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The Labratory of Advanced Media Production: It Must Be Bloody Awesome to be Australian

July 11, 2007 / Michael Andersen

“Where the Bloody Hell are You?” It’s a simple question, and yet it becomes a pivotal one in the world of Alternate Reality Gaming, where live events, deaddrops, and local advertisements feature heavily in the experience. And thanks to the dedicated work of the Laboratory of Advanced Media Production, things are looking bright for Australian ARGers.

LAMP is faciliated by the Australian Film TV and Radio School and provides numerous seminars, workshops, and residentials to aid in the development of cross-media entertainment under the direction of Gary Hayes (Personalize Media). Fellow staffer Jackie Turnure refers to the organization as “a hothouse or idea incubator, an intense brainstorming residential” that takes eight development teams away for a six day program to refine their concepts and develop pitches under the guidance of guardian mentors. Past mentors have included Christy Dena author of Cross-MediaEntertainment.com and co-author of the ARG white paper, as well as Evan Jones (Stitch Media) and Tony Walsh (Clickable Culture).

On the first day of the LAMP residential, the eight teams experience a condensed, customized ARG designed by Gary and Jackie as both a team-building exercise and an introduction to the possibilities of the genre. You can find past games documented on the LAMP Wiki, most recently featuring an Italian mystery quest functioning concurrently in the real world and in Second Life. The remaining time is spent working with numerous experts dealing with issues such as cross-media production, financial modeling, and new media models. The residential culminates in a 15 minute visual presentation to a group of VIPs.

It’s alive! It’s huge! It’s 1-18-08…?

July 10, 2007 / Geoff May

4 8 15 16 23 42 — J.J. Abrams really has a thing for numbers. Beginning last week with the opening of the Michael Bay summer blockbuster movie Transformers, theater-goers were treated to a mysterious, home-movie-style teaser trailer for… well, no one knows exactly. All that’s known is what’s believed to be the release date, shown briefly at the end of the trailer: “1-18-08”. Until recently, the trailer was only viewable in theaters, prompting people to bootleg it on Youtube and various locations (to which Paramount responded by forcing removal of the videos). However, it’s now been made available at Apple.com/trailers for public viewing.

The teaser starts off with a guy walking into a surprise party – lots of people, lots of happy, smiling faces, and one surprised Rob, their “main dude”. Rob is apparently going away to Japan, and his friends are giving him a farewell party. Some of his friends are interviewed, recording their goodbyes. Then, without warning, the lights flicker, car alarms sound, and the apartment is shaken. People flock to the television for breaking news about what’s believed to be an earthquake. Soon people head to the roof to see how the neighborhood’s doing. A dull rumble is heard, and everyone turns to the horizon in shock as a large ball of fire erupts and expands in the distance, hurling large flaming debris into the air. What follows is broken audio and video of the panic stricken crowd scrambling to the street, which is teeming with people running away from whatever’s happening. What can only be described as a deep, loud groan is followed by a swirling object, which impact a skyrise and falls to the ground at breakneck speed, destroying vehicles and anyone in its way. It comes to a stop meters from the camera and we see it appears to be the head of the Statue of Liberty. And cut. A final quick line is shown from one of Rob’s friends – “It’s gonna be the best night ever”

From producer J.J. Abrams. In theatres, 1-18-08.

A Multitude of Game Alerts

July 4, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

As the saying goes, when it rains, it pours. While browsing my inbox from the last week or so, I’ve come across no less than four game tips, and in no particular order, here’s what we know:

Frank Sturgis, who has previously worked at Allied Resource Management Consolidation Inc. let us know about some shady business going on at the company, and requests help with “get[ting]into their servers” via the ARGNet voicemail. The first problem we see? Frank Sturgis apparently died in 1993. Players are already discussing things at the Unfiction forums.

Joshua at Triad Genomics dropped two separate emails into our laps — one stating “This is the beginning of the Ancient Word,” and the other giving us a string of numbers (18882015221, or 1-888-201-5221). The one-liner comes from the Popul Vuh, an with Mesoamerican/Mayan connections. Discussion has also started on the Unforums with the first post made only yesterday. The game is a promotion for Christopher Forrest’s novel The Genesis Code, according to the official web site.

A new “augmented reality game” (their description, not ours) has appeared which is connected to the popular MeiGeist ARG which concluded earlier this year. The game, called “Timehole” (according to creator Jon Williams) is a proof-of-concept stereotype that utilizes GPS technology, has a 30 minute gameplay duration, and will start within the next six weeks. You can join in on the discussion at this Unforums thread.

Finally, there is an ARG developing in The Netherlands called They Are Here. The game kicked off with an elaborate staged event in which white tents were set up in broad daylight, leaking steam, while people in biohazard suits moved about the scene (thanks to Lieke Voermans for an excellent recounting at her blog). A short discussion has begun at the Unfiction forums.

Let the summer ARGs begin!

Live from Ludium II

June 26, 2007 / Michelle Senderhauf

Editor’s Note: ARGNet’s Michelle Senderhauf is attending and reporting from the Ludium II conference, put on by Indiana University’s Synthetic Worlds Initiative.

This is Michelle Senderhauf reporting live from the Ludium II conference at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The conference is being run in game format which is interesting since the conference itself is about developing principles for sensible video game policy.

The Ludium game has two goals –

1. to develop a set of policies regarding synthetic worlds that will be sent to real world governments and
2. vote a single person as our de facto spokesperson for the ideas in the platform.

We’re in the second day of the Ludium conference and the group has reached a point where we 33 nominated policy statements and 3 nominees for the Speaker.

Of interest to ARG players, the conference has had its share of intrigue. Several “spies” are playing the game and are trying to derail the process. Also “reporters” are roaming the hall trying to get a scoop. Also, several of the conference attendees or players have thrown a wrench into the puppetmasters’ plans. Overnight, several players tried to merge members from their opposing groups into one large group. A response for this was not written in the game rules that were originally laid out so the puppetmasters were sent scrambling.

These events have brought up many interesting questions. If you’re using a serious game to solve a real world problem at some point or at what point do you abandon the game framework? Is there a point where the game becomes unimportant? Or even a hindrance? Many of the conference attendees agree that the game has definitely had a positive effect. It has successfully facilitated discussions in an organized fashion and allowed for a democratic decision-making process.

What will be the result? We won’t know until the end of the conference. Stay tuned!

Find Friends to Foil Fake Fforde: A “Thursday Next” ARG

June 24, 2007 / Michael Andersen

Amy Greenford is a mild-mannered bookstore employee working in the Classic books section of Foyles on Charing Cross road, and the books in her store have been behaving oddly. Books get mysteriously misfiled in the wrong section, pages of text simply vanish. Oh, and a bride and groom have materialized from a book and fled the store. Literature is in danger, and only we can save it, with the help of Spec-Ops 27 and the literary detectives.

Most specifically, Jasper Fforde’s upcoming Thursday Next novel First Among Sequels, scheduled to be released on Thursday July 5th, is in danger. Slight errors and suspicious emails to fans of Jasper Fforde who entered an online quiz competition led them to June Haversham’s blog, a publicity and marketing employee for UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton. It appears an impostor is trying to supplant the real Jasper and release a different version of the book. Both plots appear to be converging with Jasper Fforde’s scheduled book signings at Swindon Waterstones on July 7th and Foyles on July 9th.

This alternate reality game appears to offer a “novel” exploration of the line between the real world and the fictional including a woman dressed as a bride singing opera in the streets of London and numerous dead-drops inside misfiled books at Foyles. If you have a deep and abiding love of the classics, this may be the game for you. It might also be worth checking out Jasper Fforde’s books, as they include many elements that would be appealing to avid alternate reality gamers.

Click Here for the trailhead.
Click Here for the UnFiction discussion.
Click Here to learn more about Jasper Fforde and the “Thursday Next” series.

Itâ€™s A Birdâ€¦ Itâ€™s A Planeâ€¦ No! Itâ€™s Project Osprey!

June 19, 2007 / Celina Beach

A voicemail was received on ARGNetâ€™s voicemail (which has now also surfaced on YouTube) from a gentleman who seems to be very disturbed by the recent acts of his company â€“ a project called Osprey that is about to â€œstep way over the lineâ€. It appears to be a â€œsting operationâ€ of some kind and being use to test â€œnew techâ€. Luckily, he manages to direct us to a Tradecraft journal web site before the voicemail is cut short as someone appears to arrive during his callâ€¦

Thus begins OVERWATCH, a new interactive fiction project by Djinn Productions, who are also the team behind the on-going project â€œAutumn Countryâ€. According to David Valley (Djinn Productions’ contact for this project), OVERWATCH is still first and foremost a story. Although they will be adding more ARG-like elements than were in Autumn Country, it is not primarily a game â€“ but participants who donâ€™t enjoy or immerse themselves into the ARG element â€œwill only â€˜getâ€™ about 50% of the story.” By the time itâ€™s over, the PMs expect the story to be told over many types of media, and will be using puzzles and hidden paths to tell not only the story but to expand the characterâ€™s backgrounds and various subplots.

Currently, OVERWATCH is in the â€œPreludeâ€ stage, laying the groundwork form the first story arc. The interactive elements will start to emerge during this first story arc, and hopefully motivate the players into finding out â€œhowâ€ the story is being told. Players can expect episodic updates every five to seven days throughout the Prelude stage, and moving to 10-14 days once the first story arc begins. This first phase is expected to run through August 2007.

For more information, check out the Unfiction thread. To hear the voicemail for yourself, steer your browser to YouTube.
While not a â€œtraditionalâ€ ARG, new forms of games and storytelling are always exciting to watch and see what happens and how they unfold â€“ and since this one has just started, itâ€™s easy to get started and get involved!