The Netflix serie “Black Mirror“, was defined the supported serie of the interactivity. On the same line of Bandersnatch, Black Mirror launched another really unique product: the 16th of January Black Mirror made a game on the socials, which was inspired to the meaning of the same serie.
The Black Game
The interactive game took place on all the socials but especially on Instagram, through the profile Netflix Italy. The followers of the social Instagram had the possibility to interact and to drive the whole day of a real person.
The Black Game is a kind of promotional game, intended to emphasise this new edge of the interactive cinema created right by Black Mirror. On our magazine there is already an article that speaks about Bandersnatch, the exclusive masterpiece of Black Mirror released on Netflix the 28th of December.
For who never heard about it, through the view of Bandersnatch, the user has the possiblity to decide the destiny of the character. Bandersnatch is a big moment of innovation.
The masterpiece was often subject to strong critics: many viewers wanted the easy and carefree interactive adventure but then they found a claustrophobic and frustrating maze, absolutely in accordance with the topics of Black Mirror.
“The Black Game is the experiment on the controll, you will decide how much push yourself, the worst game is always the reality”, slogan of The Black Game.
The social experiment signed Black Mirror
The experiment Bandersnatch was replied, or better extended in social version. To the users interested to partecipate to the experiment was enough to follow the Instagram stories of the account Netflix Italy.
The protagonist of the game social is a young called Pierpaolo.
The stories of Netflix Italy presented many questions to which the users could answer through the survey option of Instagram. To every question we had 10 minutes of time to answer.
Through the stories appeared on the official account of the platform, the users could to establish what Pierpaolo must do during the day.
The answers made through the surveys were mostly some choices between many penalties. Pierpaolo, victim of a social control, had to do unpleasant things like shaving the hair in unfeasible way, to wear something weird, to eat disgusting things and so on.
In the surveys for the biggest part the choice stood out for a majority of the 60%. The Instagram surveys of the Black Game collected more than 2 millions of votes and revealed, more than the Pierpaolo’s nature, the real nature of the users that partecipated to the experiment.
Does The Black Game controls Pierpaolo or the users’ behaviour?
«Someone expected that The Black Game could ruin the life of a guy. Instead it told us something about the ones hidden behind the Black Mirrors of all Italy».
From the many answers of the surveys it was noted that the italian audience answered to the surveys by choosing always the “worst” thing, which was the one with the most spectacular consequencies.
The anger, the obsession for the control and the hate without reason led that The Black Game, revealed all the truth. The truth about us and not Pierpaolo, or everyone could embody the experiment’s character.
The Black Game wanted to put us in front of the unquenchable desire to destroy the others with the only purpose to have fun and to let the others know that we are the creators not only of our destiny but even of the other ones.
Black Mirror surprises like always: in its masterpieces, between the lines, we always read a destablishing psychological and intrinsic meaning. In every episode of the serie Black Mirror, like Bandersnatch and like, finally in The Black Game, everything seems something else.
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