Scholarly record
FROM THE SILENT HOUSE MEME TO THE BLUE WHALE-GAME: THE STORYWORLDS TRANSFORMATION
Abstract
The Blue Whale contest is believed to be ? sinister teenage ARG based on a series of tasks given by the administrators of social network VKontakte (VK) groups over the course of 50 days. The overall goal is committing suicide, on the 50th day. It is assumed that by May of 2016 the game has been a reason of more than 130 juveniles' suicides in Russia. While the allegation on 130 deaths caused by game originally mentioned in the Novaya Gazeta was not confirmed officially, the prototypes of the game apparently existed on VK before. They included interactive quests, ARGs, the games with augmented reality based on the myth of Deep Web and its map created within the Russian net-stalking communities. The myth describes the abysmal cyber world filled with "creepy" contents also known as deathly files. By early 2017 the rumors about the Blue Whale suicide game moved beyond the national social networks and Russian-language imageboard websites and induced a commotion in the national press and reached the media of some neighboring states in the former USSR and even farther. During transition from the social media to the Russian mainstream media and further to the foreign media the story about the Deep Web and its storyworld were substantially transformed into the story of the Blue Whale contest. The aim of this paper is to identify the peculiarities of an elaboration of an ARG's storyworld during transition from social media to mainstream media. For this purpose, we focused on an analysis how the storyworld and narrative were affected through the transition from Deep Web myth to the Blue Whale contest narration and the mainstream media interferences from chronological perspective.
Publication Impact Profile
Publication details
References15
Aksenov I., Bebutov V., Mejerhol'd V. (1922) Amplua aktera [online resource]. Available at: http://teatr-lib.ru/Library/Emplois/Emplois/#_Toc217239996 (Date of access: 22 June 2017) [in Rus].
Algavi L.O., Al'-Hanaki D.A-N. (2013) Funkcii social''nyh media // Vestnik RUDN. Serija «Literaturovedenie. Zhurnalistika». № 3, pp. 56-62 [in Rus].
Algavi L.O., Al'-Hanaki D.A-N. (2015) Linejnyj i nelinejnyj narrativ v novostnoj zhurnalistike // Gorizonty mirovoj zhurnalistiki: istorija i sovremennost'. Moscow: PFUR, pp. 12-18. [in Rus].
Arhipova A., Jugaj E., Kirzjuk A., Malaja E., Radchenko D., Volkova M. (2017) «Gruppy smerti»: ot igry k moral'noj panike Moscow: MediaPress [online resource]. Available at: http://socioprognoz-ru.1gb.ru/files/File/2017/1493324735929662.pdf (Date of access: 19 June 2017) [in Rus].
Bartle R. (2003) Designing Virtual Worlds. Indianapolis, New Riders.
Beljakova S. (2012) Stalker: imja sud'by i sud'ba imeni // Ural'skij filologicheskij vestnik. № 3, pp. 153-157 [online resource]. Available at: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/v/stalker-imya-sudby-i-sudba-imeni (Date of access: 23 June 2017) [in Rus].
7. Csikszentmihalyi M. (1990) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Harper & Row.
Grachev M. (2016) Administrator «grupp smerti». Chistoserdechnoe priznanie (audio recording) // Saint-petersburg.ru. 15/11/16 [online resource]. Available at: http://saint-petersburg.ru/m/society/grachev/353694/?utm_source=&utm_medium=&utm_campaign=v-seti-poyavilos-intervyu-s-filippom-lis (Date of access: 23 June 2017) [in Rus].
Indick W. (2004) Psychology for Screenwriters: Building Psychological Conflict in Your Script. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions, Inc. Publishers.
Jenkins H. (2003) Transmedia storytelling: Moving characters from books to films to video-games can make them stronger and more compelling. Technology Review. [online resource]. Available at: http://www.technologyreview.com/biotech/13052 (Date of access: 23 June 2017).
Mursalieva G. (2016) Gruppy smerti // Novaja gazeta, 16.05 [online resource]. Available at: https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2016/05/16/68604-gruppy-smerti-18 (Date of access: 24 June 2017) [in Rus].
Propp V. (1928) Morfologija skazki. L.: Academia [online resource]. Available at: http://feb-web.ru/feb/skazki/critics/pms/pms-001-.htm (Date of access: 22 June 2017) [in Rus].
Stewart B. (2011) Personality And Play Styles: A Unified Model // Gamasutra: The Art & Business of Making Games. [online resource]. Available at: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/134842/ (Date of access: 25 June 2017).
Volkova I. (2013) Four Pillars Of Gamification // Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 13 (Socio-Economic Sciences and Humanities): 149-152.
Volkova I. (2014) Homo ludens jepohi jekrannyh kommunikacij. Moscow: PFUR [in Rus].
View or Download full articleAccess options
SWS access login
Login as SWS Scientific CommitteeLogin as SWS Scientific PartnerLogin as SWS AuthorAuthors and approved SWS contributors will read and export their own linked papers after identity matching by SWS profile, email and SGEM GlobalID.
For librarian assistance: [email protected]
Purchase Instant Access
- Article can be downloaded after successful payment.
- Article may be used according to SWS library access terms.
- Article cannot be redistributed.
