Author: Michelle Senderhauf (Page 5 of 6)

Staff Writer
Michelle's first ARG love affair was with Majestic back in 2001. Just as she was about to discover the world of ARGs she was persuaded to play herself in another alternate reality that included a husband and a baby girl. Once she came to her senses, Michelle returned to play ABC's Push, Nevada. That's when she realized that she wasn't really all that good at solving puzzles, so she stuck around to learn a thing or two from the people playing Chasing the Wish and JMX.

Michelle has played or lurked through countless games since and even took a stab at being a Puppetmaster with Omnifam and Orbital Colony. She intends on keeping up with that trend by only becoming involved with ARGs that begin with the letter O. In her free time she likes to pretend that she's still a young, artsy college student by splattering paint and pencil shavings around the house.

Live from Ludium II

June 26, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

Editor’s Note: ARGNet’s Michelle Senderhauf is attending and reporting from the Ludium II conference, put on by Indiana University’s Synthetic Worlds Initiative.

This is Michelle Senderhauf reporting live from the Ludium II conference at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The conference is being run in game format which is interesting since the conference itself is about developing principles for sensible video game policy.

The Ludium game has two goals –

1. to develop a set of policies regarding synthetic worlds that will be sent to real world governments and
2. vote a single person as our de facto spokesperson for the ideas in the platform.

We’re in the second day of the Ludium conference and the group has reached a point where we 33 nominated policy statements and 3 nominees for the Speaker.

Of interest to ARG players, the conference has had its share of intrigue. Several “spies” are playing the game and are trying to derail the process. Also “reporters” are roaming the hall trying to get a scoop. Also, several of the conference attendees or players have thrown a wrench into the puppetmasters’ plans. Overnight, several players tried to merge members from their opposing groups into one large group. A response for this was not written in the game rules that were originally laid out so the puppetmasters were sent scrambling.

These events have brought up many interesting questions. If you’re using a serious game to solve a real world problem at some point or at what point do you abandon the game framework? Is there a point where the game becomes unimportant? Or even a hindrance? Many of the conference attendees agree that the game has definitely had a positive effect. It has successfully facilitated discussions in an organized fashion and allowed for a democratic decision-making process.

What will be the result? We won’t know until the end of the conference. Stay tuned!

The 4400: The Battle for Promicin

May 22, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

USA Network has partnered with Campfire Media to produce an extended reality promotion for the hit television show, The 4400. Fans of the show can join in the debate over the use of Promicin, a neurotransmitter found in each of the 4400. When injected into someone who is not one of the 4400, it does one of two things: it either kills them instantly or gives them an amazing supernatural ability. Not surprisingly, the government wants to stop the use of Promicin, but many, like Jordan Collier, think the public deserves the right to choose for themselves.

While the promotion appears to be an extended reality rather than a full-fledged ARG, it’s still definitely worth a look. According to the official press release, the campaign will use seven websites, 70+ videos, mobile phone network participation and several live events across the United States. The three sites found through the rabbithole are already chock-full of well done and entertaining videos, blogs and other fun goodies.

Join the discussion at the UnFiction forums.

B Seeing U

April 17, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

B.A. Saint Feline will tell you the truth, whether you want to hear it or not. She’s not a cat person, even though strays follow her wherever she goes. She’s a struggling actor. She’s an honest psychic. She’s an old soul. She also has been dreaming about a burning city, filled with smoke, flames and various ARG community members. Yep, that’s right – we’re going to burn, baby, burn.

Unless, of course, we figure out the mystery surrounding B.A. Saint Feline and her website, www.bseeingu.com. B.A. has been sending packages to the people she sees in her dreams, which include several loose pages from H. P. Lovecraft and various sea monster books (and unsolved puzzles too!). She seems to be searching for more fellow dreamers using craiglist posts in several cities.

To find out more, check out the thread over at the unForums or join in on the fun in the chat-Solutions irc channel #stfeline.

Perplex City Cube Found by Rand0m Player!

February 8, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

Three years after the Receda Cube’s disappearance, Perplexians can breathe a sigh of relief — the Cube is finally on its way back to Perplex City. Earlier today, Andy Darley (aka Rand0m of the Unfiction forums) visited the Mind Candy office in London to exchange the Cube for his $200,000 reward.

Darley, an amateur archaeologist, found the Cube buried in Wakerley Great Wood, a historic ancient woodland 110 miles north of London. He spent three days digging trenches in the woods before he spotted the Cube in wet clay. Darley could hardly believe that he beat over 50,000 other people to the prize.

In a press release, Darley was quoted as saying, “Of all the 50,000 players, from all these different countries, I never thought for a moment I would be the person to find the Cube. I was playing for the puzzles, and the stories, but it was only a few days ago that I thought I was in with a chance. As I pulled the Cube from the sticky, wet clay, and even after I’d found it, as I was waiting to return the Cube, all I could think about is how bizarre the whole thing really was.â€

The game’s in-game newspaper, the Perplex City Sentinel, reports that Perplexian celebrations are in high gear in honor of Darley and his fellow puzzle-solving Earthlings. There are also Earthly celebrations in store for people who can make it down to London on Saturday, February 24th, with a time and location yet to be announced.

Hopefully, more details will be released soon as to the exact location of the Cube and exactly how Darley waded through the myriad of puzzles and clues to find it. With Perplex City’s second season starting in a few weeks, news of the discovery will likely inspire new and returning players to hop on board. One can only hope there won’t be another cube to dig up! Also, we have requested an interview with Darley, so that we can focus more on his experiences as a whole after bringing finality to Season One of the Perplex City game.

Congratulations from all of us here at ARGNet, Andy, on finding one of the most sought-after prizes in alternate reality gaming history, and congratulations to all of the players for their tireless efforts and dedication to the game as it wound its way through the fabric of the past three years.

Photos for this article courtesy of Sandbox Strategies

Step Aside, Stepford Wives – Township Heights is the New “It” Place to Be Remodeled

January 17, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

Back in November, we reported that Virtuquest, makers of City of Domes and other popular ARGs, had announced that they would be producing a public ARG. At the time, it was known only as Open ARG 6.5. We’re happy to report that the game has launched: Virtuquest’s Township Heights is open for business, inviting players into a Stepford-like world where the most upstanding citizens may also be the most dangerous.

At first glance, the city of Township Heights appears normal enough. They have a yearly festival with a parade, fireworks at night, and concerts in the park. They have a nice little Italian restaurant and a lounge where local bands play. Ah, suburbia! The town’s website proudly proclaims Township Heights “a model town,” one for “living and enjoying” in bold, majestic prose. Stately homes speckle the landscape, making Township Heights appear a modern utopia, but any scholar of Thomas More could tell you that the most utopian of locales is usually anything but.

Where is Jason C?

September 27, 2006 / Michelle Senderhauf

An interesting viral campaign for the upcoming Grudge 2 has popped up on ARGN’s radar. While not really an ARG, the campaign does try to blur the lines between reality and fiction and is a fun little time waster.

A student filmmaker, Jason C, is filming his thesis documentary on the making of the Grudge 2 in Tokyo, Japan. The movie’s writer, Stephen Susco, tells him that the movie was based on real events and several pieces of the real Grudge house were used to build the set. Soon after, several of the actors, including Amber Tamblyn and Sarah Michelle Gellar, start experiencing strange phenomena similar to events in the Grudge movies. Jason C suddenly disappears and his roommate back home is left to scour through the documentary videos looking for clues to solve the mystery.

While the most recent post is from June, more updates may appear with the release of the movie set for October 13th.