Month: August 2007 (Page 1 of 2)

40,000:1–Find Kiyash at Burning Man

August 26, 2007 / Michael Andersen

Jane McGonigal is a busy woman. She has worked on award-winning alternate reality games including I Love Bees, Last Call Poker, and World Without Oil. Along with Ian Bogost, she introduced benevolent assassination through Cruel 2 B Kind to unsuspecting cities around the world. Independently and as a member of The Institute for the Future, Jane has published countless articles exploring alternate reality games and collaborative play.

And now, according to her blog, all she wants is our help finding her husband, Kiyash.

Jane’s husband will be attending Burning Man, an “annual experiment in temporary community dedicated to radical self-expression and radical self-reliance.” The event will be held in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada from August 27th to September 3rd. Over 40,000 attendees are expected at the festival this year, so finding Kiyash will be a challenge. But then, the ARG community has faced tougher odds before.

Jane’s instructions tell potential participants of the Secret Burning Man Game to look for a six-foot-three man who will likely be wearing an orange jumpsuit, goggles, and/or a white muslin head wrap. Tell him that “Jane says hi” or something equally nice. Perhaps “Jane says you look dashing in your orange jumpsuit.”

And if you manage to beat the odds and find Kiyash, please leave us a comment with the details.

‘Cause Sooner Or Later, It’s Over…

August 20, 2007 / Geoff May

A recently leaked article, supposedly posted to Microsoft’s internal news site, appears to verify the dreaded truth — Halo 3’s Iris “spiral marketing campaign” has come to its official end. The article, which was posted to the Unfiction forums with permission from the author, reveals the end date of August 16th, which coincides with the opening of Iris’ fifth and final server, or “episode”. It also details the campaign’s goals, achievements, challenges and failures. Undoubtedly, the primary point of dissension this article raises is the challenge undertaken to provide a “low-key, low budget campaign [which] does more with less, whetting the appetite of the blockbuster video game’s fanatical followers.”

The article reveals that Iris was developed by “more than 50 people from 20 Microsoft teams [who] contributed time, coding expertise, and industry contacts.” The attempt was ultimately to provide a grand marketing scheme incurring little cost while attaining “critical mass” — defined in the article as getting “interview requests from The Wall Street Journal”. “It’s about breaking out of the hardcore and getting into the mainstream,” said Aaron Elliott, online marketing manager for Xbox Global Marketing (also listed as one of the ‘founders’ of the Society of the Ancients, an in-game organization that appeared at the beginning, but was never heard from again).

Strictly speaking, given the resources used to produce the campaign and the costs (or lack thereof) incurred, Iris may be considered an impressive success. However, if one includes the overall sentiment of the demographic that was actually actively playing or following Iris, one might say that their reach had exceeded their grasp. They seem to have ignored (or miscalculated) an inherent factor in the kind of campaign they were hoping to produce – most players had expectations, whether misplaced or not, of another I Love Bees. That potential was lost, and while the production may have been impressive to some, it failed dramatically in achieving what could have been achieved quite easily.

The Sweet Scent of Mystery

August 16, 2007 / Geoff May

Sarah Jessica Parker is probably one of the last people we’d expect to see in a web-based mystery, or “interactive fictional story”, let alone actually seeing a web-based game promoting a new perfume. However, Sarah’s new fragrance “Covet” is at the center of a game which begins at CaseOfTheCovetedBottle.com (also the perfume’s official website). The premise is this: “You must try to locate the missing bottle of Covet perfume and help prove that Sarah Jessica Parker has been framed for its disappearance. To do this, your goal is to identify the true mastermind behind the theft.”

The game works much like other recently run promotional campaigns where challenges or riddles are released based on a schedule, leading towards an end goal usually consisting of a challenge or draw for a grand prize. In this case, if you’re able to solve each of ten “lead challenges” released over a ten week period (the end date of the game is October 15), you’ll be entered into the grand prize drawing for $10,000, a trip for two to New York to attend Lucky Magazine’s Lucky Shops 2007, and of course a few Covet products. Numerous other secondary rewards are up for grabs, including weekly prize drawings, and prizes for two bonus challenges.

While The Case of the Coveted Bottle seems to follow in the footsteps of similar online ‘treasure hunt’ promotions, a few points stand out about this one. First, the How To Play guide is clear in encouraging community cooperation, even to the point of linking directly to the Unfiction forums as an example of a community to join. Secondly, in solving the weekly leads, not only are you entered into drawings, but the overall story and mystery is also advanced. The game is filled with opportunities to employ numerous research strategies, from googling for information and answers to interacting with characters in their blogs. The two bonus challenges encourage creativity by requiring players to make videos based on particular guidelines, and post them to MySpace or Youtube, where the winners will be chosen by popularity (votes and judging).

Network Outages

August 15, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Through the course of today, ARGNet may or may not have been unavailable, or may have been slow or sluggish. Our host has had sporadic, random problems with their servers today, especially (we found, anyway) with their SQL servers. We apologize if the site was misbehaving for anyone earlier, but things seem to be fine now, so hopefully they have their problems fixed.

Calling All Aspiring Game Designers!

August 9, 2007 / Jessica Price

Have you ever had a really cool idea for a game, but despaired of finding enough funding to realize your dream?

If so, Canada’s BIG Games Design Competition may provide you with the opportunity you need to break into design. The Aitken Leadership Group are sponsoring a contest calling for the creation of games that include real-world interaction and take place in real time. Pitch your design to a panel of judges on ~~October 13~~ October 5, 2007 [Ed. note: the judging date has changed], and if they pick your game, you’ll receive $5, 000.00 to create it, as well as “truly enviable notoriety.”

The rules from the site are as follows:

1) the game must be fun
2) the game must be playable by pretty much anyone: young, old, straight, gay, transgendered, street-engaged, married, people living with disabilities, people living in yaletown, people who play World of Warcraft, etc.
3) the gameplay requires real-world interaction between people (such as online interaction, personal ads, phone-tag, postcards, flashmobs, etc.)
4) Players’ social networks are expanded to include people who are “different” from themselves

Email Brian Smith ([email protected]) for more information. We couldn’t find anything on the site saying you had to be a Canadian resident to compete, but you will have to present your pitch in Vancouver.

(Bear in mind that if you win this contest after learning about it here, ARGNet will expect repayment for the tip in the form of an exclusive interview. You were warned.)

Emmy Gets Interactive

August 9, 2007 / Jessica Price

This year’s Emmy Awards have a category for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television, and regular observers of and participants in the world of alternate reality gaming may see quite a few familiar names in the candidate lineup. Check out the ITVT Blog’s exclusive on the awards for lots of interesting information.

Nominees include:

Heroes Interactive (NBC Universal)
DirecTV Interactive Sports
The Jericho Experience (CBS)
The Fallen Alternative Reality Game (Xenophile Media & Double Twenty Productions)
Big Brother Goes Mobile (CBS)

ARGNet Editor Jonathan Waite was behind the curtain on Fallen‘s Ocular Effect game, which has already picked up a few other awards, including a SXSW Interactive Award and a Banff World TV Festival Awards. Unfiction players also participated in the Jericho Experience and Heroes Interactive. ARGs are represented on the judging panel as well, which includes 42 Entertainment President & CEO Joe DiNunzio.

Regardless of which nominee wins, we’re happy to see chaotic fiction/alternate reality games/television extended experiences — or however you’d like to classify these works — getting mainstream recognition for their excellence, and offer all of them our congratulations. Here’s hoping the competition gets even fiercer in future years.