Jonathan Waite was an innocent lurker when The Beast hit the Internet in 2001. From his temporary residence in Jeon Ju, South Korea, he was immediately captivated by the lush environment that had been laid out before his feet. Moving back to his hometown (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) in July of the same year, Jonathan continued to be involved in the burdgeoning genre of Alternate Reality Gaming, getting into Plexata and finding a voice on the forums dedicated to the game. Once Lockjaw hit in 2002, there was no looking back. Jonathan adopted the alias 'jamesi', started a fansite called GuysGuise, and the rest is history.
Jonathan can currently be found as an administrator on Unfiction's forums, as well as co-hosting the ARG Netcast audio show. In the past, he has been involved with Smirkbox, a humor site that focuses on the realm of ARGs, as well as actively creating and maintaining JMX, a puzzle trail website that is currently working (yes, still) on a second run.
As a freelance developer and consultant, Jonathan has worked on such games as Ocular Effect (for Fallen on ABC family), Reach the Future (aka Holomove, for Microsoft), Enitech Labs (for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on FOX) and Monster Hunter Club (for The Host by Magnolia Films). He is happily married and has two wonderful daughters.
Yes, that’s right — World Without Oil, the socially conscious alternate reality game that kicked off in April 2007, has won the Activism award at this year’s SXSW Web Awards!
Although word is just now coming in, and there’s no official note on the SXSW web site, we’re happy to be able to congratulate the team, including our very own Marie Lamb and Michelle Senderhauf!
Well, there’s not much joy in the land of Eldritch Errors this week, as players and curious onlookers are stuck without an update or an explanation as to why the game has stalled. We reported earlier this week on this unfortunate turn of events for the GMD Studios production. We contacted GMD Studios for comment and were promised a statement from The Powers That Be but none has been forthcoming. So, without any indication as to the whys and hows of the current state of affairs, I’m ready to call this stalled.
In response to comments by NordicNinja, Biff and Dante, I suggest that players should wait for another few days to see if the public outcry for information results in a statement (in-game or otherwise) from the puppetmasters. Barring that, there is a slew of other games in progress — some are just starting this week — in which to get involved. As usual, the Unfiction forum is a great place to get the latest word on new, emerging alternate reality games, as is its sister site Despoiler. We’ll keep you updated if and when news develops.
Can this nightmare be true? Has Eldritch Errors fallen, unable to get up? According to a new section of the player-run Sentry Outpost in-game web site, the game has stalled. As well, we received a tip from a player that stated, “Eldritch Errors seems to be in the midst of imploding. Brian Clark has disappeared completely as far as we, the players, can tell.”
If this is indeed the case, we feel your pain, faithful readers, and are doing our best to get to the bottom of things. Look for an update later in the day tomorrow, as we have been told that official word from GMD Studios, the team running the game, will be coming soon.
Ah, trailheads. They come, they go, some are memorable, and some are forgettable. And some come in pretty wooden boxes. No, I’m not reminiscing about the kick-off to the original Sammeeeees game, I’m taking about a brand new game that seems to be originating from Germany. On Friday, I was pleasantly surprised to find a parcel card in my post office box — I wasn’t expecting a package, but I am always a bit excited to find one waiting for me. Handing the card to the clerk, she exchanged it for a plain brown padded envelope.
Nothing too strange here — the postmark reads “Briefzentrum 60” — so I was eager to peek inside. Once I got out of the cold air and into the warmth of my vehicle, I tore open the end of the envelope, to find a small, flat wooden box inside.
Sliding open the top of the box revealed two pieces of paper. On one, a message, seemingly written on a typewriter: “To execute these commandments you’ll have to find the properly gifted fellows.” The other, a punch card, was riddled with rectangular holes, and had “THE FINAL MILL INC. SERIES AAB” written in ink on the back. We have pictures and more information about the campaign after the jump, for those ready to travel further down the rabbithole.
Hey, we like to think that we’re pretty tech-savvy individuals here at ARGNet, with at least one of us owning one of those sorta-new-fangled iPod Touch device thingies. Well, on a whim this weekend, I decided to adapt a WordPress plugin called iWPhone into our Movable Type installation, which you can see at iphone.argn.com. Heck, that interface might be the preferred view for people who don’t use Apple devices!
We are going to be moving things over to WordPress in 2008, but are having CSS issues, so it’s still a work in progress. Rest assured, we’re constantly looking for ways to improve the site, both visually and with functionality. If you fine, fine readers ever some across a problem with the site, shoot us a message and let us know about it.
After only a few weeks since the end of Deus City, the fine folks at Fundi Games are back at it again with Conspiracy Asylum File Zero. Our very own Sean C. Stacey had reported two weeks ago on the hint that the puppetmasters left for the players late in November, and noted that the game would be launching around the first of February.
However, here we are five days short of the end of January, looking at new content and open registration on the trailhead site. Currently, the forum-style web site has one entry — “File 1 – Aliens: ‘Are we really alone?’ — which players can comment on, once they register and log in. Once logged in, players are able to offer their theories to either prove or disprove the conspiracy video.
The original beta video is still available on YouTube, although it has changed locations since our previous story. We will provide updates here at ARGNet as more is discovered about the game.
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