Author: Dee Cook (Page 3 of 5)

Akalesh Ascendant Update

February 21, 2006 / Dee Cook

The former project lead of Akalesh Ascendant (previously reported on here in August 2005) has informed us that half of the creative design team for the newly formed and registered LLP corporation “Dark Element Gaming” has departed the project, due to be the company’s debut in Alternate Reality Gaming. Several key members, including the head writer, head logistical designer, and vice president, resigned their positions at the Alternate Reality Game yesterday. This split was not contentious and the team members left as friends.

David Andrews, founder of Dark Element Gaming, has confirmed the split. “The Akalesh Ascendant game has been delayed indefinitely due to personnel issues. Players’ contact info is still held in complete confidentiality. The game will happen, just not in the timeframe specified by the original meta site.”

ARGs Worldwide

January 22, 2006 / Dee Cook

The recent successes of Perplex City (UK based) and Regenesis (Canada based) have been a strong indicator that Alternate Reality Gaming is spreading around the globe. Two new developments, an El Salavador-based game and a German-based ARG news site, have helped to move the ARG scene even further into global play.

Agente X is a spy ARG based out of El Salvador. An early launch in December has netted the site far more signups than originally expected. The game promises to shake up the lives of those who are bored with the monotony of everyday routines. This is an ambitious project and would be worth looking into if you are a Spanish speaker.

Patmo.de is a new German language news site with articles on current events in the ARG world, including recent writeups on Who is Benjamin Stove, Perplex City, Araya Benedict, and Orbicon. The site has been added to our Blogroll.

We at ARGN would like to welcome Patmo and Agente X, and hope to see more and more worldwide interest in ARGs in the future.

It’s all about the Benjamins

January 11, 2006 / Dee Cook

A post on Unfiction mentioned a new trailhead for Who Is Benjamin Stove. Investigation of the site indicates that Tucker Darby, a 29 year old collections agent living in Tampa, needs your help. Over the holidays he found a mysterious painting of a crop circle, dated 1913, which has exhibited an almost supernatural hold over him. He’s been trying to identify the artist and the story behind it ever since. A note inside the painting indicated that the event depicted was real. He’s asking for help finding the man who originally owned the painting, Benjamin Stove, and figuring out what the painting means.

What makes this especially interesting is the fact that blog ads were bought for several high-dollar sites to advertise Who is Benjamin Stove. Meta information indicates that this site may be the rabbithole into the next big professional game.

Interview with Jane McGonigal

October 28, 2005 / Dee Cook

I caught up with Jane McGonigal of 42 Entertainment after her talk at the Austin Game Conference on Thursday. She was kind enough to give me an interview.

Me: Do you have a favorite ever, of any game?

Jane: Yeah, well like I said [during the talk] I think the explosion of creative interpretation with the GPS coordinates [in I Love Bees], because I’m a big believer of player suggestions. Like in The Go Game, we have people constantly sort of misinterpreting what they’ve been told to do, and doing things that are more exciting or more interesting or braver than we have suggested, and then we’ll be like, “Oh that’s great, let’s actually make that a mission.”

Austin Game Conference Part 2

October 27, 2005 / Dee Cook

Thursday was the official kick-off of the Austin Game Conference, a trade show primarily directed at companies who produce Massively Multiplayer Online games, or MMOs. This morning, Jane McGonigal from 42 Entertainment gave a talk in which she outlined what ARGs are, how they are a type of MMO, and why they are so interesting.

And the best part, other than the Massively Multiplayer Thumb Wrestling? The unofficial nickname for the talk: “Too Weird for GDC”.

Jane began the session with some explanations of what ARGs are. They are interactive narrative, or immersive drama. They are played out online and in the real world, taking place over several weeks or months. Tens, hundreds, sometimes tens of thousands of people play, forming collaborative social networks and working together to solve a mystery or problem which is impossible to solve alone. Platforms utilized include e-mail, websites, SMS, phone calls, radio, IRC, instant messages, newspapers, real world artifacts and events, and Elan’s dream: toasters that print messages on your bread. Since this is the second time in two days that a 42 staffer has mentioned toaster messages, extra vigilance is recommended when cooking your breakfast. Be prepared.

Austin Game Conference

October 26, 2005 / Dee Cook

Today saw the opening of the Game Writers Conference, a subset of the Austin Game Conference which opens tomorrow. Of particular interest to ARGers was the discussion by Maureen McHugh from 42 Entertainment about the work that went into The Beast and I Love Bees.

Maureen was contacted in 2004 to write for I Love Bees. She has a background in teaching English and writing science fiction. She made some interesting points about the emergence of varying types of entertainment being dependent upon what technology is available. As the printing press made novels possible, so has the internet made Alternate Reality Gaming possible. Additionally, she spoke about the emergence of the novel in comparison with the different ARGs we’ve seen so far. In the beginning were fake memoirs – Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders – which were originally published as actual diaries rather than a made-up story. From there, novels moved to an epistolary form (such as Clarissa) where the reader eavesdropped on conversations between strangers. She compared this with The Beast, where the players dropped in on writings which were originally intended for other in-game characters. Next in history, the novel moved into an art form with an omniscient narrator, such as Tom Jones. Could this be where ARGs are headed?