No Ringy Dingy

I hate the phone. I’ve always hated the phone. Even as a teenager. Seriously. For years, I assumed it was because I hate surprises (my nightmare: someone throwing me a surprise party and not telling me first so I can prepare myself for the surprise). This was the number one reason I didn’t play I Love Bees as actively as I could have – I wanted nothing to do with answering pay phones and that was especially true once the live calls started happening. What if I got one? I’d have to hang up!

Yet, despite my own personal horror, the phone plays a prominent part in the ARG world. Despite the fact that so few games actually use phones, the phone is such a classic example of how a game or story can reach beyond the screen and touch someone “in the real world.” And, of course, get a few designers together talking about the future and you’re sure to hear about how amazing it will be when voice recognition software is actually good enough to make phone calls seem more real and less recorded (the alternative, you see, is to use live actors and that is just not scalable). Then, it seems, will ARGs truly be great at reaching out into the real world and providing some amazing character & story interaction.

Really?

Clive Thompson has written about the Death of the Phone Call in this month’s Wired and makes some really interesting points. First of all, phone calls are on a decline – both in frequency and in length. He has some theories for why this is: we’re already in constant contact with one another through other mediums that are both synchronous & asynchronous which allows us to not interrupt our lives in order to have a conversation unless it’s convenient for all involved. And, like him, I find that almost all of my calls (even my calls with my mom) are scheduled and, if they’re not, I get an IM saying “are you free? can I call?”

He goes on to predict that the phone, as a communication medium, will eventually be reserved for longer, more in-depth conversations which, I must say, is how I use it today. Well, for that and for conference calls. Everything else is handled over twitter, im, text message, and email.

If the phone is a medium that is best used for long in-depth conversations, will amazingly accurate voice-recognition & branching narrative trees ever make for an engaging interactive experience? More engaging or realistic than, say, how we are already communicating via text messages, email, twitter, etc? And what happens when video enters the picture?