A Door Closes, A Window Opens

Last week Wes Platt, owner of the online text based multi-user game Otherspace announced that in 2008 on the 10th anniversary of his game, he was shutting it down.

So what does Otherspace have to do with non-profit arts organizations you ask. Well, quite a bit if you take a look.

For one, Otherspace is definitely non-profit. It is completely free to play and runs on donations and merchandise sales (tshirts, hats, mugs and some other things I will soon mention). My first thought was that his move provides a good example for arts organizations for looking at a project that is doing well and deciding to phase them out and replace with something else that advances the organizational mission. It is no easy thing for any organization, online or not, to develop a new project while maintaining the current ones. (Platt also has two other games with different themes he runs.) It is even tougher to decide to do in an uncertain financial climate.

I also thought it was pretty gutsy to do it on an anniversary when he could get some additional mileage out of it. On the other hand, he can get some mileage out of the anniversary connected shutdown by simultaneously introducing the new project he has promised as he and the game’s following toast out the old.

The other thing of note about Otherspace is that it is a roleplaying game with well-designed large story arcs to involve the players. The first six years had 17 story arcs according to the website. Wes Platt has actually published a novel based on the world concept with another book on the way.

What he has also done though is taken the roleplaying logs provided by some key players and edited them into books as well. The sale of these books on Amazon.com also helps to support the game and keep them free. In essence, the actions and choices of the players placed in certain scenarios help to create works of fiction. Their incentive for playing in a compelling manner is that the sale of their recreational activities continues to make their enjoyment possible.

Obviously, it is just a new twist on an ensemble developing a performance piece. It would be interesting to see if expanding this idea of technology assisted could be turned into the next big thing.

The last thing that seemed valuable for arts organizations to note is that the game has a Wiki associated with it. Since the theme of the game is that of a space opera with strange alien races and terminology, there is a need to identify these elements to newcomers. The specific wiki for the game offers descriptions of the worlds, races, organizations, technology, culture as well as How To information for new players.

I would think the term alien terminology by itself would be enough to explain the value of a wiki to an arts organization. The benefit of a wiki over a list of glossary terms on your website is that a wiki is dynamic. As a professional in an arts field, you can’t always anticipate everything your audience thinks it is important to know.

With a wiki, you get a little help from existing members of your audience because they have a pretty clear idea of what they didn’t know at first that they found helpful to learn. Because anyone can contribute to a wiki, anyone can update entries on playwrights, composers, actors, tips on getting good tickets, protocol on behavior and dress in different scenarios whenever they realize they have something to contribute.

Of course, this strength is also a weakness since people can vandalize your wiki with ads for viagra, obscenities and bad reviews. In this regard, a wiki takes more effort than a static page on your website. Even if people are making well-written, objective neutral (the basic standard for wiki entries)contributions, someone always has to be monitoring the updates to ensure they meet standards.

The good news with wikis is that the someone doing the monitoring doesn’t have to be a staff person. In fact, it is a mark of a wiki’s success if it isn’t a staff person doing all the work. Wikis allow for the quick reversion to previous information by contributors. It is a testament to how invested your audience is in the success of your organization when supporters remove offensive material on your behalf before you know it is there.

And since wiki contributors tend to skew younger than the average performing arts event demographic, you know you are moving in a good direction when you have a number of people enthusiastically running defense and contributing on your wiki.