Month: October 2010 (Page 1 of 2)

SCVNGR Unleashes Zombie Horde Through Social Check-In Feature

October 27, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Geo-locative check-in app SCVNGR has pulled off some crazy stunts in the past few months. Modernista used the app to lead Dexter fans to a kill room set up at Comic-Con in San Diego, and the New England Patriots used it to help nose tackle Vince Wilfork recover his Super Bowl XXXIX ring. But this time, SCVNGR has gone too far: they’ve unleashed zombies.

Or at least, zombie badges. Just in time for Halloween, SCVNGR has infected ten SCVNGR players with a Zombie badge. Once infected, these hapless souls will be informed of their sad state, and are doomed to wander the streets, spreading the infection. The transmission vector? SCVNGR’s new social check-in feature, where players can earn points by bumping phones together. Normally, engaging in unprotected bumping lets players earn points, with the rewards increasing based on the size of the group. When a player bumps with a zombified SCVNGR user, all the users in the group become infected with the zombie badge.

What will you do to avoid joining the ranks of the living dead? Will you stock up on supplies at Sears’ zombie-themed sale, purchase a Faraday cage bag, or go off the grid entirely? Luckily, this is a limited engagement, so you only need to make plans to protect yourself for the next few weeks.Â If for some unknown reason you actually want to become a mindless zombie, email [email protected] with the subject line of “BRAINSSS!!” — the first ten to do so will be infected.

Exploring the World of Collapsus with Director Tommy Pallotta

October 25, 2010 / Michael Andersen

In March of 2010, the Dutch broadcasting company VPRO released the documentary Energy Risk as part of its Future Affairs programming. The Dutch-language documentary explored the impending transition from fossil fuel to alternative energy sources. Recognizing that the average documentary viewer is over the age of 55, the network approached SubmarineChannel to create a more engaging experience that would appeal to younger audiences. Tommy Pallotta was brought on board to direct the experience, and the Collapsus experience was born.

Staying true to the project’s documentary roots, Collapsus presents a global narrative that plays out in the near-future. Told through the eyes of activist vlogger Vera and a cast of supporting characters, Collapsus depicts a complex world of profiteering, geo-political maneuvering, and conspiracy centering around dwindling oil reserves. Stylistically, the experience combines live action film with rotoscoped scenes that should be familiar to viewers of Pallotta’s previous projects, Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly. Pallotta notes that “we settled on a hybrid of live action and animation as an aesthetic choice, but also one made for time and budget. The story takes place all over the world so we had to find a way to tell a global story that didn’t show the limitations we had.” This core narrative, combining live action and animation, forms the root of the Collapsus experience. And while this passive experience can provide a complete narrative arc, the story is peppered with a host of opportunities to take a more active role in the story.

Will Wright’s Bar Karma: One Step Closer to Collaborative Entertainment?

October 22, 2010 / Brandie Minchew

How often have you thought to yourselfÂ I could have written that better after watching an episode of your favorite television show that fell below your expectations? Game designer Will Wright‘s new television series may give you the chance to do just that.

Earlier this month, Current TV announced its new tv series, Bar Karma, scheduled to debut in the first quarter of 2011. Created by game designer Will Wright, known for his popular video games includingÂ The Sims andÂ SimCity, Â Bar Karma‘s production model promises to provide a high level of audience involvement with the show, giving viewers direct control of the plot as the story evolves in 30-minute episodes.

Wright has designed interactive technology for Current TV’s audience-produced material that will be adapted to the production of Bar Karma. Current TV’s press release for the show lists four steps in the episode development process:

Step 1: Joining â€“ viewers register and log on to the Bar Karma website.
Step 2: Creating â€“ participants submit their own storyboards based on a basic outline provided by the producers, which all participants can then comment on, discuss, merge ideas, and hammer out a final plot.
Step 3: Voting â€“ participants will vote on the finalized story proposals.
Step 4: Producing â€“ Once voting is closed, the studio will produce the winning storyline, and the episode will then air. Episodes will be 30 minutes in length.

Players Fund The Haunted Majora’s Mask ARG

October 18, 2010 / Michelle Senderhauf

It is a scenario ARG players are all too familiar with. Just when things start to get interesting, the grassroots puppetmaster comes forward with an apology to the players. The game can no longer go on because of lack of funds or time. Some players are disappointed. Others are angry. Most move on looking for another game to invest their time in. Things ended a bit differently with The Haunted Majora’s Mask Cartridge ARG. Instead of giving up, the players of this grassroots game reached deep into their pockets and donated money to the creator so the game could continue. With nearly a half million views on some of the ARG’s Youtube videos, it’s not surprising that the fans are dedicated. What sort of story would touch players so deeply? There was no hot brunette, nor was there a kidnapping. The story is about a college kid and his haunted Nintendo 64 game.

The college kid, known as Jadusable on his blog, thought he had struck gold when he walked away from a neighborhood garage sale with a free copy of the N64 game, The Legend of Zelda – Majora’s Mask. A creepy old man at the sale gave the game to him, saying it once belonged to a young neighbor boy. The boy, Ben, died years ago under mysterious circumstances.

When the game first started acting strangely, Jadusable shrugged it off, thinking it was just a buggy version. Before long, he discovered that his copy of Majora’s Mask was haunted – by someone or something named Ben. Jadusable started recording the strange happenings in the game and by doing so, inadvertently allowed Ben to escape onto the internet. Anyone who downloaded the videos also downloaded Ben onto their computer and into their life. Jadusable eventually disappeared and presumably got himself trapped in the haunted game cartridge, while Ben used his new found freedom to seek out more victims in the real world.

Even though Ben is free from the game cartridge, he and other characters are still somehow affected by items used in the video game. For example, if the players play The Song of Healing from the Legend of Zelda, a character in the ARG gets healed. If they play a time travel song, they travel back in time several days, getting a chance to manipulate the characters in different ways. It is still unclear exactly what Ben’s connection to the game cartridge is, but players discovered he was previously a member of an apocalyptic cult. According to other cult members, Ben “ascended” and his body was never found. Exactly what the connection is between the Majora’s Mask video game and the cult is still a mystery.

The game’s latest chapter has come to a close, so there is plenty of time to catch up on what has happened so far before the next installment.

Read the story so far
Read the player-created wiki
Follow the discussion at UnFiction

MTV’s Savage County Exposes More Bloody Secrets Through Alternate Reality Game

October 16, 2010 / Nicko Demeter

When MTV chose to add a horror movie to its programming schedule, it was with the understanding that the film would be a stark departure from the reality shows that currently dominate the network. The venture was carefully fleshed out and the pulse of the people was examined: MTV used Eventful.com to see if 100,000 people would express interest. When the counter reached that magic number, Savage County was slated for broadcast on October 7th, at 11PM EST/10PM CST.

Savage County features a group of teens that drive over to the Hardell residence on a dare to pull a knock-and-dash. This prank goes horribly wrong when the eldest of the Hardell clan ends up dead, setting in motion a vengeful killing spree as the rest of the Hardell family seek to impose their kind of vigilante justice on the residents of Savage County.

And where the movie ends, the alternate reality game begins. Head of MTVâ€™s New Media division, David Gale, was inspired to continue the thread of the Hardell story through an online extension, and hired writer and transmedia producer Nina Bargiel to flesh out the experience. Bargiel was kind enough to come out from behind the curtain and offer her perspective on this on-going project. “The ARG is part of the overall transmedia experience,” Bargiel said about the background of this storyline. “When I was hired, there was some pre-existing prequel narrative – the great Sinner’s Medicine comic by Director and Co-Writer David Harris.”

Pistolsniffer Industries: Head into the Woods with Earl and Randy

October 14, 2010 / Jane Doh

The two adorable hicks depicted in the above video sell Sticky Itchers Shower Scrub, a men’s shower scrub so manly it’s “like a hand grenade wrapped in bacon,” and in the past 2 years they’ve developed something of a cult following in the ARG community. Just recovering from a bout of undeath from a previous game called Purity Towers, Earl de Rosa and his best buddy Randy Porknut have been kicked out of a Civil War reenactment society for being too manly. So, the pair has joined an ultra-secret organization and are heading into the woods in search of adventure.

Earl and Randy’s latest adventure is the newest alternate reality game produced by Pistolsniffer Industries. Formerly known as Funnel Productions, the grassroots team has created several well-received independent alternate reality games in the past two years for embracing a light humorous style and implementing several recurring motifs. The Pistolsniffer “brand” revolves around the characters Earl and Randy, and their trials and tribulations span the entirety of the Pistolsniffer/Funnel “game-ography.”