I went on a two-month Fandom Studies bender earlier this year that resulted in me reading a bunch of interesting and not so interesting research into fandom. A lot of the material was hyper focused on fan-made works that were sexual explorations of IP, such as Kirk and Spock having a secret love-affair in between episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. While the will-they-won’t-they conversation is one certainly to be had, I was more interested in the Fandom Studies works that explored the way an IP and its Fandom communicated through the texts they create.

IPs and fandoms are communicating on a regular basis. This communication, you might figure, is happening when a fan comments on a social media post and the unpaid IP intern replies. Yes! And it also is occurring in a variety of other less obvious and more fascinating ways. Outside of the conversations happening underneath the post, much communication is occurring with the creation of paratexts. The creation of paratexts facilitates a method in which both the IP and the fans can communicate in a way both can understand on a mass level.

To understand what a paratext is, it’s helpful to understand, as Jonathan Gray quipped, the Fandom Studies jargon. ‘Text’ is a frequently used term to reference anything that can be culturally interpreted. A text includes a feature film, a podcast, a book, a social media post, and all of the comments on that post. Texts can be created by both the IP and the fandom. A subcategory of text is paratexts, which are texts that exist in the peripheral of other texts. Examples of paratexts are movie trailers, fan theories, posters, and marketing material.

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Paratexts provide much of the context we use to understand a text. When we see a trailer for a movie, that trailer informs us on several things: what’s the genre of the movie, what the basic plot, who stars in the movie, etc. Reddit posts, online reviews, and comments help inform decisions of what show to watch and which to skip. Fan fiction exploring a side character’s adventure reframes our opinion of the novel and of that character. No matter how you consume them, paratexts are everywhere and influence how we consume and interact with text, especially in forming our opinions of them.

Paratexts give us a quick peek into the text without ever having to interact directly with it. An audience member can determine they would enjoy or despise a movie without ever seeing it. I can say for sure that I am not a “Swifty” without even being able to name a single song by Taylor Swift. This is made possible by paratexts. A movie trailer has Leonardo DiCaprio in it, so you are less inclined to see the film because you’re not a fan of his acting. Your co-worker won’t stop talking about Swift’s latest album and it sounds like nails scraping a chalkboard would be more to your liking.

Because paratexts can impress opinions on a text without ever consuming it, they hold great potential power to change opinions and pique interest. For the independent artist, this means that paratexts are crucial to building an audience. This means for your next film, don’t sleep on the trailers, posters, or guest appearances on Story World Explorers. They will help your audience determine if your film is worth their attention.

This is especially true of artists in less mainstream artforms. In our conversation with Jonathan, we spoke about opera, orchestral, and dance being prime examples of artforms that can use paratexts to change the opinions of the artform to attract new audiences that otherwise wouldn’t think of participating. The performing arts often have the ‘understanding the artform’ barrier of entry for new audience members. “I don’t understand (opera, dance, orchestral) so I wouldn’t like it’ is a common sentiment. When I was at See Chicago Dance, it was clear that the majority of dance audiences were made up of former dancers. When I think of my own opinion of dance prior to working a SCD, being a non-dancer myself, it echoed the sentiment that dance was beyond my understanding. This is true for many people with opera and orchestral, being reserved for the most sophisticated of audiences. As if being able to understand these artforms from a technical level is the only way to truly enjoy them.

Paratexts, the trailers, images, and conversations, are what can change opinions and invite new audience members into these artforms and to your next project. The same way Taylor Swift being featured during an NFL game can reinforce an opinion of her music on a viewer, the trailer for your next choreography can invite a non-dance audience member to pay attention a bit more. A review from a non-opera audience member who was moved by your performance is a power piece of paratext to influence the next audience member. Your movie poster having all the elements a skeptic needs to go to your website to learn more about the film.

Really, paratexts are conversations between you and your audience. Because they can be made by both you and your audience, there’s grounds to say that you both are communicating to each other through the paratexts you create. The comment an audience member leaves on your film trailer is them responding to a conversation you started. If they write a blog post about your film on their indie film blog, that’s them continuing the conversation, and it’s your job to respond.

When we talk about transmedia, paratexts are the tool we use to give context to the world we create. In turn, our audience contextualizes the texts we produce through their own paratexts. Here we see the power of the conversation, a regenerative conversation between you and your audience that has the power to build fans for life.

When Chris Masson messaged the Story World Explorers’s LinkedIn page with, “If you ever want someone to talk about the Unknown 9 story world on the show, give me a shout--I was the story architect for 5 years” I became uncontrollably excited. It’s not often that you get an opportunity to do a case study with a member of the case. In transmedia it’s even more rare, for there are such few organizations that are committed to creating robust multi-medium & platform story worlds!

Unknown 9 was a transmedia story world that ultimately was discontinued after the release of its video game, Awakening, failed to meet the publishers and fan expectations. What was a world filled with novels, a narrative podcast, comic book, and web series fluttered with the release of the defining work of the world. The world was created by Alexandre Amancio, who previously served as the creative director of Assassins Creed Unity and was critical in the AC transmedia efforts. Well versed in both AAA video games and transmedia, he set out to create Unknown 9 with the ultimate goal of creating the AAA video game.

What’s most fascinating about Unknown 9 is that it was designed and treated as a pure transmedia story world… and it failed. While the golden apple was an AAA video game, the early stages of the world was focused on developing an audience through smaller, easier to execute transmedia mediums. Chris glowed specifically while speaking about the scripted podcast “Out of Sight”, which he recommends for everyone. The purpose of this or any of the other pieces of transmedia content was to build an audience for the Unknown 9 story world, creating many standalone entry points for audience members to explore the world. For the bookworms, a novel series "Genesis Trilogy”; for the sequential art readers, a comic book “Torment”. If that sounds familiar that’s because it’s what Jack and I have been imploring all of our guests to do. In a Story World Explorer “How to” checklist, Unknown 9 was receiving a very high grade.

There will not be, at this current date, any further entries into the Unknown 9 story world. The reasons why are chock full with transmedia lessons. The most important of the lessons is that transmedia strategy rejects the boom-or-bust mentality of the industry. No content should be burdened with the weight of the story world. If a piece of transmedia content should fail, which will happen, it shouldn’t sink the whole ship with it.

The Unknown 9 studio, Reflector Entertainment, was acquired by Bandai Namco Entertainment in 2020. Per Chris, there was much excitement surrounding the acquisition, after all Bandai Namco Entertainment is a juggernaut in the videogame industry with resources that far eclipsed Reflector’s. The AAA video game was still the golden apple, and the folks at Bandai Namco were just as keen to see it created. As Unknown 9: Awakening went into full production, it became more apparent there was a disconnect between Reflector and Bandai when it came to how to use the transmedia content already created to influence the audience building and content of the game.

At its core, Unknown 9 is a world of the subtle mystery of supernatural things just beyond reality. This is reflected in the transmedia content of the novels, comic book, scripted podcast, and web series. With a creator and staff from the Assassins Creed world, the AAA video game was begging to be a cross between the stealth open world that AC made so iconic with the aspects established in the Unknown 9 story world. The audience had been primed to expect this by the previous transmedia content. What they got, unfortunately, was a brawler and a clunky one at that. Steam has the overall reviews being mixed with one reviewer, Kovac, summarizing the issues succinctly: “every single enemy falls dead the exact same way, the animations are stiff, combat is clunky, I’m trying to get into the game but its a struggle…the material this game is based on should make an incredible game but the bit that iv played so far is bland and uninteresting, its all been done before and better.”

To me, this disconnect was caused by a top-down miscommunication and underuse of the transmedia content already present. It was clear through our discussions with Chris that Bandi had one vision for the game and the story world, while the audience and the creators had another. While Chris and the Reflector team were focused on creating stories that fit the Unknown 9 world, the owners wanted something different. This ultimately resulted in a team producing a game in a genre they weren’t well versed in creating something that was out of scope for the world. This resulted in an underperforming game. When Awakening failed to meet expectations, the project was terminated.

What can we learn from this? For starters it inspired Chris to create a transmedia studio model based on video games looking to solve issues that he experienced (you can listen to his thoughts on the podcast). Most of us are not starting a mega transmedia studio tomorrow, however, we can still glean some insights from the termination of Unknown 9.

1. When developing content for your own story world, be intent on creating work that enhances the story world for your audience, not subverts it. While Unknown 9 ultimately had little say in the direction of Awakening because of the power dynamic, you have control over your story world’s content.

2. Don’t put all of your world’s eggs in one basket. Awakening cost a whole AAA video game to produce. When Bandi didn’t reach its financial expectations, the company decided to move on. While you don’t have financial expectations (initially) you do have audience / reception expectations. The more resources you put into a piece of content, however, the more debilitating critical reception becomes. Start small, and easy.

Unknown 9 had all the right ingredients to create a perpetual transmedia story world. It’s a pity that one piece of content ended the world before it could really shine. While this is an example of transmedia not succeeding, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. We must learn from these iterations and build better story worlds in the future.

On our latest episode we had a fellow transmedia mind and longtime friend / previous guest of the podcast, Nick Jones, talking about the story world of Farbodies with collaborators Richard Durham and Bo Paterson. Farbodies is a splatter-punk, dark-deco world where authoritarian propaganda floods the rain-soaked streets of Ghostward. The residents, numb to reality, shuffle on with their days while a secret war between ancient factions is being waged for the rights to explore, control, and study the supernatural pouring into Earth. The truly fascinating part is the inclusion of the Hardcore music scene and how that elevated the authenticity of the world.

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At the core of the Farbodies story world, at least at the early entry points like the Novelle and videogame, is the Hardcore music scene of the 90’s. Hardcore music is a subgenre splitting from Punk in the 70’s and came into its own in the 80’s with Hardcore music and bands taking a firmer political stance than its cousin. In the episode Nick clarified this stance, “The Hardcore scene traditionally has always rallied against fascism and against authoritarianism.” Naturally by the 90’s, Hardcore responded to the world becoming smaller with the internet and the expansion of corporate control by doubling down on their counter-culture message.

In Farbodies, the Hardcore Scene is where resistance is forming against the powers that be in Ghostward. The faction that was responsible for defending Earth against the supernatural and those who wish to control them has been wiped out. Like it or not, the responsibility to protect our planet has both hereditarily and naturally fallen to members of the Hardcore Scene.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hardcore is such a thematic building block of a story world about supernatural monsters, secret organizations, and an authoritarian future. The Scene is a perfect setting for building a resistance movement. The anti-fascism rhetoric in the music and held by those who identify with the scene is part of the reason, but more so because of what the Scene is at its core. The Hardcore Scene is one of community and support, where mosh-pit mishaps are always met with a helping hand and any given concert brings together the family. These qualities are the tonic to fight the coming wave of corruption from the reaches of the astral plane.

Now the Farbodies team is well versed in the Hardcore Scene, Nick and Bo having been members since they were able to participate in the early 2000’s. What wasn’t abundantly clear to Nick, however, was that Farbodies needed the supernatural x Hardcore mashup. While Hardcore was a part of their identity, it hadn’t yet made its appearance in the world when Jack and I first spoke to Nick a few years back. It wasn’t until Richard and Nick had a meeting with another fellow creator that they came to realize that the Hardcore Scene was exactly what Farbodies needed to make a truly authentic, lived-in story world.

The key insight was that the Hardcore Scene in the real world takes a stand against oppression, authoritarianism, and private control. Farbodies needed the same counter-culture movement that expressed all of the same maxims and formed the same communal push. While Farbodies isn’t a carbon copy of our current political climate, it uses the supernatural elements and controlling factions to comment on it. As Nick indicated on the pod, the Farbodies world has “…these themes, at play, they may be masked as supernatural elements, but that's sort of these are the things that we are getting at, with the monsters.” Why not just transpose the real Hardcore Scene into the Farbodies world?

It's a perfect marriage thematically but also practically. While including Hardcore into Farbodies wasn’t Nick’s first instinct, it was already a part of his identity. You can hear his passion for the Scene while he speaks of it, how he describes the purpose and the importance it has to himself and the community. When the epiphany struck, he had a plethora of elements ready to be included and molded. This authenticity screams through the Novelle and the art work and takes Farbodies from ‘just another sci-fi world’ to the Farbodies Story World - one where resistance is alive and well in the underbelly of Ghostward, where music pounds through the walls, and a community bands together to fight those who wish to control them.

Including the Hardcore Scene on the pages of the Farbodies Story World meant that Nick and team could include the real-world Hardcore Scene into the world as well. They have an already established audience segment, all they needed to do was include them. Prior to writing the Novelle, Nick conducted surveys with the Scene and invited them to participate in the world. Just recently Farbodies released the Novelle by putting on a Hardcore show. So brilliant I get goosebumps thinking about it.

There is a great lesson here with Farbodies. When adding elements to our transmedia story worlds, it’s important to reference and draw from pieces of ourselves. We are unique in our story worlds. Our vision and the pieces that we add from ourselves make the world different from others. When developing your world, include pieces of your identity into those of your characters, organizations, and world. The more of you and the communities that you are a part of make it into the world, the more real it will become to you and your audience.

This month we had Rizky Arridesta on the Story World Explorers podcast discussing his manga comic book, Candala (listen or watch). A beautifully brutal story about Ayu and her quest to destroy Buto, a man-eating demon that consumed her sister. She wields a chaotic spirit that assists in demolishing her foes, one Buto at a time.

The foundation of the story world is based on an Epic from the Indus River Valley called Ramayana and the subtle difference of the ending is only found in Rizky’s native Indonesia. Where in most of Asia the Demon King is slain, in the Indonesian islands he was only beheaded. The Demon King is immortal and while the hero immobilizes him and banishes the Buto (his followers) to a pocket dimension, they have found their way out of their realm and into ours.

This Epic sets the scene of Candala, taking place in the 13^th century Majapahit Empire that is plagued by Butos. In our conversation, Rizky highlighted the fact that the Empire spanned over 18,000 islands and over 400 languages. Because of the expanse and limited written history, the Majapahit Empire and their folklore has largely been forgotten. However, Jack and I were impressed by the amount of history Rizky had been able to amass, and during our conversation we got lost exploring it. The Majapahit Empire was rich in folkloric stories. There is certainly a base for which the fictional world of Candala can begin to create its own stories and folklore.

In our conversation with Nick Jones discussing his book “The Player and the Pentacle”, we explored a concept known as folkloresque. Folkloresque are the myths, legends, and fairy tales told within a fictional story world. They are what creates a ‘lived-in’ feel, present in some story worlds; where folkloresque are the stories characters within the narrative tell themselves about the world they inhabit. Because Rizky is using the very real Majapahit Empire as his backdrop and the interpretation of the Ramayana Epic as fact, there is a great opportunity for him to imbed folkloresque myths, legends, and fairytales that use real folklore.

As Candala’s story grows, it’s conceivable (perhaps inevitable) that Ayu will explore cultures that slightly differ from her own. These differences in myths, legends, and fairytales will change based on the environment, the local societal priorities, and the interaction between other areas.

From the standpoint of the Butos and their presence in the world, all of the areas in which they inhabit will have different folkloresque stories about what they are, what they do, and why they are here. This is an unbelievable opportunity for environmental storytelling, where Ayu and the audience can piece together the Butos’ intentions by using the local myths, legends, and fairytales. This forms a collective intelligence, where each culture can have a sliver of fact in their stories about the Buto that then paints the full picture of the Buto.

You can use folkloresque in building your Transmedia Storyworlds too! Legends, myths, and fairytales are how communities and cultures teach lessons, instill virtues, and keep history. What are some of the stories your characters all know and why are they important to the culture in which they are a part of?

Happy world building!

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