« November 2007 | Main | January 2008 »
December 31, 2007
Comments not working? Our bad...
So, if you are the type of person to comment on articles here at ARGNet, thank you. If you are the type of person who tries to comment and then notices that their comment fails to show up, we apologize. Some of the comments from the last month (or, in some cases, two months) slipped by us and landed in the junk comments bin. We were able to go back through the queue and publish some of those comments tonight, so if you were one of those people who thought we were censoring your point of view, we apologize (again). The way our comments are approved and published is something we have to explore in the next few weeks, so hopefully this sort of thing doesn't happen again.
Have a happy new year -- see you in 2008!
Posted by Jonathan Waite at 7:59 PM | Comments (0)
Launching Into '08: New Games and New Beginnings
As our planet careens into yet another lap around the Sun, puppetmasters are waiting gleefully in their lairs, cackling behind their respective curtains, fingers poised to hit the big red LAUNCH button at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2008. All around the world, ARG players will be clinging to their F5 buttons or obsessively checking their email for the new year's first hint of activity in the world of chaotic fiction. January's schedule is crowded with launches, relaunches, and continuations of new and ongoing games and experiences. We'd like to give you a quick peek at what's in store for you in 2008.
The Lost Experience – Relaunching 12/31/07
A press release on the ABC media website declared that on December 31, Oceanic Airlines would be resuming flights service to several cities. Contact your travel agent now!
What is this Game? - Launching 1/1/08
What is this Game?, an ARG and contest promoting What is this Movie? by Staff of the Magi Productions, begins on 1-1-2008 at midnight. Players may register here to participate (must be 18 or older by January 1, 2008). According to Magi's press release, "What is this Game requires player interaction, quick thinking, puzzle solving skills, countless hours of dedication, and in the end a journey to the Grand Prize."
QU13E
Last Halloween, QU13E rose from the grave. A few members of unFiction began exchanging emails and receiving clues from QU13E's shadowy inhabitants. After solving a puzzle in the source code of the QU13E website, players noted that 1/1/08 was set to be the launch day of this mysterious game.
The Dark Knight
Who knows what the Joker's next prank will be? This time, it might be PIE! The next phase of The Dark Knight kicks off early in the new year, so keep your eyes peeled and your forks at the ready.
Cloverfield
ZOMG! 1-18-08 is less than three weeks away! Avid followers of Cloverfield's viral marketing will finally get to experience the Cloverfield monster on the big screen.
Eldritch Errors: Book 3
What lies ahead for the Sentries and the Dreamers in a post-Scream world? No exact date has been hinted at for the opening of Book 3, but players speculate that new activity on Eldritch Errors will begin sometime in the new year.
More on the horizon:
Licorice Media's new project for Hewlett-Packard will be announced in mid-January. According to a post on unFiction, the project will be "a cross platform narrative of equal scale to Meigeist".
We're still on the lookout for the newest project by Jan Libby, creator of Sammeeeees and writer for Lonelygirl 15. Jan hinted in an ARGNetcast interview that her latest game will launch sometime this winter.
A Harry Potter-themed ARG, codenamed "The Hogwarts Experience" should make an appearance in the new year, according to a November post on the creators' Blogspot. Sources have placed the launch date for this game sometime in the spring. One of the game's creators said, "We hope our Harry Potter ARG can bring Harry Potter fans and seasoned ARG players together with puzzles that will require each of their specific knowledge to solve."
Moving further into spring, Cathy's Key, the sequel to Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart and Jordon Weisman, will be available on May 5, 2008.
It looks like 2008 is going to be brimming with excitement, and as the concepts of Alternate Reality Gaming seep into the mainstream, it will be interesting to see how the world of interactive fiction expands over the next twelve months as a result. Happy New Year, everyone!
Posted by Brandie Minchew at 10:33 AM | Comments (5)
December 29, 2007
39 Clues: Tidings of Good Cheer for a Former Scholastic Book Club Addict
A recent New York Times article announced a new and exciting venture by Scholastic, Inc, the largest publisher and distributor of children's books and related products to home and school.
Starting in September of 2008, Scholastic will publish "39 Clues", a cross-media experience centered around ten books released over the course of 24 months. Scholastic is pulling some of the top childrens authors published under the brand, including Rick Riordan, Gordan Korman, Peter Lerangis, and Jude Watson.
According to the article in the Times, the plot of "39 Clues" will revolve around Amy and Dan Cahill, two adolescent members of the world's most powerful clan, as they compete against other branches of their family to collect 39 clues that lead to ultimate power.
Tracy van Straaten, Scholastic's VP of Publicity for the Children's Book Publishing division, notes that Scholastic's Lab for Informal Learning is collaborating on the project with "a company that has ARG experience, as well as game designers" in creating this project. This collaboration may include work with GMD Studios, the company that has worked on such games as Art of the Heist and Who is Benjamin Stove, and are currently presenting their project, Eldritch Errors. The experience will extend beyond the books through a website including character blogs, puzzles and mini-games, as well as maps and treasure hunts. Each book will come with six collectible cards that will provide further clues.
Although the project is still months away, both Kotaku and Ian Bogost at Watercooler Games have expressed skepticism regarding the project due to Scholastic's decision to retain all rights to the intellectual property. Scholastic responded to the criticism, noting that the decision to retain all rights stems from the project's development through the Scholastic Lab for Informal Learning.
39 Clues has the potential to introduce a younger generation to the world of alternate reality gaming, and Scholastic has the resources to pull it off, especially if the company leverages the resources available through the Scholastic Book Club, their distribution channel in schools worldwide. The bar for transmedia novels has been set rather high by New York Times bestseller Cathy's Book.
Posted by Michael Andersen at 12:47 PM | Comments (5)
December 5, 2007
The Joker's latest task is a Piece of Cake
It's been a while since we've reported on the alternate reality game for the upcoming movie The Dark Knight, but that doesn't mean that the action has stopped. In fact, on December 4th, after a long trail of tasks, websites and information spawning from a Halloween countdown from late October, fans of Batman and players of the marketing campaign were treated to a day-long, frenzied scavenger hunt set up by "the Joker".
At noon EST, the mysterious countdown that was previously featured on Whysoserious.com was replaced by a strange carnival-style booth, in typical Joker fashion. A note attached instructed viewers to travel to specific real-world addresses to pick up a 'very special treat' under the name Robin Banks (get it? Robbing Banks? hahaha!)
Players quickly determined that the addresses were bakeries, strewn across the United States. At first, six addresses were attached to dirty stuffed animals hanging in the booth, but every hour on the hour, another five to seven addresses were hung. Within five hours, all twenty-two addresses had been revealed, as players scrambled to each location to pick up the 'treat'.
It was discovered that the Joker had left cakes at each bakery, and lo and behold, the cakes had phone numbers written on them in icing! Even more interesting was how, when the number was called, the cake itself rang! Players found that after digging furiously into the cake, there was an evidence bag filled with goodies - a cell phone and charger, a Joker playing card, and a note which instructed the person to call a different phone number.
Once all the cakes had been found and the phones had been used to call the new numbers, the game page opened to reveal the new Batman: Dark Knight movie poster, and another special treat - invitations to IMAX screenings in five cities (New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Toronto) on Thursday and Friday night, Dec 6th and 7th.
Where does that leave us?
- 22 people have re-usable cell phones and a private phone number.
- Special Batman related IMAX events in 5 major cities with limited seating capacity at the end of the week
- An email sent from another in-game website indicates something will be happening in the new year
The game's not over, folks!
This cake event may go down as many people's first special, memorable ARG event - a 'wow' moment. Comments in forums, such as liederhaus's experience from Superherohype.com, describe the fun many people had:
"I talked one of the Philadelphia cakes through the process. Randomly called a flower shop across the street from (the bakery) and the woman thought I was from (Warner Brothers). "She loves Christian Bale" I told her that he was a very cool guy. She ran across the street picked up the cake and followed the directions. I have tried it a couple of other places and got there a bit late. (...) This whole viral thing really works. There are at least seven groups of people that didn't know about the movie and would probably never see it that are now aware of the film. Doesn't seem like a lot but if you Ponzi Pyramid the thing those seven groups are going to tell their friends about this weird phone call and that they were told to go across the street, etc. etc."
SpineyNorman describes a kick-yourself moment: After purchasing the cake he and his friends didn't check the cake thoroughly enough, and gave it away to strangers, who had no clue about the events or the cellphone hidden snugly inside its tasty layers.
The task wasn't without its nightmares though - many bakeries weren't prepared for the onslaught of people calling and asking them about "Robin Banks", and some locations endured a constant stream of people entering and asking for the cake. In most cases, these bakeries may not have got anything out of the event. Perhaps anyone living near the stores should go and purchase a cake as a thank you for putting up with the players' hijinks!
Also, as this campaign rolls on, a pattern is emerging where an event with emotional highs also elicits a negative backlash from a vocal minority of players. That trend continued with this latest event, as some players were unimpressed with the final payoff of the poster image. Regardless of how people felt about the event in general, it seemed to pay off from a marketing perspective, as articles about the game have emerged on Hollywood Chicago, Comic Book Resources and MovieWeb.
At the end of the day, we realize that this trail set up "by the Joker" has lasted more than a month and included riddles, public tasks, mysteries, and oodles of websites to promote The Dark Knight. So far, this campaign has been an excellent example for how viral marketing and trans-media advertising can bring people together across long distances, as playing the game has caused players to cheer on other states, call friends, family, even local businesses and neighbors in the rush to complete tasks as quickly as possible. And it's not over yet - TDK is scheduled for release more than six months from now, yet only a vague, but chilling teaser trailer has been released to date. What will await wondering eyes at the IMAX theatres? We shall see.
At least we can say for sure this cake wasn't a lie.
Batman forum posts at Unfiction.com
Batman discussion at Superherohype.com
Batman: Dark Knight wiki
(photos thanks to fceeviper and batsean of Superherohype)
Posted by Geoff May at 10:27 PM | Comments (4)