Wild West Town Goes Digital (Deadwood)

[Marshal Halloway]

This is an old  press release:

DEADWOOD, S.D. (5/14/04) – Deep in the mountains that straddle the South Dakota-Wyoming border, where cattle and ponderosa pine are more prolific than PDAs and fiber optic cable, people typically aren't on the cutting edge of technology.

But inside what was once a 19th century doctor's office in the Wild West town of Deadwood , a small business is quietly creating a website that they say will change the way people use the Internet to research and book travel.

"There are all sorts of websites that let people read about a place, chat with others who have been there and perhaps view some panoramic photos," explains Tom Griffith, president of advertising, marketing and public relations firm TDG Communications, Inc. "But to our knowledge there's never been a website that's done what we've done. There's never been anyone who has digitally recreated an actual location on the Internet and given it interactivity, education and entertainment – and then made it all free."

Griffith is referring to Digital Deadwood, a website that his staff of seven has been busily creating over the past four months with the help of Vancouver-based Orangeview Productions. Located at www.digitaldeadwood.com, the site takes advantage of some of the latest Internet technology to present the Wild West town of Deadwood in a way reminiscent of many popular video games.

Visitors to Digital Deadwood are prompted to create a customized online persona, which they can use to navigate the recreated streets of the real Deadwood. With a simple click of the mouse, the virtual character walks among the brick-paved streets, Victorian-era storefronts and cast-iron period lampposts of the digital environment – all recreated to accurately mimic their real-world counterparts.

Throw in real-time chat with other users, simple games like blackjack, detailed "quest" games, dozens of pages of historical information and the ability to book travel and peruse the wares of real businesses, and you have a concept that Griffith says is unprecedented.

"There are games on the Internet that operate in a similar way, but most of them require you to buy some software, pay a monthly fee and have broadband Internet access," he says. "Not only is Digital Deadwood free for anyone who wants to logon and accessible to those on dial-up connections, but it's an accurate representation of a real place. It's not just a game; it's a digital environment that mirrors the real world."

Part of what makes Digital Deadwood so real are the representations of actual businesses and buildings. But the beautifully recreated structures – many built of stone and brick dating back to the late 1800s – are more than just eye candy. With one click, users can navigate their characters inside a building, where they can peruse the merchant's real-life offerings.

"In 1989, Deadwood became the third place in the country to legalize gambling for the express purpose of historic preservation," says Nyla Griffith, Tom's wife and partner in TDG Communications. "As a result, many of the businesses we've recreated are gaming establishments. When a user walks their avatar [the technical name for the virtual characters] into one of these casinos, they can play a game at a card table, sit down at a slot machine, check out the restaurant or even look at a hotel room as if they were really there."

She's quick to point out that the reality only goes so far, however.

"The gambling games are real, but the money is not," Griffith explains. "All the money in Digital Deadwood is virtual. Visitors to the site can use all the virtual money they have to gamble, but it's just pretend. This isn't a casino site – it's a travel site."

That's not to say that commerce in Digital Deadwood doesn't overlap with commerce in the real Deadwood. To the contrary, TDG staff say that the uniqueness of the site is its ability to brand real visitor destinations – and the businesses in those destinations – before visitors even arrive.

"We can create any business in town as it appears in real life. But we can do so much more," says Monte Amende, TDG's creative director and one of the originators of the Digital Deadwood concept. "We can create virtual players clubs at the casinos, so that Digital Deadwood users can gamble with their virtual money and build up points. When that user decides to visit the real casino in the real Deadwood, they can use those points for free drinks, room discounts and gaming tokens. We're creating brand loyalty even before people walk in the front door.

"But it isn't just private businesses," he continues. "We can create a virtual chamber of commerce where users can chat with a chamber representative in real-time and get information, via e-mail or snail mail. Then they can walk to the virtual reservations agency next door and book their airline tickets, rent a car, secure a hotel room and reserve a pair of snowmobiles or mountain bikes. The possibilities are amazing."

Although the staff at TDG says that Digital Deadwood is keeping them busy around the clock, they're in the process of patenting their idea and hiring more employees. The plan is to create other virtual locations in the near future.

"Digital Deadwood is part of a broader concept we call Digital Destinations," says Nyla. "This idea of interedutainment – combining interaction, education and entertainment on a variety of different levels – could be applied to any place in the world, from a big city with a solid shopping district to a tiny town with a national park in its backyard to amusement parks to stock markets... the list is practically endless."

TDG staffers envision a variety of people in different situations using a Digital Destinations website, including home-bound people eager to experience a place they wouldn't normally be able to visit and students embarking on historical research. Of course, Tom says, destinations will be most eager to entice people who are able to pay them a real-world visit.

"This concept and purpose may be applied to any destination in the world," he says. "One of the biggest ideas here is to engage prospective visitors, to transport people from their armchairs into airplanes. Who doesn't want that?"

[Badlands Walker]

This is definately cool.