Author: Jonathan Waite (Page 33 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.

Project Gateway 2 Ramps Up

October 11, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

The sequel to Project Gateway is up and running, with a very slick design and some interesting real-world interaction thus far. Atrophied, a member of UnFiction’s forums, gave us a quick reference to all that has happened so far:

Clues from emails led players to a dead-drop at Providence College in Rhode Island on the 24th of September. The dead-drop gleaned a leaflet and CD containing an archive of the original PG1 website (including flash movies, audio files, etc.).

The next big event was an email from [email protected]:

Quote:
I think… I think it is time we talked.
Come to #historyneverdies on irc.chat-solutions.org. I know you know how to get there.
Sunday night. 8:00 PM EST.
If I were you, I’d start formulating good questions. I will only answer certain ones.
-The Historian

Sunday refers to Sunday, September 25th. A transcript is available at unfiction.

This chat then lead players to another real-world meeting, this time with an author at a book signing at the Colonial Mall in Harrisburg, PA. The author was Stephen Pytak (mentioned a couple of other times up to this point in the game). He gave us a letter from Shadown to Rowen Darkblade (both of PG1 fame).

Thanks Atrophied, it sounds like things are going well. I can see from the forum discussions that many players are enjoying this game thoroughly.

Minor Site Updates

October 8, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

Phew. We’ve been so busy here, playing all of these wonderful and exciting ARGs, that’s it’s been quite a long time since we’ve had the chance to update our information here. So, sit back, grab your popcorn, and enjoy the show!

As you can see, we have added some of the hot new games to come onto the scene in the last month or so to our “What’s Hot” list. Grassroots efforts 13 Books | Triskabiblios, Project Gateway II and VaporLofts have burst onto the scene, while Omnifam continues to impress.

We’ve also added Last Call Poker to our listing of the hottest ARGs — players have been arriving to the game from all over the world, many of them new to the ARG scene, and they have been treated to an exceptionally well-designed game so far.

While we wait for Orbital Colony to officially take off (November 16th is the rumored launch date), we have taken it off of our “Hot” list. As well, Conspiracy of B has seemingly become another addition to the growing list of prematurely-ending ARGs. The game started June 21 and has been inactive since the middle of September.

Book Release: Through The Rabbit Hole

October 3, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

Dave Szulborski — author, puppetmaster, puzzle creator, all-around nice guy — has recently released another book about Alternate Reality Gaming. Billed as a resource “for newcomers to learn about and get started in ARGs,” Through the Rabbit Hole: A Beginners Guide To Playing Alternate Reality Games is Szulborski’s second book about ARGs (his first, This Is Not A Game, came out earlier this year).

A press release suggests that the book is the “perfect introduction” for newcomers interested in the wild world of ARG. The book has it’s own website with additional information about the book, including a table of contents and some downloadable content. There is even a promotion in conjunction with Perplex City cards, as well as other promotions on the publisher’s website.

The book can be purchased at its website or through LuLu online sales. We hope to have a review of the book up very soon.

Last Call Poker

September 24, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

We found Last Call Poker through an email sent into the ARGN tip-line this morning. We’re not sure exactly what to think yet, but the site is definitely… interesting. It has all of the standard signs pointing towards ARG — registration, automated email replies, suspicious video, voice mail, and an attractive brunette character that needs our help. However, if you actually sit down and play on the poker tables, you’ll find that they are all functional and that many people (or, if you want to go in a different direction, poker bots) are already sitting down, calling and raising, as if the site had existed for months already. (For what it’s worth, the site has been registered since May, although we can’t find any hits on Google about it).

Is this an Alternate Reality Game? Or is it simply a gambling site? Perhaps a haven for dancing robots? Only time will tell, friends, but after only a handful of minutes on the site, we’re pretty stoked about what may be ‘in the cards’ for Last Call Poker.

New Games On The Horizon?

September 18, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

Two recently discovered blips on the ARG radar have sent ripples of interest throughout the community. The newest discovery, Falling In Time (AKA the Icarus ARG) came to us via a sponsored Google ad, and has already entertained the masses with some hidden web pages on the trailhead site. The site is aesthetically pleasing, and it looks like there was some serious thought put into the design.

The second attention-getter of the week has been The 13 Books | Triskabiblios. While the discussion at the UnFiction forums has been fast and furious (348 posts since being introduced to the community on September 12), it’s unclear as to the purpose of the “game”. Some say that it is a recruitment campaign, as the original post by vibration13 on UF once made mention of such a PM recruitment angle, while others say that it is simply something that has gotten out of hand. For what it’s worth, there are links vibration13.com on the trailhead site, which is currently looking like more of a web directory than an ARG. Is it a puzzle? Is it an ARG? Is it a new marketing campaign for Amazon? Hopefully the situation becomes clearer sooner.

Falling In Time:
Discussion at UnForums
Trailhead
IRC Chat in #icarus

The 13 Books | Triskabiblios:
Discussion at UnForums
Trailhead
IRC Chat in #13books

ReGenesis: Relaunch and Award Nomination!

September 12, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

Two bits of exciting information coming out of the ReGenesis camp this week, one concerning the relaunch of the series on public television, and the other regarding the nomination of the ReGenesis website for a major Canadian award.

We last reported on ReGenesis back in October of 2004 when the series was first aired on Movie Central and The Movie Network, both subscription-based cable networks in Canada. The series included an ARG element, or “extended reality” to it. Now, almost a year later, ReGenesis is enjoying a resurgence in popularity with the broadcast of Season One on Canadian public television channel Global. (Unfortunately, there is no current syndication deal for any networks outside of Canada.) With the re-airing of the series on Global comes the relaunch of the web-based ARG. This is the first instance of an “replayed” ARG — that is, the reset and replay of an ARG that had previously run its course.