Month: January 2008 (Page 1 of 4)

Artifice and Intelligence – A Short Story

January 31, 2008 / Michael Andersen

This week on Escape Pod, a science fiction short story podcast, Tim Pratt presents Artifice and Intelligence, an entertaining look at the emergence of artificial intelligences that might remind former I Love Bees players of another human / AI duo. Pratt is a Hugo Award winner for his short story Impossible Dreams.

I won’t spoil the ending, but readers of this site will be very interested in the final twist. Thanks to our pal Steve Peters at Mysdirection for the great find.

Click Here to listen to “Artifice and Intelligence” by Tim Pratt at Escape Pod.
Click Here to read the text version at Strange Horizons

Eldtrich Errors: Live Events Come in Threes for Book Three

January 31, 2008 / Michelle Senderhauf

As we reported a few days ago, Book Three of Eldritch Errors has officially launched. The ARG has started off with plans for three nearly concurrent live events in Sacramento, New York City and Austin. Several players had a clandestine meeting with an in-game contact last night at the first event in Sacramento. The remaining two events are scheduled to happen tonight at 8pm.

Check out the Sentry Outpost or Unfiction to follow the action!

Extra, extra! ARGNet iEdition has arrived!

January 29, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Hey, we like to think that we’re pretty tech-savvy individuals here at ARGNet, with at least one of us owning one of those sorta-new-fangled iPod Touch device thingies. Well, on a whim this weekend, I decided to adapt a WordPress plugin called iWPhone into our Movable Type installation, which you can see at iphone.argn.com. Heck, that interface might be the preferred view for people who don’t use Apple devices!

We are going to be moving things over to WordPress in 2008, but are having CSS issues, so it’s still a work in progress. Rest assured, we’re constantly looking for ways to improve the site, both visually and with functionality. If you fine, fine readers ever some across a problem with the site, shoot us a message and let us know about it.

GAME LAUNCH: Conspiracy Asylum

January 26, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

After only a few weeks since the end of Deus City, the fine folks at Fundi Games are back at it again with Conspiracy Asylum File Zero. Our very own Sean C. Stacey had reported two weeks ago on the hint that the puppetmasters left for the players late in November, and noted that the game would be launching around the first of February.

However, here we are five days short of the end of January, looking at new content and open registration on the trailhead site. Currently, the forum-style web site has one entry — “File 1 – Aliens: ‘Are we really alone?’ — which players can comment on, once they register and log in. Once logged in, players are able to offer their theories to either prove or disprove the conspiracy video.

The original beta video is still available on YouTube, although it has changed locations since our previous story. We will provide updates here at ARGNet as more is discovered about the game.

Discussion at Unfiction forums

Eldritch Errors Launches Book Three, Officially

January 25, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Let the speculation end! After last week’s article from Michelle Senderhauf and mention on episodes 46 and 47 of the ARG Netcast series, we turn to Schmeldritch for definitive word regarding the launch of Book Three of Eldritch Errors, the long-running Lovecraftian alternate reality game. In the January 23rd entry on the developer’s blog, Brian Clark points to a post on the Unfiction forums (as well as back to here, thankyouverymuch) as a clear indication that festivities have begun for the third installment of the experience.

Clark also notes that he is setting the bar even higher for this new stage of game play, stating, “My expectations for ‘Red Moon Rising’ are obviously higher than they were even for ‘Scream in the Mountains’,” adding, “May I recommend that experienced participants change their tin foil hats daily during Book Three and leave it at that?” If this tickles your fancy and you wish to get caught up with everything that has happened thus far, head over to EldritchErrors.com. Clark acknowledges the new people who may want to jump on board by promising, “Don’t worry that Eldritch Errors has been going since last April, Book Three was developed with you in mind. It was also developed with Book One participants in mind, as well, so you’ll have lots to discover together.”

Harvard Business Review: ARG Business is Good Business

January 25, 2008 / Michael Andersen

The Harvard Business Review has spoken: alternate reality gaming may very well be the future of business. As part of its annual “Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas” issue, the magazine addressed the potential of alternate reality gaming to reshape the business world.

The article, written by Jane McGonigal, addresses the benefits of capitalizing on collective intelligence in the workplace. No stranger to forecasting the future, Jane predicts that

eventually, games will become the go-to tools for launching internal initiatives, or they will rally global teams of outside â€œexpert playersâ€ to engage in business forecasting. Ultimately, ARGs will involve customers in inventing new products and services or in testing companiesâ€™ market assumptions.

In the article, Jane pulls on her experience behind the scenes with World Without Oil to demonstrate the potential of the genre. During the alternate reality game, players faced with a peak oil crisis sent in over a thousand blog posts, videos, podcasts and other submissions chronicling the potential effects and evaluating potential alternative strategies during an oil crisis.

So it’s time to clean up your resumes, spruce up your cover letters, and add a section for ARG experience — because the new media literacy you develop with every passing cipher you solve and each domain registration you pull up might help land your dream job someday.