Author: Jonathan Waite (Page 15 of 37)

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.

A Multitude of Game Alerts

July 4, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. While browsing my inbox from the last week or so, I’ve come across no less than four game tips, and in no particular order, here’s what we know:

Frank Sturgis, who has previously worked at Allied Resource Management Consolidation Inc. let us know about some shady business going on at the company, and requests help with “get[ting]into their servers” via the ARGNet voicemail. The first problem we see? Frank Sturgis apparently died in 1993. Players are already discussing things at the Unfiction forums.

Joshua at Triad Genomics dropped two separate emails into our laps — one stating “This is the beginning of the Ancient Word,” and the other giving us a string of numbers (18882015221, or 1-888-201-5221). The one-liner comes from the Popul Vuh, an with Mesoamerican/Mayan connections. Discussion has also started on the Unforums with the first post made only yesterday. The game is a promotion for Christopher Forrest’s novel The Genesis Code, according to the official web site.

A new “augmented reality game” (their description, not ours) has appeared which is connected to the popular MeiGeist ARG which concluded earlier this year. The game, called “Timehole” (according to creator Jon Williams) is a proof-of-concept stereotype that utilizes GPS technology, has a 30 minute gameplay duration, and will start within the next six weeks. You can join in on the discussion at this Unforums thread.

Finally, there is an ARG developing in The Netherlands called They Are Here. The game kicked off with an elaborate staged event in which white tents were set up in broad daylight, leaking steam, while people in biohazard suits moved about the scene (thanks to Lieke Voermans for an excellent recounting at her blog). A short discussion has begun at the Unfiction forums.

Let the summer ARGs begin!

ARGs Appear in Greece and Portugal

June 19, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Often, our coverage of European alternate reality games drifts somewhere between Manchester City and London, with the occasional dash of DÃ¼sseldorf thrown in for good measure. In the past few weeks (and days, in fact), we’ve been alerted to two new ARGs from two of the EU’s finest member states – Portugal and Greece.

While not much is known about how the trailhead video was found for the Greek ARG we’re dubbing Exeis (thanks, anonymous tipster!), we do know where it leads, and what’s connected. Watch the video, titled “Exeis blog?”, and see for yourself how a simple 30 second advertisement for the Gazpacho Music Festival 2007 can turn into a trailhead with a simple message (in Greek, at about the 17 second mark). That message leads to 4728489.com, and the start of the ARG. Greek speakers can start there, while the rest of us are stuck using online translators — and trying to make sense out of statements like ‘Truth Agnwoti Country’.

The offering from Portugal comes to us via a press release: From the creators of the successful interactive teen drama series Sofia’s Diary, Searching for Miguel is beActive‘s latest entertainment proposal – an alternate reality game that involves real characters in a plot of suspense and chase. The release goes on to mention interactivity through web sites, personal blogs, email, video, Hi5 (think Myspace) profiles, phone calls, faxes and SMS messages. The game will run for three months, and registration is free at the official web site.

Know of any ARGs being run in your country? Want to keep us abreast of the latest news of your favorite ARG? Send us a note through our contact form, and tell us about it!

Breaking News: Perplex City Season 2 Delayed Indefinitely

June 1, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Earlier today it was revealed on the Perplex City game site that the expected June relaunch of the popular alternate reality game would “no longer be possible.” Season two was scheduled to be released this month, but the statement on the site makes reference to the quality of the experience, and how Mind Candy believes in holding off on releases until “they’re ready and… [they’re] entirely happy with them.”

The landscape of Mind Candy itself has also undergone major changes, as Story Team members Adrian Hon, Andrea Phillips, David Varela and Naomi Alderman, as well as COO Dan Hon, have all left the company within the last 48 hours. In blog posts, Dan Hon notes that he wants “to try something new,” while his brother Adrian remarks that “it’s time… to move on.” Phillips and Alderman echoed sentiments of celebration, sadness and thankfulness for the players of PXC, and Varela chose the Unfiction forums to sum up his thoughts on the turn of events.

Details are still emerging, so watch ARGNet for further details. The story will be part of the discussion on the upcoming 26th episode of the ARG Netcast as well.

Thanks to Brian Enigma at Netninja for the summary post and links.

Paul Denchfield + Violet Kiteway = Fun

May 26, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Three weeks ago, we reported on the Frozen Indigo Angel game promoting BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend music festival. On the same day, we also found out about a season two preview for Perplex City. As it turns out, the two were fated to be reported together, as they were officially connected on May 12th in a blog post on Violet Underground, with a puzzle found in one of Paul Denchfield’s videos leading to a new PXC game web site.

Within a day of finding the puzzle, players of the Frozen Indigo Angel (FIA) game had solved it (see this thread at unofficialmills.co.uk) and discovered the tie-in with Perplex City. On the 14th, Denchfield posted on his blog about the recent activity and the new PXC web site, and Violet blogged about receiving emails which put her in touch with Denchfield himself. At this point, the story revolved around Cyrus Quinton, a member of the myserious Third Power who had set up a secret web page at the newly discoverd Silburn-Griggs Mining web site. Cyrus, according to Violet, is a “sound-engineer-slash-mass-murdering-psychopath,” and Denchfield warns about a “subliminal messaging scheme” Cyrus has planned for the Big Weekend concert — just as Cyrus warns his agents about Denchfield.

From the 15th to the 18th, Cyrus created “ticket challenges” for people to take part in during real world events. These challenges were noted by both Violet and Denchfield in separate blog entries, and players quick to solve the puzzles were awarded with tickets for the concert event. However, not everything is as it seemed, as a timetable was discovered at the same time, revealing that Cyrus was planning on using Perplex City technology during the weekend to send subliminal commands to listeners of Radio 1 who attended the Big Weekend concert. Alas, even as players, led by Denchfield, were told to do whatever they could to stop Cyrus from broadcasting a “primer” over the airwaves, the signal ended up going out on the 17th, “drowning out Beyonce and Shakira.”

Transcript Published for SXSW ARG Panel

May 25, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Dan Hon was kind enough to send us an email letting us know that the transcript from the 2007 SWSX panel discussion “ARG! The Attack of the Alternate Reality Games” is pubished on his blog, Extenuating Circumstances. Alice Taylor, the Vice President of Digital Content at the BBC, was the moderator for the panel which included Hon (also the COO of Mind Candy), Brian Clark (Founder/CEO, GMD Studios/IndieWire), Evan Jones (Creative Director/Producer at Stitch Media) and Brooke Thompson (Giant Mice and ARGNet).

There is a lot of information to sift through, as the panel talks about everything from how ARG is still “emerging” to how budgets are created. Thanks, Dan.

Crossing Your T’s

May 17, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

About two months back, I was watching the Conan O’Brien show on a whim, when I was treated to his story about hornymanatee.com. As Conan related to his audience, he had used the URL as part of a joke on a Monday night, but when the standards department of NBC got wind of the situation, things got complicated. Conan was told that if a web site URL is used on-air and doesn’t already exist, then NBC may be liable for the site’s content, which means that they must go out and purchase the URL themselves. So, in summary, NBC is the proud owner of a fake manatee porn site because of an ad-libbed joke.

As fans of alternate reality gaming already know, assets of any ARG must be secured before a game utilizes the asset in a live situation. If a game is going to use a particular email address, then the creative powers behind the game must secure that email address well in advance of the game being launched, and the same goes for web site URLs, phone numbers, addresses, and so on. At ARGFest 07 in San Francisco, Evan Jones commented about this type of situation, recounting a story about how a dot-com email address used in the ReGenesis show had originally been written into the script as a dot-ca address. A well-meaning editor thought “dot-com” sounded better and changed the script without notifying the extended reality creators. Fortunately for the creative team behind the ARG, the dot-com site was registered by someone on their team ahead of time, and everything worked out.

Fast forward to this week, in which a similar situation has unfolded.