Reality TV meets video games … on Facebook? A new social experiment

Part video game, part reality show and part animated series, a new project airing on Facebook wants to shift the thinking on interactive television. "Rival Peak," which will run daily for 12 weeks, allows for different levels of user engagement, unfolding as a scripted series that will shift based upon audience input.

At first glance, "Rival Peak," which started Wednesday, might remind you of "The Sims." Only here we're not controlling characters so much as prodding them along. It also deviates from the Choose Your Own Adventure-inspired feel of many live-action attempts to meld games and television, including a number of relatively