Kind, Gehringer, Klein, Edmonds

Capstone Research Paper

9 May 2012

Project REBOOT

Executive summary

Project REBOOT has been an ever-evolving learning experience for our

capstone team, largely due to the fact that there were so many moving parts to it.

The original idea for the capstone project was to document the MU Sustainability

Office as a resource to the Columbia community, including the slight possibility of

helping promote their new project, REBOOT, via multimedia. As time went on,

REBOOT’s vision changed and the role of the capstone team became to document

the 10-week mobile-based game designed to engage the public in a fun way about

the environment. There was already a REBOOT staff in place, equipped with a

marketing, game development and game design team. However, as the game’s

purpose evolved, it became more evident where the convergence team was needed.

So we set clear goals to document the weekly challenges and players from the teams

participating using multimedia, interview the REBOOT staff for a how-to

documentary to explain the game’s successes and failures and assist in social media

efforts to propel the game through the 10 weeks. Our team also would conduct

surveys, in the form of questionnaires and focus groups. Ultimately, once our role in

this new experimental mobile-based game became clear, we were eager to get

started.

Research Findings: Surveys

One of the methods we used to gage REBOOT’s success halfway through the

game was a questionnaire via SurveyMonkey. We found this method very helpful in

collecting information from the players to dictate changes for the remainder of the

game. Short survey at REBOOT Wrap up revealing favorite challenges, overall

thoughts of the game and if Ava was successful. Some of the questions included

were:

How did you hear about REBOOT?

> The majority of people who took the survey said they found out

about Reboot through word of mouth (13 of 19). Nobody heard

about the game from the news. The next to most popular ways of

finding out about Reboot was from MU Info and from signs or

handouts from the Student Center. The Student Center was not one

of our options, but three people wrote it in, which was interesting.

Are you a student, faculty, staff or community member?

> When it comes to the make-up of our participants, 18 of the 19

are students. Only one of our respondents is a community member.

Why did you join REBOOT?

> The biggest reason for people joining the game was for money

and prizes 100% of the respondents selected this answer. Another

popular reason, 15 of 16, was to have fun.

How did you receive your information about REBOOT weekly?

> Email was the main way people get their information about

Reboot (14 of 17). The second most popular reason, 6 of 16, was

through community.rebootmizzou.com where the contestants log

in.

How would you like to see the games divided next year?

> Nobody said they play Reboot seven or more times a week. Only

three people said they play four to six times a week. The top

response was only one to three times each week (14 of 17).

Would you play REBOOT again next year?

> Of the 16 people who answered the question, 14 said they would

play Reboot next year if given the chance.

Do you own a smart phone?

> Around 60 to 75% of team members have smart phones. One

participant commented that the game might discriminate against

people who are not able to afford this type of technology. But no

other person made this complaint.

How much did you learn throughout the game?

> The responses were all very high across the board for what

people have learned. Most people (11 of 17) have learned about

ways to live environmentally friendly while nobody has learned

nothing.

How easy was it to communicate with REBOOT staff?

> Everyone thought it was at least moderately easy to interact with

Reboot staff, and 13 of the 16 respondents rated the game at least 4

on a scale of 5.

What would you do to improve the game?

> When people were asked what they could do to improve the

game, a couple of responses were mentioned a couple times. The

thing mentioned most often was the leader board. People wanted it

to be updated more often, and they wanted to see what challenges

they have completed as well as other teams. Another popular

response was to have fewer games, and to have a few games that

are a little more complicated.

Research Findings: Focus Group

We organized a focus group at the end of the game with five players from

three different teams to determine successes and failures of REBOOT. This allowed

us to get a deeper look at players and their attitudes toward the game from start to

finish. We filmed the focus group and included it in our documentary. This

conversational tactic was extremely effective in regard to the thorough feedback the

game needed. For instance, the group of players unanimously agreed that Ava’s

weekly transmissions were an unnecessary component of the game. Players also

revealed which games were most enlightening and what problems they had with the

technology aspect of the game. Overall, the focus group enabled us to really connect

with the actual participants of REBOOT and record the evidence to invoke changes.

Social Media

Initially we were eager to implement social media tools for REBOOT;

however, as time went on, we realized players and the general public were not using

Facebook and Twitter the way we anticipated them to. This was a surprising part of

the process for us convergence students because, well, we are fluent in social media.

Mark Yount, a part of the REBOOT staff marketing team, utilized Facebook

before our involvement in the game. He handled Facebook advertisements, using

strategic tactics to target college students in particular. When we came on board, we

were given full permission to handle the Facebook account and began using it to

publish weekly content of events, ultimately to show the faces of REBOOT. It was

important for us to have a weekly visual presence to remind players that others

were participating in the game. This could foster competition and overall

communicate how others were engaging and having fun with the game. We also

posted signs of REBOOT in the news; KBIA, Paul Pepper and KOMU’s U_News all

covered REBOOT in their newscasts. In the end, the Facebook page was not as

interactive as we had hoped. Players did not use it to interact with the REBOOT staff,

nor did it generate interest from prospective players.

As is evident above, the overall interaction on Facebook interaction peaked in

February, slowly declined through the duration of the game and then was almost

nonexistent by April. In the end, we realized that the only people truly engaging

with Facebook were REBOOT staff. For instance, members of REBOOT staff would

‘like’ an upcoming event, which would skew data when trying to decipher player

involvement. For what it’s worth, REBOOT received a total of 99 ‘likes’ on its page.

When we were given the Twitter account, we promoted weekly challenges to

encourage involvement and competition. With a bit of a convergence bias, we

assumed the general public would have some inclination to use the REBOOTMizzou

hashtag we had so carefully advertised. We also live tweeted events like the

REBOOT Kick-Off to generate interest and tweeted weekly reminders of challenges

for players. However, Twitter was not a platform for interaction with players

(although we tried to engage them), nor did players acknowledge it in the end. The

only potential redeeming quality of Twitter for REBOOT was the amount of campus

organizations and sponsors that followed along to see what the game was all about.

The Twitter account’s account began its engagement by following these kinds of

organizations to generate a buzz for the word REBOOT. These kinds of institutions

made up most of the @REBOOTMizzou followers, coming to a total of 360 followers.

Other Data

Throughout the game, we collected some useful data that contributed to our

overall understanding of REBOOT’s role in the community. Peter Meng, an RJI fellow

who co-directed the game, provided us with a chart outlining REBOOT’s budget.

This allowed us to understand the broader context of the game and its priorities.

Project CostsTotalCosts

SCVNGR Software License (1 year user license) $2,000.00

Software Integration by CS Students (3 students for 4 months)(– 4 months @ $1500, per month$6,000.00

Software License (augmented reality) $900.00

Software License (4 months – Student Life Network (4 X $1650) $6,600.00

SUSTAIN! Game promotion and prize expenses. $3,000.00

Project Management Expense

(4 months @ $1500 per month)$6,000.00

Total $24,500.00

As far as the community website (www.rebootizzou.com) where we posted

stories weekly, we did not see a significant interest from players consuming our

content. Because of logistical barriers within the site’s internal database, we do not

know how frequently players viewed our content. However, because we uploaded

most of our media to YouTube, we can view the number of views. The hope was that

players would watch the content and reflect on their involvement as well as the

overarching concepts of the game. Ultimately, the content we created was more

useful for our documentary b-roll.

Challenges

There were a series of challenges throughout the REBOOT experience, both

between REBOOT staff members and within the convergence team. The biggest

problem for the staff was the amount of people on staff. While collaborating across

disciplines is an extremely beneficial process that mixes creative ideas and

specialties, it can also be counterproductive. As in any project setting,

miscommunication is a certainty, but it’s navigating around that miscommunication

that determines the strength of the end result. There were many occasions where

one team’s tasks overlapped with another team’s, or one staff member simply did

not know who should be held accountable for which task. In addition, deadlines

were difficult to communicate because there were always at least three different

organizations involved (MU Sustainability Office, Campus Facilities and the

Department of Information Technology). Thus, miscommunication was non

uncommon; however, in terms of communicating with the team players, REBOOT

staff did a comprehensive job. All interaction and commentary was hosted on a

social networking website (community.rebootmizzou.com e-mail:

kjgehringer@gmail.com; password: kjg91990). There, teams could ask questions,

post photos and videos, and see other teams’ progress.

Other communication issues ensued when a plethora of ideas were involved

in making one decision. REBOOT was often plagued with the ‘too many cooks in one

kitchen’ syndrome. All parties were well aware of this and adjusted over time, which

proved difficult because of the time sensitive element of the game itself. The debate

over Ava Sims, the fictional character staff created to give the game a story arc, is a

perfect example of trying to incorporate too many ideas at once. Ava’s personality

was supposed to be a fun and engaging way to intrigue players – a mysterious

researcher from the future trying to communicate that REBOOT players could

change the future’s past if they made small lifestyle changes. REBOOT introduced

Ava at the kickoff in The Shack and prospective players did not seem to really grasp

the story arc or its relevance to the game as a whole. The plan was to release a

YouTube video of Ava’s transmission from the future every week when the

challenges were announced. Staff did this successfully, however Ava’s story was

very vague and the staff members who initially conceptualized her were not the

ones writing the scripts for the weekly transmissions. There was also general

disagreement regarding the level of importance Ava had in the game. Overall,

working on an interdisciplinary project comes with challenges in communication

that need to be understood, compromised and solved in a productive manner.

The capstone group faced other challenges of our own. Every week we had

to decide which activities of the weekly events was the most visually stimulating.

We knew we needed to create compelling content to prove to the public that

REBOOT was a worthwhile pursuit. Conceptualizing, planning and executing

compelling weekly stories were our biggest challenges. We had to go back to our

convergence fundamentals, which called for visual storytelling. Depending on the

nature of the event, we had to decide the best method to convey how REBOOT teams

were actively participating in games exploring sustainability topics and actually

learning from them. We also wanted to give faces to the REBOOT experience. This

involved a blend of photography, audio recording and videotaping. We challenged

ourselves to explore a variety of media opportunities to create the best content. One

of our favorite pieces to come out of this is from the week full of Re-Hydrate

challenges. Three teams talked to a Columbia Stormwater expert and cleaned up the

litter in Flat Branch Creek. Because this was one of the more physically active

challenges, we decided to use video as a medium to capture the event. We added

music to the video for aesthetic reasons and were pretty happy with the result.

Ultimately, the idea was to encourage prospective players that they should join in,

or communicate to existing players that they should participate in the events that

their competitors are winning prizes for completing.

Opportunities for Future Convergence Projects

There is definitely ample opportunity to develop EBOOT into a capstone

project in future semesters. Because it was the first of its kind and there was a

significant amount of insight after its trial, REBOOT staff would like to explore the

prospects of the game again next year. With the help of both player and staff input

throughout the making of the REBOOT documentary, there is enough feedback to

make improvements and expand upon parts of the game. Both parties were very

candid in their constructive commentary about the game’s victories and downfalls.

Our team learned the importance of following up with those involved in the game to

make it better. Documenting reflections and ideas that may have seemed trivial or

off-handed throughout the 10 weeks became crucial to the quality of the

documentary. There were so many questions; What if we tried this? How would we

do that? Will people care? Do we have enough time? In the end, the documentary

not only answers some of those questions, but it provides an analytical look at all

angles of the game.

Multimedia Projects

Every week, we produced multimedia content and uploaded it to YouTube,

and ultimately the REBOOT community website for players to see. This helped

solidify the environmental themes and raised awareness of Columbia’s resources

and opportunities for residents to simply live better. It was important to us to

convey the players and events accurately, in a way that encompassed the themes.

The diversity of media platforms was also a priority, as we experimented with video,

audio slideshows and photo albums. We began by covering the REBOOT Kick-Off in

January and interviewed the prospective players that attended. We also took

pictures of the event to document interest. We also posted an audio piece to the

website highlighting different teams like Cat’s Tail, H. Badgers and People’s Republic

of Delicious Food. This helped convey the diverse amount of interest in the game.

Throughout the first week we covered the REBOOT beer Float event in the

dining halls that was supposed to generate interest among freshmen. During the

first game, we took video of the event as students learned how to sign up for the

game online. The second week’s theme was recycle. We began by deciding which

events had the most visual opportunities. One of the challenges for that week was

the Sustainability Office’s Recycle Audit on Lowry Mall, where players sorted

through aluminum, glass, plastic and trash, learning more about the recycling

process in Columbia. At events like this, we established a rapport with teams like the

Greenola Bars and the Good Fellows because we knew a long-term relationship was

in our future.

The following week’s theme was community awareness, for which we

attended the Sustainahouse potluck that engaged a variety of community members

and players. We decided the best format for this event was photo slideshow

accompanied by audio to communicate the fun aspect of REBOOT challenges. The

following week was RE-Route, which focused on transportation. We attended the

Bike Resource Center’s Bike Tuneup on Lowry Mall. Next, during Re-Hydrate week,

teams gathered at Flat Branch Creek to do a cleanup. We captured the cleanup on

video and added music to vary our approach to the content, making it less

journalistic.

We used the week of real food as an opportunity to get involved in the

planning side of the games, so that we could organize an event that was visually

stimulating to cover. We took the initiative to plan a cook-off using local food for the

players. Afterward, we created a video and photo slideshow to illustrate the night’s

activity. Overall, we were happy with the variety of coverage and number of

multimedia platforms we used to convey the REBOOT games.

Documentary

The documentary was part of our focus throughout the whole 10 weeks as

well. A couple weeks into the project, Peter Meng expressed that a comprehensive

how-to documentary that chronicles the REBOOT process would be needed. We

immediately began interviewing REBOOT staff and conceptualizing the topics that

needed to be discussed in order to communicate REBOOT’s mission to an

organization exploring the game on their own. Based on Meng’s instruction, we

began to document REBOOT staff evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the

project while throughout the duration of the game. Because the game is the first of

its kind, it was crucial to record the Project REBOOT comprehensively.

Conclusion

Throughout the course of the game, we became REBOOT experts. We

attribute this to attending all REBOOT events, meetings and interviewing subjects

consistently. It was important for us to build relationships with the REBOOT players

and staff throughout the game. Dynamics were always a part of an event and

figuring out who was held accountable for what was essential. It really was a

testament to how people from diverse disciplines can collaborate effectively on a

project. We drew from our fundamental storytelling skills weekly, which enhanced

the project as a whole. Knowledge our audience dictated content production and we

delivered to the best of our ability, pushing journalistic boundaries. The variety of

our research techniques also did the project a great service. Both our questionnaire

approach and focus group helped explain the effectiveness of REBOOT strategies.

Last, our documentary is a showcase of the journey REBOOT took and we were as

inclusive as possible. The quantity of interviews and perspectives included in the

documentary is a tribute to our loyalty to deconstructing REBOOT. Ultimately, our

experience with REBOOT this semester has helped us understand the importance of

group dynamics and how interdisciplinary teams can collaborate on a single project.

We are proud of the content we have produced and are excited that our

documentary will help communicate the strengths and weaknesses to groups who

may want to use the REBOOT prototype in the future.