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“Our Colony” An ARG-ish Viral for the Next-Gen Xbox?

April 7, 2005 / Steve Peters

Rumors are flying this morning that the team-based puzzling site Our Colony is in fact a stealth campaign for the upcoming Xbox 2. Some are even going so far as to speculate that 4orty2wo Entertainment of I Love Bees fame is behind it all.

So far, Our Colony has been flying below the radar to a point. A cryptic email was received by an Unfiction member almost a month ago, and a small cadre of folks from there have been playing along in a team-based puzzly mission-style game. Some of the “rewards” have come in the form of screenshots of what can only be described as a sneak peek at new Xbox hardware.

The very first mission involved sending in pictures of the OurColony ant symbol in various locales. In addition, there’s a countdown timer on the site that will reach zero at 8pm PDT on Thursday, May 12. We’ll keep you posted on this, as it may not be too late to jump in and catch up.

Discussion at Unfiction
Lounge at OurColony (link fixed)
Chat in #ourcolony (irc.chat-solutions.org)

[ED. NOTE – 4:30pm PDT]: Despite the rampant speculation to the contrary, ARGN has confirmed that 4orty2wo Entertainment is not behind “Our Colony.”

Audi’s Art of the ARG

April 4, 2005 / Steve Peters

With more and more evidence cropping up around the internet, it seems that the newly discovered ARG “The Art of the Heist” is most likely sponsored by Audi of America. Heist began with a bang on April 1st, with the supposed theft of a 2006 Audi A3 (VIN# WAUZZZ8P65A045963) right out of a New York City showroom, a fact that has created quite a stir on various car afficianado boards across the internet.

Today, Audi posted a special announcement on their US website, stating that “this is an ongoing INTERNAL investigation by Audi of America.” Add to that the fact that they’ve hired one of Heist’s characters to find the car, and the conclusion of who’s behind all this becomes pretty inescapable.

Audi’s doing things up right, that’s for sure. Advertisements for Virgil Tatum (whose website is the game’s main rabbithole) are showing up on too many websites to count, and while the game’s only been public for less than a week, interest in what’s going on seems to be growing at an exponential rate.

To remove any doubt about who’s backing Heist, it seems that the Financial Times let the cat out of the bag last week, with Aline van Duyn’s article about Audi’s foray into what she (mistakenly) refers to as Blog Advertising. From her article:

“If all goes according to plan, more than a million Americans will soon be gripped by the mystery of the missing car. The hunt for a stolen Audi A3 – a sporty hatchback that will hit US showrooms in May – will begin next week with a launch party in New York.

“At the event, the thriller’s first scenes will be shot, with pictures and clues about the theft then distributed on the internet.

“From there, participants in the chase will use interactive tools to choose alternative plot endings. How will the publicity be generated?

“With the latest weapon in the ad man’s arsenal – blog advertising. Blogs, web logs or journals, which cover topics from politics to parenting, have such enormous followings that marketing and advertising executives can no longer resist advertising in them.”

The article goes on to state what a vast, untapped resource blogs are for advertisers to buy space on, and that this whole Audi campaign is about getting bloggers to think of an A3 next time they want to buy a car.

We here at ARGN prefer to see this particular instance of “blog advertising” for what it really is: the tip of the ARG iceberg. Props to Audi for joining the ranks of those who realize the potential of Alternate Reality Gaming. In true automotive spirit (as it is in Alternate Reality Gaming), the ride’s the thing, so get behind the wheel, buckle yourself in, and get ready for a trip you won’t soon forget.

Trailhead
Discussion at Unfiction
Trail
Chat in #heist

Regenesis Nominated for FITC Award

April 4, 2005 / Steve Peters

It was announced today that the Alternate Reality Game Regenesis: Extended Reality has been nominated for a Convergence Award by the FlashInTheCan Design & Technology Festival, which is one of Canada’s largest annual new media festivals. In addition, Regenesis qualifies in the People’s Choice Awards, which are based on voting by the general public. So, if you enjoyed Regenesis, feel free to hop on over there to make your opinions known.

Congratulations go out to Evan Jones and the Regenesis team on this! It’s so great to see more evidence that people are not only taking notice of ARGs, but recognize them as the excellent and innovative new vehicle that it is. The future’s looking better and better, as far as mainstream Alternate Reality Games are concerned.

Speaking of people taking note, The Guardian has published a great article on Perplex City (and Alternate Reality Gaming in general) today. Be sure to check it out.

“The Art of the Heist” Becomes Reality

April 2, 2005 / Steve Peters

The new ARG that we reported on just a few days ago, The Art of the Heist, shocked players yesterday when it became a real world example of just that: A major heist in the middle of New York City!

Players found clues yesterday that there was going to be a party at a car dealership on Park Ave. at 7:00 pm last night, and made plans to meet up at what they anticipated to be some sort of in-game event. Once they arrived, however, they discovered that instead of a party, someone had apparently stolen an Audi show car! There was plastic over one of the doors, an area inside that showroom that was cordoned off with police tape, and security guards outside.

A woman with a clipboard handed out flyers, and there was a sign asking for further information, along with a phone number to report to. Calls to the number reportedly connected with Audi of America.

Since its beginning just a few days ago, The Art of the Heist has unloaded a boatload of material for players to digest, including acess to dozens and dozens of emails, videos, photos, documents, voicemail messages, and now a missing car. We have to say that this is the most explosive beginning to any Alternate Reality Game we’ve seen so far. Players have been busy developing resources and getting organized, as the links below will attest. Stay tuned for much more on this one.

Trailhead
Discussion at Unfiction
Trail
Chat in #heist

Photo courtesy of AngelAnger.

Rumors: Virgil, King of Code

March 29, 2005 / Steve Peters

Our intrepid researchers at the Alternate Reality Gaming Network have turned up something interesting. Virgil is an erstwhile artist/game designer, as his website, www.virgilkingofcode.com, attests. He’s had quite an interesting history, along with some tragedy that caused him to take a break from games for a while.

But it seems Virgil is finally designing games again, and has begun with a project based on the life of a friend of his, Nisha Roberts. Nisha runs Last Resort Retrieval, a company that tracks down and recovers stolen artwork.

Some further investigation leads us to believe that this is indeed a rabbithole for a new ARG, unrelated to any currently running games. We’ll post updates as further details become available.

EDIT: Some more digging has revealed that this ARG is going by the name “The Art of the Heist.”

ARGs in Historical Perspective

March 29, 2005 / Steve Peters

Adrian Hon, one of the developers behind Perplex City, has somehow found time in his busy schedule to blog about Alternate Reality Gaming and how it fits into the historical scheme of things. His new entry, The Reality Artificers, places ARGs in the context of the long history of storytellers using framing devices to create more believable stories. It’s an incredibly well-researched and interesting read.

“…ARGs are not a new idea – they are simply the newest instance of an idea almost as old as storytelling itself – of storytellers constructing fictional realities, by deliberately mimicking the trusted information sources of media in order to create more realistic and affecting stories…

“…It is clear that storytellers throughout history have repeatedly and independently discovered that increasing the audience’s belief in a story can provide a more affecting and engaging experience. All of these artificers of fictional realities have used the same strategies: ancient Egyptian stories used fake letters; Welles used a fake news broadcast; the BBC used a fake live documentary; and ARGs use a network of fake news and personal websites…”

You can read The Reality Artificers in its entirety at mssv.net.