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April 22, 2008

A-Mazing Event in San Francisco

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. --R.A.H.

Over fifty people gathered at Sutro Heights Park in San Francisco this past Sunday to practice the ancient sport of "Labyrinth Running" which, according to the recently-launched Alternate Reality Game, "Find the Lost Ring," was lost in 393 A.D. when Theodoseus banned the Olympic Games. Find the Lost Ring is an ARG designed to promote the upcoming Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China in August, and is sponsored by the McDonald's Corporation. It officially launched on March 3, 2008, shortly after trailhead clue packages were received by various ARGonauts and media sites.

The ARG is conducted in several languages and has gained popularity all over the planet. It was reported that at least two other training events were taking place that day in other parts of the world, including in Brazil, which country holds one of the largest interested groups of players of this game that isn't a game. It is scheduled to run through to the closing ceremonies of the Olympics on August 24, 2008.

Although the event was organized by two players, Tom Bullock (aka Ariock) and Lenore Henry (aka hmrpita), it was also acknowledged by the game, and an in-game character named Kai announced early that he would attend the practice run. Lead designer and avant-gamer Jane McGonigal also appeared at the event and offered to help organize and referee the training.

Labyrinth Running requires a team consisting of one blindfolded person who will attempt to escape from the center of the labyrinth to the outside, the "Runner," and several people to form the path through which the Runner will pass, called the "Walls." Since the Runner is blindfolded, the Walls must lead him or her out using auditory cues without speaking. Humming is the preferred method and those Walls in front of the Runner will do so while those Walls the Runner has already passed will silence their hum so as not to mislead the Runner. Once he or she has passed by a Wall, that team member must run around to the tail of the line of Wall members and form up again.

There are generally less Wall members than would be required to line the entire circuit of the labyrinth, so they must constantly shift the covered section of the labyrinth down the line to keep up with the Runner. This can be quite challenging with a fast Runner, prompting a good deal of frantic dashing and laughter as Walls collide. The entire group wins when the Runner successfully completes the circuit without breaking through or crossing over a Wall line and without getting turned around and heading back into the center of the maze. Walls are forbidden from merely directing the Runner out, hence the humming, and cannot give clues if the Runner starts going the wrong way. "No coughing," admonished McGonigal.

Players began arriving in the park in the early afternoon and, using chalk and lengths of rope or twine that were knotted at consistent intervals, laid out two three-circuit labyrinths and one gigantic one with seven circuits. Once they were drawn, the group was split into two and each half began practicing techniques, and trying to determine their fastest Runners, on the smaller circuits.

"It was tough finding a good spot to be responsible with a bunch of people running around blindfolded," said Henry. The event had originally been planned to be held in Golden Gate Park but a concert for Earth Day put the kibosh on that idea. She found the spot, which had a beautiful view and great weather. An alternate location she had considered was in the Palace of Fine Arts.

Both organizers agreed it was also important to have at least one person available who had experience in laying out a labyrinth, in order to speed along the process of setting up.

Jane McGonigal, design lead for the ARG, was pleased at the turnout and agreed heartily that the event was a success. "I learned so much about the game from other people thinking of new strategies and new techniques. It's awesome."

New strategies doped out during the day's runs included a suggestion by Seth Ball, aka Cineball, that Walls at the pivot points of turnabouts hum louder and track around the pivot as the Runner passed by, and hopefully around, them. This reporter also suggested that wall members at the outside end of the line hold up their hands so that other Walls could easily locate the correct direction to run. It was confusing at times determining where to go during the furious action, especially when Running the larger seven-circuit labyrinth.

Runs were timed by players who had brought stopwatches or had timer applications on their cell phones or PDAs. Fastest times were recorded for both circuit sizes and since the seven-circuit labyrinth had not yet been attempted by players anywhere, the latter times were considered by attendees to be World Records. On the smaller circuits, records were set by TheAdam at 22 seconds, DavFlamerock with 29 seconds, and Lex, a gentleman visiting from Holland with his wife, who scored an even 30 seconds. On the larger circuit, Lex blew away the competition with a fastest time of two minutes and 30 seconds, followed by TheAdam and DavFlamerock tied for second place with two minutes and 58 seconds.

Termed a "huge success" by Bullock, "It was good to see so many enthusiastic runners."

"I had a blast!" agreed Ball. He also offered advice to other players who wanted to try this out, such as checking locally for events, keeping an eye on Yahoo! Upcoming, or just going for it and organizing their own group practice run.

The organizers even brought treats enough for those who had signed up on the event announcement at Yahoo! Upcoming. Maple-bacon cupcakes were a huge hit, according to Bullock, who obtained them from the Cups and Cakes Bakery. Said co-organizer Lenore Henry, aka hmrpita, "Anyway, this cake is great. It's so delicious and moist."

Live events are Jane McGonigal's favorite part of Alternate Reality Gaming, who enjoys gathering large groups together in one space to collaborate in real-time. Her techniques often encourage friendly physical contact between strangers, as with the Wall members wrapping their arms around their neighbors to solidify the line. "Isn't it great that you don't even think about it? You're so in the moment that you just hug everyone."

One attendee named A.J. Margolis was the first woman to run a seven-circuit labyrinth in modern times according to McGonigal. Margolis only learned of the event through the SF-based blog, Laughing Squid, not having really followed the Lost Ring. She enjoyed the non-competitive nature of the labyrinth run. "I'm not too into the game aspect, I just like doing random, absurd things with interesting people."

All photos © Sean C. Stacey, Used with Permission.

Posted by Sean C. Stacey at 2:34 PM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2008

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 31, 2007

Vanishing Point Game Does Not Go Gently Into That Good Night

On Saturday, January 27, 2007, at 5:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, a sizable crowd of two to three hundred people had gathered on the hill at Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington, across from the brilliantly lit gas works. An enormous projection screen had been erected on the flat ground between the structure and Lake Union, where colored lights strobed atop police boats that formed a cordon around a darkened barge floating in the lake. As the clock ticked over to the top of the hour, hundreds of eyes aimed themselves at the video now winking into existence on the screen.

This was Loki's final message to those few of the hundreds of thousands of players of the Vanishing Point Game - a promotion for Microsoft's upcoming release of the next version of its Windows operating system, Vista - who had managed to be present for the final live event of the game...and to witness the final clues to the identity of "Loki" and her secret to winning, among other things, the grand prize trip into space.

In the video, Loki recounted her mission and praised the progress of the players so far. Photographs from previous live events flashed across the screen, along with screen shots of web sites and message boards that had been involved in the campaign. As the video ended, a single white flare shot out over the lake from behind the screen, music swelled from strategically placed loudspeakers, and the crowd was bathed in bright hues as broad brush strokes of flame painted the sky, synchronized to the wicked techno beats tumbling their way up the hill.

The volume of the fireworks display was only briefly rivaled upon the finale, as the crowd burst into cheers and applause.

Vanishing Point Game was perhaps the most successful puzzle competition to date, with available prizes worth half a million dollars. It was produced by 42 Entertainment for Microsoft and apparently co-sponsored (or at least co-branded) by AMD, a microprocessor and graphics chip manufacturer and Intel's largest rival. By all reports, the volume of active participants in the game exceeded the producers' expectations by a handy margin.

The campaign consisted of four online virtual puzzle boxes, the opening of each coinciding with live events in locations around the world. Clues were projected on the faces of buildings, written in the sky with smoke, and the whole shindig was kicked off by a video projected on the waterspouts in front of the Bellagio Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. As each box opened, players attacked the dozen puzzles revealed, collaborating in online chats and message forums. In addition to the puzzles released each week, an over-arching meta-puzzle challenged players to find Loki.

In Seattle, both the video and fireworks contained some of the final clues participants required in order to solve the twelve puzzles revealed in the final box that evening. Keen-eyed players searched for patterns in the shapes and sequences produced by the exploding shells.

After the display, the milling crowd was directed to a stand of waiting buses, which had been outfitted with butcher paper lining the side windows so as to obscure the view. As they boarded, riders were admonished by an irascible gent to "look straight ahead, and don't try to peek out the windows."

The trip was short to Fremont Studios, where an after-party was prepared for attendees, hosted by Microsoft. They pulled out all the stops, with catered food, hosted bars, a live DJ, pinball games, and wi-fi all provided gratis. T-shirts were available, printed on the front with "I disappeared on 01.27.07" above a Vanishing Point logo wreathed in smoke, the back listing the "tour dates" of the campaign's live events.

Performance artists depicted famous people who had vanished - the theme of the evening - and in some cases managed to convince players that they held clues to the Vanishing Point puzzles (they didn't).

The evening's success was only slightly marred by production problems related to the high-definition video of the final clues at the park, as the media company contracted for the purpose had trouble uploading their video to the game's server. But some players were able to use the hosted wi-fi and laptops to post their own versions later in the evening. Other players were perhaps less altruistic, as this reporter spied one individual attempting to email himself clues from an unattended personal laptop at one point during the evening.

Although the contest and prizes were unavailable to Microsoft employees, those intrepid programmers were not left out in the cold by Vanishing Point. The character Loki, ostensibly the "puzzle master" behind the entire campaign, had an actual office on the Microsoft campus, according to Steve Peters of 42 Entertainment, one of the actual puppet masters behind the puzzle master. Stickers were placed around the campus to attract the attention of employees, and provided directions to the curious that were intended to lead them to Loki's office. There, the observant might have noticed some strange patterns of tape stuck to the office window. In fact, if lined up at just the right angle, one could match up the tape with the Seattle skyline, and a bullseye marking the spot. Solving this puzzle would have provided the successful employee with an invitation to attend the endgame festivities, but only one individual was reported to have done so.

The final meta puzzle revolving around the identification of Loki's identity was solved by players late in the evening of January 30th, though the name of the player who will step into homes everywhere with their name engraved on the AMD chip has yet to be revealed. According to the Vanishing Point Game website, the sweepstakes winners will be drawn February 1-2, and the winners for both the sweepstakes and the AMD chips will be announced publicly on the game's website beginning on March 1st.

Posted by Sean C. Stacey at 9:46 AM | Comments (1)

September 30, 2006

PICNIC '06, Day Three: Creating New Markets

Lorraine Twohill, Google's Marketing Director for Europe presented an excellent keynote address on how Google has leveraged its original core search service to expand existing and create new marketplaces on the internet, packing what seemed like two hours worth of information and anecdotes into a half-hour presentation. She discussed the rapidly changing user experience within the networked environment. Users were originally "pushed" information in similar fashion to traditional media such as television or newspapers. Technologies such as RSS feeds and improved search engines allowed consumers to "pull" only the information that they wanted or needed. Most recently, newly innovated sites and resources have enabled those average citizens to join the content creation marketplace and to publish their works to a global audience.

Google's mission has always been to assist its users in finding the information and resources they want as quickly and as easily as possible. Ms. Twohill stated that Google's goal with the search site was all about getting the user off of the site as soon as possible; if they are able to point a user in the proper direction in a fast and simple fashion, it is more likely that user will return again later and become more loyal to the service.

It is well-known that the internal Google environment encourages its employees to contribute ideas and innovations for the company's use. About 70% of work time is spent on improving the core search services, 20% is focused on developing all of Google's other offered products such as Gmail and Google News, and the remaining 10% on truly new innovation. Google allows its employees one day out of every week to work on their own private projects. If a project seems useful, the employee will be given a couple of engineers to work with and will develop the ideas in the Google Labs. This process is how most or all of their related products have been produced.

Google watches trends in the marketplace as well, in an attempt to pre-position themselves for continuing future success. She discussed the huge increase in broadband penetration throughout the world (except for the sorely lagging United States) which has enabled consumer creation, remixing, and sharing of richer content. User created video has exploded recently with hosting sites such as YouTube and Google Video. An excellent example was the recent well-known soccer match in which former player Zinedine Zidane headbutted another player. The video was passed around and remixed by thousands of people, who posted more than 23,000 related videos to public hosting sites.

Another trend that is gathering steam is increasingly easy and available access to information technology. Mobile devices allow connection to the 'net from almost anywhere, and projects such as MIT's one hundred dollar laptop will help provide access to populations that cannot afford traditionally spendy computer technology. Getting everyone wired will only increase the level of consumer participation and information sharing.

And there is a pent up demand for self expression. This is the heart of the definition of Web 2.0: that people want to be seen and heard, to have an audience, to be a part of a community. Google has opened APIs for some of its products, such as the personalized homepage portal on their core site - accessible by registering a free Google account - allowing the audience to create modules that any other user can place on their customized page. The explosion in gadgets submitted was no accident, as it scratched that creative itch for module authors.

The internet is new creative playground. Edgy content can not only survive but become extremely popular on the internet where traditional media such as television might refuse to even show it. An ad agency for Ford Motor Company produced a series of 'net-only commercials for the Ford SportKa, an automobile model unavailable in the states. But many many thousands of U.S. citizens watched the commercials on the internet along with their global brethren, which had scenes such as a bird getting whacked by the car's hood as it flew over and being flung away thus preventing the bird from ruining the car's paint job as they do so well, and the even more questionable version with a cat being decapitated (via special effects) by a SportKa's sun roof. These commercials were extremely popular on the web, and their humor helped to build Ford's brand in its targetted market. Some traditional television commercials show up on the web in extended versions, such as the recent Bravia commercial with the colored balls bouncing down a street in San Francisco. Consumer creators can have brilliant success as well, as demonstrated by the "Chinese Backstreet Boys," campy lip syncers who uploaded several videos that were viewed hundreds of thousands of times, and who eventually were even signed by Motorola to star in commercials promoting Motorola products.

The main point of Ms. Twohill's presentation was that the internet today is enabling everyone to play, rather than just the traditionally commercially supported agencies and artists, and where everyone can have a global audience if what they create holds appeal for others. The world of Alternate Reality Gaming is no stranger to this phenomenon, as it was mainly supported in the early years almost completely by grassroots productions. Some of those creators have already gone on to work professionally within the genre for commercial productions. The future may see even more user-created games as more tools and resources become available and as they become easier to use, which one hopes will provide more opportunities for success both for creative artists and the genre itself.

Posted by Sean C. Stacey at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2006

Toronto wakes up to Alternate Reality Gaming

Coming in September, 2006, that ever-progressive Manhattan of the North, Toronto, Ontario, will be hosting a new alternate reality game "of urban exploration and intrigue," according to TorGame, a non-profit organization based in the city. TorGame bills itself as "dedicated to the exploration of public space, and a unified identity for Torontonians" on its website. It is an all-volunteer operation that, with Waking City, is attempting its first alernate reality game production. Some ARGonauts may recognize the name Tony Walsh in the list of contributors, however, as he collaborated on both seasons of the ARG production "Regenesis" with Xenophile Media.

The game will be played in public spaces out and around the Toronto area, and will include in-game interactions with characters by telephone, email or instant messaging, and in person. In an interesting twist for veteran players, Waking City requires that players form into teams and register their teams before playing. Teams may have from four to seven members and must pay a fee to register which ranges from $100 to $125 (CA) per team. The registration fee is said to only cover expenses of producing the ARG.

TorGames should be commended by local ARGonauts who work during the week for scheduling their planned live events for the weekends. This reporter has been frustrated on many occasions by live events that were held on weeknights or during common working days, making wide participation difficult save for students, those with flexible schedules, or the unemployed.

More information about Waking City and registration sign-up can be found at the official TorGame site.

Related links:
TorGame
Official Blog
Xenophile Media
Tony Walsh's Secret Lair

Posted by Sean C. Stacey at 7:52 PM | Comments (0)

May 5, 2005

Touch Me, I'm Perplex City

As reported earlier this week, the Perplex City ARG has recently ignited a few flames of contention within the ARG community with its controversial announcement of what appeared to be a pay-for-play model based around collectible puzzle cards and, more shockingly, the possible payout of a large reward. Indeed, a prize of £100,000 (about $200,000) may be claimed by whomever locates the Receda Cube, Perplex City's pet McGuffin Device, and returns it to its rightful owners (assuming Perplex City's ownership of the mysterious cube is indeed rightful).

These developments have brought up plenty of questions, from whether the announced reward is real (it is), to whether players will have to buy puzzle cards in order to continue playing the ARG (they won't), to concern about whether a large cash reward will end up factionalizing and splintering the existing community of players (maybe, but hopefully not). It certainly seems as if the recent "Group 333" launch managed to cry havoc and let loose the dogs of Meta across the forums, blogs, and news sites that populate the ARG community space. Opinions a-plenty can be found everywhere, many based on little to no concrete information, yet liberally daubed with some speculative glue to hold them together. A recent article posted to the Perplex City Sentinel helped to clarify some of the aspects of the game as related to the puzzle cards, but the best way to find out more was to secure an interview with one of the Perplex City Puppetmasters. Unfiction.com spoke at length with Adrian Hon about several issues related to some of these revelations.

Interestingly, the Puppetmasters like to play themselves as in-game, speaking as if the existence of an alternate universe containing a puzzle-consumed civilization that has developed independently of, but with many striking historical and cultural similarities to, our own was not to be questioned. Mind Candy Design isn't to be considered just another production company - instead, it's billed as the Earthly liaison for the inhabitants of Perplex City helping them to their quest of having their national treasure returned. "All of this isn't just a bit of fun - Perplex City needs the cube to be returned," said Hon.

According to Hon, the cards are both a part of the game and not, being able to stand on their own as a separate product which just happens to be set in the same universe as, and provides additional background for, Perplex City. The puzzle cards aren't the alpha and omega of Perplex City - the search for the Receda Cube is its driving motivation and plot. Nonetheless, the puzzle cards will give players an extra glimpse into the Perplex City universe and flesh out their understanding of the world being created (or, as they might have it, simply revealed to us) by the Puppetmasters.

According to reports from those of the Group 333 who have already received their parcels, the cards really can stand on their own, as the production value of the card sets is high, and, as seen on the forums, the six puzzles shown to players so far are interesting, not insultingly easy, and of a diverse nature. The solutions to the puzzles on the cards do not seem to rely on knowledge of Perplex City and the ARG, but at the same time they do provide Perplex City trivia and atmosphere. The backs of the cards have sections of a large map of Perplex City itself, as if a jigsaw puzzle had been fashioned into a deck of cards, adding atmosphere to Perplex City, perhaps acting as another doorway to the ARG, capable of drawing in more ARG players.

Alternate Reality Gaming is far from a mainstream genre, though it continues to grow and experience successes such as the recent I Love Bees game, produced by 4orty2wo Entertainment, and the currently running Audi promotion, The Art of the Heist. One of the recurring questions that has been bandied about for years is whether or not it is possible to build an ARG around a self-sustaining business model. Generally, any discussion of this question will encompass the idea of a subscription model, which usually ends up being shot down as unsustainable without a much larger audience than is available. Such an idea becomes more of a chicken and egg question, boiling down to how to attract enough people to the genre in the first place before beginning to charge them to play.

In the case of Perplex City, Mind Candy Design has come up with an extremely clever way to sidestep this dilemma by introducing their puzzle cards. With the expected purchase price of a pack of cards to be around five dollars, if a pack a month were purchased by a player, the hit to his pocketbook would be about equivalent to that from his XBox Live subscription. Yet a subscription is not a perfect analogy for the cards, because they offer in themselves a tangible product, rather than access to a product, and more importantly, are not required to play Perplex City. "It's simple enough," said Mr. Hon, "the person who returns the cube to us will receive £100,000. That person can do whatever they want with the money. They may not even have a single [card] point to their name!" In fact, Hon also implied that it would be more difficult to locate the cube and win the reward by only playing the cards than it would be by only playing the ARG, "since a strong familiarity with Perplex City will be required to figure out exactly who took the cube, why, and where it is now."

This approach also sets up the potential for an interesting scenario in which the puzzle cards could become popular, drawing their own audience that outstrips the audience formed around the ARG, and in fact financing the free Alternate Reality Game without the ARG players having to pay a dime. One would hope those players of the Perplex City ARG would wish to support the game themselves by buying a pack of cards now and again, but it's entirely possible they would never even have to do so. Many will obviously be encouraged to, however, by the promise of increased depth added to the game by the information and clues on the puzzle cards. Certainly, it becomes harder to complain about the puzzle cards requiring a purchase when it turns out that neither the purchase nor the cards are necessary in order to play the ARG. On the other hand, a similar uproar may be heard from the collectible card game and puzzle-solving communities when they discover the Perplex City cards and realize they are being "required" to fund the associated Alternate Reality Game.

The puzzle cards may not be a perfect solution to ARG funding, though. As with any collectible, an aftermarket for the cards, especially uncommon and rare cards, will likely spring up as they gain popularity. Unfortunately for Mind Candy Design, such resale of cards between players will not contribute to the coffers of Perplex City as they only stand to earn royalties on the initial sales of card packs. Perhaps knowledge of this caveat will encourage the ARG players who purchase cards to refrain from reselling them and stick instead to trading with other players. It is, of course, impossible to stop resale completely, and those who are interested only in the cards will likely have little compunction to recoup some of their expenditures by reselling cards they do not want.

This brings up another clever move made by the Puppetmasters: the ability to receive clues to card solutions by sending a text message to a denizen of Perplex City. Such clues are available via return text for a small charge (in addition to any carrier or service costs levied by the players' cell phone operators), generating another revenue stream that is dependent on the puzzle cards yet not dependent on their initial sale. The desire of the holder to text for a clue to solve a card may be amplified by the inclusion of a "leaderboard" at the Perplex City site, where according to Hon, its purpose is to display individual achievement in solving the puzzle cards, providing an ego-boost for those who are into rankings or who wish to play in a competitive manner. "To be honest, I don't think that many forum community players will care about the leaderboard that much. I believe the real interest will be in the search for the cube," said Hon.

Adjusting to new ideas can be difficult, especially when those ideas appear radically different from the norm or seem on their face to have discounted past failures in their vein. But don't discount Perplex City just yet: it must be noted that Mind Candy Design has been working on Perplex City for at least a year and likely spent more time prior to the initial announcement of the game. Those in charge are unlikely to have simply ignored the history of the genre or to have given no thought at all to how their ideas may be received by the ARG community. It is also clear that the Puppetmasters have set their sights, and rightly so, on a much larger target audience than that comprised of our little niche in the gaming world. After their initial reactionary shock, maybe the Perplex City players will embrace these new methods of funding and delivery and find them to their liking after all. In fact, perhaps the card collectors out there could fancy up a list of local gaming shops that might like to carry a trial run of Perplex City cards for the Puppetmasters' use. Heck, send the list to Scarlett and tell her to pass it on.

For more information, read the full interview with Adrian Hon at Unfiction.com.

Posted by Sean C. Stacey at 8:29 AM