Month: March 2005 (Page 2 of 3)

Perplex City Hits the Street

March 19, 2005 / Steve Peters

Perplex City continued its journey “up the lift hill” in the form of a live meet with an ingame character in front of Abbey Road Studios in London today. Players watched events unfold on the streaming webcam of the scene, where players found clues planted around the intersection, and finally met up with someone named Dinah, who handed out envelopes filled with clues.

The initial clues indicated that a Dinah would be a little late, but would arrive before 1:00 pm, and that she would require a password, which was also hinted at. When Dinah did arrive, the dedicated London ARGers approached her with the password (which was “exchange”), whereupon she handed out envelopes that contained code-laden sheets and a Perplex City postcard. Breaking through the various codes, players revealed a log of emails between characters, with a little more backstory on Perplex City history.

All in all, this was a great way to kick things off, giving PC players a chance to meet each other in person right from the start, not to mention getting handed a clue from someone from the game. While we think Perplex City is just reaching to crest of the lift hill, we’re going to go ahead and change its status to Now Playing.

Discussion at Unfiction
Chat in #syzygy
Primer
Netninja Reference Pages
Player Video from Abbey Road | (mirror)

Two ARGs Sharing One Mind

March 18, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

In news that was shocking to players involved in the Synagoga and Wildfire Industries ARGs, they were actually playing… the same game!

In a plot twist revealed earlier today, players of the Synagoga game were given information that confirmed that the two games are indeed one. Reaction has been generally positive across all discussion boards, so chalk this one up to ‘pleasant surprise’.

Persistence

March 14, 2005 / Steve Peters

Last week, we reported on a greeting card we received here at ARGN. While we couldn’t make heads nor tails from the card, the intrepid folks at unfiction discovered a trail of similar greeting cards that looks like it does indeed lead to what looks like an Alternate Reality Game.

Players have found two websites so far: vagabondsojourn.net and astrostole.com, which in turn leads to a forum entitled Persistence. The story so far seems to involve eight characters who are on the run from someone/something. The story has involved some good puzzles, and the posts on the board are reminiscent of previous bands of hackers that have shown up in various games past.

While very intriguing so far, it’s still tough to say exactly what this is, or how deep it will go. Time will tell. YMMV.

Discussion at Unfiction.

GDC 2005 Spotlights Alternate Reality Games

March 12, 2005 / Steve Peters

As Elan Lee took to the stage to accept the 2005 Innovation Award for I Love Bees at the Game Developers Choice Awards on Wednesday night, Alternate Reality Gaming stepped off of the sidelines and into the spotlight. Lee, on behalf of his team at 4orty2wo Entertainment, thanked the players, and made a special point of thanking Microsoft and Bungie for showing trust in their vision of producing an Alternate Reality Game that would promote the release of Halo 2. I Love Bees was one of three games presented with the Innovation Award this year, the other recipients being Katamari Damacy and Donkey Konga. During the presentation, a video teaser featuring various ILB website pages, photos of crewmemebers and soundbites from some of the live calls highlighted what a unique form of entertainment I Love Bees truly was.

The games that win the Innovation Award usually cause quite a stir at the Game Developers Conference, and this was no exception. There was definitely a resultant buzz going on the following day, with many attendees talking about what I Love Bees, Alternate Reality Gaming and Pervasive Games in general are all about. These questions were answered when I Love Bees was featured in a session on Experimental Gaming on Thursday, led by ILB Puppetmaster Jane McGonigal. Jane was able to talk at length about what I Love Bees entailed, and what the concept of Alternate Reality Gaming is, giving specifics about gameplay, community aspects, and the “This is Not a Game” philosophy. Jane is also one of the forces behind the current I Love Bees exhibit at UC Berkeley.

The Innovation Award and subsequent Experimental Gameplay presentation definitely got people’s attention, with many developers expressing deep interest in jumping on the ARG bandwagon. However, the folks at 4orty2wo Entertainment were tight-lipped about what projects they may be currently working on, for obvious reasons.

Complete List of 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards Winners

Dare to Look up to God

March 7, 2005 / Steve Peters

Well, it seems there’s never any shortage of strange things received in the mail around here at the ARGN ultralounge. Today, we received a cryptic greeting card, which is not unusual, being the popular folks we are. At first we thought it was just another birthday card, but the greeting was a little……odd:

“Dare to look up to God,” it advised. Erm, OK. Either someone was very concerned about my eternal well being, or it was….A CLUE! Looking closer, the background revealed faint text and a series of tables with number on them. Inside, it was simply an unsigned page with the text, “Do You Dare?”

Well, yes we do, as a matter of fact, so the ARGN staff leapt into action and promptly went off to the internet anagram server, which led us to Good Polkadot Route, which of course led us to goodpolkadotroute.com, which led to……….nothing.

OK, seeing as we’re getting ready to head out to the Game Developers Conference, things were promptly turned over to the fine folks at Unfiction to chew on. So far, nobody’s solved anything, but there’s no telling where these things may lead. After all, we didn’t think much of that bear full of honey last summer, and look where it took us.

So, chalk this up as another mystery ARGN delivery, for what it’s worth. YMMV.

Discussion at Unfiction.

In other news, stayed tuned throughout the week for reports from the Game Developers Conference 2005 in San Francisco. Folks are about to take major notice of Alternate Reality Gaming, and we will be there to report on all the fun!

Ares Station Launches

March 3, 2005 / Steve Peters

If you’ve been looking for something to do while waiting for Perplex City to get going, your search may be over. An alert reader sent the following email to the ARGN tipline this morning:

Subject: 49276D20696E76697369626C652E

I walk through the plastic halls. I see you on your blue planet so far away. Your whispers, once a week bursts, tell me you think my home is your salvation.

Rejoice! Rejoice! You will use us, downtrodden miners and sterile scientists, as a stepping stone to the great beyond.

You don’t see us as people at all. You should be ashamed.

Just like her.

Orbital Colony? Something else? A little soon to tell for sure, but it looks like there are multiple websites/blogs from the year 2083 A.D. to tear apart in the meantime. We’ll keep you posted as things progress.

Discussion on Unfiction.