True Blood Roleplay on Twitter

Nails by @DailyNail | http://daily-nail.blogspot.com/

For many fans, following a few characters and spoiler tweets is enough to satisfy their interests. For others, it's the first step leading to a roleplaying account and group affiliation.

True Blood roleplayers (RPers) embody canon characters—taking on their voices, expressions, personality, and interests. Roleplayers collaborate to create stories and improvise with other characters. Unlike most roleplaying games, the characters don't just interact with each other. They'll respond in character to anyone who talks to them, and followers can become part of the story. Also, because the roleplaying is taking place on Twitter, the storylines are real-time tweets from multiple characters. Most True Blood Twitter roleplayers are affiliated with a group of RPers that acts as the cast of characters.

Some RPers create an original character in the world of True Blood and interact with the canon RPers. The world of True Blood leaves a lot of room for fans to write themselves into the story. Some RPers present themselves as related (in the traditional sense, but also the maker-progeny relationship between vampires) to primary, background, or deceased characters. Others affiliate their character with a referenced location, person, or group.

To supplement the concise nature of tweeting, some RPers have an accompanying character blog that gives them an opportunity to develop their characters further than 140-character tweets allow. In addition, the creation of a fictional persona or the further development of a canon character can lead way to fanfiction and other fan expressions.

Roleplayers are “engaged in two fundamental social practices: first, they are constructing communities through play, with internal goals and identity values, and second, they have a social role in the production and reproduction of symbolic worlds” (Roig 100). Fans are creating interest-based virtual communities that span countries and time zones.

There is a “new relationship between subject and representation that goes far beyond the 'spectatorship'” (Roig 89).  Because True Blood is an alternate reality, there's a lot of backstory and content available for fans to explore. Fans are taking it upon themselves to fill in the holes and add to the story.

HBO openly endorses the True Blood RPing (even featuring some on the website), but there aren't any officially affiliated characters. However, because of their frequent tweets and uncanny ability of many RPers to adopt their characters voices, they are often assumed to be employees of HBO (@SookieBonTemps can certainly attest to this misconception).

Following RPers

• Each character is fun to follow (who doesn't want tweets from Sookie?), but if fans also follow the characters Sookie roleplays with, then they have a new story and set of conversations to follow.

• Following characters and storylines gives fans some daily True Blood entertainment while they wait for the next season or episode. In the Twitter timeline, the dialogues become integrated with tweets from non-RP Twitter accounts—creating a mixed reality that enables fans to immerse themselves in the alternate universe of True Blood.

• Followers of Rpers may also influence the storyline and directly engage with characters... though they should be sure to avoid tweetdropping, or interrupting a storyline taking place in private (e.g. Sookie's house... or bed). When Sookie tweets that she is at Merlotte's, it leaves the chance for anyone to 'walk' into the story.

RPing on Twitter

•  Unlike fanfiction and more traditional forms of RPing (forums, blogs etc.), Twitter is made for conversation, which allows for more interaction (with RPers in the storyline, other RPers, and followers). In addition, the immediacy of Twitter allows for the real-time plot progression and dialogue.

• @SookieSC: “It's a bigger world for the characters to live in.” Twitter becomes a public stage for RPers. The appeal of participation through twitter is, in part, the acknowledgement users get from others in the fan community (Ytreberg 476). Twitter users can acknowledge by following, retweeting, replying, or direct messaging.

• With an HBO presence and many of the True Blood actors on Twitter, there is also the opportunity for the participants to “be recognized by those who represent and embody the format” (Ytreberg 476). This opportunity is very appealing for fans who get to experience the recognition and for those who experience it vicariously though another by seeing it on their Twitter feed. For example, @TrueBloodHBO retweets fans on Wednesday Word of the Day competitions. Another more exciting example: Carrie Preston (@Carrie_Preston) is following @ArleneFowler, and Kristin Bauer (@BauervanStratan) is following @Pam_Ravenscroft.

Next post: interviews with @SookieSC, @BarmaidSookie, @LorenaTheMaker, and @smeykunz (@BillsBelles).

Roig, A. et al. “Videogame as Media Practice: An Exploration of the Intersections Between Play and Audiovisual Culture.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15.1 (2009): 89-103. Web.  

Ytreberg, Espen. “Extended liveness and eventfulness in multi-platform reality formats.” New Media and Society 11.4 (2009): 467-485. Web.  

#TrueBlood on Twitter

HBO recognizes the value of fan participation “a key means of securing audience loyalty,” and they encourage audiences to fully engage with the alternate reality (Ytreberg 469). Even though the television platform draws the largest audience, web platforms are growing quickly in relative importance since they facilitate fan participation. Twitter is one of the most important web platforms for True Blood.

@TrueBloodHBO uses Twitter in a few different ways:

• They promote and advertise True Blood products in a more traditional way by tweeting about new products and merchandise, sales, and related events.
  • TrueBloodHBO: Pre-order #TrueBlood Season 3 from the HBO Shop by 5/31 and get a FREE bonus disc shipped right away. SHOP: http://itch.bo/hFsWWY
  • TrueBloodHBO: Contaminated Tru Blood wreaks havoc in #TrueBlood Tainted Blood Comic Book Issue 1, a new series. ORDER: http://itsh.bo/gpwAlj

• During Season 2, HBO took part in the Twitter roleplay via the voice of @bontempsgossip: a gossipy character in BonTemps commenting on the story as the episodes air and offering some spoilers for followers
  • BonTempsGossip: Friend of a friend = receptionist at vet office. Said Laf. Called asking for an appt. Did he get Swine Flu wherever he went?
  • BonTempsGossip: Dirt from bday party still comin out: New waitress and Sam got down. Tara and Eggs disappeared early from party. Guess they're going strong.

• @TrueBloodHBO uses Twitter to engage fans by encouraging participation and interacting with the community.
  • Their use of True Blood hashtags encourages fans to tweet in a similar way e.g. #waitingsucks #tbwithdrawal #secretlyavampire #fangfriday (like #followfriday #fanfriday or #ff)
  • Memorable #TrueBloodQuotes are tweeted for entertainment. This also encourages fans to tweet other favourite quotes from the show.
  • By linking to spoilers, polls, videos, interviews, and their new blog (inside the production of Season 4), they are collaborating distributing news with the fans.
  • They facilitate Twitter contests and givaways, and as they retweet, they comment on fan tweets.
    • TrueBloodHBO: Because #waitingsucks. Your WEDNESDAY WORD OF THE DAY is: amnesia. Use it in a sentence, tag #trueblood. If we RT, you = swagged.
  • They tweet using trending tags but add a True Blood spin. For example, on Justin Beiber's birthday, #happy17thbdaybiebs was trending.
    •  TrueBloodHBO: You haven't aged a bit. Perhaps you're #secretlyavampire? #happy17thbdaybiebs

TrueBlood Fans on Twitter

Twitter is one point of entry into the virtual True Blood fan community. With new media forms like Twitter, True Blood becomes part of fans' daily lives and creates “a cross-over between the real world and an imaginary or fictional world” (Roig et al 93). For many fans, following a few characters and spoiler tweets is enough to satisfy their interests. For others, it's the first step leading to a RP account and group affiliation.

The True Blood fan communities on Twitter certainly fit Jenkins' description of a participatory culture (listed in my previous post). It's free to sign up for Twitter, and it's easy to learn. People are welcome to simply follow others and read their tweets, but there's incentive to become a more active member of the virtual community. Participation is socially rewarded in the fan community as users acknowledge each other's contributions by following, retweeting, replying, and direct messaging. This interaction and acknowledgement makes users feel their contributions matter. In addition, these interactions provide and opportunity for a form of informal mentorship for newbies (although this is more predominant in the smaller fan communities on forums etc.).

On Twitter, I've noticed a few main forms or fan participation:

• Twitter as a promotional vehicle for fan affiliations and expressions: links to websites, forums, blogs, fanfiction etc.  
• Twitter as a tool for collaborative spoiling: sharing links to new interviews, videos, and photos that hint at the upcoming season four.
• Twitter as a stage for roleplayers: fans acting out the role of a True Blood character by tweeting in character to other roleplayers and their followers.

Twitter has been praised as a effective new media marketing tool, a vehicle for citizen journalism, and a creative expression of fandom. The capabilities and limitations of a technology influence user behaviour, but everyone uses it in ways that suit them. @TrueBloodHBO and its fans are no exception.

 

 Follow my tweets @becomingtruebie

Roig, A. et al. “Videogame as Media Practice: An Exploration of the Intersections Between Play and Audiovisual Culture.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 15.1 (2009): 89-103. Web.  

Ytreberg, Espen. “Extended liveness and eventfulness in multi-platform reality formats.” New Media and Society 11.4 (2009): 467-485. Web.  

participatory culture & true blood fandom

Growing technologies are always providing new ways for people to communicate and circulate information and ideas. There are also new opportunities for fans to connect and collaborate. As such, fans are no longer passively consuming; instead, they are avid media consumers but also contributors and producers of new content.

True Blood fans enjoy consuming the Southern Vampire Mysteries, HBO’s tv series, and the many other forms True Blood’s story has moved into. Many of these fans are also actively involved in the participatory fan culture online.

In Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture, Henry Jenkins defines a participatory culture, as one with

• relatively low barriers to artistic expression and civic engagement
• strong support for creating and sharing one's creations with others
• some type of informal mentorship whereby what is known by the most experienced is passed along to novices
• members who believe that their contributions matter
• members who feel some degree of social connection with one another (at the least they care what other people think about what they have created).

Not everyone in a participatory culture must contribute, but “all must believe they are free to contribute when ready” (Jenkins). For example, in True Blood Roleplaying (RP) on Twitter, fans can follow RPers, and read the newly developed storylines. Later, fans can start a Twitter account themselves and RP with other characters (more on this next post).

In participatory cultures, “many will only dabble, some will dig deeper, and still others will master the skills that are most valued within the community. The community itself, however, provides strong incentives for creative expression and active participation” (Jenkins). In the True Blood Twitter RP community, RPers respond to and interact with their followers in character. When I joined Twitter and began following characters, I was thrilled to see the following messages in my inbox:

@EricNorthman I see you are following me. I will offer you but one warning -- I would not try anything rash if I were you. I'm still hungry.

@SookieBonTemps Thanks for followin' this waitress. Look forward to readin' your thoughts 140 characters at a time.

@PamVampTB You’re in my vault.

It’s hard to explain why these messages were exciting for me. I guess it’s because they’re in character, and it’s a new experience to be acknowledged by a character and have the opportunity for dialogue. It’s funny… because I know they’re RPers and fans like me… but messages like this welcome newbies to become participants in this part of the True Blood narrative.

There are many other participatory cultures beyond Twitter RP. Jenkins discusses four forms:

1. Affiliations: memberships in online communities centered around various forms of media.
2. Expressions: the production of new creative forms, such as fan fiction, fanart, and fanvids.
3. Collaborative Problem-solving: the collaborative completion of tasks and development of new knowledge (e.g. Wikipedia, alternative reality gaming, and spoiling).
4. Circulations: shaping the flow of media (e.g. podcasting, blogging).

Successful transmedia stories like True Blood have a fully developed fictional world, which invites fan participation in all of the above forms. With True Blood set in an alternate reality where vampires have come out of the coffin (and later weres and shifters), there are seemingly endless possibilities for new storylines, character development, and original characters. This world with supernatural beings has its own fictional history, traditions, beliefs, politics, geography, pop culture etc. There is so much to be written, creators (Charlaine Harris and Alan Ball) need fans to fill in the story.

Jenkins, Henry et al. (2005). Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century.

transmedia storytelling

Virtual fan communities are growing as the Internet and new technologies become increasingly dominant in our daily lives. Since the emergence of Web 2.0 applications, we’ve become a participatory culture. Rather than passively viewing and consuming, fans actively contribute to global fan bases through creation and participation. Media consumers are also producers.

With the rise of user-generated content, companies are finding success by creating new kinds of content as well. Most brands have extended their name to the web, but the narrative is traditionally found within one medium. Fans aren’t satisfied with one medium anymore. Our lives are multi-platform, and so our entertainment should be as well.


True Blood is a transmedia story. True Blood fans can engage with new content across different media platforms. The complete narrative is not confined to one medium (e.g. HBO tv series); instead, it continues across many platforms, and the fictional world becomes integrated with real life.

There are two main benefits to this new approach: transmedia content promotes the main platform (tv series), and it also provides fans with a more immersive experience in their fictional world of choice.

For transmedia n00bs, here’s an overview (mostly based off of an introductory handout called "Transmedia Storytelling 101" by Henry Jenkins):

• In transmedia storytelling,"integral elements of fiction are dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience”(Jenkins).

• Most brands are multi-platform, but not all use transmedia storytelling. The content shouldn’t be repurposed or adapted to a new platform; instead, it should expand the narrative and the fictional world with unique content. “Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story” (Jenkins). These narrative extensions can keep the interest of audiences (while they wait for season 4 of True Blood), provide insight into characters (Jessica Hamby’s blog), and elaborate on parts of the fictional world (Fellowship of the Sun website, American Vampire League website etc.).

• A successful transmedia narrative is planned to benefit from the strengths of each media platform. Content should be where fans “already are, with tools that they’re already using, and in ways they already understand” (Thompson) (e.g. Twitter can reach fans and share information quickly, but you have a 140 characters to work with). Transmedia storytelling expands fanbases “by creating different points of entry for different audience segments” (Jenkins). People who are familiar with one media platform are likely explore others to get more of the story. For example, the Dying for Daylight game is based on one of Charlaine Harris’ characters in the world of True Blood. Dahlia is on a quest to find a sun potion that allows vampires to walk with the living in daylight. Although True Blood fans may not normally be gamers, a True Blood-themed game will attract fans who enjoy True Blood in its other forms and want more of the story (…and to understand the new addition of sun potion to the True Blood mythology).

• Transmedia storytelling is closely linked to worldbuilding—the creation of “complex fictional worlds that can sustain multiple interrelated characters and their stories” (Jenkins). A fictional world provides opportunities for a complex transmedia story and encourages fan participation. Fans gather and organize information found in the different media forms for reference. The transmedia narrative provides a set of rules and mythology for the world, which fans use to guide their participation (e.g. fanfiction, role playing). For example, the Harry Potter Lexicon is an online encyclopaedia of the Harry Potter world (JK Rowling herself was known to use it for fact checking).
  

1. Jenkins, Henry. “Transmedia Storytelling 101,” Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins, March 22, 2007.
2. Thompson, Brooke. “4 Easy Steps for an Accessible Transmedia Experience,” Giant Mice, April 29, 2010.