Month: August 2010 (Page 2 of 3)

The Earthly Frames’ Debut Album Invites Remixing and Chaotic Fiction-Making

August 12, 2010 / Jane Doh

The Earthly Frames is a one-man band from Maryland spawned from the mind of web game developer Gabriel Walsh. Combining live guitar and vocals with samples from country, folk, and pop music, Walsh’s sound is a thick, heavy, and brooding experience pierced with beautifully melodic moments. Earthly Frames, Volume 1, is an album only available on custom USB drives throughÂ Perhaps Transparent Records.Â More than an album, though, the limited-edition custom USB drive contains the elements of a true piece of chaotic fiction in the making.Â In an interview with music blogger Lightning Fay, Walsh admits that this debut release from The Earthly Frames is a first attempt at exploring “ways a band and fiction or concept art could interesect.”

Each custom USB drive contains the five songs in The Earthly Frames, Volume 1, as well as samples (loop AIF files and RX2s) free to use in your own music. In addition, each drive contains a unique “fragment” file, which could range from images to PowerPoint Presentations to text files and more. Together, the files form some kind of chaotic uber-narrative, bringing together real and unreal elements of the somewhat autobiographical, certainly mysterious story of the origin of The Earthly Frames. Participants are encouraged to share the fragment files at a forum at Perhaps Transparent Records. There are already a few fragments posted for viewing and use.

A Super 8 Update: Rocket Poppeteers Blast Off at Comic-Con, Into Your Homes

August 8, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Image from the Rocket Poppeteer twitter account

Details about theÂ project code-named Super 8, a new film by J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg, are still ensconced in mystery. And while the movie’s viral campaign offers scintillating tastes of what the film may eventually offer, putting those pieces together is a daunting task, made even more difficult thanks to recent updates. What do vintage Rocket Poppeteers brand popsicles have to do with an antiquated PDP-11 simulator, and how does a collector of rare and unique fish figure into things? While this article will have few answers to these seemingly outrageous questions, it will provide some context for this alternate reality game as it circuitously provides a preview of things to come in the upcoming film.

Last May when ARGNet first covered the Super 8 alternate reality game, players were waiting patiently for a PDP-11 simulator designed by “D. Morris” at the Scariest Thing I Ever Saw website to finish downloading a file. Once the file transfer completed, players could print out two newspaper clippings bearing an advertisement for Rocket Poppeteers brand popsicles, along with some oddly placed redactions. Lining up the two articles and cutting out the redactions reveals a message that Super8News interprets as “No certainty if alive, [it/they] may be after us, we go underground.” Both Rocket Poppeteers spokesman “Coop” Cooper and PDP-11 programmer “D. Morris” have been linked to Dan Morris and Gordon Cooper, real people who play prominent roles in alien conspiracy theories.

The Rocket Poppeteers advertisementÂ served as more than the vehicle for an ominous message. Some players attempted to become a Rocket Poppeteer by mailing the newspaper clipping in to the listed address, andÂ subsequentlyÂ received a letter welcoming them into the Rocket Poppeteers Astronaut Program. At Comic-Con, the Rocket Poppeteer twitter account reported locations where conference attendees couldÂ visit anÂ ice cream truck for popsicles and t-shirts from friendly ice cream men (and women) decked out in old-fashioned apparel. The Rocket Poppeteers website has opened up for online registration, so it’s not too late to get in on the popsicle-related fun, however it relates to the upcoming Super 8 film.

Comic-Con Recap: ComiTRON

August 7, 2010 / Celina Beach

In 2008, Disney came to Comic-Con with some early conceptual footage for a movie that, at that time, was called TR2N. It received such strong support and generated so much excitement from the Comic-Con crowd, Disney greenlighted the project.Â Flash forward to the 2009 Comic-Con, where Disney presented additional footage for the now-titled TRON: Legacy. Fans were also led on a merry chase through San Diego leading to a recreation of Flynnâ€™s Arcade,Â where further information about the disappearance of Kevin Flynn was revealed.

FlashÂ forward again to 2010,Â where theÂ Flynn Lives alternate reality game ramped up through the release ofÂ online mini-games leading to live drops, movie screenings, digital badges, and real-life TRON artifacts. Meanwhile, buzzÂ for the movie increased as Comic-Con approached and TRON banners and signs appeared around San Diego. The news media started referring to Comic-Con as ComiTRON, which generated even more excitement and anticipation from the ARG community following theÂ Flynn Lives campaign as they started to wonder: would Flynnâ€™s Arcade return?

Conspiracy for Good: Into the Belly of the Beast to Confront Blackwell Briggs

August 5, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Image courtesy of stevecadman

This past May, Tim Kring launched Conspiracy for Good, and as the summer comes to a close, the events of the past few months are coming to a head for one final event this weekend in London. If you can make it to Bloomsbury Square Gardens in London on August 7, register to play now, and this article should get you up to speed with what you need to know to join in the adventure.

Conspiracy for Good can best be described as an amalgamation of an alternate reality game, a street theater show, and a social movement. Players have been charged with the task of bringing down Blackwell Briggs, an evil global security firm with a penchant for kidnapping and skullduggery. Players willing to risk attracting Blackwell Briggs’ ire joined up with the Conspiracy for Good, an organization of socially-minded individuals committed to opposing the company’s excess.

Using a series of free mobile games available at Nokia’s Ovi Store, players were given the opportunity to hack into the Babbage 1.6.1 website to extract valuable pieces of intelligence, break into the Blackwell Briggs servers, and hack a series of CCTV cameras across London to help smuggle Nadirah, a key Conspiracy for Good member seeking to build a library for children in Zambia, into the city. The final mobile game lead to the next stage of Conspiracy for Good:Â a series of four live “Actions” occuring weekly in London. Participants at each Action are provided with a Nokia phone with pre-installed software to help complete the task.

ARGFest 2010: Hotlanta Recap

August 3, 2010 / Geoff May

Near, far, wherever you are – ARGFest 2010 in Atlanta, GA was a blast. Whether at ARGFest or its virtual Twitter counterpartÂ #PretendARGFest, the annual conference dedicated to alternate reality games was filled with informative panels and discussions, hands on gaming, mysteries, and social and professional networking opportunities.Â While the player community in attendance was less this year and creative minds and industry folk were in relative abundance, all aspects of the ARG/Transmedia genre and community seemed well represented.

To usher in ARGFest 2010, Brian Clark welcomed everyone and introduced the newly appointed “Grand Inquisitor“, Steve Peters. The first session was presented by Andrea Phillips ofÂ Deus Ex Machinatio. Andrea set the pace for the fest by presentingÂ Beyond the Brunette – an analytical look at stereotypical gender roles in gaming and storytelling.Â By providing a look at numerous common character cliches, attendees couldn’t help but notice throughout the remainder of the conference how common they actually are. As one of her session’s focal points, Andrea posed the challenge to be unique and break away from using standard, typical archetypes.

Other panels and sessions this year covered a host of informative topics, including:

Brooke Thompson‘sÂ Can Transmedia Save the Soap Opera
ARG TV panel withÂ Nina Bargiel,Â Mike Monello, and Owen Shiflett
We Want To Play! discussion panel with ARG veteran players
Evan Barba‘sÂ The World OutsideÂ on Augmented Reality
Jim Babb andÂ Simeon Poulin‘sÂ Keeping It Casual on casual gaming
Patrick MÃ¶ller‘sÂ Follow the Rabbit on ways to launch projects to existing players
Peggy Weil‘sÂ TransGenre: City Gaming & Public Art panel
Behnam Karbassi‘sÂ Transmedia Production – a videochat via Skype
Mike Monello andÂ Brian Clark‘sÂ Beyond Blair Witch

Dastardly We Lost Our Gold Pirates Start Revealing Location of Misplaced Booty

August 1, 2010 / Jane Doh

The We Lost Our Gold treasure hunt has begun in earnest with the first episode of the weekly web series released today. As ARGNet reported last month, these absent-minded pirates buried their treasure of ten thousand gold-colored US dollar coins somewhere in New York City but can’t remember where they hid it. This eight-part web series will contain clues to the location of the pirate’s chest, and whoever finds it, keeps it.

Episode One introduces some vital information about the possible location of the chest, as the crew tries to retrace their steps through New York, beginning with the Balto Statue in Central Park, then on to locations like “Cape Shakespeare” and “Columbus Rock.” Meanwhile, the pirate-and-ninja crew struggles to find a way to prevent spies from learning too much by using codes, including “Morris” code and Japanese numbers. A series of interrupted flashbacks provide key background information about the crew and its unlikely journey through the Big Apple. The episodes to come will continue to piece together the crew’s journey through New York City, presumably ending with the final location of the pirate booty.