Month: November 2006 (Page 2 of 3)

Ny Takma Says Goodbye, PM Chat Scheduled

November 23, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

The Ny Takma alternate reality game, which began on September 30th, has reached a successful conclusion. It was an ARG soap opera of sorts — Bryan and Chaya, aliens which have had their love for each other transcend the boundaries of time, got back together, thanks to Kendra, who opened the Ark, releasing Chaya. John, the ladies man, tackled the two lovers, which resulted in the three of them becoming trapped inside of the Ark. This left Kendra alone and full of sadness at the fact that there is no one left here on Earth to call a family. The story elements aside, what made this endgame special for the players was the fact that they had an impact on how the final events took shape. For those interested, there is a final video update at the game’s main website.

The PM’s will be having a chat in #nytakma on the Chat-Solutions IRC network tomorrow at 9pm CST (10:00 pm EST). You can access the chat room by clicking on the Chat tab at the top of the ARGNet homepage, and selecting the #nytakma room from the menu.

ARG Netcast, Episode 5

November 20, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

On the fifth ARG Netcast your panel gave to you… Sean C. Stacey, Brooke Thompson, Jackie Kerr and Jonathan Waite. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through FeedBurner or via iTunes.

Game News

VirtuQuest OpenARG 6.5 set to launch soon, available for the public.
Free! Psychic Readings ended yesterday.
EVA launches with allusions to the End of the World. A summary thread can be found here at the Unfiction forums.
Avelon 2 is up and running — a sequel to Avelon from 2005.
Correction from last week: Deus City ARG is not done by the Ares Station group. Ares Station group went on to create Studio Cyphers.
Deus City is one week old, and already there is game play controversy involving factions and separate password-protected forums.
The Human Pet is back under a new YouTube identity.

StudioCypher Back At It Again

November 18, 2006 / Nicko Demeter

StudioCypher Studio Cyphers returns with the release of the latest chapter of their multi-player novel (MPN), “The Cyphers”. This chapter, entitled Descry, starts with The Cyphers diving into the mystical world of rituals and spirits while following the experiments of a curious professor — experiments that might have gone a bit too far in the investigation of the paranormal.

What remains true from previous episodes is the overwhelming feeling of â€œspookinessâ€ and the This-Is-Odd factor that players experience when they first encounter an in-game site or clue. Also, the puppetmasters again seem committed to realism by emailing players individually (instead of canned responses from an auto-reply program) and by conducting IRC chats where the professor and his helpers interact in real-time with the players.

In past episodes/chapters, Studio Cyphers has worked with a subscription model where ‘Wakeful Agents’ (those who pay to play) get information more rapidly, or receive additional clues for game play. For Descry, it is not yet clear what premium content the â€˜Wakeful Agentsâ€™ are getting. Perhaps a more prominent or clearly defined set of benefits for the subscribing members would draw more players to participate in the paid version of the episodes.

A change of note is that this episode seems a more focused on establishing cooperative play between the players. This is evident by the number of players that currently use IRC and the Unfiction forums to discuss and solve the latest clues, which happened less frequently in previous installments.

To get started, head over to the Studio Cyphers Website and the Unfiction forum section for Studio Cyphers.

Free! Psychic Readings! Also Free! A Chance To Be A Human Sacrifice!

November 16, 2006 / Jessica Price

Among the myriad bizarre religious groups that have cropped up on the internet, one of the more humorous is the Church of Google, which argues that Google fits the criteria for a deity. We’re not so sure, but we will admit that it makes a pretty good psychic.

At least, that’s where we assume the puppetmaster of Free! Psychic Readings! is getting the information for his character’s cold readings, with varying and sometimes humorous results.

News of the game arrived at the Unforums via an anonymous tip sent to UnFiction’s SpaceBass, pointing to psychic Miss Corinn’s website. Capitalized letters in one of the testimonials on the site led to a blog written by Frank, a man who claims to have lost his job due to false accusations by Miss Corinn, a cheery Miss-Cleo-style psychic who can “gaze across space and time” to tell you what you need to know. Frank has dedicated himself to exposing Miss Corinn as a fraud, and information on his site thickened the plot considerably by directing players to the website for PhoenixFire Corporation, which promotes belief in the “metaphysical world,” claims Miss Corinn as a “project,” and supplies subjects for a Satanist coven to sacrifice. Add in Frank’s star-crossed love affair with the descendant of a psychic who started PhoenixFire Corporation, his death, and his posthumous communications with players, and you have a recipe for drama.

Deus City Launch

November 13, 2006 / Larry Eisner

Well, the time to wait is no longer. In fact, time as we know it may never be the same. Yes, that’s right! Deus City appears to have launched at 11:11:11am CST this past Saturday (That’s 11/11, by the way). And it appears that Brackin’s dissertation theory has proved to be quite true, with much more significance than even he thought possible.

Using some low-budget video (low quality, too, although it fits in well with the story) and some YouTube goodness, the Deus City main site updated with the final moments of the countdown, and some intriguing new developments. Team Brackin’s “communication across time using lasers and a precise location for transmission and receipt” concept appears to have worked flawlessly. However, the signal that was received was much more than anyone expected. Instead of hearing “himself from the future,” it appears that Brackin and his team were greeted by someone who claims to be the Senate Majority Leader and President of Deus City, from the year 2036. After the brief introduction, Brackin’s team received a “burst of compressed data” that is supposed to contain the information required to create a two-way, permanent communication system between Deus City of 2036, and Brackin’s team in 2006 (and thereby, you and me, dear players). However, as tends to happen with this sort of thing, there are many unanswered questions:

First of all, where has teammate “Foo” been for the last couple weeks? Can he be trusted? And why is there a blog with “direct feed” video attached, apparently from him? What kind of information will the “near half-terabyte” of information in the data burst hold? Finally, what kind of “history change” will be required of our players to assist Deus City? Only the future will tell (quite literally, apparently).

While we wait for the answers, this is an excellent time, be you a seasoned ARG veteran or a new player to the genre, to get involved at the ground floor of what looks to be a well-planned, and intriguing Alternate Reality Game. As always, we here at ARGNet will keep you updated with any major developments and breaking news!

Click Here for the Deus City Blog.
Click Here to join the discussion at the unfiction forums.

VirtuQuest Open ARG 6.5 Announced

November 13, 2006 / Carie Ward

VirtuQuest has officially announced that they will be launching Open ARG 6.5 which will be playable to the general public. After a summertime hiatus, VirtuQuest is back in full force completing their newest ARG, as well as branching out into more traditional web development venues. While we don’t know when or how the newest game will start (ARG developers are always so secretive about these things), rest assured that we will alert you as soon as any new information is received. Players of previous VirtuQuest games will want to keep their eyes and ears open for any unusual communications, and while they are waiting, might want to check out the VirtuQuest Gallery where examples of previous games have been archived. If VirtuQuest’s Fall 2006 memo is any indication, there just might be a tie-in to one of their previous games.