HERO IMAGE: system object, green glow. App interface: registration, dispatch, leaderboard.
Mission Must Be Done (MMbD)
使命必达
IMAGE 2: round parcel and silver dispatch machine.
IMAGE 3: live photo (add class glow-scene). Couriers carrying parcels in the street.
IMAGE 4: underground dance hall ending.
2022 · Alternate Reality Game / Logistics / Collective Resistance
Cocreator and game codesigner, with game designer Xie Yi and _ao_ao_ing ensemble
A city wide game in which a fictional AI delivery company recruited the public as couriers, and the couriers ended by turning against it.
MMbD presented itself as a high tech logistics company driven by artificial intelligence, whose round parcels promised "absolute optimization, absolute smoothness" and whose data had quietly come to organize how people move through the city. On Singles' Day, China's largest online shopping festival, it opened a training center and began hiring couriers to relieve the holiday rush. Players registered in a custom web application, collected parcels and delivered them across more than ten art spaces in Hangzhou, following instructions, earning points and climbing a leaderboard. Staged under the pandemic restrictions and surveillance of 2022, the game ended with the couriers turning against the system that directed them and gathering in secret in an underground dance hall.
How the system works
Assignment: players register by QR code in the web app, collect a round parcel from a silver dispatch machine and choose a destination.
Rules of the body: never let the parcel leave your body, never let it touch the ground, never open it. Couriers are praised for keeping parcels at a constant 36°C, body temperature.
Tracking and reward: each delivery is confirmed in the app with a code from the venue. Points feed a public leaderboard, and the system releases surprise missions at random.
Revolt: the narrative moves players from compliance to refusal, ending in the underground dance hall.
Time and place
Launched November 11, 2022, at a courier training center in the former ScheinSpace, Wulin Road, Hangzhou. Played across more than ten art spaces in the city, including Oyster Bookstore, Tongchang T-project, Cang Art Museum and paral:. Part of City Run 2022, initiated by Tongchang T-project, School of Sculpture and Public Art, China Academy of Art.
Video
VIDEO: if any, mark the recommended 2 minutes.
Credits
Coordination: Chen Tianqi (Tongchang T-project). Concept: _ao_ao_ing ensemble, Xie Yi. Game development: _ao_ao_ing ensemble, Xie Yi, VV. Set: _ao_ao_ing ensemble. Visual design: Zhao Mengyu, Xuan Chen, Ma Ziyan, Yang Yedan, Wei Ding. UI design: Wang Lingxue, Gong Yiqin, Tian Yuhang, Mei Yihan.