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GDC 2005 Spotlights Alternate Reality Games

March 12, 2005 / Steve Peters

As Elan Lee took to the stage to accept the 2005 Innovation Award for I Love Bees at the Game Developers Choice Awards on Wednesday night, Alternate Reality Gaming stepped off of the sidelines and into the spotlight. Lee, on behalf of his team at 4orty2wo Entertainment, thanked the players, and made a special point of thanking Microsoft and Bungie for showing trust in their vision of producing an Alternate Reality Game that would promote the release of Halo 2. I Love Bees was one of three games presented with the Innovation Award this year, the other recipients being Katamari Damacy and Donkey Konga. During the presentation, a video teaser featuring various ILB website pages, photos of crewmemebers and soundbites from some of the live calls highlighted what a unique form of entertainment I Love Bees truly was.

The games that win the Innovation Award usually cause quite a stir at the Game Developers Conference, and this was no exception. There was definitely a resultant buzz going on the following day, with many attendees talking about what I Love Bees, Alternate Reality Gaming and Pervasive Games in general are all about. These questions were answered when I Love Bees was featured in a session on Experimental Gaming on Thursday, led by ILB Puppetmaster Jane McGonigal. Jane was able to talk at length about what I Love Bees entailed, and what the concept of Alternate Reality Gaming is, giving specifics about gameplay, community aspects, and the “This is Not a Game” philosophy. Jane is also one of the forces behind the current I Love Bees exhibit at UC Berkeley.

The Innovation Award and subsequent Experimental Gameplay presentation definitely got people’s attention, with many developers expressing deep interest in jumping on the ARG bandwagon. However, the folks at 4orty2wo Entertainment were tight-lipped about what projects they may be currently working on, for obvious reasons.

Complete List of 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards Winners

Dare to Look up to God

March 7, 2005 / Steve Peters

Well, it seems there’s never any shortage of strange things received in the mail around here at the ARGN ultralounge. Today, we received a cryptic greeting card, which is not unusual, being the popular folks we are. At first we thought it was just another birthday card, but the greeting was a little……odd:

“Dare to look up to God,” it advised. Erm, OK. Either someone was very concerned about my eternal well being, or it was….A CLUE! Looking closer, the background revealed faint text and a series of tables with number on them. Inside, it was simply an unsigned page with the text, “Do You Dare?”

Well, yes we do, as a matter of fact, so the ARGN staff leapt into action and promptly went off to the internet anagram server, which led us to Good Polkadot Route, which of course led us to goodpolkadotroute.com, which led to……….nothing.

OK, seeing as we’re getting ready to head out to the Game Developers Conference, things were promptly turned over to the fine folks at Unfiction to chew on. So far, nobody’s solved anything, but there’s no telling where these things may lead. After all, we didn’t think much of that bear full of honey last summer, and look where it took us.

So, chalk this up as another mystery ARGN delivery, for what it’s worth. YMMV.

Discussion at Unfiction.

In other news, stayed tuned throughout the week for reports from the Game Developers Conference 2005 in San Francisco. Folks are about to take major notice of Alternate Reality Gaming, and we will be there to report on all the fun!

Ares Station Launches

March 3, 2005 / Steve Peters

If you’ve been looking for something to do while waiting for Perplex City to get going, your search may be over. An alert reader sent the following email to the ARGN tipline this morning:

Subject: 49276D20696E76697369626C652E

I walk through the plastic halls. I see you on your blue planet so far away. Your whispers, once a week bursts, tell me you think my home is your salvation.

Rejoice! Rejoice! You will use us, downtrodden miners and sterile scientists, as a stepping stone to the great beyond.

You don’t see us as people at all. You should be ashamed.

Just like her.

Orbital Colony? Something else? A little soon to tell for sure, but it looks like there are multiple websites/blogs from the year 2083 A.D. to tear apart in the meantime. We’ll keep you posted as things progress.

Discussion on Unfiction.

ARG Gaining Media Attention

March 3, 2005 / Steve Peters

Despite the absence of a ‘big’ game currently in play, the past few weeks have revealed a sudden increase in the interest the press is showing to Alternate Reality Gaming. Combine this with the announcements of upcoming ARGs and the I Love Bees team’s soon-to-be-bestowed 2005 Innovation Award, and you’ve got some major momentum toward the general public discovering this cutting edge, innovative form of entertainment.

Those in the marketing field have been catching on to the potential of Alternate Reality Gaming for some time, as evidenced by a recent blurb in TrendCentral, a leading newsletter about marketing trends. Now, thanks to recent successes such as I Love Bees and Regenesis, the mainstream press seems to be paying attention as well.

In the past week, Alternate Reality Games have caught the interest of CNET News, The Age, and Straight.com. Earlier articles have also appeared in The New York Times, Wired and The Times Online to name just a few. Watch for upcoming articles in other major news providers as well.

So, with all of the sudden attention, what’s next for Alternate Reality Gaming? While we can’t say much about what we’ve heard or how much we know for sure, we can say this much: Buckle your seatbelts and prepare to kiss your free time goodbye!

NOTE: If you’re an ARG veteran, be sure to look for a little Easter Egg in the above CNET News article. 😉

The End of the World, Rumors, and Grassroots Startups

March 2, 2005 / Steve Peters

Seems there’s lots of stuff simmering right now in the ARG world. The problem is, nothing seems to be quite breaking the surface yet. While some point to major mainstream projects, there are numerous instances of grassroots efforts struggling to launch and get attention.

Perplex City seems to be in its final stages of development, as well as getting a good amount of press. No hint yet on when the official launch will be, but a recent email and video indicate that it’s got to be getting close. Meanwhile, players are still waiting and watching for the announced Still Life Extended Reality Game to show further signs of life.

On the rumor front, there are reports cropping up about strange sightings of graffiti, posters and television bumpers all with the same slogan in Latin: “Omnium Finis Imminet,” which loosely translates to “The end of all things is near.” Popular wisdom is that this is a viral effort leading into the upcoming Spielberg adaptation of War of the Worlds or some SciFi miniseries. The photos of the graffiti do seem to be photoshopped, and are better in quality and composition than your average amateur would take, so there does seem to be something going on here.

Meanwhile, there are quite a few grassroots projects attempting to gain momentum. These include Project Ashcroft, Synagoga, Entrapment, and Albrecht Wasser. As with any indie game, play at your own risk, as your mileage may vary.

MSN’s New Search Engine Launches “Search Opera”

February 18, 2005 / Steve Peters

In a move that, upon further reflection, makes perfect sense, MSN has launched a stealth “search opera” to help promote their new search engine. A search opera, according to Sean Stewart (author behind The Beast and I Love Bees), is just another term for an Alternate Reality Game. In this instance, having a search opera to accompany a search engine launch seems to be a pretty good fit! Sean has summed it up this way:

“Essentially, a search opera is a story treated as a scavenger hunt and a jigsaw puzzle rolled into one. What’s particularly nice about the search opera is that for a decade now people have been looking for a way to use the internet as an artistic medium. The net wants to be interactive, and it wants to be social. A search opera allows a collective audience to have an artistic experience while searching and gossiping and decoding and speculating: in short, while doing the things that the net was really born to do.”

The MSN Search Opera (ARG) centers around a guy named Cy and his conspiracy website. Following the links on Cy’s site and clues garnered by entering specific keywords into the MSN search engine yields videos (some of which are pretty funny), more characters, their journals, and a story that will develop over upcoming weeks.

And yes, I admit that I’ve already downloaded and assembled a hypnodragon of my very own, which my daughter thinks is gleefully amazing.

Discussion on unfiction.