Category: News (Page 131 of 183)

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.

PICNIC ’06 Cross Media Week Is Here!

September 26, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Well, it is finally here – PICNIC ’06 is mere days away, and we have three ARGN community members at the conference, ready to report on events as they unfold. Sean C. Stacey (SpaceBass) and Brooke Thompson (imbri), long-time ARG community members and contributing writers to ARGN, are on location in Amsterdam and are eagerly anticipating the opening of the event later today (or tomorrow, depending on what time zone you are in). Joining them as an interpreter and associate is DaniÃ«l van Gool (giskard) who we are very fortunate to have on board for this project. ARGN is once again proud to be an official network partner of PICNIC ’06 Cross Media Week and we hope that any of you who are in attendance are able to catch up with Sean, Brooke and DaniÃ«l in their travels over the next few days.

If you’d like to keep tabs on the crew and want to get in touch with them, they have set up a thread at the unFiction forums dedicated to social gatherings at PICNIC (click here). If you can’t make it to see them or the event, check back here in the next few days, as we should have updates soon.

Deus City Countdown

September 24, 2006 / Larry Eisner

No, it’s not another Top 40 list from some radio station in Deus City! It’s a new countdown started at the main page at Deus City! Currently the countdown is set to expire on November 11th (if my math is correct), and what will happen at that time is anyone’s guess! As reported earlier, the game isn’t scheduled to launch until 2007, so expect ARGN to be on the case, reporting anything new that happens on that date!

In the meantime, don’t forget that you can submit your own puzzles to be used in the game, by contacting Adam Brackin, and you’ll get the details, and the required API for submissions.

In other Deus News, the Deus City Blog has been updated, including some strange hybrids of science, prophecy, and homebrew time/space theory. It’s worth a read, and quite entertaining, as well as head-‘splody goodness. In a nutshell, the author of the blog proposes we can communicate with the past and the future, although the exact nature of communicating with the past (which therefore allows communication with the future, for those in the past, receiving that communication), is not yet given in detail.

Essentially, the future is now. So that makes it the present. But since that already happened, it’s the past. Whew…. Anyway, once you get your head around this stuff (at least enough to not re-read everything four times like this writer) you get a feel for where this game is headed. The concepts are fun and well thought-out, and the story for the game, while obviously not entirely in plain sight yet, are prime for game-time.

I personally look forward to playing this game, and always enjoy good immersive pre-game, even if that game’s launch is quite some time in the future. As always, continue to look to ARGN for news on this and other Alternate Reality Games in the future. The Future. Yeah, I’ll just keep on saying that…in the future.

Portals For Fun And Profit

September 12, 2006 / Larry Eisner

A viral promotion for the upcoming game Portal, released by Half-Life creators VALVE Software, Aperture Science is a short, but witty promotional site, with a full psychological test for those “employees” wishing to participate in the Aperture Science program.

The site remains little more than a diversion currently, but it’s definitely worth a look-see, if not just for the excellent sense of humor. However, interlaced with the simple comedy of the thing, are some basic code-cracking elements. And while not really a game, there is definitely a tongue-in-cheek Alternate Reality aspect to the site. Check it out! And as always, should something develop into an ARG or become more immersive than currently offered, we here at ARGN will keep you up to date as the news happens!

Scheduled Maintenance = Down Time

September 11, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Here’s a FYI: Our host has scheduled maintenance for tonight which will result in our site being down for the duration of the work, which they say will be between 30 and 45 minutes. The work will begin at 10pm PDT (1 am EDT).

Lonelygirl15: The End (Or the Beginning?)

September 7, 2006 / Dee Cook

Although the post itself on the Lonelygirl15.com forum is currently unreachable, a new message tonight has a lot of confused fans wondering if the puppetmasters have stepped out from behind the curtain.

To Our Incredible Fans,

Thank you so much for enjoying our show so far. We are amazed by the overwhelmingly positive response to our videos; it has exceeded our wildest expectations. With your help we believe we are witnessing the birth of a new art form. Our intention from the outset has been to tell a story– A story that could only be told using the medium of video blogs and the distribution power of the internet. A story that is interactive and constantly evolving with the audience.