Author: Steve Peters (Page 16 of 25)

Original Owner, Godfather of ARG
Steve was the creator and original owner of argn.com. After three years of authoring articles, Steve moved on to bigger and better things at No Mimes Media. During his time here, Steve was also one of the puppetmasters for the popular ARG Project MU. He is affectionately known as the Godfather of ARG.

New ARG: Regenesis

October 1, 2004 / Steve Peters

One of our Canadian friends received a hand-delivered package today. It consisted of a newsletter about an alarming outbreak of a disease in northern Ontario, and a grid of letters, which led to a couple very interesting sites:

Norbac is the North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission, an organization that investigates biotech issues and questionable practices.

Science Sucks looks to be a grassroots site fighting to free scientific knowledge from vested interests like government and corporations. The site includes a poll, forums, and a page of links. We’ll leave it to you to find out where the links may lead.

A little more research revealed this press release announcing a new television series on Canada’s Movie Central/The Movie Network:

“ReGenesis is a new, 13-part one-hour original Movie Central/The Movie Network dramatic series about the North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission (NorBAC), an organization formed to investigate questionable advances in biotechnology.”

Regenesis premieres on Movie Central on Sunday, October 24 at 9 p.m.

Normally, a site or two tied to a film or tv series isn’t that remarkable, but the fact that there are mysterious packages being sent to select individuals around Canada make us suspect that this is indeed a new rabbithole for a Regenesis-related ARG. Happy Hunting!

Unforums Discussion
ScienceSucks Discussion
Chat (#regenesis at irc.chat-solutions.org)

ARGs Becoming a Trend?

September 27, 2004 / Steve Peters

The genre of Alternate Reality Games (or Immersive Media, Pervasive Gaming, etc.) may finally be making inroads into the mainstream. Not only is computer/platform gaming media paying attention, such as in the recent story about Ilovebees broadcast on G4TechTV, but marketers are being urged to take notice as well.

Recently, TrendCentral ran a story in their newsletter pointing out the viability of these sort of games, “as their diverse media format seems conducive for brand integration and promotions.” Trendcentral is one of the leading resources for marketing firms and advertising agencies, helping them keep their finger on the pulse of up-and-coming trends in the marketing/promotional field. This makes a lot of sense, as some of the most successful Alternate Reality Games to date have in fact been promotional tools.

While many may criticize promotional ARGs as a cheap marketing ploy, most of those who have played along with such games as A.I.’s The Beast or BMW’s Uncap the Ride will be the first to tell you that when done right, they are highly entertaining, addictive, challenging and ultimately very satisfying in and of themselves. Let’s hope the trend continues.

What is Project Gateway??

September 17, 2004 / Steve Peters

A few mysterious websites have cropped up that are causing some ARG’ers to scratch their heads. Things seem rather game-like, but frankly it’s may just be a little early to be able to tell exactly what’s going on. We submit it here for your consideration (cue Rod Serling in the corner along with obligatory creepy music).

This site provides the trailhead, a literal gateway into a realm of clues and locked up cells. The page beckons: “CC32 Gateway – Insert Front Door Key To Continue,” and somehow this site has led to two others: Project Gateway and 32nd Notes. Beyond that, we really can’t tell you much, beyond the fact that a certain amount of caution is advised, due to every ingame site so far being hosted on a free webserver of some kind. As always, proceed at your own risk.

Discussion at Unfiction
Chat

In Ilovebees news, players continue to strive for the 777 connected axons mark, having succeeded in answering 728 of the 777 needed phonecalls to proceed to the next step in the game, whatever that holds in store. Notably, the game’s first non-U.S. phone has been revealed in London, enabling British “Beekeepers” to get involved with this live interaction for the first time. With only 49 phonecalls left to go, we should find out what the next chapter in the ilovebees saga is within the next few days.

In the meantime, ARGN has set up a repository for all of the audio files found so far. It’s a great way to get quickly caught up on the major plot of the game, and you can access it here.

Unfiction Ilovebees Forums
Guide
Quickstart
Netninja Wiki
Fireflies Wiki
Chat
Plot Timeline

Ilovebees Suddenly Seeking 777

September 11, 2004 / Steve Peters

It’s been a trying week or so for the Ilovebees ARG. After having axons piled on top of more axons, the players are starting to feel a bit abused, and momentum seems to be waning. Although the folks behind the game are revealing some stellar content in the form of audio clips, the pacing overall is proving to be a challenge for even the most optimistic.

According to Dana’s latest blog entry, players are being encouraged to press on toward the 777 live axons mark. The problem is, the phones seem to be being answered less and less often, which is quite a contrast from two weeks ago when there were as many as 30-40 people at some phones. Sadly, at this rate, it may be weeks before we find out what happens when 777 axons go hot. Currently, we’re at 496 out of 777. That’s a lot of phones left to answer!

On the plus side, the story that’s being revealed continues to intrigue. A new snippet is released each time a codeset goes active, and players have assembled them into a narrative that reveals not only a confirmed tie-in with the Halo universe, but a tale of chatternet hackers, geek love, nefarious kidnappings and blackmail. ARGN has assembled a repository of the audio story so far, and will add more as it is revealed.

Finally, as a little off-topic diversion from the endless answering of phones, ARGN is sponsoring an Axon-Hunter Photoshop Contest. Only a couple days left to get your entries in.

Graphic Credit: jamesi

SEN5241 (THX1138)

September 4, 2004 / Steve Peters

Roughly a month and a half after konamouse and many in the THX 1138 fan
community received the first emails from OMM, the SEN5241 (aka SubCity Central)
ARG has ended. OMM has fallen, all are free and ARG players have walked away
with another quality bit of entertainment under their belts.

For those of you who didn’t play along, Subcity Central was set in the world of
THX-1138, an early film by George Lucas. In the THX-1138 world, people live in
an oppressive, drug-controlled society. They aren’t allowed to think for
themselves, love or even have sex. They don’t even have names, but instead
SubjecteID’s like SEN5421. Players helped bring down OMM by sabotaging many of
the systems that kept the people under OMM’s thumb. The players produced
defective police robots, altered the community’s drugs and broke the hold OMM
held over the people. Without drug clouded minds and police to control them, the
people rose up against OMM and gained their freedom. Yay!

This Week in ARG: Ilovebees on G4TechTV; Orbital Colony Trailer

August 29, 2004 / Steve Peters

The PMs-in-training over at Orbital Colony have released a trailer for their upcoming ARG. The quality is impressive, and seems to give us the promise of a very intriguing, well-done Alternate Reality Game.

Orbital Colony announced a launch in the Summer of 2004, but no firm date has been set, yet. So keep your eyes open, or better yet, subscribe to the ARGN Announce List (in the sidebar at right) to keep tabs on what’s going on.

In other news, Ilovebees and ARGN were both featured on a recent episode of Pulse on G4TechTV. This episode will be re-airing all week, but if you can’t catch it on TV, it’s been made available online.