me for a long time, and it is really amazing how efficient it can be.

If I could go through my 20s again I would be a student of anthropology.
Comment by Nick Heyming on March 6, 2010 at 8:02am
When I think of Guilds, I don't think of MMORPGs, I think of plants. I never got into WOW or Anarchy Online or Everquest or Warhammer or any of those, not because I wasn't interested, but because I knew I'd spend a disturbing amount of my time on them if I did...

The time I would have spent on those I instead used to travel and find real networks of heroes that are helping others. Humorously, in doing so I started 'leveling up' and learning martial arts and various hobbies that are not unlike the video games I devoted much of college and elementary school to.

Lately I've been really into growing things, especially plants. Like people, plants have guilds too!

A plant guild is a group of species that work together and form symbiotic, collusive cohesion. Permaculturists talk about them all the time. It would be cool if people guilds operated on similar principals.

I wonder if plant guilds will 'win' their game?
Comment by Raymond M. Kristiansen on March 6, 2010 at 8:41am
See? Words have different meaning to people :D From the plant guild link:
"The plants are chosen to be beneficial to each other, and so it is similar to companion planting.".

Do we "plant" people in a guild in a site like EVOKE? Let's say we are very technical about this and say: "We need 2 persons from specific countries around the world" and "We need 1 architect, 2 teachers, 5 high school students, and 1 medical doctor". Why would we do that? (Im not saying we wont, I mean, what would we gain within the EVOKE system).

"Establishment of a guild takes time and the character and composition of any planting changes as it develops and matures"

People mature. I am not sure how much people really will mature in the 10 weeks we have for this crash course, but I am sure that it will be a really intense experience for some. Boot camp, in a way.

I am looking for others who are "hard-core" about this ARG. In martial arts, that would be the people who will do everything it takes to get that black belt within the end of season (or whatever).

I am new to ARGs like EVOKE. I have my real life experience of years within student politics on european level at Univ, or my political party work. I have my WoW experiences. I am humble enough to know that I have no clue how an ARG works, but I also insist that well - I should just go full speed ahead. If I make errors, I will learn from it, and others too I guess.

People are people. not plants. With plants, it is pretty stable what is required. Sunshine, or no sunshine (depending on species). Certain amount of water. Certain type of earth. And so on.

Take two individuals with similar background on EVOKE, and they will react radically different to the same stimuli. That's exciting!

Loved the plant guild link, thanks :)

Will "plant guilds" win their game? I am not sure what you mean, please elaborate.
Comment by Nick Heyming on March 6, 2010 at 8:51am
I dunno, I was just trying to think of how to tie them in with WOW and ARG guilds.

Plants vs. Bugs?
Comment by Raymond M. Kristiansen on March 6, 2010 at 9:01am
hah! plants vs. bugs.

in EVOKE, would that be zombies vs. innovators? to even start talking about groupings like that is heresy, and not very socially acceptable. most people cant handle that, and we dont want to scare them away.

evolution takes time!
Comment by Amos Meeks on March 6, 2010 at 5:07pm
I see guilds as a more formal and structured way to get people to get together, and collaborate, perhaps around some sort of common interest or goal. The interest or goal of AWAKE, at least at this point, seems to be EVOKE itself, and in being and creating the first guild, and finding a purpose.

If it catches on though, I see guilds forming around interests, like engineering, education, economics, or even projects, clean water for this place, electricity for that, starting a business, etc. If you have a business idea, you could start an EVOKE guild, get people into it, and use the guild as a way to create and populate the company using the EVOKE network.
Comment by Clayton Wilson on March 6, 2010 at 5:49pm
IM Chat is a reasonable way of communicating in MMORPG games however (if you didn't notice) EVOKE is different, as Nick pointed out it's like a social networking site, but focused on a certain area: Innovation. In truth it's a break through (although surprisingly as far as I know has only happened now). I've been experimenting with different games (previously) with the chatting system mixed with IGM and forums for guild type groups. I soon discovered if you changed the forums topics away from the game you could have something completely different, you could mold the groups to whatever you wanted and new players would be none the wiser. Although I found it very interesting it defeated the purpose of the game. If we do have "guilds" on EVOKE I would prefer build-able forums because they can be organized to fit the needs of the group, modded by the group leader, and they don't disappear when you log out.
Comment by Clayton Wilson on March 6, 2010 at 5:50pm
Needed to start a new paragraph there, sorry for the abrupt topic change.
Comment by Amos Meeks on March 6, 2010 at 5:58pm
I think the best way to have a separate guild-forum sort of thing would be to have a guild-wiki.
Comment by Raymond M. Kristiansen on March 6, 2010 at 6:06pm
A guild wiki you say? http://awakewiki.tommaillioux.fr/

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