Category: News (Page 146 of 183)

The Composer & Renata Isle

renata.jpgTwo weeks ago, selected members of the UnFiction message boards were sent mysterious emails from someone calling themselves “The Composer”. The emails were quickly solved — each email contained part of a coded message — and the game was on. Over the course of eleven short days, players were led to a security site, interacted via Instant Messaging, and were introduced to the story of Renata Isle.

As it turns out, the mystery has been solved, for now. On an in-game site, players have learned that they were part of a pre-game activity for upcoming ARG “Renata Isle”. The explanation promises bigger and better things to come on the “17th of the second,” which is assumed to mean February 17th of this year. There is also a teaser page that provides some basic details for the upcoming game.

From reactions in the discussion thread, this pre-game was quite enjoyable to be a part of. We will check back in on this on the 17th and see what happens with “Renata Isle”.

Elan Lee of 42 Entertainment to Appear on G4TV

elan.jpgARGN has learned that Elan Lee of 42 Entertainment will be appearing on the G4 Video Game Television network tomorrow (January 26th). He will be interviewed by Kevin Pereira on Attack of the Show, which first airs at 7 pm, with repeats on Friday at 3 am, 9 am and 3 pm (all times EST). Accompanied by Shane Small, the two will discuss EDOC Laundry, among other topics. EDOC, for the uninformed, is a new clothing company offering coded clothes with an Alternate Reality Gaming tie-in.

Elan Lee has been a part of 42 Entertainment since its inception, and was instrumental in developing and producing some of the most popular ARGs of all time, including The Beast, I Love Bees, and Last Call Poker.

Orbital Colony Puppetmaster Chat

orbicon.jpgAs is tradition with the endgame of a successful Alternate Reality Game, the Puppetmasters of Orbital Colony have announced a post-game Puppetmaster chat to be held on Saturday, Jan. 28th. The chat will start at 7:00 pm EST (GMT -5) in the #inquiringminds channel on the Chat-Solutions IRC network. We have set up a linked chat page here at ARGN, located here, from which you can access the chat and, quite possibly, get a chance to ask your questions about the game and the experience.

From the announcement by bagsbee, one of the PMs: Since Orbital Colony started out as a training ARG, I would definitely encourage everyone to attend, even if you didn’t play the game, and especially if you are an aspiring PuppetMaster. Pretty much everyone on the team started out with little or no PM or BTS experience, and we learned a lot along the way. We would love to share our experiences with you, and answer any questions you might have.

We’ll see you all on the 28th — space elevators are optional.

ARGs Worldwide

earth.jpg The recent successes of Perplex City (UK based) and Regenesis (Canada based) have been a strong indicator that Alternate Reality Gaming is spreading around the globe. Two new developments, an El Salavador-based game and a German-based ARG news site, have helped to move the ARG scene even further into global play.

Agente X is a spy ARG based out of El Salvador. An early launch in December has netted the site far more signups than originally expected. The game promises to shake up the lives of those who are bored with the monotony of everyday routines. This is an ambitious project and would be worth looking into if you are a Spanish speaker.

Patmo.de is a new German language news site with articles on current events in the ARG world, including recent writeups on Who is Benjamin Stove, Perplex City, Araya Benedict, and Orbicon. The site has been added to our Blogroll.

We at ARGN would like to welcome Patmo and Agente X, and hope to see more and more worldwide interest in ARGs in the future.

Methargo

methargo.jpgJust before 2005 died and rose phoenix-like into 2006, a little trailhead appeared on a blog, and Methargo was born. Apparently a grassroots effort, players have been trying to unravel the mysteries at play: What’s up with O. Parliament? Can we trust “mi55548″? What happened to Tom? Where and what is the prism, and what can finding it (again) lead to?

At the center of the story is Methargo Limited, which specializes in :new marketing”. It becomes very clear from the start that the company has some nefarious plans in the works. James Whitmore, an employee of Methargo Ltd., is becoming more and more disillusioned with the work he’s made to do, and according to his journal, he’s quitting after a very short time with the company. Separately involved, are Tabitha and Amanda Keeling, a mother and daughter, and the apparently deceased Tom (who is/was currently employed by Methargo Ltd. in a similar role to James?). Things aren’t as they seem in this world, and the plot is still evolving. However, while play hasn’t been fast-paced, there’s enough to keep a player interested, and the pacing seems to work well for casual onlookers.

So far, the game play has involved a garden variety of puzzles, including Morse code, vigenere ciphers, cryptic AIM conversations and some references to Greek literature for good measure. The game seems to just be getting off the ground, so it should be a good time for new ARGonauts to get themselves involved. Keep your eyes glued to ARGN for further information for this interesting game.

The Secret Life of Michael Adams

michaeladams.jpgThe saga of Michael Adams began when our hero sent some out-of-the-blue e-mails to various ARG players. Michael, who seems to have an intimate relationship with paranoia, had encrypted the message with Morse code, Vigenere, and base64. (All of that, just to essentially say, “Urgent! I need your help!”) A more recent communication was encrypted nine times over — It’s a good thing that there are so many online decoders out there.

Michael, it turns out, needs our help! (Although perhaps not as urgently as it first appeared.) His exact predicament is still a bit fuzzy, but we know that it involves a Prophecy, a Brotherhood, some Secrets, and an Item. Not to mention a Hero (apparently none other than our friend Michael) and a Traitor. Oh, and a Date and a Location. And some Capitalization.

Information (chock full of encryption goodness!) has been relayed to players via e-mail, text messages, instant messenger, and Michael’s Livejournal (in which old entries tend to get removed, so don’t despair if it looks empty). If you like messing around with online decoders, why not join in the Fun?

Editor’s Note: A recent development has been discovered from an email from one of the game characters. Apparently, there will be a live event for this game somewhere in the state of North Carolina in the United States, at some time tomorrow. We will continue to update this article if more concrete information becomes available.

Editor’s Note #2: The game came to a disappointing end before any sort of real world interaction was to take place. For more details on the first ARG casualty of 2006, see this post at UnFiction.

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