Virtual Rob
By Jeff Roberts
I first learned about Nibblebox when Doug Liman, director
of the films
Swingers and Go, came to MIT to get students here interested
in it.
Nibblebox was created based on the premise that a lot of good
entertainment
material comes out of college campuses, and much of it deserves support
and
viewership. Nibblebox takes college students who are developing
shows
(usually short-episodic series) and teams them up with professional
mentors,
including such halfway famous people as John Leguizamo and Steven
Soderbergh
as well as many lesser-known writers, producers and directors. These
series
are shown on the Nibblebox site, intended to be viewed by people
on other
college campuses. The site wasn't up yet at the time, but as a
demonstration, Liman showed us a bit of a show called Virtual Rob.
It was,
and still is, the best example I know of an interactive television
series.
This show, about "the world's first clickable human," was
created by USC
students Nick Howard, Rob Kerkovich and Kevin Roache. The concept
behind
the show is that in each episode, this guy, Virtual Rob (played
by "walking
cartoon" Rob Kerkovich) is put into some kind of situation. He'll
stay in
that situation until the viewer clicks at something on the screen
(including
parts of VRob's body). When something gets clicked, it initiates an
action
scene where something happens involving whatever was just clicked.
The
action scene always ends with VRob in the same position where he started.
So basically, what the show boils down to is a series of gags ("clicks")
which can be accessed by the viewer in a non-linear way. There are
six
episodes to date, and the premises vary. There's VRob alone in the
living
room and the bathroom, him in a lecture hall with some other people,
him on
his dream date, him with his evil clone, Virtual Ron, and the final
eposide
"Vendetta", is simply him standing against a wall and you
with a variety of
options by which to kill or harm him.
The clicks are ridiculous yet clever. Harassing a man at the back
of a
classroom results in an impromptu game of live-action Pac-Man. Hitting
a
man in the back of the head with a spitball causes him to lurch forward
into
the bosom of the girl sitting next to him, who, after some hesitation,
initiates a hard make-out session with the man. The clicks play with
our
expectations. When you click on your dream date's chest, VRob simply
yet
awkwardly reaches over and grabs a breast with his hand, the two of
them
wait impatiently several seconds, and then resume their normal arrangement.
Sometimes they're just a little weird. Clicking on a candle causes
VRob to
light it-with his mind. Sometimes things take a more interesting turn.
Clicking on VRob's stomach in "Vendetta" takes you to an
explanation from
Nick Howard of why he didn't have time to program something funny
for that
particular click.
What makes the show unique is that it's interactive, and I think
what really
makes this show successful at being interactive has less to do with
just the
technology than with the subtleties of the relationship between the
user and
the actors. You aren't VRob himself, but you experience what he does
vicariously. You're playing with an action figure who plays back.
In this
respect, much of the quality has to do with Kerkovich's performance.
In
every episode, VRob never loses his laid back attitude; he'll always
wait
patiently for you to tell him what to do, and he'll (almost) always
follow
your clicks confidently. In the "Dream Date" episode, you
and VRob are a
team; while the dream girl gazes longingly at VRob, VRob always looks
at you
to see what he should do next. In a way, you feel like you're helping
VRob
get to first base. In the classroom episode, you know that VRob will
harass
anyone you click on. Who hasn't felt like shark-attacking someone
in a
lecture hall? With the VRob-Killer in "Vendetta", you get
to torture him,
knowing that he'll always come back for more. The shows creators themselves
sum up the show's appeal as such: "It is a true reflection of
the human
psyche and our desires to control the actions of others. People for
years to
come would be entertained by clicking on Virtual Rob's virtual crotch."
He's a doll for the internet age.
The show is worthwhile both because the gags are funny and because
the
premises make for good interactive play. I'd say that the only problem
is
that there's no end to any particular show. You never know when you've
exhausted all the possible clicks, and the episodes, though some have
cut-scene intros, don't have endings. This makes it tough to decide
when to
stop watching one episode and move to the next.
I wish there were more shows like this on the internet. I think that
this
interactive style of not-quite-video-game-not-quite-TV-show entertainment
has a lot to offer, but it still has a long way to go. It's too bad
that no
one (nobody I know of, at least) has taken the bold step into this
arena.
Or maybe I just haven't been looking hard enough.