Author: Jessica Price (Page 5 of 5)

Wheeeee! Sammeeeees Wraps Up

December 14, 2006 / Jessica Price

The whimsical and popular indie ARG Sammeeeees concluded Tuesday with a hostage exchange, a mysterious ritual, and touching farewells.

The story centered around Mr. Alan Johnson, leader of a group called the Spoocheeeees who secretly ruled all world governments with power from a mystical disc, and a man who called himself Peeps, leader of the Sammeeeees who were trying to break the Spoocheeeees’ nefarious hold on power.

Players obtained the five pieces of the Spoocheeeees disk and its central serpent icon and Unfiction’s Konamouse performed the ritual to reverse the Spoocheeeees’ power. (See it on YouTube here.) Meanwhile, Peeps offered himself to Mr. Alan Johnson in exchange for the five Sammeeeees held prisoner. During a struggle with double-agent named Cathy who was attempting to rescue her son Dwin — one of the five hostages — Mr. Alan Johnson fell on his own knife, freeing both Peeps (who was, ironically, his estranged brother) and the hostages.

Ho Ho Ho, Ya Grinches!

December 5, 2006 / Jessica Price

If you’re looking for some seasonal puzzle fun, grab some eggnog and have a seat at your computer. The elves who man the ARGNet tipline have alerted us to what appears to be a holiday-themed puzzle trail with a trailhead on blogspot.

Are you ready to play the oldest sport in the world? asks the title of the single post on The Reindeer Games blog. Snowball McJinglebell, the recently appointed head of the Human Division of the Reindeer Games, is happy to announce that Santa has opened up the competition to human participation this year, and he and his fellow elves (including Holly O’Mistletoe, who, in a whimsical touch, makes iPods out of snowflakes) would like to invite you to try your skills on the puzzles at the Reindeer Games board.

The boards are password-protected (presumably the answer to each puzzle will be the password to the next) and the password for the first puzzle is provided at the end of the blog entry. It seems to be in binary, and the translation of the binary is half a Christmas-themed word, but it requires a bit of a guess to get the correct answer.

All of the other reindeer are playing, but they’re willing to let you join in this reindeer game, so head on over to The Reindeer Games Blog for a dose of puzzly Christmas spirit!

Free! Psychic Readings! Also Free! A Chance To Be A Human Sacrifice!

November 16, 2006 / Jessica Price

Among the myriad bizarre religious groups that have cropped up on the internet, one of the more humorous is the Church of Google, which argues that Google fits the criteria for a deity. We’re not so sure, but we will admit that it makes a pretty good psychic.

At least, that’s where we assume the puppetmaster of Free! Psychic Readings! is getting the information for his character’s cold readings, with varying and sometimes humorous results.

News of the game arrived at the Unforums via an anonymous tip sent to UnFiction’s SpaceBass, pointing to psychic Miss Corinn’s website. Capitalized letters in one of the testimonials on the site led to a blog written by Frank, a man who claims to have lost his job due to false accusations by Miss Corinn, a cheery Miss-Cleo-style psychic who can “gaze across space and time” to tell you what you need to know. Frank has dedicated himself to exposing Miss Corinn as a fraud, and information on his site thickened the plot considerably by directing players to the website for PhoenixFire Corporation, which promotes belief in the “metaphysical world,” claims Miss Corinn as a “project,” and supplies subjects for a Satanist coven to sacrifice. Add in Frank’s star-crossed love affair with the descendant of a psychic who started PhoenixFire Corporation, his death, and his posthumous communications with players, and you have a recipe for drama.

The End is Ny: Ny Takma Explores Dead Languages and Possible Planetary Destruction

November 7, 2006 / Jessica Price

Eden, Shangri-La, Mu, Lemuria, Tir Na Nog, El Dorado, Lyonesse: lost lands have fascinated audiences as long as humans have been telling stories. So it’s probably not surprising that the most famous of them, Atlantis, has finally gotten its own ARG.

On September 30, Unfiction players received an email directing them to a website which warned that the end was near, and showed videos of what appear to be an exploding planet. Attempts to make sense of the site’s content led to a hunt for Hank Morgan, a man obsessed with the mysterious language of Atlantis and searching for answers in the Bermuda Triangle. Hank has a tragic history: his obsession cost him his relationship with his daughter Kendra, and drove his wife to suicide.

Through contact with Hank, his faithful friend (and ladies man) John, and a linguist named Bryan Aristos, players were introduced to what appears to be the game’s central puzzle: translating the Atlantean language.

Unfortunately, the reality doesn’t quite live up to the allure of the concept. Lanti is not a language, merely a word-level substitution cipher. Therefore it’s not a solvable puzzle: players are limited to guessing words from context and waiting for the PMs to drop more vocabulary in their laps. Nevertheless, the audience has been eagerly dissecting the cryptic texts, producing both a wiki lexicon and a translator. Perhaps the game will spawn some Lanti catchphrases that will spread around the community.

The romance of a lost language, hints that Bryan may not be trustworthy, and intriguing symbols and Atlantean references to Kendra and Hank have brought together a close-knit but welcoming community of players to unearth the answers.

Catch up with the story so far at Unfiction, visit the player wiki to get a look at the language, or pop into #nytakma on irc.chat-solutions.org to chat with players.

You’ve Got Mail – The Message Center Turns On

July 28, 2006 / Jessica Price

On July 20th, UnFiction member tallerbird logged into her Kingdom Of Loathing account, and found a message from someone called The Messenger:

http://www.freewebs.com/themessagecenter/

Please go there as soon as you can! I need your help!

At first she thought it was spam, but after a little exploring, it became clear that the mysterious message was actually a clever grassroots launch. (During popular ARG Last Call Poker, players started games of Tombstone Hold ‘Em in cemeteries in the online realms of World of Warcraft, but to the best of our knowledge, this marks the first time an ARG has launched using virtual spaces; it will be interesting to see if the Message Center sparks a trend.)

The Message Center turned out to be a portal into a twisted plot resembling the unholy offspring of Saw and Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. The Messenger started his site because of an email he received describing some horrifying circumstances. Trapped in the “Room Of Doom” are eight people, each of whom corresponds to a label: the whore, the robot, the doctor, the father, the shy person, the liar, someone who is already dead, and the sender of the email. Through a series of site updates and instant messenger conversations with the characters, players were drawn into the room of doom, in which they and the characters must decide who lives and who dies to appease a sadistic killer who is lurking among them.

Catch up with the discussion on UnFiction here, or visit The Message Center to check for the latest dispatches from the Room Of Doom.

Editor’s Notes: And as quickly as it came, it went — the game wrapped up earlier this evening. For words from the Puppetmaster, check the chat log hosted at UnFiction. Also, we originally unintentionally reported that Tallerbird was a male, when in fact, she is a female — those errors have been fixed in the article.

Author: Jessica Price (Page 5 of 5)

Wheeeee! Sammeeeees Wraps Up

Ho Ho Ho, Ya Grinches!

Free! Psychic Readings! Also Free! A Chance To Be A Human Sacrifice!

The End is Ny: Ny Takma Explores Dead Languages and Possible Planetary Destruction

You’ve Got Mail – The Message Center Turns On

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