The Benchmark for Immersive Experience: Hotel 626

In recent articles I’ve focused on Alternate Reality Gaming, Enhanced Experience content, and attempted to answer the question on how these types of ancillary components to television and web series could be used to forward the ‘immersive experience’ for viewers.

6:00 PM to 6:00 AM anyone searching for the benchmark of immersive entertainment needs look no further than Hotel 626. Tim emailed me the link earlier today and I just had a chance to visit the site. Once you provide your contact information you are advised to turn off all the lights, put on your headphones, and turn on your web cam and mic.

Fade in from black – first person view: YOU in a hotel bed.

Let the bedlam begin.

Hotel 626 utilizes digital video combined with cg animation to provide what can best be described as a ‘choose your own adventure’ book if it were written by James Wan, Ernie Barbarash, and Leigh Whannell and then turned in to a film directed by the bastard love child of James Cameron and James Wan.

As viewers progress through the ten scenes they are presented choices and puzzles…all the while those hairs on the back of your neck standing a little more at attention as each second ticks by. What makes 626 the benchmark relates directly to the way that players are presented with an almost 360 degree first person gaming environment while they watch the story progress. The closest thing comparable is a first-person-shooter where players would be able to interact with the cut scenes.

If Hollywood were to use this type of methodology in a web series the experience would be a level beyond what we see today. Not only would viewers be able to watch videos…they’d also be able to actively participate in the episode.

Imagine if you will, watching your favorite show and being able to interact real time with it. An example would be ‘picking up’ and reading through the patient’s chart while Dr. House and his team discuss the differential or being able to step out of the room the detectives are in and explore other rooms of a crime scene for CSI, Law & Order SVU, or NCIS. While you’re exploring the episode would be paused. When the exploring is complete or the puzzle is solved the episode resumes. Structured correctly it could appear as though you were an active participant in the episode.

When I talk about real-time interaction for 626 I mean real-time. At a certain point you are asked to supply your phone number. If you do you receive a call where the speaker accompanies your journey real-time. It is both amazing and extremely creepy. The item that blew past my expectations was the supplementary phone call I received about 30 minutes after completing the website.

If only the Big Four could harness this type of experience and deliver it to the masses.

Go, now, you’ll love it.

www.hotel626.com