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Does Tom Tooman hail from Jericho, KS?

November 16, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

It started with a handwritten message on notebook paper and some barcode stickers found in the mailboxes of Sean Stacey and other alternate reality gaming players. These clues led to a website which showed nothing but an entry box and blank submit button. It was described by one player of the game, xnbomb, as “wonderfully devoid of anything encouraging, which in itself is encouraging”. Eventually, after picking through the clues provided for them, the players entered the correct password and were rewarded with a black and white map of the midwest.

What kind of ARG could possibly come out of a sheet of notebook paper, some barcodes and a map of the midwest? Well, an ARG for a major network television show, of course! A source close to the game has confirmed that the Tom Tooman ARG is an official product for the CBS television show, Jericho.

Over the past three months, things have been slowly ramping up in the Tom Tooman ARG. The midwestern map went through several changes, finally giving an elusive message which included the words, “Are you bored yet?”. While some of the more impatient players may have responded with a “yes” to that question and moved on, those who knew the adage about what comes to those who wait were rewarded with several new meaty updates. New websites were found including one for the Sakanas, Kansas community newspaper where players discovered that the midwest had been hit by several atomic bombs. Another website, for Black Hills Radio Control, has allowed players to scan the radio waves looking for communications from survivors of the attack.

Numb3rs Chain Factor: We Probably Should Have Seen This Coming

November 12, 2007 / Michael Andersen

Last Friday’s episode of Numb3rs (as reported here at ARGNet) sparked discussion at UnFiction. And while the show received generally positive reactions for a positive depiction of the community and a thorough look at the puzzle solving aspects, many were disappointed that the episode downplayed the narrative elements of alternate reality gaming.

Apparently, people spoke too soon, as ARGNet’s own Brooke Thompson received an email from Spectre, one of the characters from last week’s Numb3rs, leading to Chain Factor. Spectre mentioned in the show his plans of developing Chain Factor to rival “Primacy”–if you haven’t yet seen the episode, I won’t spoil you more. At first glance, the website appears to be a casual puzzle game created by a slightly megalomaniacal game developer. The puzzle game has hidden 36 keys “hidden in plain sight among the visual trash of today’s marketing-mad culture”. These keys unlock special powers that can be used in the Chain Factor gameplay. Some of these keys have been discovered as banner ads on Viacom websites such as CBS Sportsline and StarTrek.com.

The admittedly addictive puzzle game has a few bugs in the system. Players have noted that error codes strongly resembling internal memos crop up from time to time indicating the future placement of media. The memos suggest keys will be transmitted via text messaging, television promotions, and out-of-home advertising in California and Minnesota. These production notes indicate that a story may be forthcoming.

The Numb3rs episode defined alternate reality as “a treasure hunt played out in the real world using actual media”. Following that logic, Chain Factor may be a quest to unlock a series of clues hidden throughout the world around us. However, it appears as though the creators of this game are gradually and subtly revealing a narrative to support the treasure hunt. We may get to see Spectre’s plans for an alternate reality game that is all-encompassing…or at least all-encompassing within the Viacom umbrella.

Television shows are releasing supplemental extended realities and alternate reality games more and more frequently. This may prove invaluable to shows looking to keep their audiences engaged during the WGA strike. Who knows which program will be next? Stay tuned to ARGNet for more updates.

Click Here to play Chain Factor.
Click Here for the discussion at UnFiction.
Click Here for the Chain Factor Wiki.

Game Launch: Silver Ladder

November 11, 2007 / Brandie Minchew

Did you have your alarms set for today at 11:11 a.m? After all, this date has been circled on the calendars of many alternate reality game players as the day the rabbit hole at SilverLadder.com opens. While the site is currently down (temporarily, we assume and hope), this gives us a good opportunity to catch up on what’s happened so far.

On September 21st, a playing card with a MySpace page contacted unFictologist Satims. Satims alerted the unFiction community to the message from “2 of Clubs” that directed their attention to SilverLadder.com and a video on YouTube. Later that week, after entering their phone numbers into a form found on the SilverLadder website, several unFiction members began receiving phone calls from “The Deuces”, who described themselves as drones sent out to alert people of SilverLadder’s existence and its soon-to-be-opened rabbit hole. Other characters, identified by their place in the 52-card deck, revealed themselves to players through phone calls, IMs, postings on MySpace, and videos.

The SilverLadder website has deep roots in internet history. It has existed in one form or another since around 1999 as an interactive art project and has been referred as “The Bad, Scary Place.” A mirror of the “Bad, Scary Place” can be found on the SL Team website. A visit to the SilverLadder website currently reveals an clickable web of images, quotes, pages from a travel journal, videos and soundclips. Scattered through this hyperlinked maze are references to Alice and Wonderland, the Beatles, the Bible, nuclear war, and global warming.

Numb3rs on Alternate Reality Games: Amita ARGs, and Extreme Deaddrops

November 9, 2007 / Michael Andersen

The Writer’s Guild of America may be on strike, but you’ll need to wait a few more weeks for hordes of drama-starved television addicts to flock to alternate reality games for succor. While you wait, tune in to CBS tonight at 10pm EST for Numb3rs. Tonight’s episode of the hit series, entitled Primacy, will feature alternate reality gaming. According to SpoilerFix.com:

When a man that worked for the Department of Justice dies from falling off a roof, the team follows a trail to an online game called Primacy, which has an “Alternate Reality” (or real life) side as well. They question a 67-year-old female game player about being up on the same roof. They also question a leather-wearing biker and an Asian business woman. Amita and Larry help with the investigation and Amita is threatened because of her involvement with the game.

The drama revolving around mathematician Charles Epps (David Krumholtz) and his FBI agent brother Don (Rob Morrow) often features techniques familiar to followers of alternate reality games such as cipher decryption and steganography. Be sure to check out Wolfram on Numb3rs after the show for a closer look at the math used in the episode.

If you checked ARGNet too late to catch Primacy (or just want to see it again) and you have a US IP address, go to the Numb3rs homepage for the full episode.

DISCLAIMER: Televised impressions of “alternate reality game” might not mesh with your own.

Book Two of Eldritch Errors comes and goes, PM chat tonight!

November 7, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Now that Book Two of Eldritch Errors has wrapped up, the people behind the curtain are eager to get together with ARG players to talk about things, and so tonight at 9 pm ET, you can join Brian Clark, Brooke Thompson and a few other distinguished guests in the #stfeline room on the Chat-Solutions IRC network (irc.chat-solutions.org). If you’ve never accessed IRC chat before, you can use our handy-dandy chat applet here at the web site — simply pick the room from the drop-down list and give yourself a nickname, and join in the fun!

In case you’re not up to speed on all things EE, the puppetmasters have their own behind-the-scenes blog at Schmeldritch.com, where they have commented on a very interesting (and somewhat creeptastic) three-day live event that occurred late in October. While we missed the boat on live coverage (sorry!) you can read all about it at Sentry Outpost, the in-game forums for EE, through Biff’s summary post, as well as Mapmaker’s four-part detailed recap (part 1, 2, 3 and 4). From all accounts, it was a nerve-wracking, intense, unforgettable experience.

The Mailman Cometh

November 6, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Today was a great day for getting mail. The newest Rolling Stone magazine arrived, as did the December copy of Macworld. Also, nestled between a CAA membership renewal notice and a flyer for a grocery store, was an inconspicuous package addressed to ARGN… from ARGN. ‘Weird,’ I thought, ‘I don’t remember sending myself a package.’ And then it hit me — we were being RABBIT HOLED!

Quickly, I flipped the package over and pulled the easy-open red tab. Inside, I found a DVD, a newspaper headline clipping, and a ripped picture of a fairly attractive woman. After scanning the contents (and the postmark) I went for the DVD and stuck it into my trusty laptop. The name of the disc, My DVD, revealed nothing of use, so I played it, and what I saw shocked and amazed me:

Yes, that was a scary looking guy, hitting a fence. And yes, that was a puzzle piece that flashed on the screen near the end of the video. Okay, so maybe it’s not as shocking and amazing as I might have previously stated, but it’s still a mysterious, ominous video that’s worth watching. Is this the lovechild of The Human pet and the Golden Jigsaw? Probably not, but it’s still something that has us curious about what’s to come.

So, how do we go forward from here? My guess is that we will have to wait until more people receive similar packages — Sean C. Stacey of Despoiler got one, and is going to be posting a message shortly about what he got. If anyone else out there has more information, be sure to send us a quick note (via the contact form, perhaps?) so that we can provide an update later in the week.