Last Days - the Out-Of-Game site

so if you're here, you probably want to know (a) why was lastdaysjournal.com built, (b) what the heck is it and/or (c) how do you use it.

well the answer to the first question is just one word: fun. we built this site for fun, and it is fun. it was fun to build and it’s fun to watch what people all around the world are doing with it every day – and that leads to the second question: what the heck is lastdaysjournal.com?

imagine that the world had been afflicted by a terrible pandemic that killed millions and millions of people in just a few short weeks. now also imagine that those millions of people that were killed by this disease had also gotten back up and started attacking and infecting others as deadly man-eating zombies. now finally imagine that somebody on a tiny, remote island had created a web site for the lucky few who might still have electricity and internet access, and that this site was the sole means for survivors of this terrible tragedy to communicate with and get advice from other human beings in similar situations all around the world.

that is the world of lastdaysjournal.com – a fictional world in which people create alter egos that have survived this apocalypse and struggle to stay alive. users build stories around their characters and may interact if they like with the alter egos of other people all around the world. that is all that lastdaysjournal.com is – part alternate reality game (or ARG), part blogging/social-networking site. and that leads us to the last question – how it is used.

it’s very simple. you register your survivor (totally free to do so btw) with any name you choose and in any part of the world with any set of circumstances you desire. currently there are survivors trapped in a zoo in Sydney, on a yacht on Lake Ontario, in the desert near the Mexico-San Diego border, in the subway tunnels of Manhattan and in dorms, apartments and office buildings all around the world. the only limits to who, where or in what particular predicament your character is in are those defined by your imagination.

and once you’ve registered a survivor, you can write, draw, paint, shoot, edit, record – anything you’d like – to fill in the story of your survivor and THAT brings us back to the very first question again. we built this site for fun, but what’s so fun about pretending you’re constantly on the verge of death, fighting off zombies and starvation – having to be constantly inventive simply to stay alive? what could possibly be so fun about that?

well, if you’re zombie movie freaks like we are, the answer is simple: what ISN’T fun about that?! but if you’re not nuts for all things undead, you’ll probably find some fun in inventing a character and then filling in the blanks of his or her circumstances. or you might enjoy creating the drawings, stories or profile images for your alter ego. then again, you might be more interested in getting together some friends to do a photo shoot, record a sound clip or even shoot and edit a short film to upload for the rest of the users to enjoy. and finally, the fact that your character may do any or all of the above and then add it as a comment to the profiles of others – and thereby contribute to a larger, multiple writer story-line – that might excite you, as it does us.

at the end of the day, lastdaysjournal.com is about creativity and the fun of imagination. it’s one big story with dozens of different writers and the potential for thousands – even tens and hundreds of thousands. it’s a different world – an alternate reality – that you can be a part of if you choose, or just enjoy as a voyeur of the endlessly fascinating imaginations of people all around the world.

so sign up, or just peruse and enjoy if you like. that’s what it’s for.

cheers,
chad kukahiko

UPDATE: to see where the next incarnation of lastdaysjournal.com - the beta version of which will launch sometime in Spring 2009 - see Project Materials. =ck