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ARG Netcast, Episode 6

November 26, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

If half a dozen netcasts are as sweet as half a dozen donuts, then feast your ears on the sixth ARG Netcast. Sean C. Stacey, Brooke Thompson and Jonathan Waite are joined this week by Carie Ward, ARGNet staff writer and webmaster of wonderweasels.org. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through FeedBurner or via iTunes.

Game News

Ny Takma wrapped up this past week. The puppetmasters have spoken — find out what we think about the endgame.
Sammeeeees players are hot on the trail of the 4th and 5th Spoocheeeee disc pieces, and konamouse offers a Top Ten list. Does this ARG have the personal touch mastered?
OpAphid becomes the “Official LonelyGirl15 Alternate Reality Game, according to the official LG15 forums. Is this ARG 2.0?
Deus City rolls on. There’s a basic plot time line and cast of characters at the Unfiction forums.
tCotSA (The Committee of the Sedulous Amalgamation) shows signs of life with new snail mailings to various players. ARG or puzzle trail?
Lawn Games For Life is a new ARG. Brooke and Carie have the skinny on this emerging campaign, including info about the PM herself.
NeoVenus Construction may or may not be an ARG related to Capcom’s Lost Planet. Slick web sites, more information to follow this week.

Project MU Archives Book Released

November 26, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Once upon a time, there was Metacortechs, a Matrix-themed alternate reality game that ran from August to November 2003. The game was good, and the players enjoyed it. Some players enjoyed it so much that in 2004 they wrote a comprehensive archival book, which can still be found at Metaurchins.org. And one day, those dedicated souls took that online book and had it made into a full-color, 218 page print version. That day just so happened to be this past Wednesday, marking three years since the end of the Project MU ARG.

While online guides, wikis and trails for ARGs is commonplace, books related to specific ARGs are rare. And while we don’t have a physical copy of the book in the office (yet), we’ve seen the electronic version of the print copy, and it looks good. Darn good. Plus, at $39.99 (â‚¬32.19), the book authors are donating all proceeds to unFiction, the ARG player resource. You can find and purchase the MU Archives Book through its online store on Lulu.com.

Top Ten Reasons I Love Sammeeeees

November 25, 2006 / Letter to the Editor

Every so often, we at ARGNet are fortunate enough to get a reader submission for an article. Today, we’re happy to be able to share konamouse’s Top Ten Reasons She Loves Sammeeeees:

10. Characters are well played both on video and via their emails. Psyche!
9. Play the game, get a T-shirt.
8. Thursday night trivia game always leads to a video.
7. Ima Spoocheeeee sends smoocheeeees to distract Mr Alan Johnson.
6. Puzzles that don’t make you feel dumb.
5. Great soundtrack.
4. Online sÃ©ance and a singing nun in the shower.
3. You can’t help but smile when you say “Spoocheeeee”, “Sammeeeees” and “hoopsssssthoo”.
2. Higg’s is so sexy when he’s all fired up.
1. We have our own cool slogan: SAVE THE FIVE, SAVE THE WORLD

Often we chat in #sammeeeees about why we are enjoying this ARG. This is an ARG with a great story; great characters; and puzzles that are not overly complicated. Maybe its the responsiveness of the PMs in addressing our concerns. When we got upset at the idea of players having to choose sides, the PMs made sure we knew that we should stay on one side and that there would be an in-game method to avoid the evil Mr. Alan Johnson from getting inappropriate information. When we voiced our concerns about having to pick someone to hold the Spoocheeeee disc pieces they had a character provide us with an idea on how to do it in a fair manner. And when a potential gamejacker showed up, the PMs used the most appropriate character to deliver a message that kept us from falling for it.

Ny Takma Says Goodbye, PM Chat Scheduled

November 23, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

The Ny Takma alternate reality game, which began on September 30th, has reached a successful conclusion. It was an ARG soap opera of sorts — Bryan and Chaya, aliens which have had their love for each other transcend the boundaries of time, got back together, thanks to Kendra, who opened the Ark, releasing Chaya. John, the ladies man, tackled the two lovers, which resulted in the three of them becoming trapped inside of the Ark. This left Kendra alone and full of sadness at the fact that there is no one left here on Earth to call a family. The story elements aside, what made this endgame special for the players was the fact that they had an impact on how the final events took shape. For those interested, there is a final video update at the game’s main website.

The PM’s will be having a chat in #nytakma on the Chat-Solutions IRC network tomorrow at 9pm CST (10:00 pm EST). You can access the chat room by clicking on the Chat tab at the top of the ARGNet homepage, and selecting the #nytakma room from the menu.

ARG Netcast, Episode 5

November 20, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

On the fifth ARG Netcast your panel gave to you… Sean C. Stacey, Brooke Thompson, Jackie Kerr and Jonathan Waite. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through FeedBurner or via iTunes.

Game News

VirtuQuest OpenARG 6.5 set to launch soon, available for the public.
Free! Psychic Readings ended yesterday.
EVA launches with allusions to the End of the World. A summary thread can be found here at the Unfiction forums.
Avelon 2 is up and running — a sequel to Avelon from 2005.
Correction from last week: Deus City ARG is not done by the Ares Station group. Ares Station group went on to create Studio Cyphers.
Deus City is one week old, and already there is game play controversy involving factions and separate password-protected forums.
The Human Pet is back under a new YouTube identity.

StudioCypher Back At It Again

November 18, 2006 / Nicko Demeter

StudioCypher Studio Cyphers returns with the release of the latest chapter of their multi-player novel (MPN), “The Cyphers”. This chapter, entitled Descry, starts with The Cyphers diving into the mystical world of rituals and spirits while following the experiments of a curious professor — experiments that might have gone a bit too far in the investigation of the paranormal.

What remains true from previous episodes is the overwhelming feeling of â€œspookinessâ€ and the This-Is-Odd factor that players experience when they first encounter an in-game site or clue. Also, the puppetmasters again seem committed to realism by emailing players individually (instead of canned responses from an auto-reply program) and by conducting IRC chats where the professor and his helpers interact in real-time with the players.

In past episodes/chapters, Studio Cyphers has worked with a subscription model where ‘Wakeful Agents’ (those who pay to play) get information more rapidly, or receive additional clues for game play. For Descry, it is not yet clear what premium content the â€˜Wakeful Agentsâ€™ are getting. Perhaps a more prominent or clearly defined set of benefits for the subscribing members would draw more players to participate in the paid version of the episodes.

A change of note is that this episode seems a more focused on establishing cooperative play between the players. This is evident by the number of players that currently use IRC and the Unfiction forums to discuss and solve the latest clues, which happened less frequently in previous installments.

To get started, head over to the Studio Cyphers Website and the Unfiction forum section for Studio Cyphers.