MovieViral’s most recent RepoCast features an interview with Geneva Conventional along with Lone Shark Games’ Creative Director Teeuwynn Woodruff and hunters Shinma22, fubarcrew, BiggKat77, semisweetCJ, and eviltikimonkey describing Ciji and Usman’s capture, as well as their efforts to catch the other two runners.  Additionally, the Repo Men website has released an official statement announcing the capture, raising a number of questions:

How could two runners be so blind (especially as Thornton had a top-of-the-line Ocurity eye) as to miss someone sneaking up on both of them? Didn’t they have a feeling deep inside (perhaps in Usman’s Nephrolux kidney) that they could both be caught doing one of their individual Groundswell tasks? Will Groundswell loosen its restrictions on the other two runners, Alex Gamble and Will LaFerriere—or will the noose tighten even more?

Now that there are only two runners, the noose seems to have tightened significantly for artiforg payment defaulters Will and Alex. Adding to the challenge, Lone Shark Games has announced that the remaining artiforgs are infected with the “Ides of March” virus, requiring the runners to complete a task by March 15th to ensure their GPS coordinates remain masked. Furthermore, Woodruff implied that there will be “other things that need to be hunted down this week” for additional rewards.

Geneva Conventional, now $15,000 richer, offered the following encouragement for other potential Repo Men. “Make sure you keep up to date with all of the sources of information, keep an open mind to different theories and approaches, and get the hell out there! Two runners and over two weeks left. I have faith in my fellow hunters.”

Click Here to join the hunt for Will LaFerriere and Alex Gamble.
Click Here to watch Geneva Conventional recount the capture on YouTube.

Expedition will bring to life some of the dark yet droll inhabitants of Fallen London, the Victorian-inspired universe of Echo Bazaar, a browser-based RPG with strong social and narrative dimensions. Well-received since opening for beta late last year, Echo Bazaar has been nominated for The Escapist’s Best Browser Game of 2009.

In Expedition, amnesiac players have been drawn to the V&A at the behest of Mr Mirrors, enigmatic Master of the Bazaar and “purveyor of the frangible and the fine.” Travelling the halls of the museum, participants will encounter possibly allegorical strangers who can help participants recover their memories after revealing some cryptic secrets. In addition to cards and puzzles, participants will be treated to “glimpses of some new Fallen London back-story and splotches of [contributor] @emilystaubert’s trademark salacity” as they try to learn who they once were.

Much of Echo Bazaar’s draw comes from its unique manner of storytelling. Fallen London’s creators experiment heavily with “ideas about coalescent and participatory narrative: using simple choices and mechanics with rich, untidy stories,” according to Chief Narrative Officer Alexis Kennedy. I won’t claim to understand what Alexis is saying (ever), but the minutely detailed world and the whimsical but sophisticated prose built into Echo Bazaar has attracted quite a few members of the ARG community to Fallen London, and likely, to the V&A to join in this one-of-a-kind experience.

The deep decadence of Fallen London is a stark contrast to the realities of running a homegrown, shoestring company. Echo Bazaar’s popularity has presented scalability problems in the past, but scant (often volunteer) assets keep the game running and even growing. The upcoming Prisoner’s Honey, slated for beta this spring, promises to be another ambitious and popular project.

Being approached to put on a live event presented another challenge to the barebones team, since Failbetter Games has no background in offline games and no resources to spare. As curators for Sandpit Night, Hide&Seek suggested A Door In A Wall, live event designers with a knack for physical puzzles, as ideal collaborators. In one of ADIAW’s recent events, A Brush With Death, over 130 participants interacted with 7 live characters, as they investigated the mysterious death of an art critic, exploring dozens of London locations.

The Sandpit is Hide&Seek’s regular evening of social and pervasive games, variously taking place in galleries, railway tunnels, and other spaces. As a “testing ground for new games,” Hide&Seek claims that the Sandpit has seen over fifty games within the last year. An Expedition with Mr Mirrors runs all evening, and participants can dip in and out to explore the museum and check out the other games. The entire event is free, but space may be limited. For specific details, check out the Hide&Seek official event page.

As the update’s description suggested, Portal’s radio service has received an upgrade.  Players can now carry the device around the game’s levels, using it as a portable receiver to detect morse code and Slow Scan Television transmissions at specific locations to transmit 26 messages and images, collected here.  One of these images contained the phone number for a BBS located in Kirkland, Washington.  By inputting a username and password provided in one of the morse code transmissions, players gained access to the backup system for GLaDOS v.3.11, the game’s artificial intelligence system. 

The GLaDOS backup system is used to archive a collection of Portal-related ASCII art, along with additional content, including the following cryptic message from Cave Johnson, the founder of Aperture Science and developer of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device:

…and do not talk to me about casualty rates. The bean counters told me I couldn’t fire a man for bein in a wheelchair. Did it anyway! Ramps are expensive. Or when they said I couldn’t practice beekeeping in the office. They should have told that to the honey that won first place in the state finals!

Hell, they even said I couldn’t cheat death. You know where I’d be if I followed the rules? Dead! Dead, and prize-less!

Speculation and analysis is flying fast and furious in discussions at the Steam forums, the SomethingAwful forums, NeoGAF, and Unfiction. Does this new content mean Valve will be releasing Half-Life 3 or Portal 2 in the near future? Will Valve co-founder Gabe Newell have an announcement when he accepts the Game Developer’s Choice Pioneer Award at GDC on March 11th? And will there be cake?

Click Here for a guide on locating the 26 transmissions and unlocking the “Transmission Received” Achievement.
Click Here for video streams of the Valve BBS.

For the next month, three simple words can cost these four runners $7,500. Any registered hunter in the country can repossess the runner’s artiforg (artificial organ) by getting within speaking distance of them, uttering a three word phrase, receiving their codeword, collecting their artiforg, and calling their Union rep using the runner’s phone.  Promoting the upcoming release of the movie Repo Men, this alternate reality game will test the abilities of Ciji, Will, Alex, and Usman to remain undetected against an onslaught of investigative skills from “bounty hunters” nationwide.

People following the hunt for these four individuals at wired.com/repomen and through the #repomen hashtag on twitter will become intimately familiar with the lives of these four brave volunteers. Do you have what it takes to learn everything there is to know about these individuals, track them down, and collect their artificial organs?

There are Google Maps to track verified sightings of the Eye, the Heart, the Liver, and the Kidney. Each artificial organ has been spotted in Los Angeles (although the Heart is reported to be in “Lost” Angeles)…where they’ve gone from there is up to you to find out.  The hunt has commenced in earnest, with new discoveries about the four targets being made by the minute.

Join us Monday, March 8th on the ARGNetcast for an interview with Lone Shark Games about this exciting chase.

Click Here for previous coverage of the Repo Men hunt.
Click Here for coverage on the previous hunt for Evan Ratliff.

UPDATE 1:  The blog Dread Central received a special package from the Repo Men team earlier today containing dossiers on the four runners along with some truly impressive items:  posters, a copy of Wired Magazine, and a cooler containing a replacement brain.

UPDATE 2:  According to Wired Magazine Senior Editor Nicholas Thompson, further clues are hidden in the March issue of Wired.

As the day went on, more cities went live and more drops were collected.  Except for a glitch or two (the Toronto package was taken before the player could reach it, and the Madrid drop was never recovered) the drop collections were rapidly collected and the codes were entered.  Finally, when Las Vegas and Sydney were the only locations left, the “No” Bit under the card icons changed to a “Yes” Bit.  Clicking on the Bit led to a new site, The Pit Cell.

The Pit Cell contains information on an “exclusive limited event” to be held this Saturday in 4 different IMAX theater locations – New York, Los Angeles, London, Toronto; and a fifth on Sunday in Sydney.  Ticket distribution starts today at 4PM EST (9PM GMT), on a first-come, first-served basis.

However, that wasn’t all – clicking on the card icons revealed a piece of a picture on the reverse side, in much the same way as the original Tron trading cards did. Once all the cards were collected and reversed, the image resolved into the picture shown on the Pit Cell page.  At the same time, a small graphic next to the “Yes” bit started flashing a code in binary, similar to the one used for the countdown clock.  After a bit of trial and error, the solution was discovered, leading to a new in-game discussion forum.  The forums are scripted, containing posts from Flynn Lives organization members, but there are several interesting posts with links to two pictures which, when put together, appear to reveal another drawing of a lightcycle.  There is also an interesting video that shows how the Bits several players received were made.

That’s a lot of information to get in one day, and there is every indication that there is plenty more to come – a number of players now possess phones, and the character-driven message board is likely to reveal more information as we approach the Tron: Legacy release date on Dec 17, 2010.   So be sure to stay updated with the campaign here on ARGNet, and at the discussion at the Unfiction forum.

Click Here for Miss Selector’s bilingual recount of picking up the Paris drop.
Click Here for pictures from the San Diego drop.
Click Here to visit the wiki at Wikibruce.com.

Players can now manage their profile information to provide contact information to “[g]et information, assignments and important artifacts through regular post/mail” and “[g]et quick updates via phone and text for important coordinated activities on the ground.”  These profiles can then be linked to players’ Facebook accounts to post Badges and Honors. 

Stay tuned throughout the day as events unfold!

As Repossession Specialists, hunters will be seeking out the four individuals previously selected, to “retrieve ‘artiforgs’ [Union-branded artificial organs] from the possession of users who are seriously behind on their payments.  Successfully retrieving an artiforg results in a $7,500 cash prize.  In order to hunt, however, prospective Repossession Specialists need to submit a job application.  The site clearly states that “[o]nly registered Repo Men who follow all local and national laws and Union rules are eligible to receive cash for artiforgs.”  The teaser page now links directly to Repo Men’s Union Cares website, so it looks like the contest will be at least partially integrated with the ongoing viral campaign.  Registration to hunt as a Repossession Specialist hasn’t opened yet, but should become available any day now as the countdown approaches zero.

Clues for the game may come in unexpected places, so players are warned to keep their eyes open.  The teaser specifically charges potential hunters to “scan our posters and media for valuable information,” so stay sharp!  Maybe that string of numbers under the Repo Men title means something after all…

Click Here for MovieViral.com’s coverage of the Union Cares viral page
Click Here for the discussion at Unfiction.com

According to Creativity Online, this viral campaign was created by 42 Entertainment. 42 Entertainment previously received numerous accolades for its alternate reality gaming campaign Why So Serious, which created a series of discrete live events and challenges to immerse players within the seedier side of Gotham City that had players finding cellphones in cakes, campaigning for Harvey Dent, and locating customized bowling balls.

It seems as though 42 Entertainment is trying for a repeat performance, as ComingSoon.net has reported that Puerto Rican tipster Angel Bidot has received a package from Flynn Lives containing an origami a plastic Bit and the message “/zerohour.” RobMagus also reported receiving the package earlier today. At FlynnLives.com/ZeroHour, a binary countdown is counting down the seconds until February 24 at approximately 11AM EST (8AM PST, 4PM GMT).

Click Here for the discussion at Unfiction.com
Click Here for the Tron wiki at Wikibruce.com 

Image courtesy of RobMagus

Speaking of countdowns, remember you only have until 11:59pm EST tomorrow (Tuesday, February 16) to enter to win an iPod Touch, courtesy of Running Press Books.

EVOKE was developed by the World Bank Institute, the educational branch of the World Bank Group, and directed by Jane McGonigal, the creative mind behind Superstruct and World Without Oil (among many others) and most recently an invited speaker at TED2010. The alternate reality game’s mission is to help the world help itself, by empowering young people to tackle the world’s toughest problems. In the first episode, the year is 2020 and Japan is facing a nation-wide famine. The Governor of Tokyo sends an “EVOKE” to the mysterious Alchemy, who then activates the Evoke Network by contacting individuals with the necessary skills and ideas needed to help Tokyo avert her food crisis, and teach her people how to avoid it in the future.

During the 10 week course of the game, players will be presented with 10 different challenges involving topics like hunger, poverty, and education – one challenge per week. Players who participate in all 10 challenges will be honored as a “Certified World Bank Institute Social Innovator – Class of 2010.” On top of that, the top 10 Social Innovators will also have the opportunity to be mentored by noted social innovators and business leaders, along with scholarships to the EVOKE Summit in Washington, DC to share their innovative ideas with the world.

The goal of the game? Fun of course! But the main goal is to teach the young people of the world skills such as networking, resourcefulness, creativity, and vision; empowering them to start solving the world’s problems. Teach the people, save the world!

EVOKE launches on March 3rd and is accepting membership reservations now, and discussion is brewing over in Unfiction. Also, the first graphic novel episode can be read in its entirety on the EVOKE homepage, including links to articles for additional information on the topics discussed in the episode and a video trailer with clues about the nature of the EVOKE Network.