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Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund

September 3, 2005 / Steve Peters

The images are awful. The reality is worse. Hundreds of thousands of individuals and families have been displaced or otherwise impacted by the devastation that Hurrican Katrina wrought early this week. Thousands are still stranded in downtown New Orleans. Families have lost everything they owned, and far too many have even lost loved ones.

ARGN has set up a relief fund for these victims of Hurrican Katrina. All net proceeds will go directly to the American Red Cross. Our goal is to raise $100,000 as a community for this effort. The victims of this tragedy will need help for months to come, and we’ve been told by relief agencies that the best thing we can do is to donate funds.

Please consider scraping together whatever you can, and together we can reach and exceed this goal. To donate, follow this link. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all who have been affected.

[EDIT: Due to recent complications involving PayPal and online fundraising efforts for Katrina victims, the links above will now take you directly to the Red Cross donation page. We will no longer be able to track progress of our monetary goal, but this will bypass the problems many sites have been having with PayPal. All previous donations made through our PayPal link will be immediately forwarded to the Red Cross.]

d1g1t4l t0m Pwnz you, n00b!!!

August 24, 2005 / Larry Eisner

Greg Mentis’ life has been turned upside down. The private school he attends in England has been rocked by the revelation that the headmaster has gone missing. The new headmaster is strange and mysterious, and there are suspicions that there is a sinister plot afoot amongst some of the teachers to cause trouble to ends unknown.

This is the basic premise of “Greg’s Life” a new g-roots ARG that popped up on the ARG radar on August 22nd. So far, there hasn’t been too much to stump a veteran ARGonaut, but the trailhead has led to at least an interesting couple of days in terms of sites, characters, and plot developments.

Greg has alerted us that “Celsus School” (warning: benign pop-up-heavy site!) has had some strange happenings lately, and that he and his friend Tom (4 l33t H4X0R!!1!one!) are some of the few students who think there is a vast conspiracy behind the situation. As usual, it’s up to us to dig in and see what we can find. Greg and Tom both have blogs to keep us updated, not to mention periodical IRC chat sessions taking place helping things along as well.

While the premise is fairly “traditional” for the genre, there is some potential to this game. Rest assured that ARGN will be following up with this game, and keep you updated if it appears to be making waves.

Discussion at UnFiction.

Blitz League: Is it ARG, or just G?

August 23, 2005 / Larry Eisner

Two weeks ago we reported on the possiblity of an ARG centered around an upcoming football console game entitled “Blitz: The League“. Sadly, after watching the site since then, I just don’t think there is an ARG there. In fact, I don’t even know if there is any real marketing here. It’s like they couldn’t settle on a concept, and that bothers me. Whether this was to be an ARG, or simply an alternate reality without any intent of a game at all, it doesn’t live up to the vaulted standards that modern marketers must abide by, if not exceed, these days. It’s kind of sad, because this looks like it could be something fun, if done properly.

THAT’s coming from Mark Z. Danielewski

August 17, 2005 / Dee Cook

A favorite book of many ARGers is Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. Originally published several years ago on in bits and pieces on the internet, it was released in 2000 as a bound edition. The book sports a story-within-a-story framework and some experimental techniques, such as word coloring, text placement, and the like. There are also hidden messages scattered throughout, guiding readers to participate in the story as much as read it.

Years of speculation on his next work seem to be coming to a head now, as a message from the House of Leaves forum administrator directs members to visit the “THAT” forum. It appears Mark Z. Danielewski has finally broken his several-year silence on the board and has posted a message asking for input from readers, promising “something new”.

Resources:
House of Leaves discussion board.
Message from Mark Z. Danielewski.
Unfiction discussion on House of Leaves.
In-game book review of House of Leaves from Lockjaw.

Inside The Laramie Project

August 16, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

The Laramie Project was a unique ARG experience that took place during this year’s Blogathon charity event. We were fortunate enough to have Xara Roberts, the creative mind behind the game, email us with some of her thoughts about the experience.

“I first did Blogathon 2 years ago when I was 17 – so many people who participated that year managed to pull off some amazing projects whilst still staying within the rules. Despite not having a properly functioning blog for about a year, I intended to do this year’s Blogathon. Raising money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis has been important to me since my mother was diagnosed with the disease in 2000. I also knew that because I had dropped off the blogosphere for so long I would run into problems outside of my circle of friends when trying to raise money, and since most of my friends are students, it wouldnâ€™t be the most lucrative campaign. So when thinking about what to do to get my cause out, I realised I could combine this with running my first ARG.”

Wikipedia & Jamie Kane

August 15, 2005 / Brooke Thompson

Yesterday, the BBC Alternate Reality Game, Jamie Kane and the presumed viral marketing use of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, hit several popular weblogs including BoingBoing and Slashdot. Two entries were found, one for Jamie Kane and the other for the fictional band Boy^d Upp. Both entries presented the fictional characters as real entities and made no mention of the Alternate Reality Game. It was later discovered that the entry for Boy^d Upp originated from within the BBC.