Month: October 2009 (Page 2 of 3)

Interview with Tom Salamon, Accomplice Co-Creator

October 16, 2009 / Michelle Senderhauf

Below is an interview that ARGNet’s own Michelle Senderhauf conducted with Tom Salamon, co-creator of Accomplice: New York, Accomplice: The Village, and Accomplice: Hollywood. You can find details on participating in Accomplice at AccomplicetheShow.com.

MS: What made you decide to do theatrical performances in the wild rather than in a traditional theatre setting?

TS: A lot of the inspiration came from just loving to people watch in NYC, and all the quirky, crazy people that you see on any given day. Â We thought that if we could figure out a way to develop characters that would blend into the woodwork of the various neighborhoods, and have a way that our actors could identify our audience but not vice-versa, we could create an effect that felt like the city was filled with extras in our little story. Â We were also watching a lot of the reality TV of the day, and were interested in the sociological aspects of it, and thought that we could emulate the feeling of being on one of those shows for our audience.Â Â
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MS: Where did the idea for Accomplice come from?

TS: My sister (co-creator Betsy Salamon-Sufott) and I were on a walking tour throughout lower Manhattan a few years ago. Â While we were seeing all of these cool, out of the way spots, we found the tour guide boring, and thought that there might be a more exciting way to experience these locations. Â We thought we could design a program where people would get dropped into the middle of an adventure throughout the city. Â And while there were various gaming events that incorporated quick bits with actors, I donâ€™t think anyone had really taken the time to structure a story and cast legit improv actors, and give them room to breathe and be funny and engaging, and have a narrative unfold that the audience would be in the middle of. Â

MS: After signing up for an Accomplice performance, what should the customer expect? Â Do you have any suggestions on how to get the most from the experience?

TS: Come to have fun and play along – the cast loves it when you participate. Â Youâ€™re not role playing, youâ€™re just being yourself, so have fun with it and get involved. Â Also, a group of 10 is the best way to attend because youâ€™re with all of your own people, but if you donâ€™t have 10 itâ€™s no problem â€“ youâ€™ll be paired with others â€“ just work together!Â Â

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Accomplice Hollywood: Oh Nikki, Youâ€™re So Fine!

October 16, 2009 / Steve Peters

Steve Peters is a guest writer for ARGNet and founder of No Mimes Media.

A few weeks back, I was able to head to Hollywood to take part in Accomplice: Hollywood, a new interactive experience produced by Neil Patrick Harris, Tom Salamon and Betsy Salamon-Sufott, that takes place entirely on foot throughout Hollywood Boulevard and its neighboring streets. While the website bills the experience as a â€œluscious blendâ€ of one part Scavenger Hunt, one part Interactive Theater, and one part Walking Tour, (with all the good parts left intact and all of the bad parts sifted out), Iâ€™d add one part Alternate Reality Game into the recipe, for sure (câ€™mon Neil, get with the lingo). What was it like? Iâ€™ll do my best to explain without spoiling the fun. Was it any good? Read on and see.

After reading a blurb about Accomplice: Hollywood on some vanity blog, I said to myself, â€œHey! I live near Hollywood!â€ and promptly bought tickets for the missus and myself, along with cajoling a couple more friends to come along for the fun. We booked 2pm on Sunday, September 27th, and were told that weâ€™d be contacted the day before the event to be given instructions, including where to meet. In the meantime, we were told to visit NikkiDesmond.com to find out more. Go there now and watch the video (which is pretty funny, I must say). Iâ€™ll waitâ€¦

Not Your Ordinary PICNIC: Exploding Media, Part II

October 15, 2009 / DaniÃ«l van Gool

PICNIC 06 This articleÂ resumes our PICNIC coverage on day two of the conference, which focused on theÂ theme of “Exploding Media.” The second half of PICNIC’sÂ Exploding Media coverage explores brandingÂ campaigns, location-based entertainment, andÂ the development of special effects.Â

Jessica Greenwood, deputy editor of trendwatching magazine Contagious, took the audience on a tour of innovative branding and marketing campaigns that are all on the frontlines of the changing media landscape. One of the quotes she used in her introduction was one of Douglas Adams: â€œAnything invented before you were 18 has been there forever, anything that turns up before youâ€™re 30 is new and exciting, and anything after that is a threat to the world and must be destroyed.â€Â Adams’ quote raises anÂ interesting notion, indicative of how innovations are often received. Greenwood elaborated on several innovations in the marketing field that didÂ receive favorable receptions, and, probably more importantly, were also quite successful in reaching their goals.

The first case was Virgin Mobileâ€™s Australian campaign Right Music Wrongs, which kicked off with a video of musician Vanilla Ice apologizing for his music, asking the public to vote on whether he was guilty or innocent of â€˜music wrongs.â€™ The project had an initial budget of only $150k, launching an engaging campaign around the musician and the concert he was going to give in Sydney in March â€™09. It ended up reaching 22 million people and getting hundreds of thousands of people engaged in several online activities.

Breathe With Me

October 7, 2009 / Robbie Smith

breathe Last December, ARGNet announced plans for an upcoming game courtesy of Expanding Universe that promised to draw players into the underground club scene. The idea of a London-based murder mystery spanning several nightclubs piqued the interest of the ARG community,Â while the way Expanding Universe planned to incorporate and immerse players into that mystery drew national and international attention.

The game is set toÂ run for two weeks with multiple live events in London and three 15 minute videos. Breathe offers players the chance to not only interact with characters in real time, but also to help shape the narrative itself. Those brave enough to attend the live dance events will get the chance to socialize with the in-game characters and in all likelihood become characters themselves: possibly even accomplices to the unsolved crime.Â

This past August, players who signed up for the game at the Breathe homepageÂ learned thatÂ the months of waiting were almost at an end when theyÂ received e-mail invitations to a masked ball, â€œA Night of Xcess,â€Â a live event set to kick off the first episode ofÂ Breathe. Intrepid players next discovered Pleasure Principled, which included the dress code for the event, a list ofÂ performers attending, and instructions onÂ how to buy tickets to the ball.

Special Delivery

October 7, 2009 / Robbie Smith

Fans of 2K Games’ viral campaign, Something in the Sea had a strange encounter this past Saturday. Several players reported that they had received a mysterious telegram from the game’s hero, Mark Meltzer, advising them to be on the lookout for a package from him within the next day. The telegram itself was more than enough to excite the fans of the game, but what stood out the most to all the recipients was the deliveryman who knocked upon their door.

Mark avoided such popular delivery services as UPS, Fedex or even USPS and instead sent his parcels via Speedy Brothers. An apparent transplant from the sixties, the Speedy Brothers deliverymen made their deliveries on vintage bicycles and in full costume. One thoughtful player had the presence of mind to capture a picture of one of the rare and elusive deliverymen dropping off his telegram.

Players fortunate enough to receive the telegrams soon found themselves in possession of a splicer mask–one of the decorative masks seen in Bioshock 1 adorning the maddened splicers who attacked and harassed players throughout the game. Mark has continued his investigation into the disappearance of his daughter, Cindy, and he recently uncovered a warehouse full of Rapture artifacts. Players admired his find from afar until, unexpectedly, they found themselves in possession of the very same artifacts with a request for help from Mark.

While Bioshock 2 looms on the horizon, 2K Games is still pulling players in with an ever-evolving story and continued real world interaction. The success of Bioshock 2 remains to be seen, but the buzz and excitement 2K Games is building up around their product is readily apparent. Several video games have used viral marketing in the past but Something in the Sea continues to distance and set itself apart from those previous campaigns. The weekend deliveries made by the Speedy Brothers widen that gap and raise the bar for future campaigns.

A special thank you to Precarious from the 2K Games message boards for allowing the use of her photographs.

Evelyn Offscreen: A Brief Clarification

October 6, 2009 / Carie Ward

EvelynOffscreen Halloween makes everything weird. At any other time, a substantial number of overlapping clues would mean that two campaigns were linked in some sort of way. But throw Halloween into the mix, and what appeared to be a logical conclusion to a group of facts turns out to be nothing more than a set of bizarre coincidences.

ARGNet has been informed that the “Evelyn Offscreen” campaign is, in fact, not at all related to the Universal Orlando’s Halloween Horror Nights. While there was never direct confirmation in the game that the two were related, there were several coincidences that made it appear that they were.

1. A newspaper clipping posted in a comment to Evelyn’s blog mentions the Palace Theater. The Universal Palace Theater is a centerpiece of the Halloween Horror Nights experience.

2. Newspaper clippings shown in the videos about the Palace Theater talk about Evelyn Crane going into reclusion after a box office flop. This event is talked about in great detail on the Evelyn Crane blog.

3. The Evelyn Offscreen website talks about how live events will be playing in Orlando, FL. The Halloween Horror Nights with the Universal Palace Theater attraction is also taking place in Orlando. (The Universal Hollywood HHN has a different set of attractions.)

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused players.