Month: June 2007 (Page 1 of 2)

Live from Ludium II

June 26, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

Editor’s Note: ARGNet’s Michelle Senderhauf is attending and reporting from the Ludium II conference, put on by Indiana University’s Synthetic Worlds Initiative.

This is Michelle Senderhauf reporting live from the Ludium II conference at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The conference is being run in game format which is interesting since the conference itself is about developing principles for sensible video game policy.

The Ludium game has two goals –

1. to develop a set of policies regarding synthetic worlds that will be sent to real world governments and
2. vote a single person as our de facto spokesperson for the ideas in the platform.

We’re in the second day of the Ludium conference and the group has reached a point where we 33 nominated policy statements and 3 nominees for the Speaker.

Of interest to ARG players, the conference has had its share of intrigue. Several “spies” are playing the game and are trying to derail the process. Also “reporters” are roaming the hall trying to get a scoop. Also, several of the conference attendees or players have thrown a wrench into the puppetmasters’ plans. Overnight, several players tried to merge members from their opposing groups into one large group. A response for this was not written in the game rules that were originally laid out so the puppetmasters were sent scrambling.

These events have brought up many interesting questions. If you’re using a serious game to solve a real world problem at some point or at what point do you abandon the game framework? Is there a point where the game becomes unimportant? Or even a hindrance? Many of the conference attendees agree that the game has definitely had a positive effect. It has successfully facilitated discussions in an organized fashion and allowed for a democratic decision-making process.

What will be the result? We won’t know until the end of the conference. Stay tuned!

Find Friends to Foil Fake Fforde: A “Thursday Next” ARG

June 24, 2007 / Michael Andersen

Amy Greenford is a mild-mannered bookstore employee working in the Classic books section of Foyles on Charing Cross road, and the books in her store have been behaving oddly. Books get mysteriously misfiled in the wrong section, pages of text simply vanish. Oh, and a bride and groom have materialized from a book and fled the store. Literature is in danger, and only we can save it, with the help of Spec-Ops 27 and the literary detectives.

Most specifically, Jasper Fforde’s upcoming Thursday Next novel First Among Sequels, scheduled to be released on Thursday July 5th, is in danger. Slight errors and suspicious emails to fans of Jasper Fforde who entered an online quiz competition led them to June Haversham’s blog, a publicity and marketing employee for UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton. It appears an impostor is trying to supplant the real Jasper and release a different version of the book. Both plots appear to be converging with Jasper Fforde’s scheduled book signings at Swindon Waterstones on July 7th and Foyles on July 9th.

This alternate reality game appears to offer a “novel” exploration of the line between the real world and the fictional including a woman dressed as a bride singing opera in the streets of London and numerous dead-drops inside misfiled books at Foyles. If you have a deep and abiding love of the classics, this may be the game for you. It might also be worth checking out Jasper Fforde’s books, as they include many elements that would be appealing to avid alternate reality gamers.

Click Here for the trailhead.
Click Here for the UnFiction discussion.
Click Here to learn more about Jasper Fforde and the “Thursday Next” series.

Itâ€™s A Birdâ€¦ Itâ€™s A Planeâ€¦ No! Itâ€™s Project Osprey!

June 19, 2007 / Celina Beach

A voicemail was received on ARGNetâ€™s voicemail (which has now also surfaced on YouTube) from a gentleman who seems to be very disturbed by the recent acts of his company â€“ a project called Osprey that is about to â€œstep way over the lineâ€. It appears to be a â€œsting operationâ€ of some kind and being use to test â€œnew techâ€. Luckily, he manages to direct us to a Tradecraft journal web site before the voicemail is cut short as someone appears to arrive during his callâ€¦

Thus begins OVERWATCH, a new interactive fiction project by Djinn Productions, who are also the team behind the on-going project â€œAutumn Countryâ€. According to David Valley (Djinn Productions’ contact for this project), OVERWATCH is still first and foremost a story. Although they will be adding more ARG-like elements than were in Autumn Country, it is not primarily a game â€“ but participants who donâ€™t enjoy or immerse themselves into the ARG element â€œwill only â€˜getâ€™ about 50% of the story.” By the time itâ€™s over, the PMs expect the story to be told over many types of media, and will be using puzzles and hidden paths to tell not only the story but to expand the characterâ€™s backgrounds and various subplots.

Currently, OVERWATCH is in the â€œPreludeâ€ stage, laying the groundwork form the first story arc. The interactive elements will start to emerge during this first story arc, and hopefully motivate the players into finding out â€œhowâ€ the story is being told. Players can expect episodic updates every five to seven days throughout the Prelude stage, and moving to 10-14 days once the first story arc begins. This first phase is expected to run through August 2007.

For more information, check out the Unfiction thread. To hear the voicemail for yourself, steer your browser to YouTube.
While not a â€œtraditionalâ€ ARG, new forms of games and storytelling are always exciting to watch and see what happens and how they unfold â€“ and since this one has just started, itâ€™s easy to get started and get involved!

ARGs Appear in Greece and Portugal

June 19, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Often, our coverage of European alternate reality games drifts somewhere between Manchester City and London, with the occasional dash of DÃ¼sseldorf thrown in for good measure. In the past few weeks (and days, in fact), we’ve been alerted to two new ARGs from two of the EU’s finest member states – Portugal and Greece.

While not much is known about how the trailhead video was found for the Greek ARG we’re dubbing Exeis (thanks, anonymous tipster!), we do know where it leads, and what’s connected. Watch the video, titled “Exeis blog?”, and see for yourself how a simple 30 second advertisement for the Gazpacho Music Festival 2007 can turn into a trailhead with a simple message (in Greek, at about the 17 second mark). That message leads to 4728489.com, and the start of the ARG. Greek speakers can start there, while the rest of us are stuck using online translators — and trying to make sense out of statements like ‘Truth Agnwoti Country’.

The offering from Portugal comes to us via a press release: From the creators of the successful interactive teen drama series Sofia’s Diary, Searching for Miguel is beActive‘s latest entertainment proposal – an alternate reality game that involves real characters in a plot of suspense and chase. The release goes on to mention interactivity through web sites, personal blogs, email, video, Hi5 (think Myspace) profiles, phone calls, faxes and SMS messages. The game will run for three months, and registration is free at the official web site.

Know of any ARGs being run in your country? Want to keep us abreast of the latest news of your favorite ARG? Send us a note through our contact form, and tell us about it!

History is Circling Back Upon Us, Like – Dun Dun DUN – A Halo!

June 16, 2007 / Jessica Price

The gears of the Universe spin further and further apart.
Ever greater grows the gulf between souls,
And distance gives false hope of safety
But for the grim tidings this messenger bears:

The enemy is almost upon us…

…slouching toward Bethlehem to be born, perhaps.

The lines above were taken from an email sent out as part of what appears to be an ARG (or at least a promotion that takes a few pages from the ARG playbook) designed to lead in to the launch of the third installment of the wildly popular Halo game series.

It all began on Monday, June 11th, when an entity calling itself Adjutant Reflex began posting cryptic messages on the Bungie forum. From there, the trail lead to an alien-awareness site called Society of the Ancients (SOTA), as well as one entitled “Transmission Log,” which contains a countdown slated to end this Thursday. SOTA members have since staged live protests in New York, Vancouver, San Francisco and London, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with a symbol that seems to figure significantly in the unfolding story. Elements in the game link directly to the Halo 3 site, so it appears that the campaign is not hewing as firmly to the “This Is Not A Game” aesthetic as its predecessor, 2004’s ilovebees, but there appears to be the beginning of a rich storyline that may illuminate some of the unanswered questions in the Halo mythology.

Halo fans have been speculating rampantly (pun intended, of course), and the launch of the game has also served as an informal reunion for a lot of beekeepers (participants in ilovebees). The identity of the company responsible for the game has been a hot topic of discussion, with 42 Entertainment — creators of ilovebees — among the most popular suspects.

However, in an exclusive statement to the panel on the ARG Netcast, 42 Entertainment’s Vice President of Experience Design, Elan Lee, announced that the campaign was not a 42 project, and Steve Peters of 42 also replied to an email sent yesterday with a similar statement. Bungie Studios, makers of the Halo series, has used ARG-like elements to promote their games before, beginning with 1999’s Cortana Letters, so it’s possible they are doing it in-house. Regardless of who the creators are, with live events, Forerunner poetry to interpret, mysterious locked servers on the Halo 3 site, and the mysterious Adjutant Reflex at large, it promises to be an exciting ride!

Join the discussion at the Unfiction forums, visit thebruce’s wiki to get caught up, or chat with other players in #halo on irc.chat-solutions.org.

Thanks to the denizens of #halo for their invaluable help in summarizing the action thus far.

Alice is Lost — We Hear Rumors She Fell Down Some Sort Of Hole, Made By A Rabbit Or Something

June 16, 2007 / Geoff May

As if the ARG world just can’t get enough of Alice in Wonderland lingo (rabbit holes, curtains, puppet masters), a teaser was made public on June 1st for an upcoming project from Eric Harshbarger of Perplex City fame, called Alice Is Lost. Eric first made it known at Perplexorum that he had opened the website www.aliceislost.com.

Eric released news of the project hot on the heels of the abrupt and unexpected end of Perplex City, knowing that the countless dedicated fans and followers of PXC would be pining for puzzles and mysteries to solve. Eric makes it clear, however, that this is not PXC II: “This is a side project of mine. While I am still at Mind Candy as a Puzzle Designer, this is not a Mind Candy affiliated project.” He expects to launch “the search,” which he’s been working on for nearly a year, to begin this fall.

Fans have already jumped in excitedly, and even created a Facebook group to rally people and keep everyone updated. The group attracted Eric, who decided to come out from behind the curtain and share a bit about his project in the group’s discussion. He described it as having “some ARG elements to it; there will be a story to some extent, but mainly it will be about PUZZLES. Lots of puzzles.” There will be puzzle cards, he says, but they will not be physical. Instead, they’ll be distributed via the website, and only ‘registered’ users will be able to submit solutions and gain points. That raises another significant point: the registration fee. He continues, “There will be a registration fee, yes; but it will be a one-time thing (not a subscription), and it will be pretty small (not more than the cost of a typical boardgame probably.” He estimates the fee will be around $25USD, but is open to suggestions. Registration will most likely also include additional privileges for the player.

“The best way I can think to describe this,” Eric states, “is a massive ‘Puzzle Party‘ like I’ve hosted in the past, but it will be available to everyone on the web.” He also expects the project to run for over a year, although he doubts it will extend as long as two years. That’s nearly a potential twenty-four months filled to the brim with puzzles galore, but the main mystery ultimately will still be How do I find Alice?

So mark Fall 2007 on your calendar. Also, keep an eye on the unfiction thread, or the perplexorum topic, or even the facebook group. But, most importantly, visit aliceislost.com and sign up to receive updates.