Reality Check

Reality television shows, from Survivor to Temptation Island, are all the rage on network television. Gamers may be the fastest-growing demographic on the Internet.

Capitalizing on these two trends is the goal of the national cable channel WTBS, which will premiere a two-hour War Games special March 24. The Atlanta-based cable channel, known as TBS Superstation, will air the show featuring U.S. armed forces personnel engaged in realistic games modeled after actual combat training exercises.

On March 14, the station will launch its online game version of the show, allowing players at home to compete for prizes. It's believed to be the first such online game tie-in, according to Kelly Enstrom, public relations coordinator for WildTangent, the Redmond, Wash.-based company WTBS hired to create the game used with the show.

"TBS called and said they're doing a two-hour premier that could be turned into a series, and they wanted us to create a game to with it," Enstrom said. "It took five and a half months to create, and has rich media, high quality, which is what they wanted. But it's only the beginning. There are more deals coming down the pike."

Online players will be able to post scores and compete for prizes based on their ability to play the game.

Enstrom said that if the network decides to make War Games into an ongoing series, the online game would expand as well.

TBS is promoting the online game along with the television special as a way of boosting interest in the series, which is part of the station's male-oriented programming that includes such features as "Movies for Guys who like Movies."

"Product which provides users with an opportunity to interact offers tremendous benefits," said Richard Turner, director of online marketing for TBS. "An experiential site engages the viewer, increases his likelihood of viewing and gives him a sense of ownership so he is more likely to tell others to watch. Online games offer multiple levels of client exposure and benefit from repeat usage."

The possibilities for kiosk providers who can set up Internet-enabled machines giving players the opportunity to play games based on popular television programming could be one of the next great online applications, Enstrom said.

"The Internet is a living, breathing community with a wide range of applications that go far beyond simple news and information," she said. "Specifically looking at online gaming, more companies like TBS Superstation see the value in games and other applications to help them meet their advertising and promotional needs."

Enstrom says the marriage of online gaming and kiosk use is promising, because "Kiosks offer for consumer access to online games at multiple locations."

Craig Keefner, publisher of Kiosks.org, which follows the kiosk industry, said gaming offers a great opportunity for kiosks.

"Gaming/Entertainment has been identified by multiple research firms and industry players as a major market in the kiosk industry," Keefner said. "Whether this takes place in gaming arcades or in public establishments (sports bars), it is projected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars very quickly. All of the established Kiosk companies have remapped their strategy to include Gaming/Entertainment."

Thus far, online gaming kiosks haven't caught on, but it may be a matter of time and changing perceptions, according to Hamed Shahbazi, CEO of Info Touch Technologies Corp., a kiosk industry software provider.

"The challenge right now is that you have this dominant arcade platform, and you have this new platform that's probably got more capabilities," says Shahbazi. "It's just a matter of there being a convention or a forum or some kind of movement to take it to that level."

Advances in technology have certainly made the idea of an online gaming arcade more realistic, especially with the availability of high-speed connectivity and increased bandwidth essential for the "rich graphics" the games require.

With TBS diving into online gaming headfirst, producers of games based on television programming could have more work than they can imagine. Turner said that TBS already offers interactive programming for some programs, such as its "Dinner and a Movie" which allows viewers to chat online and play trivia games during movies.

Turner says online gaming is a hot market.

"War Games markets our first venture into online gaming," notes Turner, "and we are very excited about the opportunities it affords us in marketing our programming to an online audience."