Author: Jonathan Waite (Page 22 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.

ARG Netcast, Episode 3

November 6, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

It’s already Episode 3 of the ARG Netcast series. Once again, this week offers the comedy stylings of unfiction’s Sean C. Stacey, the politically-charged folk songs of Giant Mice’s Brooke Thompson, and the gospel hip hop of M.C. Jonathan Waite of ARGNet. Subscribe to the ARGNet feed through FeedBurner or via iTunes.

Game News and Topics of Discussion

No response from Mind Candy regarding Perplex City yet, but the Sentinel is back up and us Earthlings are being looked down upon. Oh, those Perplexians.
AV wraps up, and the Puppetmaster comes out of hiding.
konamouse of the unfiction forums helps out the Three Blind Mice as they try to make sense of the Puzzle of the Week, Sammeeeees’s “Free the Five”.
Ny Takma introduces a new character. Trust him at your own risk.
Ocular Effect — is it rising from a Near Death Experience?
Cassie is Watching, Cathy’s Book, and Edoc Laundry chug-chug-chug along.
Hallow’s End launches just in time for Halloween, but we need more information, and you need to send it to us. Yes, you.
Studio Cypher will release another ARG soon, see descry.us for more details.

ARG Netcast, Episode 2

October 29, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Episode 2 of the ARG Netcast features Sean C. Stacey of unfiction, Brooke Thompson of Giant Mice and Jonathan Waite of ARGNet. You can now find the netcast on iTunes, by the way — search for ARGNet and subscribe!

Game News and Topics of Discussion

As we reported earlier this week, Perplex City gets more VC funding. Also, is the ARG portion of Season One over? As well, will a new writer (Mathilde Madden) bring a different view point to the Mind Candy team?
AV and Cassie Is Watching move forward with new content. How can players of CiW keep track of what is and what isn’t in-game?
Win a copy of Cathy’s Book! Listen to the netcast to find out how!
Konamouse at the unforums pitches in with a helpful Story So Far thread related to Sammeeees.
The 4400 fan-created ARG goes thud, according to the puppetmaster. Why do games go under, sometimes needlessly?

Live Games Network To Launch “The Prague Files”

October 24, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Live Games Network, which we were pointed to thanks to a tip from c|net’s Daniel Terdiman, is a recently-founded company that “produces and directs games that let players live a fictional adventure for set period of time,” according to their web site. Their first campaign, titled The Prague Files, is set to launch on December 4th of this year, and will last for fourteen days. It looks like it will be a mysterious spy-themed game, based on the video preview you can find on the LGN site, and will require “a cell phone, an email address and web access” to play. There is a contest element, promising prizes such as XBox 360 and PSP game packs, as well as a one week trip to Prague for the winner and a friend, but the contest is limited to U.S. residents (except Maryland, Vermont and New Jersey). Oh, and it’s subscription based — according to the rules of the game, “once you have paid the subscription fee, there will be no refunds for any reason, including, but not limited to, lack of participation in the Contest.”

So, why do we care? Well, if this delivers what it appears to promise, this may be the type of interactive experience many of you might enjoy. If it has a story arc, coupled with interactive features and puzzles, in a real-time environment, then that might mean it’s an ARG, even though the site doesn’t refer to the game as such. The Training link on the page refers to a game, DeltaOneZero, which was concluded in December of 2003, that was described as “one of Australia’s first cross-media, web based gaming experiences.” However, with the subscription model (which requires a credit card for payment, incidentally) intact, will it reach as large an audience as it could without the pay-to-play aspect? And will a worldwide audience embrace a contest that can only be won by an American participant which is being put on by a relatively unknown upstart company? I guess we’ll find out in 41 days.

Regenesis Extended Reality Wins Gemini Award

October 24, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Congratulations are in order for Canadian production Xenophile Media as they captured the 2006 Gemini Award for Best Cross Platform Project at last week’s ceremonies in Toronto, Canada. Their ARG, the ReGenesis Extended Reality, won for the first time in the prize category, awarded to the “interactive project that best â€œenhances the users’ enjoyment of the television program/series through such platforms as mobile, the Web and other portable devicesâ€,” according to a press release. ReGenesis is a Canadian bio-lab drama available in Canada and in syndication worldwide.

Shaftesbury Films, who produce the television series, has been forward-thinking in its attempts to connect to its audience, partnering with Xenophile to manage the alternate reality gaming model which has delivered real-time content that is directly related to the weekly series for both of the show’s seasons. In the second season’s Extended Reality, players were treated to hours of video clips which broadened the overall storyline of the show, and the show reciprocated (in a fine bit of pre-filmed trickery) by acknowledging the efforts of the players as they attempted to aid the scientists working at NorBAC labs in Ontario.

You can watch the Gemini awards gala will be broadcast on Canadian network Global on November 4th at 6:30 pm PST / 9:30 pm EST. The Gemini Industry Awards, which were awarded over a three night span, will be broadcast on Rogers Television in the Toronto area, so if you want to see the Xenophile folks accepting their awards, you’ll want to tune in on for the second of the three nights, dubbed the “Gemini Lifestyle, Childrenâ€™s and Youth,” which will be shown at 6:00 pm EST on November 17th.

ARG Netcast, Episode 1

October 23, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Editor’s note: While we are still figuring out the logistical nature of netcasting, you can subscribe to the netcast by saving/dragging this link into your podcast/netcast program, including iTunes.

We’re happy to introduce the first in what will be a continuing series of netcasts featuring ARGNet staff and special guests. The ARG Netcast will be a weekly (we hope) look into the world of alternate reality gaming, in audio format. Episode 1 is up and features Brooke Thompson, Sean C. Stacey and myself talking about a number of different topics:

We dish on the games in our What’s Hot List!

EDOC featured on CSI:NY
Cathy’s Book gets a brief look — will it stand up test of time?
Cassie is Watching, dead trail or official tie-in with Lonelygirl15?
The End: we argue about the name but like the original language used in the game
Sammeeees launches creatively, uses free resources well
AV brings the gore, but is there more?
Perplex City keeps on going and going and going… where’s it leading? And where’s the cube?

ARGNet: A New Frontier

October 23, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Mark this day on your calendars, folks, because today ARGN becomes ARGNet. And from now on, we’re reporting news. Forget about the fact that we’ve been reporting the news for a long, long time now — today, ARG news becomes our only mission. Not that being the largest, most complete alternate reality gaming affiliate site wasn’t great and all, but we’ve moved past that stage in life, and are ready for the future.

So, what is this crazy future I speak of? Well, for starters, ARGNet now becomes your largest and most complete news resource available for players of online collaborative Alternate Reality Games (or so our About page says). We’re going to move away from being that kind of network and move towards being this kind of network. You know, less like Cisco and more like CNN. Now, this doesn’t really change much, but even small changes can be revolutionary in scale, so we’re happy to make this announcement and officially shift gears to becoming a dedicated news source. We hope you like the changes we have in store, starting with tonight, and invite your comments and suggestions.