Month: August 2006 (Page 1 of 3)

LonelyGirl15 – Is She or Isn’t She?

August 29, 2006 / Dee Cook

The white-hot spark of a YouTube user named LonelyGirl15 has set the dry timber of the summer Internet community ablaze. Ostensibly the video blog of a teenaged American girl named Bree, the 23 videos posted so far have chronicled a budding romance with a boy named Daniel, but there’s a twist: Bree’s family is very religious, she is home-schooled, and she has pledged a “purity bond” with her father. Even stranger is the fact that Bree’s religion is never named, and in fact on various comments on YouTube she has said that it is not mainstream – “We’re not Christian or Buddhist or Hindu or anything like that.” There’s also a mysterious picture of famous occultist Aleister Crowley on Bree’s bedroom wall, above a candelabra which she’s vehement that Daniel not light. And wait – that Crowley picture is new – it used to be something else (could that possibly bear a resemblance to Baphomet?) A dark twist, indeed.

Buzz has it that the videos are too pat, too scripted, and too professional looking to be anything but some sort of viral campaign. Indeed, the clues are there. Bree initially gained an audience by making engaging and humorous videos featuring popular YouTube users. She’s very cagey about revealing any personally revealing information about herself, often completely dodging uncomfortable questions. Perhaps more telling is the fact that a vanity website under her name was registered on May 12 – almost two weeks before she showed up on YouTube. Those following the saga wonder how she knew she would become an Internet sensation before posting a video (her excuse: Daniel did it to tease her).

Steorn: A Game or Not A Game, That Is The Question

August 24, 2006 / Brooke Thompson

Last Saturday, a small company in Ireland began getting some attention for promising the world free energy. Free! Can you imagine? The social, economic, and political ramifications are huge. Not to mention the scientific ones. For hundreds, thousands, of years people have lived by the law that energy is not free – it takes energy to create energy. Proving that this truth is actually false shakes up countless of theories long accepted as fact. So, who are these brilliant scientists and where is that proof?

Steorn. And they came out of nowhere. This huge, momentous, and guaranteed nobel prize winning discovery, was created by a former e-commerce and security firm that happened to stumble upon the technology while working on something completely unrelated. However, they say, when working on monitoring a new system they discovered that there was a net increase of energy when everything they (and the world) believed told them there should be a net loss. And, instead of tying this groundbreaking technology up in the world of academia, they wanted to make it public and to challenge scientists to prove that their technology works.

It sounds crazy and, whether or not this is true, it is.

It also sounds, based on the activity at Unfiction and the number of tips in our inbox, like the perfect premise for an Alternate Reality Game or a Hoax. Our ARG radar (ARGdar?) has been bouncing back and forth on this one and the debates in chat and on the forums have been great. So, let’s go through what we know.

Not For Noobs … Is It…?

August 22, 2006 / Brooke Thompson

5…4…3…6…0…

Yep, that’s right, another mysterious countdown has appeared and this one might just have something to do with a certain gaming console. NotForNoobs.com first appeared last week and savvy gamers will recognize the logo that appears as that of Razer, a company that makes gaming peripherals (that’d be controllers and mice and the like for you non-gamers and computer geeks out there). The signs linking it to the xbox are somewhat weak, but with a few logical leaps, it’s easy to get there. For example, an earlier version of the flash had Microsoft on Channel 1. And, the day that Gizmodo first mentioned NotForNoobs.com, Microsoft hinted at a new optional advanced controller that would perform better when making precise movements.

So, why is ARGN talking about this? Is there an ARG? OMG NOWAI ILB2!?! Let’s not get excited. It’s just a countdown with no other information. It may just end with a redirect to a press announcement for all we know. But, we do know that you all like to go crazy with the spec and watching countdowns count down is oh so much fun!

5…4…wheeeeee…6….oh

Follow up 8/23/06 : As the countdown came to an end, gamers everywhere let out a collective “oh.” as they received pictures of a shiny new gaming mouse, the Microsoft Habu, and a press release that detailed some of the unique features. How did we know that’s all we’d get? Such a waste of a good countdown, too. And, as if that wasn’t disappointing enough, the real wait has just begun. If you’re interested in this low sensitivity mouse with an advanced sensor that promises virtually no latency with the speed of a wired mouse and the feel of a wireless device, don’t go heading out to your favorite store today because you aren’t going to get your hands on the Habu until October.

The (dark) Cube Hunt

August 22, 2006 / Nicko Demeter

The San Francisco Connection for Perplex City came and went. Below is a brief summary of the events that took place.

Early in the morning several Cube Hunters gathered at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. With the doors still closed, the Hunters entertained themselves by listening to the podcasts, trading cards, and in general having conversations about the game. When the doors finally opened, Hunters were allowed into an area that contained several tables with free cards, a big screen TV with Guitar Hero, and a puzzle table for those that wanted to stretch their mental muscles before the main event.

On a wall, a projector was keeping track of the “solved” status for numerous puzzles. After several minutes of waiting, Hunters were told to gather to the amphitheater next door. There, representatives of Mind Candy explained that the connection between Earth and Perplex City had been severed and that only with the help of the Hunters would the connection be restored.

Stranger Adventures or Waiting Game?

August 21, 2006 / Nicko Demeter

“We want to let everyone know that we will release Daily Rage! very soon. Although we can not supply a specific start date…”

And so came and went another update from Tech Support at Stranger Adventures, an ARG that uses Flash technology to grant the user access to an interface in which they can gather clues, watch videos of the updates, and help solve the case.

After three runs on plots that spanned the period of days, Stranger Adventures announced that it will be creating the Daily Rage, an interactive self-concluding daily ARG. While the player base remained sceptical, the developers announced that the cash rewards (yes, winners there get real money) will continue with the Daily Rage and will be awarded to the winners, well, daily.

However, the already ambitious project seems like it has been placed on an indefinite hold. The SA fans, loyal to the core, proclaim that they will remain steadfast until the release of Daily Rage, yet plenty of them have already signed off. The updates from SA, while filled with ambiguity, hint that the release date is not far. We will remain on the case, as it were, and let you know when you can go visit and get your dose of Daily Rage.

I Died Here (and here and here and here and…)

August 19, 2006 / Marie Lamb

Hot off the ARGN Tipline comes news of a new ARG based in India. I Died Here is sure to appeal to anyone who enjoyed The Blair Witch Project. The basic story: three 20-somethings are staying in a guesthouse called Shanti Cottage outside of Mumbai (Bombay) that has a dark history. They intend to document their stay via cellphone pictures and video (promised) as an “adventure” to try to find out why there have been five suicides in the house. They have started writing about their experiences so far in a blog, and also have posted puzzles that need to be solved to reveal information they’ve collected so far.

Thus far, it appears they have arrived at the house and are experiencing odd events, like cold spots and eerie noises. There are also some alarming lemons that they need explained. Three out of the four puzzles posted have been solved, so don’t read the comments on the blog if you want to try your hand at them first.

Websites:
I Died Here (Trailhead)
Blog
Rohan Lives