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March 30, 2008
The Sky Remains
The Licorice Film team, creators of 2007's popular MeiGeist game, has a finger on the launch button for their newest project, The Sky Remains, due to begin in April. In partnership with HP Labs, The Sky Remains combines interactive ARG elements with GPS technology and the thrill of geocaching and treasure hunting using mscape (short for "mediascape"), HP Labs' experimental mobile gaming platform. A list of compatible hardware for mscape is provided on the mscaper site. The game's FAQ section states that players do not need these devices to participate.
Players of MeiGeist may have spotted some familiar faces in the trailer for The Sky Remains. (ARGNet also has a brief cameo!) The main story arc centers around the "6th Dimension Detective Agency" - with the players taking on the role of the 6th Dimension Agents, of course! The game breaks away from the one-time ARG experience by introducing a "re-playable" narrative. It also offers players the option to follow some parts of the story as a single player. However, collaboration and cooperation among players will be necessary to "discover the deeper subplots," according to the FAQ. The Sky Remains also invites user-generated content, and the game's website will serve as a social networking site for players to create and publish their own case files and stories after the initial case file has been solved and closed.
Posted by Brandie Minchew at 3:08 PM | Comments (0)
March 25, 2008
We Tell Stories: Six Stories, Six Authors, Six Weeks, and then Six to Start
Last Tuesday, the UK branch of Penguin Books launched We Tell Stories, a series of six stories based on classic novels. Each story is written by a different author and is retold through a different medium. Last week, Charles Cumming retold John Buchan's classic tale The Thirty-nine Steps by walking visitors through the tale on Google Maps. Cumming's rendition, "The 21 Steps", provided a novel look at the book's plot as well as the features of Google Maps.
Over the next four days, Toby Litt will retell M.R. James' Haunted Dolls' House and Other Ghost Stories in "Slice". This week's story plays out through Slice's blog, as well as her parents' blog.
The story also includes a Flickr account, a MySpace page, two twitter accounts, and an email address. Amusingly enough, clicking on the email address automatically fills out the email for you with the following.
Subject: I've come to save you from the boredomDear Slice,
My life is now totally worthless without you in it because...
While these stories are well constructed so far, the real purpose they serve is to whet the viewer's appetites for the original texts. I know I'll be heading over to my local library to check out a few of these tales -- but if I lived in the UK, I would enter the weekly Author Prize Drawings -- you can also win the Penguin Complete Classics Collection, valued at over £13,000.
Underpinning the six stories is a seventh tale. Clicking on the white rabbit on the bottom left corner of the main page leads to Treacle and Ink, a blog written by Alice. This underlying story fits within the alternate reality gaming framework, and has already led chelec on a hunt through St Pancras Station. You can read about that experience here or check her bliptv account for videos.
Click Here to check out the stories
Click Here for the thread at unfiction
Posted by Michael Andersen at 7:41 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2008
Aporia Agathon Sends a Mask: It Fit Jim Carrey Better
I got a package in the mail today with a mask inside, and like any sane, rational individual, my first reaction to receiving a mysterious tribal mask in the mail was to attempt to put it on. Sadly, my id didn't go on an uncontrollable rampage, and my skin is most decidedly not green. However, I did receive a few more clues about Aporia Cross-Media Entertainment's upcoming alternate reality game, codenamed the Aporia Agathon project.
Shortly after Aporia CME launched a puzzle trail for LagTV, the show's hosts released a video on YouTube asking for players to post YouTube videos about the Aporia Agathon Project. Along with a few others, I submitted a video. Yesterday, I received a rather large package in the mail containing a Philippine "dragon mask" and a letter from the puppetmasters. The letter noted that "[t]his game's development began in mid to late July of 2007 with a large portion of the development time dedicated to creating a back story as a basis for our narrative. We are trying to take familiar elements of stories and create a unique approach for our audience to enjoy." The letter finished with the poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar.
If you're kicking yourself for not submitting a video, it's not too late -- according to ACME's blog, there is still time to enter, and while you may not receive a mask, "the message of appreciation will remain the same." If you're interested in receiving an innocuous mailing around the time of the game's launch, you can submit your contact information to Aporia's submission form. So keep your eyes peeled for completely normal looking mail, submit a video with your guesses, and be on the lookout for easter eggs. S...er, that is, the Aporia Agathon Project, is coming this summer.
Click Here for a Flickr pool of the package.
Click Here to view the Aporia CME video challenge
Posted by Michael Andersen at 5:36 PM | Comments (0)
March 23, 2008
Harvey Dent campaign swag!
It wasn't long after the latest stage in the Dark Knight alternate reality game went live that we began noticing reports of cool swag delivery -- staff writer Michelle Senderhauf got one in the mail, as did our associate editor, Marie Lamb, and a friend of the site, Brian Enigma. I received the ARGNet package a few days ago, and in the package was a T-shirt and a folder which contained postcards, bumper stickers, buttons and a letter. It's always a treat to receive treats from game developers, so I thank those out there who are responsible for sending the package up to Canadia. So, um... does this mean that the campaign will be heading above the 49th parallel sometime soon? Inquiring canucks want to know!
Posted by Jonathan Waite at 9:59 PM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2008
I Was Blind... so they sent me broken headphones?
A note from FedEx on Monday alerted me to a delivery attempt during a time when I wasn't available to receive packages. After some careful thinking, I figured that the package was one of the Harvey Dent press packages that some others have been receiving. The next day, as I arrived home, I saw not one but two packages waiting to be opened. It was like my birthday, except without all of the feeling old and stuff. And while one of the packages was, indeed, a Harvey Dent swag explosion (more on that tomorrow), it was the other that has me scratching my head. For you see, unlike the tidy folder that held the Dark Knight promo material, the other package contained... broken headphones. Broken headphones wrapped in a single sheet from Monday's "The Guardian".
For a few more pictures, and the rest of the details, read on. Maybe you can help us figure out this mystery!
I took a closer look at the headphones, and noticed a copious amount of black electrical tape at the top, and lo and behold, I found a message scratched into the mass of tape: I WAS BLIND. There was nothing else strange about the headphones -- I even unravelled the tape near the plug, but there was nothing hidden underneath. This led me to the newspaper next, which is where I noticed the next clue -- some of the letters on the front page were blacked out, by hand.
Reading left to right, top to bottom, revealed this message: AND NOW WE ARE 3. At least, that's what I think the message says -- the last number is the first digit from the Friday closing price of Bear Stearns shares, which is being reported at $30.
So, color me stumped. If anyone out there has an idea as to what this is all about, be sure to comment here and let us in on the secret. If it helps any, the package originated from the UK, but because we value privacy, that's all we'll say about the sender.
Posted by Jonathan Waite at 9:18 AM | Comments (11)
March 15, 2008
Video Games and ARGs - What Can they Learn from Each Other?
Note: This article covers two SXSW Interactive 2008 events: Cross-Media Cross-Pollination: Mashing Up Video Games and ARGs (Saturday, March 8th, 3:30-4:30 p.m.), and its follow-up, Core Conversation: What Can the Video Games Industry Learn From Alternate Reality Games? (Monday, March 10th, 3:30-4:30 p.m.).
A last-minute change in programming on Saturday, March 8th, at SXSW Interactive 2008 brought together familiar faces from the Alternate Reality Games development community: Dan Hon of Six to Start, Tony Walsh of Phantom Compass, and Dee Cook, a freelance writer and designer who has written and developed content for games such as "The 4400" Extended Reality, World Without Oil, Unnatural Selection, and many others. Hon, Walsh, and Cook presented the panel "Cross-Media Pollination: What Video Games can Learn from ARGs". The follow-up conversation on Monday afternoon with Steve Peters from 42 Entertainment, and input from Jane McGonigal, Ken Eklund, Hazel Grian, and others, rounded out Saturday's panel.
Currently one of the most popular past-times world-wide, video games have an audience both extensive and diverse. Gamers are consistently asking for more from game designers - better AI, more content, more interaction, more story and narrative, more immersion. What can Alternate Reality Game designers learn from video game design and the needs of video game players (many of whom also play ARGs), and what elements of ARGs might video game designers consider when making games for gamers in a world of rapidly-evolving technology and techno-culture?
The panel opened with the question: what elements of ARGs might interest and engage video gamers? "I Love Bees", a well-known ARG, tapped into the fan base of Bungie's Halo video game by providing a glimpse into Halo's (and its predecessor, Marathon's) detailed backstory. Many Halo players enjoyed ILB because of the opportunity to explore more of that game's mythology. The puppetmasters presented a Halo story that the players could interact with in a different way, affecting the game not by moving the controller but by problem-solving with other players, answering payphones, emailing the Sleeping Princess, and convincing an AI that they were, in fact, human, and one of her crew.
Perhaps, Steve Peters pointed out in Monday's follow-up conversation, cross-media is one answer to a demand for more interaction and individualized response. A player's progress through a game could be tracked, with content delivered not only through the console but also through SMS, phone calls, or even the post office! Similarly, Tony Walsh raised the idea that ubiquitous computing, the imperceptible integration of computing systems and functions into every day life, might indeed be the next game platform, heralding the end of the "couch-potato" gamer.
Some gamers might prefer keeping their video game world and real life separate, or might see the cross-media features as a distraction from the game. "You want to make multi-tiered games," Peters pointed out. Many ARG designers already use the multi-tier design system to allow different levels of interaction and play for both casual and hard-core players. Walsh added that if video games do start to have these extended experiences, there should be an opt-out system so that players can specify their comfort-level of interaction.
One view of the differences between video games and ARGs is that video games are competitive while ARGs are collaborative. While this is true on some levels, Jane McGonigal from The Institute of the Future pointed out during the core conversation that ARGs can, in fact, be competitive, and that games by their nature are about competition. According to McGonigal, designers have to create that competition, and in ARGs, where players are cooperating with instead of competing against each other, the competition becomes the players versus the puppetmasters as players try to anticipate the PMs' next plot twist while the PM stays one step ahead of the players while spinning out the narrative.
Dan Hon pointed out that competition between player and developer is much harder to accomplish within video games since the developer is not actively monitoring every player on every game. In answer to this, GDC's Game of the Year, Valve's "Portal" was mentioned. In "Portal", the player completes a series of increasingly difficult puzzles under the guidance of a treacherous, lying computer. Someone pointed out that in the voice of GLADOS, Portal's computer, the players were really hearing the game designer's voice moving the players through the game.
Rather than viewing the puppetmasters in an adversarial role to the players, Steve Peters compared ARGs to "dueling banjos", with players and PMs together adding a little bit more to the evolving pattern of the game, complicating and enriching the game as it progresses and as its puppetmasters and players try to keep up with and outmatch one another.
Finally, one of the major discussions on both Saturday and Monday focused on game communities. Many video games and MMORPGs already have highly-organized communities, with players setting up and maintaining wikis and even generating content for the games. Can video game designers do more to harness the power of their player communities by giving players an opportunity to contribute more content and add to the storyline? Games such as Half Life and Neverwinter Nights (among many others) already give PC players that ability. How can this be extended to console players? What are the benefits of utilizing the community formed around games? In regards to ARGs, how can the communities formed during game play be better utilized? Could ARG designers incorporate more ways for players to add to and influence the storyline?
Community is already essential to the success of video games. As John Bates of Entropia Universe pointed out at the conversation on Monday, games that don't form and nurture a community of players ultimately don't generate high sales. People, Bates pointed out, are more interested in other people than in AIs, even when they're playing a highly-immersive and cinematic game. Since video games are re-playable or, in the case of MMORPGs, pervasive, the communities formed around the games tend to be self-sustaining.
But what about ARG communities? Ken Eklund, lead designer of the award-winning game "World Without Oil", pointed out that players who involve themselves in game communities could be deputized to continue story and community management. The impact of "World Without Oil" on its community has not faded entirely, and in a sense the game continues as players maintain some of the changes they made to their lifestyle when the game was "in play". Although the game has ended, teachers can find lesson plans for their classes on the WWO website, allowing the dialog opened by the game to be moved outside of the game's boundaries into learning environments.
Hazel Grian spoke briefly about plans for the community of her new game, The Sky Remains, which is set to launch this April. The community of the game, it is hoped, will sustain itself and stay active organically as the players continue the story, adding to the fiction of the world.
Steve Peters pointed out a few drawbacks to maintaining ARG communities once the games have ended. ARGs are not generally "re-playable"; they create a unique experience within a limited time frame. Once a game is over, in-game communities may become "ghost towns" as discussion of game content diminishes.
"I like people to play where they live," Peters commented, meaning that ARGs can play out in numerous communities on the web without puppetmasters having to create in-game communities. For example, "Year Zero" played out in Nine Inch Nails forums and Vanishing Point players primarily congregated on the NeoWin forums. He also pointed out that once a game ends, eventually in-game communities and online game assets have to be shut down if they're incurring maintenance costs. This can be tough for both players and designers. In the case of Last Call Poker, he said, people who had played the game continued to visit the website after the game ended - to play poker! - until the site finally closed.
What I took away from both the panel on Saturday and the core conversation on Monday was that the gaming world is evolving and branching out as technology advances and becomes more integrated with our daily lives. Gamers, too, are evolving and looking for content that is engaging, immersive, and interactive. Serious games have found a niche in the game world as game designers turn society's search for "fun" into a dialog about social and political issues. Gone are the days when video games or role-playing games were relegated to the basement. Games of all types are more popular and more social than ever. I think ARGs and video games can learn a great deal from each other, and it's important for designers of both to continually re-evaluate and incorporate new technology and social trends into their games.
One of the panel attendees pointed out that people don't want to find themselves a game to play - they want to find themselves playing a game. As someone relatively new to ARGs, I remember the excitement of checking my inbox - and my mailbox - for clues, watching billboards and commercials suspiciously, waiting for the game to reach out to me. To create a game that reaches out to its players is difficult to imagine from a game designer's point of view. However, designers of video games and ARGs can strive to tap into the childlike sense of wonder in all of us that wants to be amazed... and included.
Image courtesy of b_d_solis.
Posted by Brandie Minchew at 9:44 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2008
Harvey Dent campaign shut down (in Chicago)?
In early March, the "I Believe In Harvey Dent" campaign for The Dark Knight kicked back into gear. IBelieveInHarveyDent.com was updated to become Harvey's campagn website, with downloadable flyers, stickers, and posters. It also asked people to promote Harvey Dent for District Attorney by taking photos and videos of their efforts, and uploading to the website, much like the "Why So Serious?" Halloween campaign where the Joker asked people to submit evidence of their allegiance to his cause by painting their faces and photographing themselves in groups at their nearby landmarks. Harvey Dent's campaign, however, has a travelling "Dentmobile" and a schedule of stops across the United States.
Today, one of the Dentmobile's first stops - Chicago, IL - may have taken a rough turn. Hollywoodchicago.com reports that after a mere three minutes, the campaign was shut down by Chicago police!
Two people (who knew what was going on) reportedly made it to the Dentmobile before they were closed down. As user Vlkers54 describes the scene:
"...I was at the 8 a.m. stop. I got there at 7:30 a.m. and I sure am glad I did. At 8:03 a.m., the cops came and kicked us out! Only me and another guy showed up, but we did end up getting a lot of free stuff (including) bumper stickers, posters, buttons and a T-shirt.You should have seen the people as they were coming out of the train station:
"Who is Harvey Dent?"
"What is this all about?"
"Is this for that movie?" (We responded: "What movie? 'No Country For Old Men?' That's a movie!")We kept "in character" and promoted Harvey Dent for (district attorney) as if he were a real person. Confusing people was a lot of fun. Some people did catch on to what was going on. Even middle-aged men who knew who (Harvey Dent) was were excited, (asked) for buttons and filled out the petition forms."
This may be much ado about nothing, however, as we hear through the grapevine that the fine police officers of the Windy City were much more understanding of the situation after learning that the campaign was for Gotham City District Attorney. This coincides with an update on the Hollywood Chicago article which states that the 11 am event went off without a hitch. Regardless of how events actually played out, it must have made for an exciting time in Chi-town.
Posted by Geoff May at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
March 9, 2008
World Without Oil wins big at SXSW
Yes, that's right -- World Without Oil, the socially conscious alternate reality game that kicked off in April 2007, has won the Activism award at this year's SXSW Web Awards!
Although word is just now coming in, and there's no official note on the SXSW web site, we're happy to be able to congratulate the team, including our very own Marie Lamb and Michelle Senderhauf!
Posted by Jonathan Waite at 9:24 PM | Comments (0)
March 5, 2008
The Lost Ring: Taking the Blindfold Off
It's been three days since Find the Lost Ring launched with a fanfare of posters and yarn. Since that time, players and puppetmasters alike have been busily fulfilling the prophetic messages written on vintage Olympic postcards. The game traces a story fraught with mystery and intrigue across the globe in so many languages, you'll be glad you studied Esperanto in university. You did study Esperanto, didn't you?
If you've been reading ARGNet recently, you might be able to guess one of the developers behind the curtain. However, it's now official. According to the Lost Ring development team,
The Lost Ring is a global alternate reality adventure created in partnership between McDonald's, AKQA and Jane McGonigal. Designed in collaboration with the IOC, The Lost Ring invites players from across the globe to join forces online and in the real world, as they investigate forgotten mysteries and urban legends of the ancient games. The Lost Ring recognizes McDonald's historic sponsorship of the Olympic Games, and brings the spirit of the Games to people around the world.Jane McGonigal adds that she is "so thrilled to be collaborating with these organizations to create what we hope will be the most global ARG, ever. This is really a dream project for me - we are bringing together the two kinds of games, ARGs and the Olympics, that have the power to engage and unite people all over the world." So far, the game is succeeding admirably, with characters interacting with players in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Esperanto.
If your curiosity is piqued, a brief review of what's happened so far is waiting for you after the jump.
March 3, 2008 -- Find her...
Monday morning, the website findthelostring.com went live, introducing our protagonist Ariadne. She woke up blindfolded in a corn maze outside of Johannesburg with no memory, Olympic-calibur athletic skills, and a tattoo bearing the words "trovu la ringon perditan" -- Esperanto for "find the lost ring." With the help of Kai, she set out to find what is happening to her.
March 4, 2008?? -- Find the others...
Over the next few hours, players discovered others suffering similar plights. Awakening in a maze blindfolded with no memories and a mysterious tattoo. Diego describes his situation in Spanish, while Markus speaks German. Noriko speaks Japanese, Mei-Hui speaks Chinese, and Lucie speaks French.
Larissa, who speaks Portuguese, doesn't bear the rather striking tattoo, but these events sound all too familiar as she relates her experiences with Renata, who appeared four years ago in similar circumstances before disappearing. Don't worry about all of the languages, however -- a dedicated cadre of translators stand prepared to decipher whatever comes their way.
March 5, 2008?? -- Find him...
Earlier today, an advertisement on the UK Olympic website led the curious to Historian Eli Hunt's website, The Lost Games. He speaks of a secret sport played in the Ancient Olympics that involves blindfolding the athletes. He also describes the agonothetai, six ancient Game Keepers tied closely to the Olympics.
March 11, 2008?? -- Find the secret...
On March 11, Jane McGonigal is delivering the keynote address at SXSW. This wouldn't be the first conference presentation dropping hints for the game, so perhaps more will be revealed there.
Click Here to join the discussion at Unfiction.
Click Here to visit the Lost Ring wiki.
Click Here for more Lost Ring themed lolcats.
Image courtesy of Geoff May (and Jersey)
Posted by Michael Andersen at 9:52 PM | Comments (6)
March 2, 2008
Save the world at the 2008 Beijing Olympics
FINDTHELOSTRING - No, there's no "lo" string, nor a string named Thelo - but there is a lost ring..somewhere..and we need to find it, to save the world. Apparently. By August 24th.
On Leap Day, I received a package via FedEx, which was followed quickly by reports from others who received similarly couriered packages from "T.L. Ring" in San Francisco, CA. (Could T.L. Ring be "The Lost Ring"?) The package itself was quite curious, filled with a number of items forming a mystery begging to be unravelled.
First off, there's a large poster advertising the 7th Olympiade in Antwerp, Belgium. Two things stand out -- the year 1920 (the package originated from 1920 Olympic Way), and a short message written on the back: It's a secret someone has been keeping for a very long time.
Next up, each package contained three photos -- old photos of locations related to the 1920 Olympics. When all of the pictures from the discovered packages are taken into account, there's quite a variety, and it seems the three photos people got are fairly random. However, on the backs of these photos are written our call to arms:
March 3, 2008
Find her...
March 4, 2008??
Find the others...March 5, 2008??
Find him...March 11, 2008??
Find the secret...
August 24, 2008
Save the world.
It should be well noted that August 24, 2008 is the date for the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. Save the world - at the closing ceremonies? Looks like something big is going down. The mystery doesn't end there though, as each package also contains a ball of yarn, of varying colours. Some received a mixed brown/white/blue ball, some green, some red. Perhaps it's a clew? (clew: n. a ball or skein of thread, yarn, etc; Classical Mythology: the thread by which Theseus found his way out of the labyrinth.) "Unravelling the mystery", one finds inside the ball of yarn a small fortune message. On the back of the message, text that seems to be the key: "You will soon discover an alternate reality. The adventure begins when you meet Ariadne. www.findthelostring.com"
Ariadne, in greek mythology, was daughter of King Minos of Crete. She fell in love with Theseus who volunteered to kill the Minotaur; Ariadne gave him a number of things including a ball of red thread which he used to escape the Minotaur's labyrinth. Everything's connected!
Visiting Findthelostring.com at this point tells us the site is being constructed for Ariadne:
Ariadne... hang in there, my guys are working on the site as we speak!
I had to call in a lot of favors to get something built so quickly... but trust me, you're going to love it, it's exactly what you need. I'll get the guys to work all weekend on it, it should be up first thing Monday morning. Get the video ready, I'm sure someone will recognize you... -- Kai
As the hours tick towards March 3rd, more people are reporting delivered packages, all around the world, including Sloan from Current TV who video-blogged his experience. Packages have arrived in the UK, Canada, United States, even Germany, and more are sure to show up. Whoever knows this secret wants the world to help reveal it.
What's interesting about the 1920 Summer Olympics? The Olympic flag bearing the five rings we know today was first unveiled. Was there supposed to be six? Suffice it to say, whatever this secret is, it has definitely been kept a very long time - 88 years to be exact. What is this "missing ring"?
Stay tuned for Monday March 3rd, when we attempt to "Find her..."
And now to let my cats tear apart play with Theseus' ball of yarn.
Join the discussion at unfiction
Help track the mystery at the wiki
Posted by Geoff May at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)