Jackie Kerr | ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network

Author: Jackie Kerr (page 1 of 3)

ARGFest-O-Con 2008 – Ready or Not, Here Comes Awesome

Once again, ARGNet is proud to join Unfiction in hosting ARGFest-O-Con. This year’s weekend ARG odyssey sails into Boston, Massachusetts on July 18-20 at the Boston Radisson Hotel and Conference Center. Scheduled events include a Friday night Welcome cocktail party, a full day of conference talks on Saturday, as well as the return of FestQuest – the puzzley adventure that takes you around the highlights of the host city. Registration for the event recently opened on the ARGFest website for the low cost of $25 (the Friday night reception is an additional $15). Booking now guarantees you a seat to the hottest ARG show of the year and a weekend of adventure with fellow ARG enthusiasts. Where else would you be able to rub elbows and fight over the last bits of buffet bacon with some of the biggest names in the genre? Book now!

Rooms at the Radisson are filling up fast, but a few slots remain for those procrastinators among you. Information about booking for the ARGFest rate of $189 a night (plus tax) can be found at the conference website.

ARGFest-O-Con is also actively seeking private and corporate sponsors for the event. Sponsorship opportunities have been outlined and can be viewed on the ARGfest website. This year also tills new soil with the addition of the Order of the Trout, an individual sponsorship tier that promises secret handshakes, troutly designation, and the joy of being referred to as “Fish Face” at the conference. Rarely have I wanted anything oh so badly. Now if only the Order came with a Wii…

If Looks Could Kill… ZAP!

June 12, 2008 / Jackie Kerr / Comments Off

Vroom vroom! The sleek champagne Toyota Camry zips around the corner, coming to a screeching halt. Out steps a leggy, ultra-fashionable African-American woman, arriving to hook up with her ultra-fashionable, successful boyfriend. She flips her keys to the valet – a little “blip blip!” sounds from the Camry’s push-button car alarm, like Kit saying “see ya later!” to Knight Rider. Who is this woman? Where did she get such an awesome car with such swanky accoutrements? Where did she find that hunky boyfriend of hers? What does her rolling stone of a father have to do with the dudes who stole her purse? What kind of pie did Nana bake? And where on earth did she find those fantastic shoes?!

The latest in cross-media marketing mayhem produced by Burrell Communications Group and 42 Entertainment for Toyota’s 2009 Camry, entitled “If Looks Could Kill,” takes you inside the world of high fashion and high espionage with Bianca, the fashionista lead character poised to pique the interest of young, hip, African-American women – women, who indeed, need a swanky Toyota Camry. In each weekly episode of this interactive drama, Bianca is pressed to unravel a mystery of intrigue and espionage, all while juggling the stressful duties of her job as a fashion designer, keeping her boyfriend happy and interested, and making sure not to miss coffee and dessert with her Nana. For seven weeks, participants are treated to six movie-styled webisodes of Bianca’s crazy life as she tools around through New York City (without ever running into traffic) in her champagne-colored Camry (with touch navigation and integrated Bluetooth). Within each episode are opportunities for players to help Bianca escape from trouble, as she turns to the camera and asks you to do something for her, such as download photos and find flyers, and email her the information she needs to stay in the game.

Open Call for Writers – ARGNet Wants YOU!

January 30, 2007 / Jackie Kerr / Comments Off

With all of the news coming out regarding alternate reality games, we are hoping to find a few good men and women to assist us in writing articles and features for our web site.

If you are someone who is dependable, honest, and willing to write an article for ARGNet once a month, we’re looking for you. The submission guidelines are as follows:

Write a 100-150 word blurb-style article on any currently running game. For recent examples, see The Case of the Gumshoe Radio Play and The Trouble With Tropes.
Write a 400-500 word feature article about any of these topics: 1) a game, current or historical; 2) an interesting story or aspect of the ARG community; 3) a topic of interest to the ARGNet readership; 4) being a puppetmaster or behind-the-scenes game creator.

Submissions need to be sent in to [email protected] by 11:59 pm (CST, GMT -6) by this Friday, February 2nd, 2007. Naturally, spelling and grammar count, and a submission does not guarantee an invite to join the ARGNet staff.

We’re also interested in identifying key members of the community who would be willing and able to act as researchers and stringers for currently running ARGs. If you’re an avid player and have time to provide ARGNet staff members with highlight reels of games, but not enough time to dedicate to writing entire articles, we still want you! Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll add you to our growing list of community researchers.

Steve Peters Gets His Geek On with Geeks On

December 1, 2006 / Jackie Kerr / 3 Comments

‘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:
· Steve’s experience with 42 Entertainment
· History and general information about ARGs
· I Love Bees
· Last Call Poker
· Art of the Heist
· Technology in ARG production
· The 4th wall
· The process of producing an ARG
· Ninjas
· 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

Elan Lee: Long Time Launderer, First Time Guest

October 18, 2006 / Jackie Kerr / 2 Comments

Spreading the ARG love like butter, listeners in the San Francisco Bay area can tune in this Thursday, October 19th, to KALX radio (90.7 FM) and hear 42Entertainment’s and Edoc Laundry’s Elan Lee as he breakdances slip-slidey around the recording studio for a special broadcast of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s Northgate Magazine.

Ok, so he’ll really be discussing Alternate Reality Gaming. (A girl can dream, right?) Lee will focus his attention on game design, ARGs as a new artform, and the future of independent and marketing-driven ARGs.

The broadcast starts at 9am Pacific on October 19th for those in the area, while streaming audio is available for internet listeners. If you can’t make the date, an mp3 recording of the newshour will be available on the KALX website the following weekend.

Greek Mythology Hits the Small Screen (and Your Manly Chest) With Punch

October 6, 2006 / Jackie Kerr / 1 Comment

Not content with spreading its artistic, mysterious, cottony fingers across your chest to spread its message, EDOC Laundry’s coded T-shirts are taking a starring role on CBS’s CSI:NY on Wednesday, October 11.

EDOC Laundry captured the attention of co-creator and executive producer, Anthony E. Zuiker, who found the concept of clues to a murder mystery captured in the everyday clothing item of a t-shirt a compelling idea. He worked to script an episode of CSI:NY, “Hung Out to Dry,” using the EDOC Laundry theme, collaborating with the fashion line’s designers to create 4 new t-shirts to incorporate into the mythological murder mystery. Watch raptly as Gary Sinise and the other cast members stare inexplicably at the trippy t-shirts left on the victims by a rabid serial murderer who spent entirely too much time with Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and his sister’s Barbie dolls as a child. Eat popcorn and giggle as big-time New York crime scene detectives wonder “Who on God’s Green Earth would think putting bizarre dripping bloody lines on a shirt would *mean* something besides, you know, bizarre dripping bloody lines? Who are these criminal master minds of puzzling creativity?! Damn these crafty kids!” ARG fans are guaranteed to enjoy this game to TV show crossover, and, if rumors on the internets can be believed, will be treated to cameo appearances by Elan Lee and Shane Small (the rumor mill mentioned “lab coats”).

To celebrate the collaboration, EDOC Laundry will be selling limited editions of the four shirts created for the episode. Each of the four (Sadly, all men’s styles – Hydra would have looked great on a women’s shirt) shirts is a graphical representation of a character from Greek Mythology: Hydra, Hades, Hypnos, and Argus. Furthermore, a fifth shirt inspired by the episode will also be available on the website, depicting the beheaded Hydra. The shirts will be in stock on the EDOC Laundry website beginning on October 11th and should ship in 5 to 10 days.

The media blitz is, naturally, timed to hype EDOC Laundry’s upcoming Winter season, which goes live in November with an entire season of new t-shirts, puzzles, and new videos. Fans of the game can hope that the blitz doesn’t peter out into a fizzle with the game continuing to draw on its old habits of “buy, solve, watch, repeat.” The audience may have wandered off to other engagements during the off-season downtime, bored with the story delivery, difficulty of finding the clothing items, and (often) questionably edited video scripts that hammer heavy on metaphor. Luckily, the quality and look of the clothing remains satisfying, even if the storytelling burps a stinky once in a while.

Tune in next Wednesday night at 10pm ET/PT to catch EDOC Laundry make its television debut on CSI:NY, grab a limited edition shirt, snag a peek at the new clothing line and make sure to catch the next season of EDOC Laundry when it arrives in November.

Catch a quick look at the upcoming episode of CSI:NY on the CBS webpage. Note: CBS only likes Internet Explorer, or the IE Tab extension for Firefox. Video preview also requires Flash player, and either RealMedia player or Windows Media Player (Seriously. Can CBS be any more obnoxious?) But, the clip does show a girl in bra and panties, as well as painted man-nipples and a 360-degree camera swoop around Gary Sinise pondering, so you know, maybe it’s worth it.