Definition

OrigoMe is a Modular Gaming Platform that allows users to contribute narratives, personas and other game elements to web based games. The system uses gaming methodologies (such as role-playing) to present its users with experiences and challenges. At its core, OrigoMe is a fun computer game, thus promoting involvement and learning. Exclusively, OrigoMe is attributed to an organic nature – by practicing OrigoMe’s capabilities, users not only engage in existing scenarios, they administer new ones, for themselves and for their peers.

In “pragmatics” (the correlation between sentence meaning and speaker’s meaning) “origo” relates to the speaker, so when he or she says “this is my story”, they are, accordingly, the origo, and any reference would be dependent on that fact.
Origami is the art of folding paper, as different folds of a blank piece of paper are combined in a diversity of ways to make intricate results.
OrigoMe offers you (very logically titled “Me”) with the materials to build your own design, and showcase it for anyone who would like to attend. But especially, it is in fact playable, and always changeable at will. And when it’s done (if it ever is), there’s always another fresh sheet of paper you can manipulate…

Why

There is an increasing desire from gamers to be included in the process of forming content, which is why there’s an imminent requirement for a system that enables them to do that.

The system’s content-modification application (dubbed Deixis) increases its limitless development paths. New and updated content is generated by the players, and assimilated into the game frequently.
While finding plenty to immerse himself in, when later returning, the player finds additional and exciting content that has been created by fellow users.
Furthermore, by shaping and personalizing certain aspects of the game, contributors nourish a strong link between the user and the system. By providing them tools to depict a unique perspective of the game, the feeling of belonging is embraced, and in turn – transferred to other individuals exposed to it. The system is therefore perpetually growing and sustains its relevance by granting its public the leverage and framework to advance it further.

Model

Not restricting accessibility to the game’s environment, the system invites the player to submit his subjective take on its foundations, permitting other players to experiment and interact with this yet undiscovered content.
Other than going through the initial storyline (which can be altered in respect to the publisher’s considerations), the participants are free to determine any expansion they so wishes, and post it. Aside from profile traits, it’s easy for the user to construct their own sidetrack, which branches out from the main narrative. It’s a self-made area that joins on the entire eclectic constellation, supplying it with countless attachments, and so it is enriched again and again.

Flow

The most basic and simple encounter with the system is playing the “front-end” – an adventure like computer game with a complex narrative and open-end storyline.

Paralleled to this is the other side of the system, the editor, named Deixis (or ixi for short). Controlling this instrument, users can author a “micro narrative” from an intuitive, user-friendly interface. OrigoMe then integrates this new component on the fly, delivering all other players the choice to explore these new constituents.

The platform is not bound to any specific game methodology and can progress to encompass any type of game-play mechanism. An addicting mind game can receive extra versions, and riddles. A 20-levels “platformer” can be supplied with an abundance of more, each individually crafter by fans of the game.

Social aspect

On-line games are hosting large amount of players every day, sometimes even vast communities of devoted members. Not only are gamers interacting with the pre-programmed scenarios, they are also socially engrossed. Human identity is socially constructed with the aid of various media and stories [1], Game titles vary in the freedom they bestow the user with. Some have a tight, strict interface, while others inherent a more flexible manner to populate their virtual world. Still, the character that inhabits the “game-space” seldom has the possibility to change the narrative itself, and is limited in options it possesses to influence the game’s structure.

By Saar Shai and Yaniv Steiner

[1] Jos De Mul – “The game of life”

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