Author: Jonathan Waite (Page 6 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.

Game Launch: Mare Vitreum (Sea of Glass)

October 6, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Sea of Glass swag On a very busy day for us here at the ARGNet offices, the last of our day’s articles deals with a beautiful piece of etched glass sent to us through the post. With the words “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire” written into the glass block, and with nondescript symbols etched along the bottom, we had a feeling that there was a mystery to be solved here. Even as we talked about it during tonight’s ARG Netcast recording, I didn’t have a hot clue as to what to do with this puzzling transparent square slab. And then, thanks comments from Geoff May and redct in the ARG Netcast Ustream channel, we had a destination — marevitreum.com.

You see, those symbols along the bottom which resemble the Klingon alphabet were only part of the message. Luckily for us, there were a few other recipients of the same gift, except at least one (thatsplenty at Flickr) had different etchings at the bottom. Simply line up the two and the web site URL magically appears.

The web site includes a mystery of its own, with blurry paragraphs that clear up as you mouse over them. The thing is, the blurry paragraphs have red letters strewn within the text, and the clear version do not. Sean C. Stacey and I actually went through and solved the puzzle during the netcast recording, getting the message “Oct thirty first new york city” which points, quite obviously, to Halloween in NYC. Besides that, other mouse overs reveal text which seems rather religious in tone — appropriate as the ‘sea of glass’ quote comes from Revelations 15:2.

So, anyone up for a bit of fun on All Hallow’s Eve in the Big Apple? If you’re in the area, stay tuned for developments of this new mystery.

Update: I am Blind sends us shades, mystery in a box

October 6, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

I Am Blind swag So, remember that strange call we got on the ARGNet voicemail three weeks ago? You know, the one we couldn’t figure out at first? Well, it’s a good thing we figured it out, because it turns out to be a game for the newly-released film Blindness, and after we sent in our snail mail address, we’re happy to have a nifty little bit of game swag in our hands.

Included in the package was two pairs of the cheapest sunglasses we’ve ever seen — no frames, even! — along with a card with “i am blind’ and “IAMBL” written in Braille. There was even a self-addressed stamped envelope for a P.O. Box in Toluca Lake, which is interesting only for the fact that it is within walking distance of Universal Studios. One final note about the package is the white-out applied to the Statue of Liberty stamps that adorn the front of the envelope — right across the eyes. Our friends at Despoiler received a package as well, and have a full compliment of photos of their swag pack.

Discussion about the game continues at the Unfiction forums and we will be talking about the current state of the game tonight on the ARG Netcast weekly recording.

Voices in the Static

October 6, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Blue static signal About a month ago, a series of strange emails originating from voicesinthestatic.com made their rounds across the Internet. When arriving at the site, titled ‘stare into us’, players are greeted by a wall of static, akin to what one would see on a television without rabbit ears or cable, and the sound of white noise interlaced with strange music. A quick view of the source code reveals that the owners of the site are “the taste of your fear the taste of fear like metal” and gives players three more parts of the site to check out.

So far, players have enjoyed the campaign, which updates regularly. The story revolves around three main characters, ‘spirits’ who are communicating from beyond the grave: Echo, who initiated contact with the players through email and died in a motorcycle accident; Margaret, a victim of an illness that resulted in ‘throat struggle’ that likes to communicated in Morse Code; Mona, a spirit familiar with hexadecimal code that may or may not have been held captive at a hospital in Pennsylvania. There are multiple emails from which characters write back to players, a phone number that players can call to get messages from Echo, and multiple Craigslist postings related to the game.

As we did, you can catch up on the game at the fabulous Voices in the Static Despoiler Wiki or by visiting the Unfiction forum section for the game (where we found the excellent and helpful reference thread by drizjr).

The 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition

October 6, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

IFComp Logo Take lamp. Open mailbox. Get ye flask. Ah, the simple pleasure of the text adventure game. For those out there old enough to remember and enjoy such classics as Zork and the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Infocom game, we have a treat for you. IFComp 2008, otherwise known as the 14th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition is in full swing, and you have the chance to vote for the winner.

According to the web site, the IFComp is “a chance to enjoy some of the best short adventure games available anywhere.” The games are available as a ZIP download and voting takes place on the site and through email. The competition opened up a few days ago, but judging lasts about six weeks, so there’s still plenty of time to get acquainted with this year’s entries.

Many people regard text adventure games as one of the inspirations for the alternate reality gaming genre, so we imagine many of you will appreciate these imaginative, puzzling narratives. I’m going to start with Nerd Quest by RagtimeNerd because I’ve always wanted to know how to free myself if trapped in a server room. Enjoy!

Game Launch: Love Resurrected

October 2, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Image from love-resurrected.com As far as web sites go, Love Resurrected isn’t the most flashy, nor is it the most intriguing. But there’s something about a site that asks for your phone number that grabs our attention, and coupled with the fact that this apparent alternate reality game was brought to our attention by a very reputable and trustworthy source, we’ll bite. Earlier today, Steve Peters (ARGNet’s original owner, currently with 42 Entertainment) posted the link to the web site to his Twitter micro-blog stream, and quickly, members of the ARG community have found a wealth of information.

So far, a number of phone numbers, social networking profiles, email addresses and even personal identification numbers have been discovered. Luckily for you, Geoff May of wikibruce.com has set up a wiki for the emerging mystery, and there’s a still-short (four pages) thread at the Unfiction forums where the latest news is breaking.

What we know so far is that after inputting your phone number, the site redirects to another page which includes a number of links and pieces of information. We also have word that a crew of dedicated gamers are on the way to an apparent dead drop which may glean even more important details about the game, so stay tuned as we get word back from that effort.

Six years, 648 entries later, we still like ARGs

October 1, 2008 / Jonathan Waite

Birthday cake Whew! Just before the stroke of midnight, I’m ecstatic to say happy birthday to us! Yes, it’s been six years (give or take a few days) since this web site went live, and while the first article was the infamous sixteen word epic Forums Closed, it was really the second post on October 1, 2002 that kicked off what ARGNet (then ARGN) was to become.

Thanks to all of our wonderful staff members, our dedicated volunteers, and our network partners who continue to lend their hearts and minds to this site, and extra special thanks to the readers who visit for the latest info on the best damn game genre on the planet. We’re happy to keep on keepin’ on. To another year, huzzah!

(Oh, and lest we forget, this is also the five year anniversary of the wildly popular alternate reality game Metacortechs. Read all about it at the Unfiction forums archive. Stol!)