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Deus City: Big Brother Wants to See Your Karma

deus_redux.jpgWhen Fundi Technologies announced their foray into the world of Alternate Reality Gaming with Deus City, they promised something different. An immersive reality with economic, prestige, and karmic systems judging players’ decisions. Actually, they promised nothing of the sort — but they’ll probably deliver anyway. Now that the main site has relaunched (Jan. 15), we are finally able to explore the districts of Deus City in 2037. Expect numerous references to dytopian stories in this post-apocalyptic landscape.

Since ARGN’s last article on Deus City, players have received frequent communications from 30 years in the future as characters scrambled furiously for control over the mysterious Defense-Corp Incorporated. While Adam Brackin traveled North America following the trail of prophecy, Alex Wright and “Foo” gained access to the Time Communication interface, allowing players to register as “Temporal Agents”. Alex’s father became the first in-game fatality due to a plane crash, and the fate of Defense-Corp employee Phillip Moore is currently unknown, with our last interaction ending with gunfire.

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Vanishing Point Post-Game Chat Postponed

vanishing_point.jpgA quick but important update about the post-game chat announcement we published late yesterday — the post-game chat with members of 42 Entertainment that was scheduled for later today has been postponed indefinitely. According to Neowin, the sponsors of the Vanishing Point game (Microsoft and AMD) want to wait until the list of winners is announced before chat takes place. As soon as we get word on the date and time of the rescheduled chat, we’ll let you know.

Vanishing Point Post-Game Chat Scheduled for Tomorrow

vanishing_point.jpgSorry for the short notice, but we thought it would be good for us to mention that the Vanishing Point post-game chat will take place tomorrow (February 6) at 4 pm EST (3 pm CST, 1 pm PST, 9:00pm GMT) through the magic of SkypeCasting. The chat will be co-moderated by people representing two of the largest communities who actively played the game — Unfiction and Neowin. According to the Neowin announcement, the chat will be organized into six sections — Game design, Puzzles, Community response, Behind the scenes, Media response/Live events and Miscellaneous. For those of you without the Skype software, you can download it for free at their web site.

The Committee of the Sedulous Amalgamation Rewards Patience With Hand-Made Quality

In a world where technology allows immediate communication between people on opposite sides of the planet, and the internet provides instant access to new entertainment and information generated daily by multitudes of contributors of both the professional and the amateur varieties, it’s easy to forget the value of older, slower forms of communication such as snailmail. Perhaps this is the reason for the growing popularity of the slow foods movement, which offers a sumptuous alternative to the culinary portion of our increasingly-fast paced lives in which the time invested is itself part of the reward, and for which handmade quality trumps convenience.

The ARG world seems to have gotten its own equivalent to that movement in the form of The Committee for the Sedulous Amalgamation, which offers its players a veritable banquet of the type of pleasures that just can’t be replicated digitally: the thrill of tearing open an envelope to find a mysterious snailmail letter, the enjoyment of physically handling a beautifully constructed puzzle, and the satisfaction of possessing swag that you’ll keep long after the game has ended. The game launched with a letter sent to Unfiction, inviting players to thirteen Challenges and exhorting them to “make humanity proud!”

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Dude, Where’s My Monster?

thehost.jpgWe all have enjoyed a monster movie at some point. From the ones that are so painfully bad (you can see the zipper on the rubber suit) to the awesomeness in graphic animation that dawned on films since Jurassic Park. The Host is one of those monster movies. Or is it? Reading around the net about the movie you’d be as confused as I am: described as a “comedy”, a “family drama”, even as a “personal sacrifice epic,” this is poised to not be your typical monster-comes-out-of-the-sea flick.

It also seems that an ARG is also hidden within the marketing for this perplexing movie. After watching the movie trailer and heading over to the official website, one might find themselves staring at a “Monsters are Real” message that links to a website that investigates sightings of Yeti, Nessie, and a weird looking fish.

Link after link, a mystery unravels between friends, college buddies, movie lovers, and tattoo freaks. Why would someone disappear when they are investigating something that must surely be a hoax anyways? Why would you want to implant a chip with a blinking LED in your arm? What will happen in NYC at the special screening of the movie in February 12th? And in general, why is there a mystery surrounding a monster movie anyway?!?

Promised to be an adventure full of twists and turns, Monster Hunter Club is currently being watched via MySpace and the unForums. So hop on over, join in the mystery, and remember: Don’t feed the animals.

Links:
Thing in the Water – Meta In-Game blog to catch up quickly and follow the progress
The Host – Official movie site
MySpace account for the movie and entry point for the ARG
Current UnFiction thread

The Beeb’s a Bit Of A Wannabe

wannabes.JPGYo, I’ll tell you what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want

If what you want is to be friends with the cast of characters of the BBC’s Wannabes, apparently you have to live in the U.K. Following on the heels of Jamie Kane, their successful foray into the world of ARGs, the BBC has created a 14-episode interactive online soap opera in which the online discussions of the fans will drive the story, promising that:

“Now you can REALLY get involved in the sexy scandals and temper tantrums of the Wannabes as they lie, cheat and blag their way to success – with a little help from their friends -duh…that would be you then…”

For those who spend a good portion of their time yelling at their TV screens, convinced that if the characters would only listen everything would turn out better, or for those who can’t understand why the producers of their favorite games continue to ignore the superior wisdom of their online fan communities, the chance to play with a model that adjusts to their whims may provide a certain long-awaited visceral satisfaction.

For those who enjoyed Jamie Kane or like interactive storytelling in general, Wannabes promises some juicy, soapy fun. Players can score “friendship points” by helping the Wannabes make decisions, and really good friends may get private emails or access to special videos. Unfortunately for wannabe players in the U.S., the characters appear not to be interested in foreign friends at this time. If you’re in the UK, check the episode schedule here to catch up and let us know what you think!

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