Category: Update (Page 7 of 41)

We Lost Our Gold: Pirate Booty Still at Large

September 22, 2010 / Jane Doh

As reported previously on ARGNet, a befuddled pirate-and-ninja crew lost a treasure chest filled with 10,000 gold-colored US dollar coins somewhere in the five boroughs of New York City. This past Sunday, incidentally International Talk Like A Pirate Day, the final episode of the eight-part We Lost Our Gold web series aired, bringing the plot to a close. However, the pirate booty is still at large.

In July, several trailers, media appearances, and hilarious press releases built up interest for the series until it began in earnest on August 1st. Over the course of the episodes, the crew retraced their steps through New York City to try and remember where they misplaced the treasure chest. Starting off easily enough with Episode 1, the clues clearly led treasure-seekers away from Central Park.

However, as We Lost Our Gold progressed, the clues became more numerous and more difficult and also rife with red herringsâ€”usually tributes to filmmakers. The episodes parodied different genres and popular shows, such as The Larry King Show, where it was revealed that the pirates had stolen the money from Glove & Boots, a web series-making puppet duo consisting of Fafa the Groundhog and his friend Mario.

F8 Comes Knocking at My Door: Dexter ARG Hits Close to Home

September 3, 2010 / Michael Andersen

This morning, a knock on my door woke me up. A package greeted me on my doorstep, addressed to ARGNet (care of Celina Beach). Inside was a tiny, elegant package and a postcard with the picture of a grisly kill room and a bloody infinity sign. This was familiar.

This was F8.

We’veÂ reported on The Infinity Killer, the nefarious serial killer at the heart of the Dexter alternate reality game, a few times over the past few months. In fact, the image sent to ARGNet bears a striking resemblance to the kill room set up at San Diego’s Comic-Con that launched the alternate reality game. And this package had F8’s name written all over it (figuratively, of course). It’s safe to say we’ve taken an interest in him. And it seems as though he’s taken an interest in ARGNet staffer Celina Beach as well, as the back of the postcard reads:

Celina,

I’ve been following you for a while. And it seems you’re onto me as well. I have to say, I’m quite flattered. I’m thinking you might be interested in picking my brain (assuming my heart whets your appetite). You + 8 other bloggers I admire have received packages like the one you just opened. I am going to grant an exclusive interview to the first of you to write a story about me + the present. I can assure you, my friends are just dying to see it.

I am always thinking of you
@f8speaks

The Hunt for the Infinity Killer Heats Up in Dexter Game

August 28, 2010 / Nicko Demeter

Photo credit: James Hamilton

The hunt for a serial killer is nothing new in the world of alternate reality games. However when this experience is backed by a major broadcasting company, it invariably spills out of the computer screen and into the real world. The culprit in this case is the Showtime television seriesÂ Dexter. The show follows the life of Dexter Morgan, a forensic expert working for Miami PD who is a serial killer himself. In past years, Showtime has led into the new season ofÂ Dexter by setting upÂ aÂ Dexter-themed newsstandÂ parodying popular magazines, releasing a personalized faux-news report letting viewersÂ give friends the “Dexter treatment”, turning thirteen fountains across the country red with fake blood (with Philadelphia’s Love Park Fountain pictured above), and airing anÂ animated web series providing a look at some of Dexter’s first kills. This year, an alternate reality gameÂ will welcome in the new season of Dexter, which returns September 25th.

As we previously reported at ARGNet, a Dexter-themed SCVNGR mission at Comic-Con led players to a grisly kill room. The players of this experience joined the hunt through their contact, Dee Pratt, a former FBI agent. Her website, SerialHuntress.com, is the first introduction to the now infamous serial killer known as the â€˜Infinity Killer.â€™ Pratt’s interest in the case borders on obsession but that also translates to frequent updates via her YouTube account, SerialHuntress. In a true stroke of genius, she determined that harnessing collective intelligence would be the most effective way of tracking the killer down, and started her venture Justice By All, which also serves as the in-game forum area.

The technologies used for this game range from Facebook and Twitter to international phones that sometimes reveal vital information (but only if you are nice) and require cooperation of the player base to reach certain conclusions by the timelines imposed. The game’s developers have maintained a steady pace that allows everyone to be fully immersed in a cat-and-mouse thrill ride. All in-game characters have responded promptly to player requests, even the character that was supposedly in China, which helps maintain both interest and interaction.

A Super 8 Update: Rocket Poppeteers Blast Off at Comic-Con, Into Your Homes

August 8, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Image from the Rocket Poppeteer twitter account

Details about theÂ project code-named Super 8, a new film by J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg, are still ensconced in mystery. And while the movie’s viral campaign offers scintillating tastes of what the film may eventually offer, putting those pieces together is a daunting task, made even more difficult thanks to recent updates. What do vintage Rocket Poppeteers brand popsicles have to do with an antiquated PDP-11 simulator, and how does a collector of rare and unique fish figure into things? While this article will have few answers to these seemingly outrageous questions, it will provide some context for this alternate reality game as it circuitously provides a preview of things to come in the upcoming film.

Last May when ARGNet first covered the Super 8 alternate reality game, players were waiting patiently for a PDP-11 simulator designed by “D. Morris” at the Scariest Thing I Ever Saw website to finish downloading a file. Once the file transfer completed, players could print out two newspaper clippings bearing an advertisement for Rocket Poppeteers brand popsicles, along with some oddly placed redactions. Lining up the two articles and cutting out the redactions reveals a message that Super8News interprets as “No certainty if alive, [it/they] may be after us, we go underground.” Both Rocket Poppeteers spokesman “Coop” Cooper and PDP-11 programmer “D. Morris” have been linked to Dan Morris and Gordon Cooper, real people who play prominent roles in alien conspiracy theories.

The Rocket Poppeteers advertisementÂ served as more than the vehicle for an ominous message. Some players attempted to become a Rocket Poppeteer by mailing the newspaper clipping in to the listed address, andÂ subsequentlyÂ received a letter welcoming them into the Rocket Poppeteers Astronaut Program. At Comic-Con, the Rocket Poppeteer twitter account reported locations where conference attendees couldÂ visit anÂ ice cream truck for popsicles and t-shirts from friendly ice cream men (and women) decked out in old-fashioned apparel. The Rocket Poppeteers website has opened up for online registration, so it’s not too late to get in on the popsicle-related fun, however it relates to the upcoming Super 8 film.

Comic-Con Recap: ComiTRON

August 7, 2010 / Celina Beach

In 2008, Disney came to Comic-Con with some early conceptual footage for a movie that, at that time, was called TR2N. It received such strong support and generated so much excitement from the Comic-Con crowd, Disney greenlighted the project.Â Flash forward to the 2009 Comic-Con, where Disney presented additional footage for the now-titled TRON: Legacy. Fans were also led on a merry chase through San Diego leading to a recreation of Flynnâ€™s Arcade,Â where further information about the disappearance of Kevin Flynn was revealed.

FlashÂ forward again to 2010,Â where theÂ Flynn Lives alternate reality game ramped up through the release ofÂ online mini-games leading to live drops, movie screenings, digital badges, and real-life TRON artifacts. Meanwhile, buzzÂ for the movie increased as Comic-Con approached and TRON banners and signs appeared around San Diego. The news media started referring to Comic-Con as ComiTRON, which generated even more excitement and anticipation from the ARG community following theÂ Flynn Lives campaign as they started to wonder: would Flynnâ€™s Arcade return?

Conspiracy for Good: Into the Belly of the Beast to Confront Blackwell Briggs

August 5, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Image courtesy of stevecadman

This past May, Tim Kring launched Conspiracy for Good, and as the summer comes to a close, the events of the past few months are coming to a head for one final event this weekend in London. If you can make it to Bloomsbury Square Gardens in London on August 7, register to play now, and this article should get you up to speed with what you need to know to join in the adventure.

Conspiracy for Good can best be described as an amalgamation of an alternate reality game, a street theater show, and a social movement. Players have been charged with the task of bringing down Blackwell Briggs, an evil global security firm with a penchant for kidnapping and skullduggery. Players willing to risk attracting Blackwell Briggs’ ire joined up with the Conspiracy for Good, an organization of socially-minded individuals committed to opposing the company’s excess.

Using a series of free mobile games available at Nokia’s Ovi Store, players were given the opportunity to hack into the Babbage 1.6.1 website to extract valuable pieces of intelligence, break into the Blackwell Briggs servers, and hack a series of CCTV cameras across London to help smuggle Nadirah, a key Conspiracy for Good member seeking to build a library for children in Zambia, into the city. The final mobile game lead to the next stage of Conspiracy for Good:Â a series of four live “Actions” occuring weekly in London. Participants at each Action are provided with a Nokia phone with pre-installed software to help complete the task.