Month: November 2009 (Page 1 of 2)

Love Letters to the Future: The Time Capsule Talks Back

November 27, 2009 / Michael Andersen

loveletterstothefuture Over the next few weeks, Love Letters to the Future will be collecting text, image and videos from users around the world sending love letters to future generations. And on December 13, 2009, the 100 most popular messages as selected by the site’s users will be sealed in a time capsule at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The multimedia messages will be encoded and stored as a series of two-dimensional bar codes, stored on microfilm. The microfilm contains meta-information on how to decode the messages. That way, when the time capsule is unsealed a century later, people can access the information regardless of technological changes.

Apparently the time capsule will be a rousing success, since people who submit messages to the website receive a response from 2109, courtesy of Xenophile Media. Over the next three weeks, players will have the opportunity to unlock videos, clues and messages left by Maya, hidden amongst the messages posted on Letters to the Future. Upon submitting a message for consideration, players receive the first clue: the phrase “Me2109.” Maya’s final video will be unlocked by playing a locative game December 9-12 in cities around the world, including Amsterdam, Toronto, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Hong Kong and Istanbul. Maya’s videos will then be played at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

According to Xenophile Media, the objective of Love Letters to the Future is “to collect a critical mass of love letters – messages about people’s fears and hopes for the future, the stories they want to send to their children’s children.” The website has already received over 2,000 text, image, and video submissions.

Head on over to Love Letters to the Future and leave a message for future generations. After all, how often do you get the chance to participate with a time capsule that talks back?

Recap: DIYDays Fireside Chat with Jan Libby and Steve Peters

November 20, 2009 / Brandie Minchew

DIYDays Freshly triumphant from their most recent transmedia projects, Steve Peters of No Mimes Media and Jan Libby, recently of Levi’s G.O. IV Fortune campaign, took the stage at DIYDays LA to talk about their experiences designing Alternate Reality Games.

Steve and Jan began as players in the emerging genre that we call ARGs. BothÂ made the transition from player to puppetmaster through their work on independent games, which led to careers for each of them in the newborn industry of transmedia entertainment. And both acknowledge that their roots in the player side of these games and experiences now inform their choices as designers. â€œSure, we do this for money,â€ Jan said, â€œbut our hearts are indie.â€ Whether they are designing an ARG for a client or for an indie game, they consider not only the story and its characters, the protagonists and antagonists, but also the audience. Jan views the audience as a character, one that will interact and possibly shape the story as it plays out.

LEGO: We Come in Pieces

November 18, 2009 / Robbie Smith

LEGO Two weeks ago a set of mysterious signals from deep space led to a startling discovery. On November 7th a group of Scientific Researchers from the Bradford Rant Institute of Cosmic Kinesis (B.R.I.C.K.)Â were the first to intercept and decode the signals, which Â contained detailed coordinates. Following the coordinates, the researchers soon found themselves within Legoland: Billund where they located a tiny crash site, complete with an alien pod lodged in the brick-filled crater. The pod contained an extraterrestrial visitor short on words but high on bricks. Piecing together the mystery, the researchers soon realized that other signals from deep space represented the future landing sites of six additional space-faring pods, providingÂ quite the rabbit hole for a nice LEGO ARG.

Players have already been treated to some code-cracking, LEGO-style,Â along withÂ the promise ofÂ more coveted podsÂ scheduled for dispersalÂ around the world,Â presumably near Legoland sites. The second pod is still transmitting coordinates and has yet to land, but it would seemÂ our newest visitor will be touching down somewhere near the site of the future Legoland: Fort Worth amusement park. Undoubtedly, B.R.I.C.K. will have no short supply of North American assistants when the final set of signals for the second visitor are transmitted and triangulated.

So what does it all mean? Who are these mysterious visitors and what brings them to Earth? The game took off a week ago following a mysterious tweet from Brian Johnson. Brianâ€™s Twitter bioraphy includes an interesting tid-bit,Â noting that he is the producer of the upcoming massively multiplayer online (MMO) title LEGO Universe. Digging a little deeper using this newfound information, an article detailing the arrival of the afore-mentioned pod in Legoland: Billund was discovered on the LEGO Universe main page, further eliminating any doubt as to the purpose of the tiny pods.

Exoriare: Exploring the Darknet

November 12, 2009 / Michael Andersen

exoriare BoingBoing suggested it. The Guardian praised it. Jay is Games recommended it. And now, I’m adding my voice to the resounding chorus: if you like alternate reality games, you should check out Smoking Gun Interactive‘s new transmedia experience, Exoriare. While the experience has only recently launched, it has already drawn together successful elements from a wide array of alternate reality games to create a compelling narrative.

Smoking Gun Interactive introduced their world through a graphic novel created by Douglas Rushkoff and drawn by in-house artists Cheoljoo Lee and Younger Yang. Rushkoff notes that the graphic novel serves as both the trailhead of “at least” one alternate reality game and as a back story for an upcoming videogame series. As he explains, “[t]his is a big big universe – a giant war for the future of humanity, of course – with maybe one overall timeline but many different pathways through the material.” Smoking Gun CEO John Johnson told The Guardian that Exoriare‘s storyÂ involves “hundreds of pages of backstory documentation, mixes ancient technologies, military conspiracies and that old favourite, covert alien invasion…[i]t’s sort of X-Files meets Dan Brown, with a dash of academic research.”Â Sold? Head over to Exoriare.com and begin the adventure. Still not sure? Read on to find out what to expect.

ARGNet on “The Digital Edge”

November 10, 2009 / Michael Andersen

thedigitaledge ARGNet’s own Associate Editor Marie Lamb appeared on South African marketing podcast The Digital Edge this past week to discuss alternate reality games. Marie was joined by alternate reality gamingÂ developersÂ Ken Eklund (World Without Oil), McKinney’s Chris Walsh (Art of the Heist), and Cherryflava’s Jonathan Cherry (Can You Twist). The Digital Edge produces weekly podcasts on topics related to digital marketing.

Marie provided a succinct explanation of what alternate reality games are (and what they are not).Â During the podcast,Â she noted that “a real ARG has to have two crucial elements, in my opinion, to succeed.Â It has to have a really good story, and it has to have a strong community of players.Â In the best ARGs, these two are interlinked.”Â Then Ken Eklund, Jonathan Cherry, and Chris Walsh each described the rationale behind launching an alternate reality game along with brief explanations of their respective projects.

Click Here to listen to the Digital Edge episode on alternate reality games.

Ditch the Tech: Potential Dollhouse ARG for the Hiatus

November 10, 2009 / Michael Andersen

ditchthetech In its second season on air, Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse has reportedly been averaging fewer than 3 million viewers per episode. In light of these figures, Fox decided to put the show on hiatus until December 4th, after November sweeps. Undeterred, Whedon posted the following commentary on Whedonesque:

“Howzabout that schedule? Well, I’m not as depressed as everyone else. We weren’t about to rock sweeps anyway, and though there’s a chilly November, December is CRAZY. It’s like an Advent calendar of episodes! We get November to try to spread the word (which I’ll be leaning on Fox to do, though it’s hard to imagine them doing as good a job as the WhyIWatch guy) and then December is pure gluttony. Plus the episodes line up extremely well in these pairs, and we’ll have an absurdly appropriate lead-in.”

It appears as though people desperate for moreÂ Dollhouse content will not be forced toÂ wait until the show returnsÂ from its hiatusÂ December 4th. Yesterday, Dollhouse fans noticed a new website for Rossum Corporation, the organization responsible for Dollhouses around the world. In addition to advertising an attractive 5-year paid internship for “candidates of superior genetic disposition,” Rossum Corporation provides details about its ongoing Senate investigation. Even the website’s Terms & Conditions strives to establish its authenticity, noting that “all agents shall remain the property of the Company at all times.”