Category: News (Page 145 of 183)

Pherotones

February 3, 2006 / Brooke Thompson

Pherotones have the potential to transform a friend into something more.

Several weeks ago, Dr. Myra Vanderhood was interviewed by Bruce Stewart for Oâ€™Reilly Emerging Telephony blog about the potential of using ring tones to attract members of the opposite sex. Pherotones are the audio equivalent of pheromones, in which people and animals are attracted or repulsed by upon receiving a fragrant whiff of a potential mate. Dr. Myra Vanderhood discovered that sounds can have a similar effect and is testing her discovery on ring tones.

The interview with Stewart linked to Dr. Vanderhoodâ€™s blog as well as to a wikipedia article (since deleted) on Pherotones and it didnâ€™t take long for the blogosphere to weigh in with fascination and controversy. Once it was discovered that the wikipedia article had been written by McKinney + Silver (the Ad Agency behind Art of the Heist), there was a justifiable frustration over the manipulation of one of the internet’s best resources for commercial and advertising purposes. And, despite their best efforts of hiding their involvement (going as far as to obscure the registration information for the pherotones.com website), it brought McKinney Silver into the fold. When confronted by this, Dr. Vanderhood explained that someone on the board hired them for promotional purposes (great thinking on your feet!) and added a new â€œIs this a marketing campaign” question to the website FAQ.

There is still no word on the actual client, though rumors have it ranging from Qwest (a client of McKinney Silvers) to Stephen Kingâ€™s latest novel, Cell. We do know that the website will be updating (and a wiki of sorts will appear at some point), though the depth of the campaign is still to be determined. However, with the possible interaction (Dr. Vanderhood will chat on AIM and has replied to emails) and the great quick thinking weâ€™ve seen so far, if it goes very deep it should be a fun and well thought out ride.

ARGN verdict: pherotones have the potential to transform the spring gaming season into something more.

ARGFest 2006 – Chicago, Baby!

February 2, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

After weeks of deliberation and debate, the final results are in, and it looks like ARGFest 5: Chicago will be officially starting on July 21st, and carrying on through the weekend to the 23rd. If you haven’t yet heard of ARGFest, it is a social event geared towards the Alternate Reality Gaming community that has previously been held in Las Vegas, Orlando, Vancouver and New York. The typical ARGFest weekend includes meet-and-greet events, dinners, nighttime activities (with the occasional nighttime beverage) and, on occasion, organized ARG-themed activities.

Last year’s ARGFest IV in New York set a new standard for an ARG community event, as organizers planned a full slate for the three day festival. Guest speakers such as Jane McGonigal and members of the Art of the Heist creative team were invited to give presentations to those in attendance, and those talks were eventually made into a DVD and encoded to video files downloadable through the Torrent network. As well, the event committee helped to put together a real world puzzle trail that had groups of eager participants travelling all over the Big Apple.

It is not yet known what kinds of surprises lie in wait in the hot summer of Chi-town, but you can be sure that everyone who makes it down to the Windy City will be blown away by the experience. For more information, there is a thread at the Unfiction forums and a wiki to keep you updated.

Is There Gold In Those Hills?

January 31, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Fans of Survivor, The Apprentice, and Rock Star: INXS will know the name Mark Burnett. He is one of the most successful television producers in recent times, churning out hit reality series after hit reality series. Now, it seems that Burnett wants to apply his talents to another niche — interactive Web programs.

Burnett has teamed up with AOL to bring the treasure-hunt game show “Gold Rush” to the Internet. Details about the game are sketchy at best, but it will require cryptic puzzles to be solved in real-time. Contestants will be able to have “constant interaction with the showâ€™s central treasure hunt,” according to Burnett, and the prize is nothing to scoff at – $1.6 million in gold will be available in 13 locations across the United States.

I am the Possum, Goo Goo G’Joob

January 31, 2006 / Larry Eisner

We’ve been seeing an amazing surge in grassroots projects lately, and “iamthepossum” seems to be yet another with potential. While the game seems to be in initial phases currently, this is the breakdown:

Alan Reeve, an owner of a LiveJournal, has been having strange dreams, ever since January 13th, when he hung up a dream-catcher that he got as a gift from his grandfather in Atlanta.

Just when Alan’s (Tiffletaff7) dreams started recurring, a player at UnFiction got an instant message from “iamthepossum” asking about Alan. When the player contacted Alan via IM to check out the facts, he responded quite realistically, by being more than a little creeped out, and shooing the players away.

The LiveJournal was last updated on the 20th, with Alan getting a dead possum in his mailbox. He’s taken down the dream-catcher, and apparently the next step is for us to take, as nothing new has been updated at all since that time.

Is the game still active? Is the game only beginning? What is the relationship of “iamthepossum” and Alan? Only time will tell. Be sure to check ARGN for future updates, should new information come out in regards to this game!

Perplex City Lands in America

January 30, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Perplex City will be taking another leap forward in the very near future, as the PXC universe will be on display at the Toy Fair in New York City from February 12-15 (Booth #6160, for those interested on visiting). Mind Candy Design, the creators of the card-based Alternate Reality Game, are currently putting together a media blitz for American audiences — a new press release is heralding the “launch of Perplex City in North America.”

While the cards have been available at select U.S. toy stores for months, Mind Candy CEO Michael Smith promises that they will make it “much easier to get access to our cards in North America, so everyone now has the opportunity to get immersed in Perplex City.â€ With an increase in the number of retailers selling the puzzle cards, the community of 13,000 registered at the Perplex City forums should see a surge of American players in the coming months.

The world of PXC keeps expanding — there is now a player-generated map of Perplex City in the style of Google Maps, and the aforementioned PXC Forums are full of activity. With the upcoming live events in New York and London coming soon, it looks like 2006 will be another big year for Sente and his cast of characters.

Vaporlofts Closes Its Doors

January 30, 2006 / Carie Ward

Sometimes addiction to ARG games is not a good thing. We players always seem to want more stories, more puzzles, and more action, even after the game has finished. Especially after the game has finished, players will attempt to find more secrets hidden away, squeezing every last drop out of the game before they walk away.

So has been the case with Vaporlofts. I am sorry to report that ARGN has received information that the game has come to an end, just the way it was meant to, even though none of us realized it. In a vast departure from previous games, Vaporlofts ended the way things in life tend to do. There were no ending credits, no happy endings, just more questions than answers. Anne never returned from Atlanta and with information going missing, it seems that only Vaporlofts can know why. With the company so good at keeping secrets, we may never know what truly happened to her. All of our leads have gone cold, so it’s time to put this into a cold case file and hope that one day a new lead may turn up.