Author: Jane Doh (Page 7 of 9)

Staff Writer

Jane Doh is the online gaming persona of an otherwise ordinary person. Jane has a particular love for grassroots and independent projects, especially those run out of basements and breakfast nooks, and is working on several creative projects of her own.

The Twisperers

Meet Harold Procter. He’s an ex-soldier, he served in Iraq, and he’s in possession of a mysterious jewel-encrusted box. Let’s just say things aren’t going terribly well for Harold.

Recently, my Twitterverse has been filled with the back-and-forth of some strange characters—a bartender in Maine, an antiques dealer, several Iraq War veterans—all from the small community of Cape Elizabeth, and all with lives intertwined by this strange, whispering box. And, when they’re not fighting each other, they’re killing themselves. Antiques dealer Jeremiah Webber committed suicide after having dinner with his daughter Suzanne and meeting a strange man that goes by the name Herod the Great. Ex-soldier Damien Patchett had been complaining about hearing voices, although no one knows what was being said. According to this newspaper article, Damien’s body was recently found on the beach, a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his head.

Then there is former sergeant Joel Tobias, who heads up some kind of smuggling operation. Joel is cold, sometimes cruel even to his “friends,” and personally gets my hackles up every time I see him tweet (which, unfortunately, is usually when I first wake up). Is he working for the shadowy Gutelieb Foundation? What about this suspicious man, Herod the Great? Where is this box that is driving everyone to suicide?

These characters are all part of a pervasive social media project called The Twisperers, an online extension of an upcoming book by bestselling thriller novelist John Connolly called The Whisperers. The protagonist is private investigator Charlie Parker, who appeared in Connolly’s first book, Every Dead Thing. The online content gives readers a snapshot of the plot of The Whisperers, and as participants interact with the novel’s characters, they reveal clues about the whispering box. According to our sources, the plot will soon escalate and lead to on-site clues in regional museums in the United Kingdom.

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Lost Souls: Burning Sky Opens New Trilogy for Young Adults

2012 marks the end of the world in the Mayan calendar, and, in Lost Souls: Burning Sky, 13-year-old Nathan Richards must play the Game of Lost Souls to win mankind a place in the new world cycle. But apparently, Nathan is barely passing the 7th grade and doesn’t know how to play this game. To make matters worse, lost souls keep bothering Nathan with their pesky demands for revenge and redemption . . . but they’re the ones with the key knowledge that Nathan needs. Oh, and did I mention Nathan has to beat the Mayan god Kukulkan at the Game of Lost Souls, or else humanity is doomed? Yes, that’s right . . . doomed.

Lost Souls: Burning Sky is the latest book-plus offering created by game designer, author, and Smith & Tinker founder Jordan Weisman, well-known in the ARG community for his involvement on The Beast and, more recently, for his work in transmedia publishing with the Nanovor universe, Personal Effects: Dark Arts with J.C. Hutchins, and the Cathy’s Book series with Sean Stewart. Written by science fiction and fantasy writer Mel Odom and published by Running Press Book Publishers, Lost Souls: Burning Sky features an original board game, which can be played online through Game Table Online. The object of the game is to get more pieces/points than your opponent into the center of the stylized Mayan calendar, and the straightforward gameplay is something like the African game mancala. To play, look for the “Play Now!” buttons on the Lost Souls website. You will need to download and run a browser pop-up application using Java WebStart to play.

It is not clear if there is a full transmedia experience planned for the Lost Souls trilogy. However, the website for the game seems to have some placeholders for future updates, and, there are few hidden extras to be found on the site.

Click Here to order Lost Souls: Burning Sky from Amazon.com.
Click Here for our coverage of Nanovor.
Click Here for our coverage of the Cathy’s Book series.
Click Here for our coverage of Personal Effects: Dark Art.

66 Letters: A Mystery from the Not-So-Distant Past

Several German ARG players, along with two Americans, myself included, were sent vintage cassette tapes made in “Western-Germany.” On the cassette, a man plays a Mozart sonata on the piano but is interrupted by the phone. Irritated, in English the man tells “Sally” to answer the phone then continues to play. We find that he has an audience — a small child.  Switching to German, the man tells the child that he is going away.  Click here to listen to the recorded message in its entirety.

As reported previously, 66 Letters is a literary puzzle where participants collaborate to investigate a cold case — the latest from viral marketing experts vm-people to promote a just-released book from German publisher Bastei Lübbe.

In the past few weeks, German players have received nearly a dozen handwritten letters, clues of an ongoing correspondence between “C” and “Ella” in 1980. Their relationship, their shared history, and their personal lives are slowly being revealed through these letters, but it seems that C’s daughter has gone missing, and C writes to Ella from a mental institution. The letters between C and Ella go through intermediaries, including Sally, the person possibly mentioned in the cassette tape. Players were also sent a short guide to handwriting analysis so they can speculate on the emotional states and personalities of the letter writers.

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8th Wonderland: A Virtual Nation Up in Arms

8thwonderlandHow do you fight a country that doesn’t exist? Scattered all over the world, everyday people are sick and tired of political systems and being controlled by the media. They decide to create a virtual state and restore democracy, but “real” states view them as terrorists. An extended experience to accompany the 8th Wonderland film, interested participants can meet the ambassador and register for citizenship on the country’s website. Every week, citizens can propose motions related to the economy, health care, and politics, among other issues, and motions are decided by referendum.

Produced by the French company Mad Films, the mainly English-language 8th Wonderland film will be released in France on May 12th and in Germany on August 12th. There are no immediate plans for a US release, but in 2009, 8th Wonderland won Best International Film at the inaugural Politics on Film Festival in Washington, DC, and Best Screenplay at the Phoenix International Horror & Sci-Fi Film Festival.

Although the 8th Wonderland extended experience may not fully be an alternate reality game, the idea of citizenship in a micronation or a virtual state is not entirely foreign to the ARG genre, as several recent grassroots games, such as West Unfictionopia and Purity Towers, have used politics as an organizing principle in their gameplay. As a storytelling device, the virtual nation seems a simple and effective way to build a community and introduce conflict to drive plots. And then there are countless “real” micronations, of varying degrees of playfulness, that seem to enjoy declaring war on each other. Personally, it is a heuristic device I would like to see more often in the ARG genre.

Currently, the 8th Wonderland website boasts over 1,300 registered citizens who discuss and vote on motions in both English and French. The website also includes some content not otherwise publicly available, including footage of an 8th Wonderland commando projecting subversive messages on cultural and political landmarks in Paris. Check out the 8th Wonderland website to learn more about citizenship and how to participate in this virtual, international democracy.

66 Letters: A German Psychothriller ARG

66letters
An online literary puzzle, 66 Letters, is a psychothriller alternate reality game opening in May. Players will collaborate and test their detective skills to investigate a cold case, and clues will offer a preview for a new book that will soon be published by German publisher Bastei Lubbei.

66 Letters is the latest project of viral marketing experts, vm-people, whose most recent project was Die Zeit wird knapp [Time Is Running Out], promoting Rachel Ward’s book Numbers. Vm-people is also behind the German-based Pirate Society as well as Charlotte Is Becoming Real, which brought two American players to Germany for its grand finale.

Currently, visitors to the 66 Letters homepage are rerouted to the Folge dem Kaninchen [Follow the Rabbit] website, where they can register for updates for this game and for other projects from vm-people. All this activity has been well-met by the vibrant and active German ARG community, which has gelled around the German-language news blog ARG-Reporter and meets socially every month in Berlin. In the future, the Folge dem Kaninchen website will open up for a more international audience, but for now, the site is only in German.

Whimsical French ARG and Transmedia Experience Supernatural Oddities Redefines Normal in ARGs

faitsdiversparanormauxIn February, freelance graphic designer JC Dénarié started documenting paranormal experiences in France on his videoblog, but he’s been interested in the supernatural for 20 years, ever since his brother Fred disappeared mysteriously. In addition to writing an encyclopedia about aliens, demons, and other strange things, JC’s findings have since been picked up by a production company eager to produce a reality TV mini-series called Faits Divers Paranormaux, or Supernatural Oddities. JC’s findings in 26 short episodes will be broadcast Monday through Thursday evenings at 20:30 on Orange’s Cinéchoc.

Encouraged by JC’s investigations, since March, people all over France have been submitting their own experiences of the supernatural, in a kind of “paranormal urban hunt.” JC continues to delve deeper into the unnatural and the uncanny all around France, “assisted” by his wife Muriel and his mother-in-law Simone (who is also on Facebook). By signing on to the Faits Divers Paranormaux site with a Facebook account, players can earn points, badges, and prizes as they take quizzes, submit content, and engage in the online community. Other features, including the “paranormal urban hunt,” encourage people to capture and share evidence of the supernatural using their mobile devices. Prizes include True Blood and Harry Potter DVDs and a chance to win a trip to a film festival in Deauville, France.

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