Category: News (Page 119 of 183)

The Hunt For More Frustration

February 25, 2007 / Geoff May

Editor’s Note: Big thanks to Geoff May for contributing this article about the recently-launched Dr. Pepper marketing campaign. Geoff is a former ARGNet staff writer, and we are thankful for this timely article.

Is there a drink you’d be willing to purchase and drink for a full month to get the chance to win up to $1,000,000? What if it weren’t a matter of chance, but of skill and problem solving?

Recently, Cadbury Schweppes PLC ran a marketing campaign for the Dr.Pepper brand that would take its followers potentially to every corner of North America (and beyond), both physically and virtually. Dr.Pepper’s “The Hunt For More” campaign could be considered a great success, though YMMV. Following the marketing theme of Dr.Pepper’s unique 23 flavored pop, the ‘Hunt’ campaign would get people all over the US and Canada hunting down 23 physical coins for guaranteed $$$ – ultimately ending in a flurry of controversial press.

Over the course of 30 days from Jan 21 to Feb 21, Dr.Pepper bottles were disappearing off shelves faster than usual, making it a hunt in itself to find them before they disappeared, and not every store carrying the brand had the specially labeled bottles. It was a frantic race for players to have a unique code in their possession every day, and it was a lot of pop to drink.

The clue portion of the hunt was very much a game of skill. There was no luck involved or random draw – just be the first to either find your region’s physical coin, or report the location of the virtual one. To balance this game of skill, players were also given the option to use the code not to retrieve a clue, but for a chance to win an instant prize.

Vive La Resistance!

February 23, 2007 / Nicko Demeter

Swirling around the announcement of Nine Inch Nail’s upcoming album, Year Zero, are stories of mysterious finds related to the album: songs “leaked” on thumb drives left in bathrooms during concerts, unsettling websites and videos haunted by an ominous presence, and glimpses into a dystopian future not far removed from our own.

Unfolding from the websites, songs, and videos is a tale of oppression, injustice, and revolution. Fed up with increasing violence, civil unrest and terrorism, an unelected U.S. Government created a Bureau of Morality and restarted the nation’s clock at Year Zero. The First Amendment is now a thing of the past and the authorities have their thumb firmly positioned over all matters pertaining to art and culture. The quasi-totalitarian administration also utilizes the power of reactionary religious organizations to ensure that U.S. citizens are kept under tight control.

If history tells us anything, however, it is that such a restrictive regime cannot last forever. A resistance has been formed to speak out against the government’s oppressive intervention into its citizens’ lives. Using codes, flyers, USB drives left in restrooms across the world, spectrograms on MP3 songs, and a handful of websites, the faithful (or fanatics, depending on your point of view) are spreading their message and gathering in secret to discuss the latest salvos in their ongoing battle against The Man.

But there’s more going on here than just freedom fighters arrayed against the full tide of an overbearing and illegitimate leadership. A hand-like creature has been seen walking the desert, slipping downwards to earth from the heavens. The sightings started after a drug, Parepin, was added to the water in an effort to prevent bioterrorist attacks. Is it a hallucination? Divine intervention? The Angel of Death? Or, as clever Unfiction players recently suggested, might the Presence be a cross-temporal manifestation of the players themselves?

With speculation that this might be the latest production from 42 Entertainment, curiosity about the way the story is being told (is this a flashback hidden between clips of music, a la The Handmaid’s Tale? And how is it being transmitted back in time to 2007?) and a claim from Trent Reznor that this is not “some gimmick to get you to buy a record…this IS the art form,” which is “just getting started,” interest is high. The scheduled release of the Year Zero album is 4/17/07. Until then do not drink the water.

Get talking on the Unforums, or start at the sources: anotherversionofthetruth.com and www.iamtryingtobelieve.com

Y-Y-You Will See Such Pretty Things

February 23, 2007 / Jessie Greene

A few unlucky players recently found themselves feeling ill after watching The Wyoming Incident, a short film uploaded to Google Video in August of last year. Whether due to the power of suggestion, an uneasiness induced by odd frequencies, or coincidence, the sensations led curious viewers to further research the information included in the video’s description.

“The Wyoming Incident (or The Wyoming Hijacking) is a lesser known case of television broadcast hijacking/hacking. A hacker managed to interrupt broadcasts from a local programming channel (believed to serve several smaller communities in the county of Niobrara) and aired his/her own video. The video contained numerous clips of disembodied human heads showing various emotions and “poses”. The camera position changed often (usually every ten-to-fifteen seconds) and the video was often interrupted by a “SPECIAL PRESENTATION” announcement…The video is mostly locally well-known, and would probably not even be that popular if it were not for the effects it had on the few residents who watched it for an extended period of time. Complaints included vomiting, hallucinations, headaches, etc. While some believed it was paranormal, specialists have determined that the cause of these afflictions were frequencies played regularly throughout the broadcast.”

Four more videos have been found containing similar images and more cryptic text, and other game elements, including a serial killer forum, creepy warnings of black-eyed children watching player movements, and allusions to mind control have players scurrying to find the true intentions of The Wyoming Incident hijacker.

UnFiction Thread
Happy Cube Forum (In-Game)
UnKnown Videos (In-Game Blog)

Vanishing Point Post-Game Chat Now Online

February 23, 2007 / Jessica Price

A recording of Vanishing Point’s post-game SkypeCast with 42 Entertainment’s Elan Lee and Steve Peters is now available. If you missed the chance to listen to the live SkypeCast as the puppetmasters revealed behind-the-scenes stories, puzzle solves and other secrets from the other side of the curtain, you can catch up now!

Thanks to Neowin’s Rob Wright and Dave Legg for hosting and editing the chat.

Update on Monster Hunter Club

February 18, 2007 / Letter to the Editor

Editor’s note: All of the information contained within this article is courtesy of Zach, also known as molecularr in the Unfiction forum community. This summary was originally sent in on February 10, 2007, so some of the information may have changed since then, and we have made some changes to the article to reflect this. We thank Zach for his dedicated work in getting this information to us!

A lot of stuff has happened in MHC since the last podcast, so I’ve tried to summarize it in sections below. The main things are that the MHC dealt with some aftermath of the Today show incident (Matt still isn’t really speaking to Derek, it seems), and players have been in contact with the mysterious GesamteSeele (Painted Soul) who was the last person to know the whereabouts of Jon Paine.

In more general news, there’s been some speculation in chat that this is a GMD production, though I don’t think that has been proven or really substantiated beyond a general feeling that MHC is similar to their past work.

Cryptidtruth has continued to post videos of the mysterious fish-like creature, including one containing a puzzle (see below). Derek has also started receiving envelopes under his door, containing a new puzzle (see below, “5 Per”).

This week’s Puzzles:

Video – cryptidtruth’s most recent video of the fish-like creature contained some frames with pieces of text on them. When collaged together, they revealed a message explaining why cryptidtruth prefers to remain anonymous.

All is fair in cards, love, and ARGs

February 14, 2007 / Nicko Demeter

After a brief break, Studio Cypher has launched Episode 4 in their “multiplayer novel.” High Stakes is described as a “comedic love story of cards, kingsâ€¦ and accountants,” and the players have already been introduced to a podcast producer by the name of Vox Diaboli. In his latest broadcast he explains the merits of playing (and losing) the mayorship of a city in a game of cards. And if you listen carefully some new characters are making a power play to steal City Hall.

Again, following their (now) traditional pay-to-play system, StudioCyphers have split the game into the people that pay (also called Wakeful Agents) and those that do not and presumably won’t get to experience everything this episode has to offer.

If you are interested, head over to the StudioCyphers website to sign up. Itâ€™s definitely early in the game, and the plot’s not yet to thick for you to comfortably dive in. Now, where did I put my smoking jacket?

Links:
StudioCyphers
In Game Website
Unfiction forum