Author: Jonathan Waite (Page 5 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.

Trailhead, or errant arts and crafts project?

January 21, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

It’s not everyday we receive a package in the mail that lists its contents as “pencil pinwheel toy” so today must be a very special day indeed. The envelope, which originated in Maitland, Florida and was sent on January 9th, contained exactly what was described on the customs declaration — a home made pencil pinwheel. Inside the folds of the pinwheel were two pieces of paper, which we assume are part of a larger puzzle. And what is this larger puzzle, you may be asking? Well, it turns out that this is part of the Creepy Luny Inn Radio Adventure Show that we first told you about last week. Players at the Unfiction forums seem to be the target for the mailings, as members MrToasty, Sheep and ifihadahifi all received similar packages.

The game continues to move along, with a new countdown being discovered earlier today. Seems like as good a time as any to jump right in and book your stay at the Inn!

ARGNet: Retooled, Relaunched, and Re-diculously Fabulous!

January 19, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

The many faces of ARGNet Change. It’ll do you good, or so says Sheryl Crow, and who are we to argue with Sheryl Crow? After a small statement about a year ago regarding the backend of the argn.com web site comes the all new, shiny and sleek 2009 version of the web site. This year’s model — and no, we’re not going to be updating the look every year, mmmkay? — comes with a powerful WordPress 2.7 engine under the hood, some fancy new Web 2.0 AJAX-y image handling, and a much needed management system for the What’s Hot list in the sidebar. Other enhancements include a more aesthetically-pleasing comment system (that’s for you), a quicker load time (again, for you) and a comment spam system that doesn’t make us want to gouge our eyes out with rusty scissors (for us, definitely for us).

As the transition went down earlier today, I had the feeling that things would go horribly, horribly awry. Much to my chagrin, nay, AMAZEMENT, everything has seemingly gone off without a hitch. That is not to say we have overlooked nothing, so if you find an error or a cause for concern, send us a note via our contact form.

The site redesign could not have happened without the full cooperation of the ARGNet staff — you can read more about them by clicking on their names in the sidebar over -> there. I would also like to extend a special thanks to drizjr and Alex Farnsworth who answered the call for volunteers and dedicated their time over the last few weeks to getting posts edited and ready for the relaunch. Between the staffers and the two volunteers, a whopping 1,555 tags were applied to 695 posts in 16 categories, which is no small feat in itself.

We hope you like the new design, and hope you continue to visit for the latest news, rumors and interviews related to alternate reality gaming, cross-media entertainment and experience design!

Welcome to the new recruits!

January 10, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

Just before the holidays, we asked our readers to come forward and join our staff of volunteers, and wouldn’t you know it, some of you did just that. Now that the craziness of the holiday season is over and we are firmly planted in 2009, we’d like to make things official by welcoming our new staffers!

John Fogg joined the ranks of the ARGonauts in 2002 when he followed along with Push, Nevada, the short-lived television series with an extended reality and a one million dollar prize. According to his staff bio, he spends a lot of free time researching cross-platform narratives and stories that play out in a non-traditional ways, and so far he has written about Natalie Ross and Breathe, the new project by Expanding Universe.

Tim Hill is a filmmaker and storyteller from the sunny shores of Australia, earning him the distinction of being our sole international staffer in a while. Tim is the creator of Jack Kain an interactive film that takes place on the Internet. He is the only person on staff that I know of who “debat(es) the merits of fluoridated water.” Tim has written a lovely article on This is My Milwaukee, an experience that has created a great deal of buzz within the ARG community and beyond.

Robbie Smith describes himself as, “a flash-developer by day and comic nerd by night.” He got involved with the Dark Knight ARG and hasn’t looked back since. Robbie wrote a recent article on Transition Village and a brilliant feature called The Family That Games Together in which he details how he managed to get his mother involved with Project Abraham. We imagine Robbie might not be celebrating the recent NCAA football title win by the Florida Gators, seeing as how he is a rabid fan of the state rival Seminoles of Florida State.

Once again, we welcome our new writers to the fold, and know that their contributions will mean even more news about ARGs, cross-media experiences, extended realities and anything else we might dig up, tune into or have sent to us in the mail.

The Legacy of Julian Teng

December 23, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

We received a game tip in the email inbox a few days ago about The Legacy of Julian Teng which contains what we are being told is a unique clue to the launch of the game. According to the email, the alternate reality game ties in with the World of Warcraft universe but will be played out at various Internet sites, including the GamerDNA.com forums.

For those that are already playing, or are interested in playing, here is our exclusive clue:

There is a further opportunity to win another clue by heading over to http://randomeis.gamerdna.com/images/argnet where registered members of gamerDNA can “vote up the image.” By voting up the image, our community may receive another, “very exclusive clue.”

The email goes on to talk about the story behind The Legacy of Julain Teng: “Brian Morgan and his friends started playing World of Warcraft to stay in touch last summer, but Brian’s research into the mysterious Tunguska event and the life of Julian Teng has caused them to grow further apart than they could have imagined. The last time anyone saw Brian Morgan he was playing a Tauren called Tunguska on Korialstrasz in World of Warcraft in mid-November. Nobody has heard from him since. ” Sounds juicy!

You can get involved by heading to the character’s group website and there has been a separate area created for puzzle solving and speculating. There’s a wiki set up at Wikibruce and a thread at the Unfiction forums to catch you up to speed.

Help! We need somebody(s)!

December 14, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Holy smokes, it’s almost 2009! It’s been another great year for us here at ARGNet and I owe it all to the wonderful volunteers that research, write, edit and publish articles for this site. Without them, ARGNet would be a tumbleweed blowing in the breeze, so my hat is off to all of those that contribute here.

Of course, we’re always looking for writers and contributors to this site, and we haven’t made an open call for writers in quite a while, so here is a repost from February of 2007:

If you are someone who is dependable, honest, and willing to write an article for ARGNet once a month, we’re looking for you. The submission guidelines are as follows:

1. Write a 100-150 word blurb-style article on any currently running game. For recent examples, see ARGNet Owner/Editor to appear on Irish talk radio morning show and Update: Ghosts of a Chance Live Event.

2. Write a 400-500 word feature article about any of these topics: 1) a game, current or historical; 2) an interesting story or aspect of the ARG community; 3) a topic of interest to the ARGNet readership; 4) being a puppetmaster or behind-the-scenes game creator.

Submissions need to be sent in to [email protected] by 11:59 pm (CST, GMT -6) by this Friday, December 19th, 2008. Naturally, spelling and grammar count, and a submission does not guarantee an invite to join the ARGNet staff.

We’re also interested in identifying key members of the community who would be willing and able to act as researchers and stringers for currently running ARGs. If you’re an avid player and have time to provide ARGNet staff members with highlight reels of games, but not enough time to dedicate to writing entire articles, we still want you! Send an email to [email protected] and we’ll add you to our growing list of community researchers.

One final bit of volunteer goodness: We will be moving ARGNet from Movable Type to a WordPress installation by Q1 2009 and require beta testers for the new site. These testers would be invited to tag articles and assign proper categories for articles that already exist, as well as adjusting HTML code for images. Some technical knowledge is a bonus, but the process is fairly easy once we get you started. If you’d be interested in this endeavor, you can send your name to the [email protected] email address as well.

ARGNet Owner/Editor to appear on Irish talk radio morning show

October 30, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

So, it turns out that the folks in the Emerald Isle are itching for news on alternate reality gaming. After RTÃ‰ news ran a nice feature about Traces of Hope earlier in the month (which featured a brief appearance by yours truly), the newstalk radio station has called and arranged for a chat about ARGs on October 31st at 10:45 am local time (and yes, as I write this, that’s only a few hours away, at 6:45 am ET).

I am pleased to be a part of the on-air discussion, and hope that a few of our readers will be able to tune in, either on the radio or via the live Internet audio stream.

Editor’s note 10-31-08: Leave it to me to leave out the time zone. Added, but the interview has already happened. Watch this site for a downloadable mp3 version.)