Month: December 2006 (Page 2 of 2)

Wheeeee! Sammeeeees Wraps Up

December 14, 2006 / Jessica Price

The whimsical and popular indie ARG Sammeeeees concluded Tuesday with a hostage exchange, a mysterious ritual, and touching farewells.

The story centered around Mr. Alan Johnson, leader of a group called the Spoocheeeees who secretly ruled all world governments with power from a mystical disc, and a man who called himself Peeps, leader of the Sammeeeees who were trying to break the Spoocheeeees’ nefarious hold on power.

Players obtained the five pieces of the Spoocheeeees disk and its central serpent icon and Unfiction’s Konamouse performed the ritual to reverse the Spoocheeeees’ power. (See it on YouTube here.) Meanwhile, Peeps offered himself to Mr. Alan Johnson in exchange for the five Sammeeeees held prisoner. During a struggle with double-agent named Cathy who was attempting to rescue her son Dwin — one of the five hostages — Mr. Alan Johnson fell on his own knife, freeing both Peeps (who was, ironically, his estranged brother) and the hostages.

Ho Ho Ho, Ya Grinches!

December 5, 2006 / Jessica Price

If you’re looking for some seasonal puzzle fun, grab some eggnog and have a seat at your computer. The elves who man the ARGNet tipline have alerted us to what appears to be a holiday-themed puzzle trail with a trailhead on blogspot.

Are you ready to play the oldest sport in the world? asks the title of the single post on The Reindeer Games blog. Snowball McJinglebell, the recently appointed head of the Human Division of the Reindeer Games, is happy to announce that Santa has opened up the competition to human participation this year, and he and his fellow elves (including Holly O’Mistletoe, who, in a whimsical touch, makes iPods out of snowflakes) would like to invite you to try your skills on the puzzles at the Reindeer Games board.

The boards are password-protected (presumably the answer to each puzzle will be the password to the next) and the password for the first puzzle is provided at the end of the blog entry. It seems to be in binary, and the translation of the binary is half a Christmas-themed word, but it requires a bit of a guess to get the correct answer.

All of the other reindeer are playing, but they’re willing to let you join in this reindeer game, so head on over to The Reindeer Games Blog for a dose of puzzly Christmas spirit!

Bay City ARGers: The ‘Fest in Fogtown ’07

December 4, 2006 / Marie Lamb

It’s official folks: ARGfest-O-Con 2007 is coming to San Francisco and plans to leave its heart there the weekend of March 2-4. The focus will be on “How to PM a Game” and “The Future of ARGs” (working titles). Save the date! And after you scribble it down excitedly on your Dilbert calendar, or type it excitedly into your Nerdtastic Online Scheduler 6000XV, find your to-do list and write down the following: Help plan ARGfest.

Yes, this is your chance to jump in at the beginning and help put together the best fest yet. Rose, Unfiction regular and ARGfest NYC hostess extraordinaire, has once more agreed to helm the efforts to get this show up and running, and she would really like some local help to get logistics settled as soon as possible. Specifically, she needs people familiar with the city and its environs to suggest local venues for hotels, restaurants, amusements, potential field trips, and/or any other information about the area that you can provide. She promises you will not be overburdened.

We also need volunteers to suggest and help coordinate speakers/panels, and help run the registration process. You do not need to be local to do this.

Would you or your company like to help sponsor ARGfest? Contact Rose to discuss the possible arrangements.

PM her at the Unforum (user name: rose) or add yourself to the handy ARGfest-O-Wiki on the Help page with your preferred contact information.

See you by the bay!

ARG Netcast, Episode 7

December 3, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

We bring you a merry netcast,
We bring you a merry netcast,
We bring you a merry netcast,
The last one of the year (maybe)!

Carie Ward, Brooke Thompson, Sean C. Stacey and Jackie Kerr return to sling the ARG dirt with Jonathan Waite. Episode seven is a doozy, clocking in at 1 hour and 7 minutes, but it’s definitely something that’ll warm your heart this holiday season. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through FeedBurner or via iTunes.

Game News

A bit more on the Lost Planet ARG we talked about last week, which Carie wrote about on Wednesday.
Lawn Games For Life is sweeping the U.S. with geocaching and puzzle solving. Not only did Carie write about it for us here, but she also started a guide. You go, girl!
This is also our Puzzle of the Week, as the players need help getting to items left in the Southwestern U.S.
Steve Peters of 42 Entertainment continues on his cross-podcast tour with an exciting and informative interview with GeeksOn.
Enoch of Gatewood is new on the scene, but the story leaves us giggly.
The creator of Hell Is Not Gone asks for help in advertising their game, almost a month after players were first pointed to it. By him.
Jericho may have something ARGish brewing for their off-season, but if they don’t, it’d be a shame.
Second Life Future Salon panel discussion on ARGs took place on the 27th of November, we hope to have access to the audio from that discussion soon.
EDOC Laundry stirs back to some sort of life, partly by accident. Whatever the case, this might be your chance to get in on the ground floor, again.

EVA – The End of the World As We Know It?

December 3, 2006 / Carie Ward

It started (as these things so often do) with a cryptic website: in this case, a MySpace belonging to a mysterious entity calling itself EVA and bearing a disturbing message:

I have returned. Awaken[sic] by disturbance. The sickness of humanity. You have grown undeserving. The preciouse[sic] life you take for granted. a test. To prove your worthiness. to prove your will to live. Ensure your safety. The prophecy. When it is to be. none will be safe. to stop it. Take the challenge

The “challenge” appears to be a seven-round test, with each round based on a different world mythology. The author of the test, Ovdasupal, is challenging us to save Janna, whom he claims is his songstress and soon to be the mother of his child. Ovdasupal is being helped by the Scions of Punishment, who in turn have enlisted the Deceiver, Jonathan, to help them translate certain texts that would help their cause. Working against the Scions and Ovdasupal is EVA. EVA claims he is helping humanity as the Scions wish to bring a punishing purification to the human race. Although EVA also wants to purify humanity, he claims to offer a kinder, gentler purification, and may even give humanity to live if we can prove ourselves.

Steve Peters Gets His Geek On with Geeks On

December 1, 2006 / Jackie Kerr

‘Tis the season to be podcast, fa la la la la, la la go Steve.
Strike the gong and turn on the mic fa la la la la, la la Peters.
GeeksOn Podcast Interviewee fa la la la la la STEVE PETERS.
Talks about some ARGs and Gaming, fa la la la la, la la la la!

Steve Peters of 42 Entertainment sat down with GeeksOn for an extensive podcast interview on his work in Alternate Reality Gaming.

Covered during the nearly hour-long (!) discussion:
Â· Steve’s experience with 42 Entertainment
Â· History and general information about ARGs
Â· I Love Bees
Â· Last Call Poker
Â· Art of the Heist
Â· Technology in ARG production
Â· The 4th wall
Â· The process of producing an ARG
Â· Ninjas
Â· The future of ARGs, including their potential uses and Second Life

GeeksOn produces wonderful, pithy podcasts and their panel discussions are witty and intelligent. They even speak in alien, sometimes. (Oh geek <3) These guys ask some excellent questions about the genre and the discussion is wildly entertaining. Click to Listen