May 6, 2008
NewsVelvet Assassin Sent Us Alternate Reality Gaming Gold
If the number of alternate reality games centering around video games are any indication, video game publishers "get" ARGs. Activision promoted the release of GUN with "Last Call Poker". Sony promoted Uncharted with "Sullivan Stories". And perhaps most famously, Bungie Entertainment promoted the release of Halo 2 with "I Love Bees", and followed that up with "Iris" for Halo 3.
While you're waiting for the rumored ARG for Resistance: Fall of Man, check out Gamecock Media Group's new alternate reality game promoting Velvet Assassin, a stealth action game coming soon to XBox360s and PCs. And I'm not just saying that because they sent us a bar of fake Nazi gold.
That's right, ARGNet received a bar of gold from the Deutsche Reichsbank over the weekend, along with two stickers leading to Follow-the-Dream.com, which redirects to ViolettesDream.com. In addition, there was a note written in German with a Post-It note telling players to "Help me stop them -- Follow-the-Dream". Since it sometimes takes a few extra days for mail to reach Canada, the folks at Destructoid and Unfiction have already translated the letter. One of the commenters on Destructoid notes that "If RedRabbit's translation is right, you just got a Nigerian scam email in videogame PR form."
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May 3, 2008
Announcements EventsIs This a Game? IGDA Talk on ARGs in NYC
On May 14th from 6:30-9:00 pm, the New York City Chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) will host a meeting entitled "Alternate Reality Games: Is This a Game?" The announcement describes the meeting as follows:
Alternate Reality Games blend the real world with the online world and fuse the players' creativity with that of the designers as the story unfolds. A genre that began just a few years ago, ARGs have been used for marketing, for independent and self-funded storytelling, for serious games, and for no other purpose than to have fun.This panel will address the genre's roots in games and with gamers, explore what ARGs and traditional video games have to learn from one another, and even speculate on how the ARG is changing the face of 21st Century entertainment.
The panel will be moderated by Andrea Phillips, best known for her work on Perplex City, and a leadership council member of the IGDA ARG SIG, and will include panelists Frank Lantz, a founder and director of area/code, the creators of the Chain Factor (Numb3rs) game; Catherine Herdlick, creator of the grassroots game, Lawn Games for Life, co-organizer of the Come Out and Play Festival and a designer for The Case of the Coveted Bottle; and Mike Monello, co- founder of Campfire Media, who has been involved in transmedia storytelling since the Blair Witch Project.
You do not need to be a member of IGDA to attend, but you do need to RSVP.
Thanks to Rose from unFiction, the meeting's organizer, for letting us know about this event.
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April 23, 2008
NewsBeyond the Rave: Humans vs Vampires
Filmmaker Lance Weiler, who recently promoted the VOD release of his film Head Trauma alongside an alternate reality game called Hope is Missing, was kind enough to talk with me about his current project, Beyond the Rave. For the first time in almost 30 years, Hammer Films is releasing a feature-length horror movie, and Lance and his company, Seize the Media, are producing a companion alternate reality game in conjunction with Hammer and MySpace.
The feature will be released in twenty installments on MySpace, with new episodes every Monday and Wednesday. The plot revolves around a British soldier trying to find his girlfriend who was taken by a group of vampiric, night-time ravers. According to Weiler, the game aspect is broken down into two paths, with hints and clues strewn across the videos and MySpace: "Find the Wraith," based around the movie's vampire-centric plot, and "Humans vs Vampires," a combat-based system that allows players to hunt down weapons and trophies, and battle to increase their collection.
In stark contrast to "Hope is Missing," where the gameplay led players through a variety of websites such as MySpace, XBox Live, Twitter, Stage 6, and Opera, "Beyond the Rave" is much more centralized. Lance claims this allows the developers to take advantage of the MySpace Developer's Platform in order to receive finite information on gameplay that helps the team optimize the experience, and suggests we'll be seeing a lot of innovative uses of the underlying API.
Bringing alternate reality games to social networking sites has exposed the genre to new audiences, with over three hundred players discussing the game so far on the MySpace forums and over 14,000 users listing the main page for the experience as a friend. Due to mature content, access to the videos and the game is restricted to anyone 18 or older.
Lance notes that bringing alternate reality games to social networks can also help bring people together. On their own, social networking sites let you set up a page, deal with your friends, and occasionally meet a new person randomly. "What's cool about an ARG is the ability to work through things together, and to become friends." Since Beyond the Rave has multiple levels of interactivity, players can choose the level of involvement that suits their interests, whether that involves leaning back and enjoying the first new movie from Hammer Films in decades, or progressing through the videos frame-by-frame to isolate subliminal clues leading to websites that can provide weapons helpful in battling for supremacy.
For those of you looking for prizes, you can answer twenty questions about the episodes on Faustino's profile for a chance to win "a truly vampiric top prize" or one of forty goody bags.
Click Here to visit the Beyond the Rave page on MySpace.
Click Here to check out the MySpace forums for the game.
Click Here to join the chat channel for Beyond the Rave.
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April 22, 2008
Events FeaturesA-Mazing Event in San Francisco
When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --R.A.H.
Over fifty people gathered at Sutro Heights Park in San Francisco this past Sunday to practice the ancient sport of "Labyrinth Running" which, according to the recently-launched Alternate Reality Game, "Find the Lost Ring," was lost in 393 A.D. when Theodoseus banned the Olympic Games. Find the Lost Ring is an ARG designed to promote the upcoming Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China in August, and is sponsored by the McDonald's Corporation. It officially launched on March 3, 2008, shortly after trailhead clue packages were received by various ARGonauts and media sites.
The ARG is conducted in several languages and has gained popularity all over the planet. It was reported that at least two other training events were taking place that day in other parts of the world, including in Brazil, which country holds one of the largest interested groups of players of this game that isn't a game. It is scheduled to run through to the closing ceremonies of the Olympics on August 24, 2008.
Although the event was organized by two players, Tom Bullock (aka Ariock) and Lenore Henry (aka hmrpita), it was also acknowledged by the game, and an in-game character named Kai announced early that he would attend the practice run. Lead designer and avant-gamer Jane McGonigal also appeared at the event and offered to help organize and referee the training.
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