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January 31, 2008

Artifice and Intelligence - A Short Story

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

Posted by Michael Andersen at 9:18 PM | Comments (0)

Eldtrich Errors: Live Events Come in Threes for Book Three

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 ingame 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!

Posted by Michelle Senderhauf at 7:08 PM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008

Extra, extra! ARGNet iEdition has arrived!

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.

Posted by Jonathan Waite at 5:50 PM | Comments (1)

January 26, 2008

GAME LAUNCH: Conspiracy Asylum

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

Posted by Jonathan Waite at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2008

Eldritch Errors Launches Book Three, Officially

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."

Posted by Jonathan Waite at 9:27 PM | Comments (0)

Harvard Business Review: ARG Business is Good Business

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 “expert players” to engage in business forecasting. Ultimately, ARGs will involve customers in inventing new products and services or in testing companies’ 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.

Posted by Michael Andersen at 9:22 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2008

Have you caught the Abrams virus yet?

Producer/Director JJ Abrams is on a viral rampage this year, it seems. Hot on the tail of Cloverfield's big screen debute, was the premiere of the initial teaser trailer for the 11th installment in the Star Trek film franchise. Reportedly, the movie will carry only the name "Star Trek", as it returns to the academy days of our beloved Enterprise crew. The teaser can be seen on the official website. But as beautiful as it is, that is not the reason for this article.

If you navigate to the official website, scroll down to the "Under Construction" label. See the little red dot beside it? Click it. Yes, you've just found another viral website. JJ is known for tying common threads between his creative productions - his unique drink Slusho! being the most prominent example. Slusho has made cameo appearances in Alias, Heroes, and Kenan and Kel. But recently he's taken a liking to extending his works beyond their base medium, into the internet world, and the real world.

If you're familiar with the TV show Lost (also an Abrams production), there was a very well received extended reality called The Lost Experience which ran along the TV show. Currently leading up to the North American airing of season 4 is another campaign called Find 815. You've been living under a rock if you haven't heard of the viral campaign surrounding the months leading up to the premiere of Cloverfield (which also, by the way, has a backstory around the development of the Slusho drink and its secret ingredient Seabed's Nectar).

So the question is, will Abrams be providing another extended experience or alternate reality game related to the Star Trek franchise leading up to the movie's release? Or will this turn out just to be another typical viral marketing campaign? Personally, I would love to see a Slusho! cameo appearance in the movie. Imagine: Kirk and Spock order a Slusho from a bar at the Academy. And Guinan serves it to them.

At the very least, we have a new website - a relatively covert website, which seems to be showing 'streaming video' from the construction site of the Enterprise NCC-1701. What will the days ahead reveal to us? We have nearly a whole year to find out. JJ knows how to bait and taunt his target market, so expect a lot of mystery and viral advertising.

Live long, and drink Slusho.

Official website
NCC-1701.com Trailhead
Discussion at Unfiction
Resource wiki

Posted by Geoff May at 5:41 PM | Comments (3)

January 21, 2008

ACME Creates an ARG: Not Just an Anvil Company Anymore

Aporia Cross-Media Entertainment has released the trailer for their new alternate reality game code-named "Aporia Agathon", scheduled to run for a year, starting in the summer of 2008.

Aporia CME, formerly known as Naked Rabbit Studios, developed Ny Takma, a science fiction themed alternate reality game running from September to November of 2006. The team has not been idle in the intervening months, and promise a unique user interface that will, according to Jason Chrest, use "an existing medium that just has not yet been used within the ARG/CF genre."

Through a tip posted at Despoiler, Jason elaborates that the game will pull from genres ranging "from world history, to sci-fi, to conspiracy, drama, and more." The text of the message also includes a hidden message revealing a bit more about the mysterious interface under development.

The trailer, set to the soothing sound of Cecil Grant's classic hit "I Wonder", introduces the character "GC" as he composes a letter to his dearest love. A series of flashbacks depict his escape from an unknown pursuer by train.

Stay tuned to ARGNet for updates on this and other games.

Posted by Michael Andersen at 7:40 PM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2008

Cloverfield is Out -- What Now?

Editor's Note: This article is spoiler-free, for those who haven't see the movie yet. However, outgoing links may contain spoiler information.

Who was to know that when J.J. Abrams launched the first trailer for what we now know as Cloverfield that the buzz surrounding the movie would be so powerful that the famous Mann Chinese Theater in Los Angeles would have a special midnight showing of the film? Well, we won't say "told you so!" -- in fact, we didn't tell you much, except that there were curious web sites to be found in July of last year, and that the Ethan Haas viral web site was officially unconnected to the 1-18-08 mystery. Thankfully, there are many resources out there for fans of the movie to get caught up on what's happened in the web campaign so far, in case (like me) you decide that today is the day you finally take a look at some of this stuff.

I began this morning by taking a look through the Cloverfield forum section at Unfiction. I thanked my lucky stars when I came across this post by TheRabbit, which summarizes the story so far, chronologically, and links to all of the relevant sites. It's easy to follow and helps to connect some of the dots that Abrams and his crew have left along the trail. Essentially, the experience seems to be a tale of the effect of environmental misdoings, which may or may not be connected to a secret ingredient in a popular beverage. I highly recommend reading the post, which looks to be a work in progress.

From there, I surfed over to cloverfieldclues.com which has been an ongoing archive of news regarding the movie and the online experience. The owner of the site, Dennis Acevedo, was recently interviewed on the NPR show "All Things Considered" as part of a feature on the movie and the buzz that was built along the way -- our own Sean C. Stacey was also interviewed, but his contribution never made it to the final edit. The Cloverfield Clues web site offers readers a chance to view archives of the in-game web sites as well, which was handy to see today, as many of the sites are "under construction" after the U.S. release of the film.

Onward I went, to the Cloverfield wiki at Despoiler, which is another great source of information and archived items. Wikis seem to be the easiest way to compile info into a trail, and this one is as comprehensive as one would hope. User contributions help to keep facts organized, while discussion is relegated to tabbed Talk pages. The latest news page has documented the recent changes to the game's web sites, and updates are ongoing.

So now that we're all caught up, what now? Will the experience keep going, now that the movie is out? Will we see an extended reality that further explains events as they happened in the film? Or is this it for the Cloverfield web presence? While no one knows for sure -- except Abrams and his creative team, of course -- it seems to be a shame if all of this goes fades into the ether.

Posted by Jonathan Waite at 8:39 AM | Comments (1)

January 14, 2008

UPDATE: Sneak Peek at Heroes 360, Now Heroes Evolution

There's something to be said about major broadcasters who go out of their way to bring interactive content to their dedicated viewership, so when we were tipped off about the continuation of "Heroes Evolution", the official Heroes ARG, we were quite pleased. This is the same game we began talking about almost a year ago, which we previously knew as the Heroes 360 Experience, so those of you familiar with web sites such as primatechpaper.com and YamagatoFellowship.org are going to be happy to know that the campaign will most likely continue to use these resources.

The announcement of the next stage of the game is part of a press release we dug up at The Futon Critic in which the message is clear -- NBC is big on transmedia experiences. On top of announcing expansive digital experiences for new series "Lipstick Jungle" and "Knight Rider" , the release contained this:

The next chapter in the highly anticipated "Heroes" online mythology continues with "Heroes Evolution." Fans will discover intriguing new back-story and plot twists through the "Heroes" online and mobile micro-sites. The popular graphic novel continues in originals all winter long as well.

So, we mentioned an sneak peek, right? Well, it's waiting for you, just after the jump, so click on to bask in the glory of exclusive, unreleased content!

Alright, here it is -- we've obtained a clue from an unreleased video that a secret source confirms will be part of an update to chapter two of the Heroes Experience, an update that will supposedly happen very, very soon. Admittedly, I don't know what significance this clue has in relation to the game play, but we're hopeful that those of you playing the game will appreciate it (click for a larger version):

Now, if you haven't had the chance to get involved with the game thus far, don't despair -- there's an official story-so-far metasite at NBC's web site. Plus, there are multiple threads happening in the "CF with Potential" section at the Unfiction forums, so if you're a fan of the TV show, maybe it's time to see what things are all about.

Posted by Jonathan Waite at 4:30 PM | Comments (2)

Torchwood Needs You

From the BBC comes word of an online game that will run concurrently with the new season of its sci-fi drama, Torchwood. If the name Torchwood doesn't mean anything to you, you might have heard of the series it was spun off of, a little show called Doctor Who.

In the guise of being recruited as Freelance Operatives working for the mysterious Torchwood Institute, players will be given weekly "missions" which they must complete to prove they are worthy to join the Torchwood team. A genetics professor who claimed to be hunted by aliens has gone missing. The Torchwood team passes this minor case on to its new recruits. Do they have what it takes to figure out what's going on?

The game story was especially written by show writer Phil Ford, and will be revealed slowly, with new details weekly leading up to a final climax. Game content includes video "minisodes" featuring cast members Eve Myles, Gareth David Lloyd and Naoko Mori. Appearances by other cast members and special guests have been hinted at. The game story is separate from the series, but will intertwine with what is happening on screen. "The game is what happens in Torchwood between each episode. You'll see and hear characters referring to events that have just happened in the show," says Senior Producer Mat Fidell. "The only difference from the TV show is that it's up to you to move the story forward. You must solve the clues, find out what's going on and report back to the team. You'll need to use all the skills and talents you have – and Torchwood will provide you with some tools to help you along the way." The Torchwood website has been redesigned for season two, and incorporates the online game component with an interface very similar to the computer set-up the characters use in the show.

Although registration is not required to play, players who sign up to take part at the show's website will be emailed as each mission is launched (one per week) and will be able to track their progress from week to week. Recruitment starts January 16th, along with the U.K. premiere of Torchwood Season Two.

Tell Captain Jack we're on our way!

Update: As noted in the comments, the game (and, sadly, much of the website) is restricted to U.K. use only. Our contact at the Beeb apologizes, but this is due to the public funding of the BBC. We hope our U.K. readers will report in and let us know what they think of the game!

Posted by Marie Lamb at 8:16 AM | Comments (4)

Eldritch Errors, Book 3?

Much to the excitement and delight of Eldritch Errors players across the globe, it looks as if the launch of the ARG's third book, titled Red Moon Rising, may be imminent. Book two ended with a live event chock-full of Lovecraftian horror goodness. Players and in-game characters spent the weekend together in a rustic cabin on top of Bald Knob in West Virginia. The weekend was full of good-hearted fun, camaraderie, mediocre chili and terrified screaming.

ARGers who are looking for a new game can easily jump in and play without having participated in the previous two books. Players can catch up quickly by reading the detailed Story Thus Far on the game's meta site. Also, the puppetmasters' behind-the-scenes blog at www.schmeldritch.com gives a sneak peak behind the curtain (for those who are into that sort of thing).

Join in on the discussion at Unfiction or the in-game forums at sentryoutpost.com.

Posted by Michelle Senderhauf at 1:00 AM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2008

Catching Up with Jan Libby

When we last spoke with Jan Libby in episode 35 of the ARG Netcast, she gave us exclusive news about two projects: a television show that she successfully pitched to a production company, and a new game of her own that she planned to launch sometime this winter. Fans of her last two games, "Sammeeeees" and its sequel, "The Wrath of Johnson", have been watching and waiting for the first sign of Jan's latest work.

Curious about the effect of the Writer's Guild of America strike on Jan's television project, I emailed her to ask about the strike and how things were going. Her cheerful reply gave me some information that I'm thrilled to be able to pass along. The television show has been put on hold due to the strike. However, just before the strike, Jan also pitched her alternate reality idea to the same production company, and, "…they loved it," Jan said. "And because the web is not yet under the rule of the WGA, I can still launch this project without crossing any picket lines." With the backing of the production company, Jan also notes that the project and its story world can expand beyond the plans she originally laid out.

Describing her next alternate reality project as "more experimental" and set in a different world from Sammeeeees, Jan revealed that the story "deals with time, space, and memory."

"It is very interactive but designed so that you don't have to interact to enjoy the ride," she says.

We can expect to see the launch sometime in early spring of 2008, so keep your eyes open for whatever surprises Jan has in store for us because spring is just around the corner!

Image courtesy of the LGPedia.

Posted by Brandie Minchew at 8:54 PM | Comments (4)

How committed are you?

The name Deus City should be familiar to some, as we have reported on it numerous times over the past year-plus. This Alternate Reality Game launched in November of 2006 and wrapped up almost exactly a year later, developed by a team led as part of Adam Brackin's doctoral project at the University of Texas in Dallas.

ARGNet can reveal that a doctoral dissertation is not the only likely result from this team, however. In post-game contact, the puppetmaster team from Deus City hinted at an upcoming project with a teasing few letters of a domain name, "www.conspi...." The complete URL may be found by watching this video, "Conspiracy Asylum File Zero," which was recently uploaded to YouTube (or it could also be found by clever parsing of this paragraph).

Our sources tell us that the above video is something of a beta-test but that we can expect a public launch around the first of February. Fans of Deus City who are aching for more contact with the universe may be pleased by the setting of the upcoming game in the same universe as the prior, although our sources also tell us that this story will not be directly related nor a sequel to DC, so players unfamiliar with Deus City need not be deterred from joining in. Here's another one to look forward to in 2008!

Posted by Sean C. Stacey at 2:47 PM | Comments (1)

January 12, 2008

Tachyon Me - EniTech Backs Look Into the Future

If EniTech Research Labs is to be believed, they have a camera that is recording images from the future---1193 (originally 1191) days into the future, to be precise. Espousing an "Open Source Research" philosophy, employees are documenting their findings on the company blog, and asking for feedback and suggestions for future experiments. The latest experiment seems to have captured a disturbing future look at a devastated San Francisco.

Also of note is researcher Frank Bentley's former employer, CyberDyne Systems. You may recognize this name as the company behind SkyNet in the Terminator series of movies. Frank has started a Facebook group for former CyberDyne employees, asking them to post what they've been up to in the last sixteen years since the "tragic attack".

Another site called to our attention is Take Back the Future, which has a countdown clock for, yep, 1193 days. TBTF currently has an animated graphic that shows human vs. cyborg world populations, with an alarming shift in numbers after what looks like targeted nuclear or other tactical strikes.

Details like these have lead Unfiction players to connect these sites to the new FOX TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which premieres this Sunday night. (Check your local listings.) What is not known, however, is how EniTech and TBTF will change once the show starts, but we think it will be fun to find out.

Join the Unfiction discussion for more details.

Posted by Marie Lamb at 2:56 PM | Comments (1)

Nowheremen - It's Dangerous to Run a Wiki

Back in August when I wrote about 401WTF, the extended experience for Ashton Kutcher's new reality television show "Room 401", I predicted the rather simplistic game might expand into something more. It turns out my prediction was correct, as the Wonderland blog reports the impending launch of Nowheremen.net, "a new community-based social entertainment experience that utilizes the full Web 2.0 medium of platforms to reveal the story behind the mysterious disappearance of a brilliant computer science student, Derek Border." Apparently, the final clue from the Room 401 experience led players to itkeepsgoing.com. The first 300 players to send their contact information to the website received the next clue in the mail which led to the Nowheremen website, an article about Derek Francis Border's disappearance.

One of the complaints I had with the game was its general lack of purpose, as the puzzle trail lacked a cohesive plot to tie the various puzzles together. It looks like I'll have to eat those words, as Derek Francis Border (derekfb) was the creator of the wiki and responsible for posting the show's episodes on YouTube. Both the ARG and web series revolve around tracking him down.

The timing of this game is rather fortuitous, as an extended experience designed to compliment and coexist with a cable reality televison show guides participants directly to an online web series with relatively high production values, premiering during the WGA strike. It remains to be seen whether this is one of the first of many collaborative efforts by workers displaced in the industry shakeup, or a network-based effort to expand into new media. Whatever the case, the first episode goes live January 22nd, so catch up on the plot and keep your eyes peeled.

Click Here for the discussion at UnFiction
Click Here for the wiki

Image courtesy of CSchmitt7166

Posted by Michael Andersen at 2:00 PM | Comments (2)

January 11, 2008

The Hills are alive... No, really, they're alive!

From intrepid Unfiction denizen and player, Rowan, comes this interesting news, which we've condensed from her excellent forum post:

During my long hours of watching college football bowl games, I kept noticing weird TV ads. There was a blinking alert with a voice over stating that despite rumors online, the Winter X Games would still be taking place. The ad also linked to a website: http://www.winterxrumoralert.com/

The Winter X Rumor site has some tantalizing information. A earth moving machine went missing. An X Games competitor would not be attending. A video clip of someone almost being eaten by the mountain. The most interesting bit is that it links to another website ( http://www.buttermilkisalive.com/ ) run by a geology professor who is convinced that the Buttermilk mountain is undergoing extreme seismological events and is unsafe.

Buttermilk Is Alive has a bunch of background information detailing how Dr. Jim Vaile is upset that people aren't taking him more seriously. The site has also been 'newly redesigned' so that only some of his older entries are now on the site. He has a bunch of links, most to what I take as real world websites, although at least one link is to a nonexistent website. There's also some commented out 'entries' that you can see in the source that look to be pre-written blurbs that are ready to be updated to the sight. Oh, and there's a commented out 'Blogroll' with a list of names - none of which I had much luck in Googling. He also links to a blog, which he calls a forum, where you can leave comments: http://buttermilkisalive.wordpress.com/

The Buttermilk Blog has been quietly updating ever since I first found it. Beyond calling for people to help prove that Buttermilk is dangerous (but due to natural phenomenon - not aliens or magical stuff) there really wasn't much of a catch. Today the website updated with a new entry talking about an email from a disgruntled reader by the name of Rusty. The email links to Rusty's blog (http://www.rustytruth.com/ )which is, well, one of those whacked out conspiracy websites you come across on the web every now and then.

edit: Google has now indexed a Flicker page of Benji "Ben" Beale (one of the commented out blog roll names.)

Early on, Rusty's blog appeared to be the victim of a hack that left a trojan in one of the comments. That blog has now been cleaned, so feel free to surf on.

Rowan also has started a guide for the game.

Posted by Marie Lamb at 10:05 PM | Comments (0)

Programming Alert

Tonight on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered", Neda Ulaby talks about Cloverfield--the movie, the promotion and the community. Tune in to your local NPR radio station at 7:00 p.m. EST to hear the show, which we were told will be the second to last segment of the broadcast. The show will also be archived on the NPR website after 8:00 p.m. EST. Unfiction owner and ARGNet staff writer Sean C. Stacey, and Dennis Acevedo of cloverfieldclues.com, were both interviewed for this story.

Posted by Marie Lamb at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2008

Rolling Out a Few New Projects: Six to Start and the Channel 4 New Media Lineup

Mind Candy may have pulled the plug on Perplex City, but the Hon brothers are back to work at a new company, Six to Start Limited, returning to work on alternate reality gaming. According to Adrian, the name "Six to Start" refers to the classic board games that required players to roll a six before commencing play. Adrian and Dan will be joining forces with James Wallis, the former director of Hogshead Publishing, a hobby-games publisher that you might recognize as one of the expert judges for Let's Change the Game.

One of the first projects for Six to Start is code-named "The Ministry", an ARG taking place within a fictional social network. The game is part of Channel 4's effort to provide engaging educational content to 14-19 year olds. According to a Channel 4 press release, "The Ministry" will be

an online networked game exploring how online privacy and identity apply to real world situations. The game will challenge players to discover how much trust matters online: when you might not know who you're dealing with, and when information posted online remains persistent and public. Players will network, collaborate and challenge each other from within a fictional social network, using identity as a weapon, and privacy as armor.

In addition to "The Ministry", Channel 4 will be sponsoring an ARG project by Oil Productions code-named "Route" that focuses on cartography, geography, and genetics, and numerous other cross media experiences. These alternate reality games are part of a larger push by the station to provide educational content to teens through a variety of serious games and new media productions. Alice Taylor, the commissioner for the projects at Channel 4, may be familiar to video game fans through her blog or her work at Kotaku.

Six to Start is currently looking for an experienced Alternate Reality Games producer to round out their staff, although with an application deadline at the end of January, you'd better hurry if you're interested. As a reminder for our bilingual readers, Jane McGonigal is also looking for a "jr. puppet master" for an upcoming project. In the meantime, I'll be waiting patiently for a lucky roll of the die to start up one of these exciting new projects.

Posted by Michael Andersen at 8:28 PM | Comments (0)

January 7, 2008

What's an xPod?

A new article posted at Canoe.ca (also via Canada.com) hints at an upcoming game from Xenophile Media, tied in with a new show from the Canadian network CBC called jPod, which premieres Tuesday, January 8th (on CBC of course). While much of the show's online components are typical of the new trend of extended interactivity, the key point is noted in a later paragraph:

"And midway through the season, an alternate reality game dubbed xPod will launch, built by the same company that designed the Emmy Award-winning web game for ReGenesis."

Now, while we take the term alternate reality game in this context with a grain of salt, Xenophile does have a decent track record with their past projects for Fallen (Ocular Effect) and Regenesis.

What might xPod hold in store for the ARG community? Well, first of all, it will most certainly be geared towards the crowd who would enjoy jPod. Otherwise, it's too early to tell. xPod is reportedly scheduled to begin sometime in the spring, while the TV series premieres this week. Though it is a Canadian show, it might make its way to the US at some point. So, if jPod appeals to you, then keep an eye out for xPod!

Posted by Geoff May at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 2, 2008

Tinkering in the "Secret Office": Another Jane McGonigal Project

In a recent post on Avant Game, Jane McGonigal mentioned she is hard at work on a super secret project that will funnel " happiness hacking, collaboration superpowers, amplified individuals, and collective intelligence gaming", using "a lot of new high-tech toys and tricks". While Jane didn't elaborate further on the project, numerous job postings online by Jane and another, as-yet-unidentified team member searching for a bilingual community-organizer-slash-puppetmaster indicate we may find Jane's "secret project" is an alternate reality game that will run for around six months, starting in February.

Posted by Michael Andersen at 1:58 PM | Comments (2)

January 1, 2008

UPDATE: Oceanic Air Flies Again

SPOILER ALERT -- This article reveals information that may nor may not have meant to be found by now. Read at your own risk.

As we reported yesterday, there's a new alternate reality game starting up for acclaimed television series Lost, known as Find 815. According to the Lostpedia, the action revolves around Sam Thomas, a former employee of fictional Oceanic Airlines who is discouraged by the lack of progress in the search for Oceanic flight 815. For those unaware of what this all means, the simplest explanation is that many of the castaways on the TV show were on the doomed flight, which has driven the plot and mythology of the series, soon entering its fourth season.

Players of the game have discovered a wide range of content connected to the game, including web sites, email, a voicemail number, various videos and even a few hidden secrets. As with any new ARG, players are dissecting every aspect of the game, and in the process, discoveries have been made in the last 24 hours that indicate that certain game elements aren't as secure or hidden as the game designers might have hoped for. In the instance of a guest post on the Unfiction forums, a directory was apparently left unprotected, allowing a player to gain access to game assets. Another issue that defies explanation, for now, is why the mysterious login form at the front of the Maxwell Group web site is actually hosted on find815.com.

The game is expected to run until late January, when season four of Lost kicks off. We'll keep an eye on things as this new experience marches on.

Various Links:
Find 815 - Trailhead
The Maxwell Group web site
Recording of outgoing voicemail (link leads to recording, not official site)
NetNinja archive of game videos

Posted by Jonathan Waite at 8:01 PM | Comments (0)