Month: January 2006 (Page 2 of 3)

Orbital Colony Puppetmaster Chat

January 23, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

As is tradition with the endgame of a successful Alternate Reality Game, the Puppetmasters of Orbital Colony have announced a post-game Puppetmaster chat to be held on Saturday, Jan. 28th. The chat will start at 7:00 pm EST (GMT -5) in the #inquiringminds channel on the Chat-Solutions IRC network. We have set up a linked chat page here at ARGN, located here, from which you can access the chat and, quite possibly, get a chance to ask your questions about the game and the experience.

From the announcement by bagsbee, one of the PMs: Since Orbital Colony started out as a training ARG, I would definitely encourage everyone to attend, even if you didn’t play the game, and especially if you are an aspiring PuppetMaster. Pretty much everyone on the team started out with little or no PM or BTS experience, and we learned a lot along the way. We would love to share our experiences with you, and answer any questions you might have.

We’ll see you all on the 28th — space elevators are optional.

ARGs Worldwide

January 22, 2006 / Dee Cook

The recent successes of Perplex City (UK based) and Regenesis (Canada based) have been a strong indicator that Alternate Reality Gaming is spreading around the globe. Two new developments, an El Salavador-based game and a German-based ARG news site, have helped to move the ARG scene even further into global play.

Agente X is a spy ARG based out of El Salvador. An early launch in December has netted the site far more signups than originally expected. The game promises to shake up the lives of those who are bored with the monotony of everyday routines. This is an ambitious project and would be worth looking into if you are a Spanish speaker.

Patmo.de is a new German language news site with articles on current events in the ARG world, including recent writeups on Who is Benjamin Stove, Perplex City, Araya Benedict, and Orbicon. The site has been added to our Blogroll.

We at ARGN would like to welcome Patmo and Agente X, and hope to see more and more worldwide interest in ARGs in the future.

Orbicon’s Stellar Finish

January 22, 2006 / Carie Ward

Orbital Colony finished up this weekend, finally answering the question as to what happened to Orbicon scientist Steven Mae.

The beginning of the end started when players discovered Cassandra’s blog on the Inept website. The mysterious Cassandra, who looked too much like Davina for everyone’s comfort, was on the station and that she was the one who had kidnapped Steven.

With the help of the players, Seth set up a trap for Cassandra. He would put up a fake blog post saying that more information of Steven’s had been seen in the Gardens. When Cassandra showed up to collect it, he would capture her. At 7:00 EST, players were able to listen in on what was happening in the Gardens. When confronted with the fact that she was caught, Cassandra collapsed, and gave Seth a clue to Steven’s whereabouts in case something worse happened to her.

At this point, the audio connection to the station is cut. Raider, the ever resourceful SAIPets robo-dog, is able to connect to IRC and the players start to help Seth decode Cassandra’s message. The name Cassandra provides was another directory on her website. Players had to solve a couple of different number slide puzzles before they got their answer. Steven was being held in the Level 13 Biolab V.

Rushing off to save Steven, station security protocols caught up to Raider, and he had to implement additional measures to stave off detection. Upon reaching the Biolab, Seth (with Raider and Stevie in tow) finds that Igor Bronco is there waiting. Igor had known what was happening all along, thanks to his elaborate security system. Igor’s plan falls apart though when his two daughters, Cassandra and Davina, walk into the Biolab instead of his security forces. When Cassandra pulls a gun on Igor, he grabs Stevie to use as a human shield. Unfortunately for Igor, Raider’s programming to protect Stevie kicks in and he attacks Igor, saving Stevie from both Igor’s clutches and the bullet from Cassandra’s gun.

With Igor’s plan uncovered, and Steven found unharmed, the Puppet Masters were finally able to come out from behind the curtain (u:steven.mae p:FLYHGGH). We would like to congratulate everyone involved in the game for a job well done.

Responses from the players have been positive, and we look forward to any new games that this group may put together. So if you happen to see any of those brave individuals who sacrificed their time and energy into this game, be sure to congratulate them.

A post-game PM chat is in the works, although no dates and/or times have been finalized. We will have all of the details on ARGN as soon as they are announced.

Methargo

January 22, 2006 / Larry Eisner

Just before 2005 died and rose phoenix-like into 2006, a little trailhead appeared on a blog, and Methargo was born. Apparently a grassroots effort, players have been trying to unravel the mysteries at play: What’s up with O. Parliament? Can we trust “mi55548″? What happened to Tom? Where and what is the prism, and what can finding it (again) lead to?

At the center of the story is Methargo Limited, which specializes in :new marketing”. It becomes very clear from the start that the company has some nefarious plans in the works. James Whitmore, an employee of Methargo Ltd., is becoming more and more disillusioned with the work he’s made to do, and according to his journal, he’s quitting after a very short time with the company. Separately involved, are Tabitha and Amanda Keeling, a mother and daughter, and the apparently deceased Tom (who is/was currently employed by Methargo Ltd. in a similar role to James?). Things aren’t as they seem in this world, and the plot is still evolving. However, while play hasn’t been fast-paced, there’s enough to keep a player interested, and the pacing seems to work well for casual onlookers.

So far, the game play has involved a garden variety of puzzles, including Morse code, vigenere ciphers, cryptic AIM conversations and some references to Greek literature for good measure. The game seems to just be getting off the ground, so it should be a good time for new ARGonauts to get themselves involved. Keep your eyes glued to ARGN for further information for this interesting game.

The Secret Life of Michael Adams

January 15, 2006 / Yulia Mostovoy

The saga of Michael Adams began when our hero sent some out-of-the-blue e-mails to various ARG players. Michael, who seems to have an intimate relationship with paranoia, had encrypted the message with Morse code, Vigenere, and base64. (All of that, just to essentially say, “Urgent! I need your help!”) A more recent communication was encrypted nine times over — It’s a good thing that there are so many online decoders out there.

Michael, it turns out, needs our help! (Although perhaps not as urgently as it first appeared.) His exact predicament is still a bit fuzzy, but we know that it involves a Prophecy, a Brotherhood, some Secrets, and an Item. Not to mention a Hero (apparently none other than our friend Michael) and a Traitor. Oh, and a Date and a Location. And some Capitalization.

Information (chock full of encryption goodness!) has been relayed to players via e-mail, text messages, instant messenger, and Michael’s Livejournal (in which old entries tend to get removed, so don’t despair if it looks empty). If you like messing around with online decoders, why not join in the Fun?

Editor’s Note: A recent development has been discovered from an email from one of the game characters. Apparently, there will be a live event for this game somewhere in the state of North Carolina in the United States, at some time tomorrow. We will continue to update this article if more concrete information becomes available.

Editor’s Note #2: The game came to a disappointing end before any sort of real world interaction was to take place. For more details on the first ARG casualty of 2006, see this post at UnFiction.

Let the Games Begin!

January 14, 2006 / Guy Parsons

The Perplex City ARG is branching out again – this time, the Academy of the puzzle-obsessed city is bringing its famous Games to both sides of the Atlantic.

On February the 15th, New York will be playing host to the first PCAG contest, where players will be locking horns in deadly puzzle combat… all in the convivial surroundings of a central Manhattan bar.

The London ‘freestyle Academy event,’ however, is significantly more ambitious. Billed as “the largest, smartest and most sophisticated live action urban game” and due to take place in late February/early March, teams of players will be roaming Central London in a bid to complete a series of challenges and seize victory.

Both events are open to everybody (no specialist Perplex City knowledge required), but you need to pre-register on the website, which also has more details on these exciting events.