Month: July 2007 (Page 1 of 4)

Jigsaw Made of Fool’s Gold?

July 31, 2007 / Jessica Price

As a denizen of LiveJournal, I could hardly fail to notice the massive popularity of internet quizzes, so allow me to try to create one of my own, which I feel will be particularly applicable to the wise and wonderful web wanderers who comprise our audience:

In your wanderings, you encounter an example of such breathtakingly futile resistance to the way the internet works (no, I’m not talking about the RIAA) that it is as if you have stumbled upon some rare exotic creature thrown upon an inhospitable foreign shore by an uncaring digital sea. Do you:

A. Pull out your notebook and microscope and study this fascinating specimen. Far be it from you to interfere with nature taking its course, but there may be an opportunity here to reach greater understanding of some sort through observation.

B. Attempt to instruct the alien in the ways of the internet, so it can go on its way more equipped to survive out there in the jungle. The main purpose of the internet is to share knowledge, and to facilitate that, people have to help one another learn how best to navigate it.

C. Compassionately try to either protect it or to return it to more hospitable climes, even if the attempt is futile. Clearly it is not equipped to navigate the wilds of the internet, and the kindest thing to do is to encourage it to go home.

D. Set up a tent around it and charge admission to point and laugh. Maybe make it into a lolcat while you’re at it.

E. Stick a pin through that sucker and add it to your collection. PWNED!

F. Try to drive it away from the young/stupid/potentially innocent, in case it’s dangerous. It probably only looks helplessly ignorant. After all, Google and Wikipedia are free.

The rare beetle that caught my attention this week was the behavior of the puppetmaster(s) of the Golden Jigsaw puzzle contest. An Unfiction player named IRC1968, as well as Unfiction moderator and ARGNet staffer Michelle Senderhauf, had received notices that their accounts had been deleted. IRC1968 was told he’d been kicked out for posting answers. Upon inquiry, Michelle was told her account was deleted because it “was found to have a positive link with a website or website(s) that are being used, encouraged or moderated to infringe upon player rules and, despite prior warnings, continue to actively release private information concerning The Golden Jigsaw via a public forum on the internet, with the intent to damage the interests of the owners, developers, partners & players of the game.”

Upon further inquiry, Michelle got a response from Don Campbell explaining that her account had been deleted because while she hadn’t posted any answers, as a moderator at Unfiction, she had failed to censor the information other players posted at UF. (Her account was later reinstated, “with conditions.”)

In Case You Missed It… Sammeeeees 2!

July 30, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

While we’re ~~a little~~ extremely late in reporting this story, I figured the word about a Sammeeeees sequel would spread through the ARG community like wildfire, given that the original game was looked upon with so much admiration. And hey, we did mention (on episode 26 of the ARG Netcast series) that there was an “apparent sequel” back in early June. Oh, and speaking of the netcasts, perhaps you tuned into episode 31, where we devoted much of the show to konamouse’s spirited discussion of the game? Huh? Did you do that? Did you?

Okay, all excuses aside, the game is still going on strong. The aforementioned (and totally awesome) konamouse has strung together one of the best Story So Far threads you’ll ever see at the Unfiction forums, and her website and email listing ain’t half bad either. The Sammeeeees puppetmasters were kind enough to fill in the backstory in one fell swoop with an early post at Happy Rogers’ Livejournal. It looks like there are still many, many opportunities to get involved in this intricate, interactive experience, so get your beer and burritos Under Nedd’s Bed and get involved!

Use our IRC Chat Applet to connect to other players in #sammeeeees, and be sure to keep us up to date on how The Wrath of Alan Johnson is going.

Having Conquered Cincinnati and California, John Turns Gaze To Internet

July 30, 2007 / Jessica Price

With an increasing number of television shows extending their worlds onto the web, it seems worthwhile to start asking for whom the extended experiences are intended. In the case of the online experience for John From Cincinnati, it appears that this is a bonus for people who are already fans of the show. While it seems unlikely to attract any new devotees, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that, at least from a player point of view: it’s nice to think that maybe the makers of a show are appreciative enough of their fans to want to play with them outside the confines of the TV set.

In brief, John From Cincinnati is “surf noir” series from the maker of Deadwood, about a brittle family of surfing superstars and a strange young man who appears and turns their lives upside down.

Via Game Tip, ARGNet received word that HBO was doing something interesting with a promo site, johnmonad.com. Clicking repeatedly on the “Help” button generates an increasing number of search terms and objects floating around your screen until you’re told, “That’s all the help you’re going to get. There’s more out there. Start Searching.” However, the interface seems pretty intelligent — entering your own search terms nets results that usually seem on-target. There’s definitely something to put together, here, but I’m not conversant enough in the show’s mythology to have any idea what it is.

The Ultimate Search for Jason Bourne (and Prizes!)

July 30, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

Google and Universal Studios have joined forces to bring us the latest and greatest movie-themed timewaster, The Ultimate Search for Bourne. The sweepstakes timewaster coincides with the release of the latest movie in the Bourne series, The Bourne Ultimatum. Players join the game as an agent hot on the trail of Jason Bourne and are promised great rewards if they find him. The prizes include a 2008 Volkswagen, $25,000 and a four destination vacation.

Even if you’ve never seen the previous Bourne movies or read the original novels, the puzzles and storyline are simple enough that anyone can play. It’s a fun little timewaster as long as you don’t mind overlooking a slightly over-the-top obvious advertisement or two. Clues have led players to a fictional dating website and Mastercard’s priceless.com website which doesn’t hide the fact that it is associated with the game.

Ludium II Follow-up: An Interview With Studio Cypher

July 29, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

Last month I reported live from the Synthetic Worlds Initiative‘s Ludium II conference at Indiana University in Bloomington. The Ludium was designed by one of Indiana’s finest ARG companies, Studio Cypher.

At this point you’re probably wondering what a Ludium is exactly. Thomas Malaby, the spokesperson elected at the conference, explains it best on the Terra Nova blog, “The Ludia are conferences structured as games, and this one was modeled on a political convention, the first Synthetic Worlds Congress.” The goal of this Synthetic Worlds Congress was to develop a set of guidelines pertaining to virtual words that would be sent to all of the major 2008 presidential candidates along with members of Congress.

In the beginning, I wasn’t sure if Alternate Reality Games were at all similar to virtual worlds like World of Warcraft or Second Life. I was reporting on the event purely because it was a Studio Cypher project and I was looking for ARGish elements in the Ludium’s game design. By the end of the conference, I had become a full and willing participant in the Ludium fighting for what I thought fair and just much like the other attendees. I realized that many of the issues facing virtual world designers are the same or at least quite similar to the issues facing alternate reality game designers–issues like developer liability and freedom of expression.

UPDATE: Clowning Around Pays Off at Comic-Con

July 27, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

When Stephen Sondheim wrote Send in the Clowns, chances are good that he didn’t expect anyone to take him at his word. However, for 140 lucky participants, Friday morning at Comic-Con included a chance to become one of the Joker’s gang. If you haven’t met the Joker, perhaps it’d be best if you brushed up on your vigilante hero folklore. As it turns out, the Caped Crusader wasn’t around to stop the mob from taking over the streets of San Diego, moving effortlessly from location to location, many being aided by associates with Internet access, in an audition to fill one of the coveted slots in the Joker’s army. As it turns out, however, the luckiest of the lucky became real unlucky, real quick. Okay, not really — but it makes for a good comic book ending.

Now that I’ve thoroughly confused those of you that haven’t been following along with the happenings at whysoserious.com, let’s backtrack a bit. First, there were a number of uncommon dollar bills making the rounds at the Con last night, leading to the discovery of a creepy looking web site and a countdown. Next came the end of the countdown earlier today (10 am PDT) and a clue for the throngs of people ready for something big to happen. Once the game was on, it was a race that required a coordinated effort between those on the ground and people on the ‘net (unless you carried a Wifi-enabled device with you along the way) that took players to eight different checkpoints over 100 minutes of game play.