A recording of Vanishing Point’s post-game SkypeCast with 42 Entertainment’s Elan Lee and Steve Peters is now available. If you missed the chance to listen to the live SkypeCast as the puppetmasters revealed behind-the-scenes stories, puzzle solves and other secrets from the other side of the curtain, you can catch up now!
Thanks to Neowin’s Rob Wright and Dave Legg for hosting and editing the chat.
In a world where technology allows immediate communication between people on opposite sides of the planet, and the internet provides instant access to new entertainment and information generated daily by multitudes of contributors of both the professional and the amateur varieties, it’s easy to forget the value of older, slower forms of communication such as snailmail. Perhaps this is the reason for the growing popularity of the slow foods movement, which offers a sumptuous alternative to the culinary portion of our increasingly-fast paced lives in which the time invested is itself part of the reward, and for which handmade quality trumps convenience.
The ARG world seems to have gotten its own equivalent to that movement in the form of The Committee for the Sedulous Amalgamation, which offers its players a veritable banquet of the type of pleasures that just can’t be replicated digitally: the thrill of tearing open an envelope to find a mysterious snailmail letter, the enjoyment of physically handling a beautifully constructed puzzle, and the satisfaction of possessing swag that you’ll keep long after the game has ended. The game launched with a letter sent to Unfiction, inviting players to thirteen Challenges and exhorting them to “make humanity proud!â€
Yo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want
If what you want is to be friends with the cast of characters of the BBC’s Wannabes, apparently you have to live in the U.K. Following on the heels of Jamie Kane, their successful foray into the world of ARGs, the BBC has created a 14-episode interactive online soap opera in which the online discussions of the fans will drive the story, promising that:
“Now you can REALLY get involved in the sexy scandals and temper tantrums of the Wannabes as they lie, cheat and blag their way to success – with a little help from their friends -duh…that would be you then…”
For those who spend a good portion of their time yelling at their TV screens, convinced that if the characters would only listen everything would turn out better, or for those who can’t understand why the producers of their favorite games continue to ignore the superior wisdom of their online fan communities, the chance to play with a model that adjusts to their whims may provide a certain long-awaited visceral satisfaction.
For those who enjoyed Jamie Kane or like interactive storytelling in general, Wannabes promises some juicy, soapy fun. Players can score “friendship points” by helping the Wannabes make decisions, and really good friends may get private emails or access to special videos. Unfortunately for wannabe players in the U.S., the characters appear not to be interested in foreign friends at this time. If you’re in the UK, check the episode schedule here to catch up and let us know what you think!
Ravenchase Adventures bills itself as a “real adventure” using “riddles, anagrams, puzzles, actors, the far reaches of imagination and more,” and warns that it “may be more fun than you can handle.” They hold events around the country (upcoming locations include Honolulu, Chicago again next month, Baltimore, Manhattan, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and others) and will be putting on a national treasure hunt in July.
Since I really enjoyed playing Tombstone Hold ‘Em and have always been envious of those who’ve gotten to participate in events like the Go Game or Jane McGonigal’s oeuvre, a Ravenchase race to a final location determined via clues at downtown Chicago landmarks seemed like a perfect opportunity to get my puzzle hunt fix. I headed to Chicago to meet up with fellow ARGNet writer Krystyn Wells and two other crewmembers from my beekeeping days.
Hojotoho! And other Wagnerian exclamations! Odina Nova, which gave participants a chance to ride shotgun with the Valkyries, metaphorically speaking, by combining codes, videos, blogs and other standard ARG media with a fresh take on Norse mythology, drifted off into silence last October and was presumed to have fallen prey to the high grassroots ARG mortality rate. An out-of-game Unforums message from the PM promised that it had not imploded, but was being put on hold due to unforeseen real-life circumstances.
It appears that the game will indeed resume this spring (an in-game reference suggests the restart date will be March 21 — an auspicious date which traditionally marks both the vernal equinox and the first day of the astrological year).
The game’s narrative claims that there are nine parallel worlds in which alternate versions of ourselves exist, and travel between them is possible. They appear to correspond with the Norse cosmology in which nine worlds hang upon Yggdrasil, the world tree. A character named Hermod is continuing the work of his father, whose own mentor had traveled to an alternate world called Vanaheim, which he learned had been a place of peace and beauty until otherworldly forces allied with a warrior named Woden drove it into chaos. Certain incidents in human history, the players have speculated, may have been caused by the intersection of alternate worlds with our own.
Odina Nova generated plenty of interest and speculation at Unfiction and Immersion Unlimited before its hiatus, so whether you’re one of the people that played it when it was running, or someone who is looking for an ARG to get involved in, check it out on March 21st.
Sing it with me, ladies:
I need a Hero[es ARG]!
I’m holding out for a Hiro ’til the end of the night.
It’s gotta be sure [it’s an ARG]
And it’s gotta be soon
And it’s gotta be larger than life…
Okay, I never was any good at the parody-lyrics thing. And while I’d love a full-blown Heroes ARG (if for no other reason than to feed my Hiro crush), even a “digital extension” of the Heroes story seems like a fun opportunity to immerse oneself in the world of this hit series.
It’s probably too early to dub Heroes 360 an actual ARG, but audience members who have been watching closely have been aware of some Lost-style clues in the show that suggested there might be hidden rewards for those willing to dig deeper. NBC promises “rich, original content” including on-air clues to investigate, “interaction with unique mobile content,” access to the phone system of one of the companies in the show, and additional content on the NBC site including hidden sites and secret files.
A website for Primatech Paper was shown on-screen in this week’s episode of the show. Call the number on the site and you receive a code which, when entered, redirects you to a job application form (unfortunately, applications at this time are limited to US residents). Despite the press releases from the network (and unlike ABC’s comparable efforts for LOST, KyleXY and Fallen), the site is intriguingly subtle about its connection to the show and as yet makes no reference to Nissan, NBC’s corporate partner in producing Heroes 360.
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