Month: August 2006 (Page 2 of 3)

Studio Cypher: Perfect Friends Forever

August 18, 2006 / Michelle Senderhauf

Studio Cypher’s second case, Perfect Friends Forever, concluded last month and players finally discovered who was trying to kill Madame Z, the psychic founder of the Perfect Friends Forever website.

Perfect Friends Forever is a friend matching service where six ghostly spiritual advisors examine and compare members’ spirits to pair up perfect eternal friends. Madame Z lives with these six spirits in the former residence of the wealthy E.S. Wylie and the most famous house in Bay Horse, MO. Just as the PFF service was about to launch, Madame Z received a grim warning, “Die Z”, written in plates and silverware on the floor of her bedroom. Yes, that’s right. Not only did the psycho madman threaten Z, but he threw grandma’s fine china on the carpet to do it!

Players joined forces with a skeptical gumshoe named Anton Jeffries and solved the case. Or did they? As the perp, an antiques dealer who wanted to find the hidden treasure of E.S. Wylie, was handcuffed and taken away to the big house he yelled out that the treasure was still out there waiting to be found. The Studio Cypher PMs have confirmed that the treasure’s location can be found in E.S. Wylie’s will. So those who are looking for a good unsolved puzzle to defeat, check out the thread about it at UnFiction.

Red Hot Timewaster

August 18, 2006 / Brooke Thompson

Looking for a fun, well written, and nicely executed experience?

Yeah?

Then check out the red hot summer campaign brought to you by Target. It’s not an ARG, but you’ll be able to follow along as a girl takes an impulsive trip around the US giving you little puzzles* along the way. Not only that, you’ll get a new song each week and have the chance to enter to win a little red convertable. Not bad! The whole run through should take you about a half an hour or so and, while it’s not as big or as in-depth as a full blown ARG, it’s a great little diversion.

*ok,ok, they’re not up to your standards and they pretty much give you the answer, but it’s still pretty cool.

Treasure Hunters: The Hunt Is Almost Complete. Will There Be More?

August 16, 2006 / Nicko Demeter

It started with an all-call at NBC for short audition videos of unique teams of three willing to put themselves on the line using their brains and stamina. From the submissions, NBC picked ten teams that would be emerged into a part-reality show, part-ARG, hunt for treasure. Teams receive directional messages via video and text messages to their cell phones, while driving, flying, sailing, riding, hiking, and climbing their way to the clues and, ultimately, the treasure. The game itself has hints of the movie National Treasure (with the music having a VERY familiar undertone to the movie’s score), and it educates the viewers and the participants in the mysteries surrounding the American Revolution and the initial creation of the United States.

This is the second endeavor of a TV network to place participants in an ARG-like situation, rather than running an ARG parallel to the show as in Push, NV, following Fox’s cancelled Murder in Small Town X. Will this show be more successful? So far they have managed something that seems to be important to current, large-scale ARGs: corporate sponsorship. The fact that companies bought into this plan gives hope that the ARG’s are not only the future of gaming, but the future of entertainment for the masses, be they participant or spectator.

The series comes to an end next week, airing live Monday, August 21 at 9pm on NBC. From the original 10 teams, three remain: Air Force, the Geniuses, and the Southie Boys. Tune in to watch the exciting conclusion of the hunt.

I Left My… Cube? in San Francisco?

August 11, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Another large-scale organized event for Perplex City is taking place tomorrow in San Francisco, California, hot on the heels of the almost-worldwide release of the fourth and final wave of Season One puzzle cards, which took place on July 31st. To help build up the hype machine for this event, the creative forces at Mind Candy Design have teamed up with buy.com and 1UP.com as official partners — there’s even a mini-game and Club at 1UP (http://von.1up.com and http://officialperplexcity-club.1up.com, respectively).

The event coincides with a plot development where the ‘Third Power’ has severed the link between our world and the world in which Perplex City exists, and players can expect this get-together to be a task-oriented affair. According to the Mind Candy Emergency website, “At 11am PDT on Saturday (7pm in the UK), (Mind Candy) be giving an emergency briefing both online at this website and at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco, detailing what needs to be done.” Will the participants save the day and be victorious against the Third Power evil-doers? Probably. In any case, it sounds like a heck of a way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and we encourage those in attendance to write in with your reactions and summaries of the day’s events for a follow-up early next week!

Editor’s Note: We are not suggesting that the Receda Cube will be found in San Francisco. It’s just a funny title, people.

PICNIC ’06 Cross Media Week

August 5, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

As we announced earlier this week through our Announcement Email list, the Alternate Reality Gaming Network is proud to be named as a network partner for the PICNIC ’06 Cross Media Week event. PICNIC ’06 is Amsterdam’s new annual event focused on creativity in cross media content and technology, specifically in the fields of entertainment and communication. The event will take place from September 27 – 29 at the Westergasfabriek, a cultural facility located in a former gas factory in Amsterdam. PICNIC â€™06 will include a conference for paying delegates as well as a public program which includes lectures, an exhibition, art installations and parties. PICNIC â€™06 is being supported by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, the City of Amsterdam and a variety of corporate and service partners. For complete information about the event, visit www.crossmediaweek.org.

PICNIC â€™06 organisers are expecting approximately 1000 delegates from Europe, North America and Asia. Speakers will include top creatives and entrepreneurs such as Michael B. Johnson, Moving Picture Group Lead at Pixar Animation Studios, Simon Guild, President and Chief Executive of MTV Networks Europe, John de Mol, Co-Founder of Endemol and Founder of Talpa, Craig Newmark, Founder of craigslist, Philip Rosedale, Founder of Linden Lab/Second Life, Jamie Kantrowitz, Senior VP Marketing Europe at MySpace, Lorraine Twohill, Marketing Director in Europe for Google, Marko Ahtisaari, Director of Design Strategy, Nokia, Reinier Evers, Founder of Trendwatching.com, Dan Gillmor, Founder and Director of the Center for Citizen Media, Marc Canter, Founder and CEO of Broadband Mechanics, Joseph Jaffe, Author of â€œLife after the 30-Second Spotâ€, Matt Locke, Head of Innovation at BBC New Media & Technology, Emile Aarts, Vice President and Scientific Program Director at Philips Research Laboratories, and many more. You can read more about the network partners at the PICNIC ’06 web site.

If you want to attend the event, we have great news for you. As a network partner, we are able to pass on a discount to our subscribers for three-day passes as well as single-day passes. Simply register by clicking here, then when prompted, use the promotion code provided to you through the Announcement List (click here to subscribe, if you haven’t already). That will enable you to get a total conference pass for â‚¬ 500 plus VAT (normal rate: â‚¬ 750 plus VAT), or a day pass for â‚¬ 300 (good for either Thursday, September 28th or Friday, September 29th).

ARGFest-o-Con 2006: Chicago – Geeks on a Train

August 4, 2006 / The ARGNet Staff

Due to the extreme awesomeness of ARGFest 2006: Chicago, one writer was not enough to cover all the excitement! Therefore, this article has been contributed by the combined efforts of Sean C. Stacey, Will Bagby, and Michelle Senderhauf. All pictures for this article are courtesy of Will Bagby, photographer extraordinaire.

On a balmy Friday in late July, ARGFest 2006 commenced, as Bagsbee was first on the scene at the scenic Holiday Inn O’Hare. After doing some reconnaissance on the area surrounding the hotel, he went for an early beer and beef jerky run at the local Dominick’s (where, as one suit-and-tie clad commuter on the check-out line commented wistfully, “that looks like a pretty good day right there”). EGo showed up later that morning, and the first of many ARGFest toasts followed soon after. Imbri and a pair of BYOSPers (thunderclap8 and INCyr) arrived, the group dined at the local Hooters, and were soon joined by ARGFest Hostess krystyn.

More ARGFesters trickled in over the course of the afternoon, another booze run was made by Aliendial and others, and everyone gathered in Room 215 (a.k.a. the BYOSP room) for some pre-dinner PS2 Karaoke. At 7 p.m., everyone piled into cars for a 30-second drive to Gino’s East for some famous Chicago deep dish pizza. The jury is still out on Chicago vs. New York-style pizza, although these reporters know the truth. More ARGers showed up during dinner, bringing the total to around 20. After dinner the siren’s call of Karaoke led the group back to the hotel for more hilarity, and some surprisingly good performances.