Author: Steve Peters (Page 5 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.

Ares Station Completes Its Mission

May 8, 2005 / Steve Peters

The indie Alternate Reality Game Ares Station came to a close on May 5th, with an announcement on its trailhead page. Although nobody likes it when a game ends, those who played the two-month long ARG seemed to be extremely happy with the game overall.

Ares Station was designed by Indiana University Bloomington graduate students Nathan Mishler and Will Emigh as a Telecommunications thesis project. Ares Station represents about a year of work, and included excellent quality design and multimedia elements, as well as a very effective “stealth” launch.

Helmets off to Nathan, Will and the rest of the Ares Station crew for providing a quality Alternate Reality Gaming experience. You can read a transcript of the post-game chat with the Ares Team here.

“I Love Bees” Wins Webby Award

May 3, 2005 / Steve Peters

It was announced today that 2004’s runaway Alternate Reality Game hit “I Love Bees” won the 2005 Webby Award for Best Games-Related website. The Webby Awards are the internet equivalent of the Academy Awards.

A complete list of the winners can be accessed at the Webby website. Congratulations to the entire 4orty2wo Entertainment Team behind I Love Bees! This award is well-deserved.

ARGN Adds Features, Staff

May 2, 2005 / Steve Peters

ARGN has turned an important corner, recently. For the past six months, the genre of Alternate Reality Gaming has continued to gain mainstream recognition, in no small part due to games like I Love Bees and Regenesis. As a result, traffic here and at affiliate sites like Unfiction has continued to grow swiftly, which is a good problem to have. The proliferation of new and ongoing ARGs, continued media exposure, and becoming widely accepted as a bona-fide news source has suddenly made it pretty obvious that we’re not just a little fan-site any more.

Zoe’s World, Aware Sequel Teaser

May 2, 2005 / Steve Peters

From the “Something May Be Going On Here” file:

Out of the numerous, shall we say, interesting emails ARGN received this week came the following:

â€œThe residents of â€œ3rdâ€ live along side us, and watch our every move but also keep their distance. The populous of â€œ3rdâ€ are there to protect us and watch over our interests. Occasionally holes (or leaks) are found in the boundary between dimensions and sometimes â€œ3rdâ€ is seen by us, but normally mistaken as paranormal activity.

The 5th dimension is a dangerous place, and houses the demons and evils in our lives. 5th is usually safely contained, however some problems are occurring and holes are appearing.

Time is limited, and the residents of our secret neighbour need our help.

PROVE YOUR WORTH.â€

Cows With Guns

April 25, 2005 / Steve Peters

Like something out of The Far Side, pedestrians in Maryland were recently startled to see a trio of cows (ok, not real cows, but humans in cow suits) leap from a van and begin accosting passersby, handing out cowbells and other swag that seemed to be promoting a Cow Revolution website, www.bovineunite.com. If you haven’t visited this site yet, you need to go there. Now.

Prepare yourself for the upcoming cow revolution. Seems our bovine friends have had quite enough of our milking them for all they’re worth, among other indignities. But they’re not just mad, they’re planning on getting even, and claiming their right to greener pastures in the process. Bovine Unite includes links to a cow blog, cow forum, and numerous media files including videos of cows pumping iron and the Bovine National Anthem. All of this is in preparation for “C-Day” on May 5th, when their nefarious bovine plan will go into effect.

Speculation abounds, but whoever’s behind all this had done a good job hiding their tracks. Web denizens are pointing to everyone from Chick-Fil-A to PETA, but the fact that events seem to be localized solely to Maryland seem to indicate otherwise.

So, keep a close eye on any cows that live near you, and be sure to stop by www.bovineunite.com on May 5th and tune in to the Cow News Networks between 8:45 and 9:00 PM (yeah, no timezone) for “further instructions.” We biped milkers are going to have to stick together to make it through this.

No, not an ARG. But pretty dang funny.

Discussion at Unfiction

More Awards for Alternate Reality Games

April 24, 2005 / Steve Peters

Recognition for Alternate Reality Games is continuing to build with yet more media-related awards and nominations announced this week.

Regenesis Extended Reality won the FITC Design & Technology Award for Convergence. The FITC is one of Canada’s largest annual new media festivals. You can check out all of the winners at the FITC 2005 Awards website. In addition, ReGenesis Extended Reality was nominated for a Canada New Media Award for a Cross-Platform Project, which is arguably one of the top awards in Canada. The Canadian New Media Awards will honour individuals and companies in 19 categories on May 30th in Toronto. Congratulations, Xenophile Media!

If you missed Regenesis when it originally aired, it’s been announced that Season I will be shown on Canada’s Global Television Network this fall, effectively exposing the series to a much bigger Canadian audience. Additionally, Regenesis is scheduled to air on the Sci-Fi Channel in the UK this summer. Whether or not a replay of the extended reality game will occur in conjuntion remains a mystery at this point, however.

As we previously reported, I Love Bees is up for a 2005 Webby Award, although its run for a People’s Voice Award seems to be undeservedly out of reach at this point. The Webby Award winners will be announced at a gala celebration on June 6th at Gotham Hall in New York City, while the People’s Voice Award winners will be announced on May 3rd.

With all the mainstream recognition ARGs have been getting lately, we can surely look forward to seeing more and more of them in the very near future.