Author: Steve Peters (Page 18 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.

Urban Hunt: It’s not what you Think

July 22, 2004 / Steve Peters

Major find by Yanka on unfiction. Seems there’s a new reality TV show in pre-production entitled Urban Hunt. According to the website (www.urbanhunt.com), Urban Hunt will center around a group of contestants that will criss-cross the United States in pursuit of a cash prize of up to $500,000. Bonus Missions will include the use of a team of ‘online advisors’ comprised of home viewers, who will help contestants’ missions.

Also on the site, you can apply to become a contestant and/or an online advisor. Sounds like fun. A cool urban scavenger hunt/online reality show……..

…..or is it?

If you apply to be an online advisor, you receive an autoresponse confirming the receipt of your application. Interestingly enough, though, there seems to be a puzzle hidden in the message. Is it a test to see if you can pass muster? Or is it something else?

We won’t ruin it for you, but this is definitely some sort of ARG-like rabbithole. The puzzle leads to more sites which reveal a dark secret of a reality show gone very, very wrong. This isn’t a reality show, it’s a game. And it looks like they’ve even pulled the wool over on some media outlets.

Props go out to Yanka for finding this.

Busy week in the ARG world. When it rains, it pours.

Trailhead: Urban Hunt
Discussion: Unfiction

Two More ARG Leads

July 16, 2004 / Steve Peters

Holy crap, what a busy day it’s been! First, we find orbitalcolony, then along comes a Fedex package leading to ilovebees.com with its mysteryious AI virus. Now we have two more good solid ARG leads to add for your investigation.

First comes a tip from the trailer for the upcoming remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Seems the evil company portrayed in the film has an online presence: www.manchurianglobal.com. What’s interesting about this (very well done) corporate site is that it has a password protected Limited Partners Extranet. In addition, there’s a Voice Recognition Game which may provide some fun, and a Kyocera phone, if you’re lucky.

Finally, Konamouse at unfiction alerted us to www.sen5241.net, which very well looks like it may be a tie-in to the upcoming DVD release of the classic George Lucas film THX-1138.

Well, that’s about it for one day. Happy hunting!

A Honey of a Rabbithole

July 16, 2004 / Steve Peters

ARGN got a very odd Fedex package just now. It was from Margaret’s Honey, ostensibly in San Francisco, and contained the honey-filled bear to the left.

Lo and behold, in the honey were 9 cutout alphabet letters. I’ve heard of alphabet soup, but alphabet honey?? Ahem….Anyway, the letters in question were: o-i-v-e-e-s-b-l-e. Anagramming the letters gives us, among other things, I LOVE BEES.

So……..www.ilovebees.com. Strange way to start an ARG, but that’s what it looks like. Things are not what they appear to be at ilovebees.com.

Stealth launch. I love it. 🙂

Two rabbitholes in one day……….weird.

[EDIT: We’ve dubbed this game SPiDeR for now (System Peril Distributed Reflex from the text on the site). A lot better than calling the game I Love Bees. Also, it should be noted that there are indications that this game may be part of another current game, but we don’t have enough information yet. We shall see.]

For Sale: Asteroid

July 16, 2004 / Steve Peters

Seems there is an asteroid for sale on eBay. As I’m sure the link won’t always work, here is the accompanying text:

This is a once in a lifetime offer!

I am the exclusive owner of all the Asteroids in our solar system (By virtue of international law). I wish to sell some of them to you, the public! Take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Make your purchase for a loved one or as a completely novel gift!.

I am offering Asteroid 4179 Toutatis for sale! Dont miss out on this wonderfull chance of a lifetime!

Asteroid 4179 Toutatis was named after a Celtic/Gallic god whose name is often invoked in the well known comic book series “The Adventures of Asterix,” set in ancient Gaul. Toutatis is the protector of Asterix and his compatriots, who fear nothing except that someday the sky may fall on their heads.

It is one of the largest known “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids” (PHA) that approaches our planet on a Near Earth Orbit (NEO). Close encounters with Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter constantly alter the shape of the asteroid’s path as it loops through the solar system every 3.98 years. On October 31st. 2000 the asteroid passed less than 29 lunar distances from Earth.

Continue reading

The Mystery of El Centro

July 5, 2004 / Steve Peters

El Centro is creating quite a stir, lately. What is it? When is it? Who’s behind it? What’s going on, exactly??

While billing itself as a ‘Living Novel’ on its website, El Centro seems to be, well, different. The FAQ page doesn’t really seem to come clean about what’s going on, choosing instead to be rather murky and disturbing. In addition to the FAQ, the site offers Soundtrack music (try popping one of these babies on late at night with just the glow of your monitor lighting the house), a Library with a small selection of odd titles, a listing of Tools for the player, plus an RSS feed to keep current on what’s going on.

Oddly, a small Game Status entry currently reads “Pause,” but the FAQ seems contradictory:

How will I know when play has begun?
You won’t. Not really. However, you may register here at a later date to possibly be notified that play has begun. Or not.

That, combined with a little digging on the site, leads one to believe that there is perhaps something already afoot at El Centro. From exploding $20 bills to building a better doughnut, there’s definitely more here than immediately meets the eye. No idea what it is, yet, but it’s definitely worth a look.

“Missing: Since January” Released

July 2, 2004 / Steve Peters

OK, all you Majestic fans. It looks like someone has finally stepped up to the plate and given the “game that plays you” genre another shot. French developer Lexis Numerique and The Adventure Company have released Missing: Since January (formerly released in Europe as “Memoriam”).

MSJ is the story of a journalist who is investigating a series of murders, which are being committed by a serial-killer known as The Phoenix. When he and his girlfriend suddenly disappear, a disturbing CD shows up at his publisher’s office. Not knowing what to do, they enlist the public’s help in finding out what happened.

Interactivity in the game reaches out and touches you in a way that, while quite common in grassroots ARGs, is a first for a mainstream published game. Many emails to ingame characters are handled by real people, and responded to in a realistic way, as opposed to autoresponders. As time goes on, players attract the attention of both the authorities and The Phoenix himself. This, according to GameSpy, is where “the line between reality and a game gets disturbingly thin.”