The Dark Knight Too late to start?

[waiting]

I dont really care what anything is worth....
to me its all about having something to remember the experience with...

i hope i remember this stuff even when all of my other memories have left me....

 

[Dan_McCarrin]

I dont really care what anything is worth....
to me its all about having something to remember the experience with...

i hope i remember this stuff even when all of my other memories have left me....

I know I won’t forget that one guy, you, and me freezing in the cold rain and wind for hours before the hunt for the Joker cards and trailer that is going to be stuck in my mind forever...

 

[Why So Serious?]

ok buddy....The Viral's are still not Over....if u did ur homework before u posted then u know Jokers has 3 Big Last plans left!

If u wanna be negitive go wine and dine somewhere else......


So like I said keep checking in here and Their'll will be a Big Ending from JokEr!

Sure, that's the high hopes version. But you know what they say: A pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist. We have no idea what the final 3 items on the list will be. And true, we do not know if any of them will involve swag. But even if they did, whose to say that they wouldn't just send the swag to people that have been registered for more than a day or two?

I've done my homework. I know all about what's still to come. But the fact of the matter is this: The virals, for all intents and purposes, are over. More specifically in terms of swag.

I have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot of people showing up in the coming weeks posting things just like this: "Hey, is it too late to join the virals so I can get some stuff!?!??"

And honestly, I'm already tired of it. I may have only joined these boards a few weeks back. But I've been following the virals since the very beginning. And lurking here since january/february. And I didn't join for the promise of receiving free swag. I joined because I'm a huge Batman geek, and have been since I was old enough to read comics. The virals started out with one hell of a bang. And they looked to be an amazing and unique experience to be a part of. They have been. I'm very happy with the stuff I've received. But I'm more happy that I've been able to be a part of it all. That's the right reason people should be coming here asking about how they can get involved. Joining in the hopes of getting freebies is the wrong reason.

I may have come off a bit harsh. But I'm talking realistically here. Technically, the virals are not over. But in terms of looking to join in hopes of getting free swag, they might as well be.

-WsS?

 

[mrelectric]

Well said ^

I'm in the same boat. My join date is May, but I've been around for longer than that. It sucks that swag is the only thing that some people want - it also sucks that I'm not the only tool who will pay way too much for viral swag on eBay that others got for free. I really don't blame these swag hunters for wanting a piece of the action - I just wish they'd keep it down.

 

[DarkSomnium]

I'm from Guatemala, and i sent emails and participate in all of the games that i could, like the pictures submission and i never received anything... a friend who lives here too received 4 Gotham Times and some other stuff from Dent's campaign.

I'm sad but happy to participate anyway, the only thing that i keep and i received its the call from Gordon... that was cool...

and yes... i been following the virals since the beginning... every day refreshing every site expecting to find something new and reading everyone of you guys... but anyway... im happy like i said to know that i was a tiny part of all this...

 

[teufelsdrochk]

I just wish they'd keep it down.

again viral ads->emotional bond with brand->insane prices

same principal as Macs.

 

[mrelectric]

^ tru dat, unfortunately for me.

I have had a lot of fun watching the viral stuff go down though -
I just wish I had participated more earlier on, particularly during the Harvey Dent stuff. I had to work the day that the Dentmobile was in Ann Arbor -
after that I lost touch with the virals for a little while.

 

[ares5000]

its never too late to start! everyone thinks im crazy because i have 100 gotham site tabs open at work and im constantly refreshing them t:

 

[cinematheque]

again viral ads->emotional bond with brand->insane prices

same principal as Macs.

Insane prices because the swag has sentimental value, as you just said. It almost contradicts the notion that there are a crapload of people here for free stuff. It isn't free stuff that we want. Well, I mean, we all love stuff that's free, but we're not necessarily capitalist possession-hounds who just want our hands all over everything. We want THIS free stuff, because it represents the game, which we love. We worked for this free stuff, and consequently, every time we put on our Harvey Dent t-shirts, we're gonna remember the Dentmobile, or whenever we chill with our CFB cowls or pins we're gonna remember the panic of realizing how much of your happiness relied on a Domino's employee and how hilarious some of the GCN submissions are (seriously, I wish I knew who submitted the video of Batman picking out a movie, because I laughed for like 10 minutes). The insane prices are essentially because since we worked for it and we know how we got it, we're attached to it, and therefore, it's unlikely you'll see much of it floating around for sale (because it would mean we'd either have to be destitute, or shameful).

That's why I like the swag. It represents all this time I spent going nutso over something and I can always look at it and be like, 'Oh yeah...that was pretty awesome.' Also, it acts as a homing device. You'll know based on reaction something about a person. For example, if they ignore it entirely, they're...stupid. If they say, "Where'd you get that? It's amazing!" they're tasteful, but they weren't there. But dollars to donuts, you run into some dude wearing a IBIHD t-shirt, he was actually standing at a Dentmobile stop. You can be like, "One of us! One of us!"

Actually, that is kinda like Macs. And motorcycles. Everybody with Macs in a public place nod at each other...and everybody on motorcycles waves to each other...

 

[mrelectric]

Spoiler

Insane prices because the swag has sentimental value, as you just said. It almost contradicts the notion that there are a crapload of people here for free stuff. It isn't free stuff that we want. Well, I mean, we all love stuff that's free, but we're not necessarily capitalist possession-hounds who just want our hands all over everything. We want THIS free stuff, because it represents the game, which we love. We worked for this free stuff, and consequently, every time we put on our Harvey Dent t-shirts, we're gonna remember the Dentmobile, or whenever we chill with our CFB cowls or pins we're gonna remember the panic of realizing how much of your happiness relied on a Domino's employee and how hilarious some of the GCN submissions are (seriously, I wish I knew who submitted the video of Batman picking out a movie, because I laughed for like 10 minutes). The insane prices are essentially because since we worked for it and we know how we got it, we're attached to it, and therefore, it's unlikely you'll see much of it floating around for sale (because it would mean we'd either have to be destitute, or shameful).

That's why I like the swag. It represents all this time I spent going nutso over something and I can always look at it and be like, 'Oh yeah...that was pretty awesome.' Also, it acts as a homing device. You'll know based on reaction something about a person. For example, if they ignore it entirely, they're...stupid. If they say, "Where'd you get that? It's amazing!" they're tasteful, but they weren't there. But dollars to donuts, you run into some dude wearing a IBIHD t-shirt, he was actually standing at a Dentmobile stop. You can be like, "One of us! One of us!"

Actually, that is kinda like Macs. And motorcycles. Everybody with Macs in a public place nod at each other...and everybody on motorcycles waves to each other...

More good points - it still sucks that there are people here who want the free stuff because they know it has value to Batfans though. That part makes me weep. I really do like the economy in these forums though - trading swag for the swag you missed out on is nice.

 

[teufelsdrochk]

That's why I like the swag. It represents all this time I spent going nutso over something and I can always look at it and be like, 'Oh yeah...that was pretty awesome.' Also, it acts as a homing device. You'll know based on reaction something about a person. For example, if they ignore it entirely, they're...stupid. If they say, "Where'd you get that? It's amazing!" they're tasteful, but they weren't there. But dollars to donuts, you run into some dude wearing a IBIHD t-shirt, he was actually standing at a Dentmobile stop. You can be like, "One of us! One of us!"

Actually, that is kinda like Macs. And motorcycles. Everybody with Macs in a public place nod at each other...and everybody on motorcycles waves to each other...

or like nikes. 'It's gotta be the shoes.'

Or any number of other signifiers we accept and products we desire. I can't help but think about R. Crumb in this context, about his drawings of Americans in Oakleys and Raiders caps. Why Americans try to sum up themselves as individuals by the slogan on their t-shirt------I understand our violent past, our religious past, but there's something about our sophistication in digesting media that is our own and I don't quite know where it began...

I'm sorry but all this sentiment over an extended advertisement is a little creepy. An amazing and beautifully thought out advertisement, yes, but the consciousness of 'puppeteers' seems to have gone and I miss it. The more I think about it the more it bothers me.

 

[Anita18]

I'm sorry but all this sentiment over an extended advertisement is a little creepy. An amazing and beautifully thought out advertisement, yes, but the consciousness of 'puppeteers' seems to have gone and I miss it. The more I think about it the more it bothers me.

I think it's cute that we're all bonding over this story that's unfolding before our eyes, the fact that it's "marketing" notwithstanding. (Fact of life is that you do have to pay someone to do this.)

It isn't like we're camping out in front of the Apple Store waiting for the newest gadget, and then leaving once we've bought it. There's always something else to discover, a new side to the story, and new characters we've come to relate to (I don't want anything bad to happen to Glenn!), and we stick around to see what will happen next. There's community in it, yes, but there's a common thread to it all as well.

 

[cinematheque]

or like nikes. 'It's gotta be the shoes.'

Or any number of other signifiers we accept and products we desire. I can't help but think about R. Crumb in this context, about his drawings of Americans in Oakleys and Raiders caps. Why Americans try to sum up themselves as individuals by the slogan on their t-shirt------I understand our violent past, our religious past, but there's something about our sophistication in digesting media that is our own and I don't quite know where it began...

I'm sorry but all this sentiment over an extended advertisement is a little creepy. An amazing and beautifully thought out advertisement, yes, but the consciousness of 'puppeteers' seems to have gone and I miss it. The more I think about it the more it bothers me.

You're looking at it in the wrong way. To view it as an 'extended advertisement' is in some ways accurate, as its main goal is to sell something. But, ultimately, so is the main goal of virtually everything in a capitalist society, even if it is more convoluted in some bits than in others. Buying and selling is not only an evil desire but, for one, a system that has existed since the dawn of civilization, and for another, survival. It seems unfair to accuse any behavior not directly related (presumably) to our lives or deaths as frivolous because it robs sentiment of its juice. I mean the idea that advertisement is inherently evil, when in reality, it is only inherent.

But you also have to consider that for one, and basic stats, 42e is not full of advertising execs. In fact, the advertising execs, the puppeteer types you mean, are more like the ones who commissioned 42e, no doubt. 42e is commissioned not necessarily to sell a product but to create an interactivity that will hopefully sell a product. 42e is not in its nature so much an ad firm as it is a firm that specializes in viral marketing (and yeah, it is marketing--because if it weren't they would have to be commissioned by individuals, which is kind of Magrathean in the sense that most individuals don't really have the cash to buy an ARG just for kicks) and, specifically, the ARG (although they've done others). The important thing here is the 'game' part, I think--it's a game. Ultimately they hope it will buy your loyalty, and it will, but hardly in the same way that what we think of as 'advertising' does. The notion of puppeteers disappears when the consumer interacts because a puppet does not interact with its puppeteer.

So yeah...I mean I'm not arguing that it is an advertising tactic used to persuade the casual onlooker into total brand loyalty. But the reason it works is because it goes beyond that. It's not just advertising anymore. It's multi-platform storytelling. It is literally an entire extra storyline. Sure it merges eventually, but in this entire debacle, from start to finish, we have seen countless characters. Some we won't see in the movie...because they've died or because they were just incidental. And some we will. But the fact is it's not so much pure advertising as it is a crossover between advertising and storytelling. They did it with the Matrix, too, and that was NOT an ad campaign (no matter what naysayers might tell you); it was ultimately a very careful and deliberate attempt at offering a story of a parallel universe more convincing than you could ever find in a two-hour movie. It was flawed because unfortunately it left a lot of people who didn't follow any of the other platforms really puzzled and annoyed, which is no doubt why since, it hasn't really been done again. Now, they commission the additional things--the games and the companion books and the ARGs--after the fact so that it can offer something similar while not offering a weak link (an incomplete product--like The Matrix Reloaded, or Enter the Matrix, neither of which was really strong enough to tell that stuff on its own). I'm saying, non-linear storytelling is advertising, but it is also something else. We're not bonding over a commercial, we're bonding over a universe. You're turning it into why the universe was created instead of that it was.

I think it's cute that we're all bonding over this story that's unfolding before our eyes, the fact that it's "marketing" notwithstanding. (Fact of life is that you do have to pay someone to do this.)

It isn't like we're camping out in front of the Apple Store waiting for the newest gadget, and then leaving once we've bought it. There's always something else to discover, a new side to the story, and new characters we've come to relate to (I don't want anything bad to happen to Glenn!), and we stick around to see what will happen next. There's community in it, yes, but there's a common thread to it all as well.

Ummm...actually that's basically what I was trying to say up there but in like 60 more paragraphs. I'm saying, I've read the books, I know the routine, but it's like this exactly--the fact that it's marketing is notwithstanding, because it wouldn't exist if no one paid for it, and no one would pay for it without expecting something in return. It's something that can only exist in this scope as marketing.

Also, I'd like to take this moment out to say that if anything bad happens to Glenn, I will seriously start crying. I love that guy. I check all the time for new e-mails. I'm like totally engrossed in the life and times of Glenn Barhyte. At first I found them tedious and now that I know all the recurring characters it's like I'm addicted. Like, what embarrassing social blunder will Atoz make now? What's gonna happen to Cecilia's baby? Is Slatteronsky a rat? Does Barhyte know it? All this and more in the next episode of...Secure Internal Documents Webmail *new*!

 

[Why So Serious?]

I'm sorry but all this sentiment over an extended advertisement is a little creepy. An amazing and beautifully thought out advertisement, yes, but the consciousness of 'puppeteers' seems to have gone and I miss it. The more I think about it the more it bothers me.

If it bothers you that much. If you view the sentimentality as a "little creepy" and the virals as nothing more than an overblown advertisment. If you're as much against the idea as you make yourself out to be. Then why are you here? Why participate on that same level as many of the rest of us have? Why participate at all?

I guess I'm just having a hard time understanding what point it is that you're trying to make. Especially when, like I said, you seem to involved on the same level as many of the people you consider to be "creepy." You may not share the sentiment on the same level, or at all. I can't say I do either. Not on the same level, at least. But that still begs the question of how that makes you any different from the rest of us.

Spoiler

You're looking at it in the wrong way. To view it as an 'extended advertisement' is in some ways accurate, as its main goal is to sell something. But, ultimately, so is the main goal of virtually everything in a capitalist society, even if it is more convoluted in some bits than in others. Buying and selling is not only an evil desire but, for one, a system that has existed since the dawn of civilization, and for another, survival. It seems unfair to accuse any behavior not directly related (presumably) to our lives or deaths as frivolous because it robs sentiment of its juice. I mean the idea that advertisement is inherently evil, when in reality, it is only inherent.

But you also have to consider that for one, and basic stats, 42e is not full of advertising execs. In fact, the advertising execs, the puppeteer types you mean, are more like the ones who commissioned 42e, no doubt. 42e is commissioned not necessarily to sell a product but to create an interactivity that will hopefully sell a product. 42e is not in its nature so much an ad firm as it is a firm that specializes in viral marketing (and yeah, it is marketing--because if it weren't they would have to be commissioned by individuals, which is kind of Magrathean in the sense that most individuals don't really have the cash to buy an ARG just for kicks) and, specifically, the ARG (although they've done others). The important thing here is the 'game' part, I think--it's a game. Ultimately they hope it will buy your loyalty, and it will, but hardly in the same way that what we think of as 'advertising' does. The notion of puppeteers disappears when the consumer interacts because a puppet does not interact with its puppeteer.

So yeah...I mean I'm not arguing that it is an advertising tactic used to persuade the casual onlooker into total brand loyalty. But the reason it works is because it goes beyond that. It's not just advertising anymore. It's multi-platform storytelling. It is literally an entire extra storyline. Sure it merges eventually, but in this entire debacle, from start to finish, we have seen countless characters. Some we won't see in the movie...because they've died or because they were just incidental. And some we will. But the fact is it's not so much pure advertising as it is a crossover between advertising and storytelling. They did it with the Matrix, too, and that was NOT an ad campaign (no matter what naysayers might tell you); it was ultimately a very careful and deliberate attempt at offering a story of a parallel universe more convincing than you could ever find in a two-hour movie. It was flawed because unfortunately it left a lot of people who didn't follow any of the other platforms really puzzled and annoyed, which is no doubt why since, it hasn't really been done again. Now, they commission the additional things--the games and the companion books and the ARGs--after the fact so that it can offer something similar while not offering a weak link (an incomplete product--like The Matrix Reloaded, or Enter the Matrix, neither of which was really strong enough to tell that stuff on its own). I'm saying, non-linear storytelling is advertising, but it is also something else. We're not bonding over a commercial, we're bonding over a universe. You're turning it into why the universe was created instead of that it was.

Very well put.

-WsS?

 

[ares5000]

Haha wow this has become quite a thread! Just throwing it in there as a fellow motorcycle rider and viral junky, if you don't "get it" now, i highly doubt you ever will. When you see bikes acknowledge each other and you assume that they must know each other, then you won't understand. It isn't until you're a part of the comradery that you'll get it. if you have to ask about the Hippo, just forget about it unless youre ready for a really long story sort of thing...

 

[Robbie]

Haha wow this has become quite a thread! Just throwing it in there as a fellow motorcycle rider and viral junky, if you don't "get it" now, i highly doubt you ever will. When you see bikes acknowledge each other and you assume that they must know each other, then you won't understand. It isn't until you're a part of the comradery that you'll get it. if you have to ask about the Hippo, just forget about it unless youre ready for a really long story sort of thing...

So a hippo in a batsuit walks into a bar...

 

[ares5000]

So a hippo in a batsuit walks into a bar...

2/3 face shall rise again!

 

[teufelsdrochk]

. Especially when, like I said, you seem to involved on the same level as many of the people you consider to be "creepy." You may not share the sentiment on the same level, or at all. I can't say I do either. Not on the same level, at least. But that still begs the question of how that makes you any different from the rest of us.

oh, the people aren't creepy--or anyway no more than I like.

the idea that ones individual experiences should become *brand* experiences is creepy.

Fandom has always had a huge devotion to things but those were done by artists whose primary purpose was to entertain or inform--and only secondarily to sell books. So it's also creepy for that innocence to taken advantage of.

 

[Robbie]

2/3 face shall rise again!

You, my friend, have brought I smile to my face. Give me a few minutes and I will return the favor...

 

[Verdammt]

You, my friend, have brought I smile to my face. Give me a few minutes and I will return the favor...

I'm not sure I want to know how you are going to do that......

 

[Robbie]

I'm not sure I want to know how you are going to do that......

Oh, just having a little fun with Illustrator. Wish I had time to throw in a background, but I'm at work. Maybe when I'm off I can throw one together.

Now, as I was saying, a hippo in a batsuit walks into a bar...

 

[Verdammt]

Oh, just having a little fun with Illustrator. Wish I had time to throw in a background, but I'm at work. Maybe when I'm off I can throw one together.

Now, as I was saying, a hippo in a batsuit walks into a bar...

Now that is priceless.

 

[Anita18]

Oh, just having a little fun with Illustrator. Wish I had time to throw in a background, but I'm at work. Maybe when I'm off I can throw one together.

Now, as I was saying, a hippo in a batsuit walks into a bar...

 

[BirdsDoThus]

Oh god, the hippos again. *facepalm*

 

[Robbie]

Are you laughing at the hippo?



I kid I kid...But seriously, Bat Hippo is not pleased...