robert Pervasive entertainment is entertainment untethered and unencumbered by time, location and reality. For those who like equations, here’s one:
pervasive entertainment = ubiquitous media + participatory experience + real world + good storytelling
Pervasive entertainment may start with single-media – fictional story in a book or a true story in a TV documentary – yet will then spiral outwards to encompass more media platforms, more audience participation and more touchpoints (touchpoint = online and real world places where audiences come in contact with the entertainment).
Pervasive entertainment becomes a living, breathing entertainment experience that continues without you – evolving, morphing, refining, improving, growing – even when you’re not watching. But the story has you hooked. The evolution of the experience has you hooked.
You know that if you turn on your mobile device they’ll be another piece of content to grip you further; to drive you deeper. Soon you’ll become addicted; crazy for another fix: a tweet, an email, a video, a puzzle, a PDF, a link, a blog comment…
…and when the content doesn’t arrive you’ll create it yourself. You’ll feed someone else’s addiction.
Pervasive entertainment blurs the line between real-world and fictional world; between work time and play time; between author-directed plot and audience-improvised role-play.
Pervasive entertainment is transmedia storytelling evolved 😉
I love the term “pervasive entertainment” – it captures exactly what is missed by the term “transmedia.” I’d been playing around with “immersive storytelling,” as a better option, but I think I’m going to start using that instead.
That’s so cool Nedra, thanks! We’re borrowing the idea from “pervasive games” but kind of dropping the requirement for there to be a game component 🙂
This accurately encapsulates what transmedia really is to me. Thanks. I have to use this 🙂