I’ve never really cared for the term Puppetmaster for a person behind the scenes in an Alternate Reality Game, but I haven’t come across a term that I want to replace it. The term “puppetmaster” conjures up images of a mindless audience or characters in a story being controlled by one god-like entity. It can also imply an ownership of the characters in a narrative, and Remix Fiction believes that the story and the characters are guided by everyone who participates in the experience.
People in the Cross-media industry (there’s another disputed term) have come up with several variations which have merit, like Jeff Gomez from Starlight Runner Entertainment who mentions “Trans-media Producer” in his interview with Digital Media Wire. He suggests that there is yet another title that will evolve in the next five years for a person who will be a universe steward or world caretaker who manages the non-linear cooperative storytelling within each intellectual property.
So, what do I want to be called? I guess for the time being, if you must give me a label, you can call me a Trans-Media Producer. More than likely I’ll hear another term I like better in a week and write another post about why I don’t want to be called a Trans-Media Producer. Yeah, I’m already starting to dislike it.
What do you think of the term “Puppetmaster”? Do you think there is a better term? Share your opinions in the comments – we’d love to hear from you! Also, special thanks to Christy Dena for sending out the link to this video in her twitter stream.
I use the term puppetmaster and I like it. It’s fitting for someone who directly building the stage and has control over the narrative & characters during the live run of some sort of interactive experience thing – like ARGs. And, as much as I like joining titles together with dashes and slashes, it’s a bit much to constantly write out Designer/Producer/Editor/Copywriter/Storywriter/Online-Character-Actor/Puzzle-creator/Occasional-Web-Geek. And, really, is there anything else out there that conveys all of those elements as much as puppetmaster has come to?
It’s a colloquial term and it’s a gift from the community for the people that bring them such experiences. It’s meant as an honor and, so, who am I to spit on that? Just like some communities call us “Ninjas” – personally, I’ve always preferred Pirates to Ninjas and, of the two, which one is actually likely to say ARRRRRRRG? But if they want to call me Ninja – I’ll wear that title with pride.
Professionally, I use Experience Designer and most of my invoices go to “Experience Design”. I like it and it works well for me. It has a failing similar to that of “Transmedia Producer” in that it uses a term already specifically geared towards something else. And while I enjoy production more than design, I’m better suited for the design role, so Experience Designer works better for me than Transmedia Producer. Plus, I think Experience Design is more provocative and begs better questions that let me expound more on what I do.
evocative!
Not provocative.
I mean, sure, I can be rather provocative but that’s totally not what I was going for there.
me speek english gud