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ARGs Appear in Greece and Portugal

June 19, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Often, our coverage of European alternate reality games drifts somewhere between Manchester City and London, with the occasional dash of DÃ¼sseldorf thrown in for good measure. In the past few weeks (and days, in fact), we’ve been alerted to two new ARGs from two of the EU’s finest member states – Portugal and Greece.

While not much is known about how the trailhead video was found for the Greek ARG we’re dubbing Exeis (thanks, anonymous tipster!), we do know where it leads, and what’s connected. Watch the video, titled “Exeis blog?”, and see for yourself how a simple 30 second advertisement for the Gazpacho Music Festival 2007 can turn into a trailhead with a simple message (in Greek, at about the 17 second mark). That message leads to 4728489.com, and the start of the ARG. Greek speakers can start there, while the rest of us are stuck using online translators — and trying to make sense out of statements like ‘Truth Agnwoti Country’.

The offering from Portugal comes to us via a press release: From the creators of the successful interactive teen drama series Sofia’s Diary, Searching for Miguel is beActive‘s latest entertainment proposal – an alternate reality game that involves real characters in a plot of suspense and chase. The release goes on to mention interactivity through web sites, personal blogs, email, video, Hi5 (think Myspace) profiles, phone calls, faxes and SMS messages. The game will run for three months, and registration is free at the official web site.

Know of any ARGs being run in your country? Want to keep us abreast of the latest news of your favorite ARG? Send us a note through our contact form, and tell us about it!

History is Circling Back Upon Us, Like – Dun Dun DUN – A Halo!

June 16, 2007 / Jessica Price

The gears of the Universe spin further and further apart.
Ever greater grows the gulf between souls,
And distance gives false hope of safety
But for the grim tidings this messenger bears:

The enemy is almost upon us…

…slouching toward Bethlehem to be born, perhaps.

The lines above were taken from an email sent out as part of what appears to be an ARG (or at least a promotion that takes a few pages from the ARG playbook) designed to lead in to the launch of the third installment of the wildly popular Halo game series.

It all began on Monday, June 11th, when an entity calling itself Adjutant Reflex began posting cryptic messages on the Bungie forum. From there, the trail lead to an alien-awareness site called Society of the Ancients (SOTA), as well as one entitled “Transmission Log,” which contains a countdown slated to end this Thursday. SOTA members have since staged live protests in New York, Vancouver, San Francisco and London, wearing t-shirts emblazoned with a symbol that seems to figure significantly in the unfolding story. Elements in the game link directly to the Halo 3 site, so it appears that the campaign is not hewing as firmly to the “This Is Not A Game” aesthetic as its predecessor, 2004’s ilovebees, but there appears to be the beginning of a rich storyline that may illuminate some of the unanswered questions in the Halo mythology.

Halo fans have been speculating rampantly (pun intended, of course), and the launch of the game has also served as an informal reunion for a lot of beekeepers (participants in ilovebees). The identity of the company responsible for the game has been a hot topic of discussion, with 42 Entertainment — creators of ilovebees — among the most popular suspects.

However, in an exclusive statement to the panel on the ARG Netcast, 42 Entertainment’s Vice President of Experience Design, Elan Lee, announced that the campaign was not a 42 project, and Steve Peters of 42 also replied to an email sent yesterday with a similar statement. Bungie Studios, makers of the Halo series, has used ARG-like elements to promote their games before, beginning with 1999’s Cortana Letters, so it’s possible they are doing it in-house. Regardless of who the creators are, with live events, Forerunner poetry to interpret, mysterious locked servers on the Halo 3 site, and the mysterious Adjutant Reflex at large, it promises to be an exciting ride!

Join the discussion at the Unfiction forums, visit thebruce’s wiki to get caught up, or chat with other players in #halo on irc.chat-solutions.org.

Thanks to the denizens of #halo for their invaluable help in summarizing the action thus far.

Alice is Lost — We Hear Rumors She Fell Down Some Sort Of Hole, Made By A Rabbit Or Something

June 16, 2007 / Geoff May

As if the ARG world just can’t get enough of Alice in Wonderland lingo (rabbit holes, curtains, puppet masters), a teaser was made public on June 1st for an upcoming project from Eric Harshbarger of Perplex City fame, called Alice Is Lost. Eric first made it known at Perplexorum that he had opened the website www.aliceislost.com.

Eric released news of the project hot on the heels of the abrupt and unexpected end of Perplex City, knowing that the countless dedicated fans and followers of PXC would be pining for puzzles and mysteries to solve. Eric makes it clear, however, that this is not PXC II: “This is a side project of mine. While I am still at Mind Candy as a Puzzle Designer, this is not a Mind Candy affiliated project.” He expects to launch “the search,” which he’s been working on for nearly a year, to begin this fall.

Fans have already jumped in excitedly, and even created a Facebook group to rally people and keep everyone updated. The group attracted Eric, who decided to come out from behind the curtain and share a bit about his project in the group’s discussion. He described it as having “some ARG elements to it; there will be a story to some extent, but mainly it will be about PUZZLES. Lots of puzzles.” There will be puzzle cards, he says, but they will not be physical. Instead, they’ll be distributed via the website, and only ‘registered’ users will be able to submit solutions and gain points. That raises another significant point: the registration fee. He continues, “There will be a registration fee, yes; but it will be a one-time thing (not a subscription), and it will be pretty small (not more than the cost of a typical boardgame probably.” He estimates the fee will be around $25USD, but is open to suggestions. Registration will most likely also include additional privileges for the player.

“The best way I can think to describe this,” Eric states, “is a massive ‘Puzzle Party‘ like I’ve hosted in the past, but it will be available to everyone on the web.” He also expects the project to run for over a year, although he doubts it will extend as long as two years. That’s nearly a potential twenty-four months filled to the brim with puzzles galore, but the main mystery ultimately will still be How do I find Alice?

So mark Fall 2007 on your calendar. Also, keep an eye on the unfiction thread, or the perplexorum topic, or even the facebook group. But, most importantly, visit aliceislost.com and sign up to receive updates.

Save My Husband (But Not For Real)

June 2, 2007 / Michael Andersen

CourtTV is sponsoring what looks to be a fairly entertaining campaign, “CourtTV’s 8-Day Mystery Challenge,” in conjunction with Applebees and Suzuki. Starting at the trailhead site savemyhusband.com, players will be attempting to track down Andrew Goodis, chief scientist at AKARM Pharmaceuticals, a drug company on the verge of developing a cure for the common cold. The game is intended to be an eight day alternate reality game with a $25,000 cash prize to be shared by all players who successfully complete the game, which is accomplished by discovering who kidnapped Andrew and where he is being held. Clues will be given to registered players through video, email and text on the main site as well as a series of others.

The game is scheduled to start on Monday, June 4th and run until June 12th. However, ambitious players posting at the Unfiction forums have already discovered unsecured online assets — specifically, all videos intended for day-to-day posting on the Save My Husband web site. We don’t want to spoil things for those who wish to take part in the experience, and it seems that the game designers have corrected the situation, as the workaround to gain access to the videos no longer works.

With subject matter involving kidnapping, the game’s stealth launch has caught some people off guard. One blog post has an interesting debate about the appropriateness of how the game has been launched, particularly in the way it has been advertised on third-party sites.

All issues aside, there is still the matter of the $25,000 shared grand prize. To claim their share of the prize, players will still need to solve each day’s puzzle, although registration is open up until the final day of the contest, which is only open to US residents.

Click here for the discussion at UnFiction (be wary of spoilers).

Breaking News: Perplex City Season 2 Delayed Indefinitely

June 1, 2007 / Jonathan Waite

Earlier today it was revealed on the Perplex City game site that the expected June relaunch of the popular alternate reality game would “no longer be possible.” Season two was scheduled to be released this month, but the statement on the site makes reference to the quality of the experience, and how Mind Candy believes in holding off on releases until “they’re ready and… [they’re] entirely happy with them.”

The landscape of Mind Candy itself has also undergone major changes, as Story Team members Adrian Hon, Andrea Phillips, David Varela and Naomi Alderman, as well as COO Dan Hon, have all left the company within the last 48 hours. In blog posts, Dan Hon notes that he wants “to try something new,” while his brother Adrian remarks that “it’s time… to move on.” Phillips and Alderman echoed sentiments of celebration, sadness and thankfulness for the players of PXC, and Varela chose the Unfiction forums to sum up his thoughts on the turn of events.

Details are still emerging, so watch ARGNet for further details. The story will be part of the discussion on the upcoming 26th episode of the ARG Netcast as well.

Thanks to Brian Enigma at Netninja for the summary post and links.

Sammeeeees PM Looks a Little Lonely

May 31, 2007 / Jessica Price

Recently, ARGNet learned that Jan Libby, solo PM of the popular indie game Sammeeeees, has joined the Lonelygirl15 team. She began by writing a recent Lonelygirl video, “Sing With Me,” and it sounds like we will be seeing a lot more of her work in the future.

“In addition to writing videos, Jan is also taking a leadership role in implementing more puzzles and interactivity into our show. We are thrilled to be working with her,” says Greg Goodfried, an executive producer for the series.

Jan herself adds, “I have found my eternal song with LG15! 😉 Seriously, Greg, Mesh, Miles, and Amanda make the collaboration process so much fun. I’m having a blast — although this ‘no curtain’ PM stuff will take some getting used to.”

We congratulate both parties on what we hope will be an exciting and productive relationship on both sides of the curtain, and look forward to seeing what’s in store for LG15! We would also like to congratulate the team on their recent Webby award — a well-deserved accolade for this engaging series.

Catch up on the Lonelygirl15 series at YouTube, or discuss the announcement at Unfiction.