Gwyn Topham discovers the Web’s answer to Egoli
If Web-based digital entertainment to date has generally consisted of little more than dancing hamsters or slapping a Spice Girl, all is set to change with Freeserve’s move to bring custom-made Net drama to a browser near you.
Online Caroline, which appeared yesterday for the first time on Freeserve’s homepage, takes you into the world of a 27-year-old female travel writer. A simulated webcam creates the illusion of live footage from Caroline’s flat, where the action kicks off with the heroine bouncing in and out of shot pouring vodka down the neck of a prostrate acquaintance.
Meanwhile, you’re offered a few tidbits of information on boyfriends and belongings in classic personal homepage style, and invited to select her outfit for next time.
The next instalment is played out not here but in your inbox, where you suddenly find yourself as the confidant of Caroline, who, for all her Lara Croft promise on camera, is more Bridget Jones on paper. She wants your advice and your company for a virtual dinner. Next time you log back on, the story continues. Small touches – such as your choice of meal from the menu being served – give it all a personalised feel.
And while producer Tom Harvey is careful not to overstate what he terms “the myth of interactive narrative”, he promises that “you are taken through it in a way that’s tailored to you”.
It’s something of a new direction for an ISP to play host to exclusive entertainment, let alone invest in innovation, and yet Freeserve has bought a stake in production company XPT and owns rights to three forthcoming ventures.
John Pluthero, Freeserve CEO, is bullishly enthusiastic. “For the first time, something has taken a traditional notion of entertainment – drama – and reinvented it for the online infrastructure.”
It is also, he claims, a first-class drama in its own right.
Creator XPT has the credentials: comprising ex-BBC man Harvey and interactive Bafta-winning duo Rob Bevan and Tim Wright, it has a track record of producing quality material specifically with the Net in mind.
Harvey says: “So much of what has previously been branded as Web interactive entertainment has been no more than TV reversioning. This time, the form is so much part of the story.”
Ultimately the effect, he says, is “more like a book than a film – a lot of it happens in your head for you to piece together”.
Equally, XPT has proved that innovation on the Web doesn’t mean being tied to the latest in software. Indeed, the company has a deliberate policy of retaining the simplest applications – no plug-ins required – the simulated webcam being nothing more than a Java applet that should run at full speed on the most clunky of modems.
While it’s a commendable novelty, playing out over some 20-odd visits, Online Caroline must ultimately stand or fall on its entertainment value. So just how good is it?
I’ve yet to complete the experience, but it’s probably worth sticking around for the first couple of visits until the action unfolds, even if you’re averse to the inherently irritating environment of a personal homepage and chatty e-mails.
Without spoiling it by giving too much away, there are twists, darkly comic touches and, once you’re into Caroline’s virtual world, minor delights such as IT3C.com’s gift-giving service.
It’s no Egoli, but should compare favourably with the average e-mail jokes doing the rounds. There’s nothing else quite like it out there at the moment.
Freeserve is certainly hoping it’s stumbled upon a cult in the making. Pluthero, keenly aware of the importance of building up a portal’s community, hopes Caroline will provide a key talking point on the site’s chat rooms as users compare experiences. Further spin-offs are in the pipeline.
Before that though, Caroline will have to hope that not too many users curtail what she calls their “online relationship” too soon. In a clear case of art improving on life, you can lose this girlfriend by simply pressing a “Dump Me” button on the bottom of the screen.
Now, there’s an idea for an online service.