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Two More ARG Leads

July 16, 2004 / Steve Peters

Holy crap, what a busy day it’s been! First, we find orbitalcolony, then along comes a Fedex package leading to ilovebees.com with its mysteryious AI virus. Now we have two more good solid ARG leads to add for your investigation.

First comes a tip from the trailer for the upcoming remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Seems the evil company portrayed in the film has an online presence: www.manchurianglobal.com. What’s interesting about this (very well done) corporate site is that it has a password protected Limited Partners Extranet. In addition, there’s a Voice Recognition Game which may provide some fun, and a Kyocera phone, if you’re lucky.

Finally, Konamouse at unfiction alerted us to www.sen5241.net, which very well looks like it may be a tie-in to the upcoming DVD release of the classic George Lucas film THX-1138.

Well, that’s about it for one day. Happy hunting!

A Honey of a Rabbithole

July 16, 2004 / Steve Peters

ARGN got a very odd Fedex package just now. It was from Margaret’s Honey, ostensibly in San Francisco, and contained the honey-filled bear to the left.

Lo and behold, in the honey were 9 cutout alphabet letters. I’ve heard of alphabet soup, but alphabet honey?? Ahem….Anyway, the letters in question were: o-i-v-e-e-s-b-l-e. Anagramming the letters gives us, among other things, I LOVE BEES.

So……..www.ilovebees.com. Strange way to start an ARG, but that’s what it looks like. Things are not what they appear to be at ilovebees.com.

Stealth launch. I love it. 🙂

Two rabbitholes in one day……….weird.

[EDIT: We’ve dubbed this game SPiDeR for now (System Peril Distributed Reflex from the text on the site). A lot better than calling the game I Love Bees. Also, it should be noted that there are indications that this game may be part of another current game, but we don’t have enough information yet. We shall see.]

For Sale: Asteroid

July 16, 2004 / Steve Peters

Seems there is an asteroid for sale on eBay. As I’m sure the link won’t always work, here is the accompanying text:

This is a once in a lifetime offer!

I am the exclusive owner of all the Asteroids in our solar system (By virtue of international law). I wish to sell some of them to you, the public! Take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity. Make your purchase for a loved one or as a completely novel gift!.

I am offering Asteroid 4179 Toutatis for sale! Dont miss out on this wonderfull chance of a lifetime!

Asteroid 4179 Toutatis was named after a Celtic/Gallic god whose name is often invoked in the well known comic book series “The Adventures of Asterix,” set in ancient Gaul. Toutatis is the protector of Asterix and his compatriots, who fear nothing except that someday the sky may fall on their heads.

It is one of the largest known “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids” (PHA) that approaches our planet on a Near Earth Orbit (NEO). Close encounters with Venus, Earth, Mars and Jupiter constantly alter the shape of the asteroid’s path as it loops through the solar system every 3.98 years. On October 31st. 2000 the asteroid passed less than 29 lunar distances from Earth.

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Letter to the Editor – “The Art of ARGs”

July 7, 2004 / Mantene

On April 11, 2001, Cloudmakers was founded as a discussion group for the interative web game centered around the film A.I. We officially solved the game on July 24, 2001. I first joined the game in late May and found the experience to be an entirely new one to me. When the game ended I looked around for more. First through Lockjaw and then Majestic and on and on since then. Personally, I have never been able to fully recapture the sense of community and comradery that Cloudmakers had achieved but I keep looking. Had I the financial backing, time and a suitable set of co-conspirators I would rectify the situation by creating my own game but in the meantime I have made a few general observations about what the â€˜perfect ARGâ€™ would be for me.

1. The beginning of the game should be hidden in plain sight.
Basically the first part of the game must be the discovery. This would probably be the most uncertain and aggravating part of the game for the puppetmasters. However, from a players point of view this aspect starts the game off with a feeling of mystery and achievement. A good example of this is The Beast concealing a phone number via the inclusion of dots in actual posters and trailers for the movie A.I.

The Mystery of El Centro

July 5, 2004 / Steve Peters

El Centro is creating quite a stir, lately. What is it? When is it? Who’s behind it? What’s going on, exactly??

While billing itself as a ‘Living Novel’ on its website, El Centro seems to be, well, different. The FAQ page doesn’t really seem to come clean about what’s going on, choosing instead to be rather murky and disturbing. In addition to the FAQ, the site offers Soundtrack music (try popping one of these babies on late at night with just the glow of your monitor lighting the house), a Library with a small selection of odd titles, a listing of Tools for the player, plus an RSS feed to keep current on what’s going on.

Oddly, a small Game Status entry currently reads “Pause,” but the FAQ seems contradictory:

How will I know when play has begun?
You won’t. Not really. However, you may register here at a later date to possibly be notified that play has begun. Or not.

That, combined with a little digging on the site, leads one to believe that there is perhaps something already afoot at El Centro. From exploding $20 bills to building a better doughnut, there’s definitely more here than immediately meets the eye. No idea what it is, yet, but it’s definitely worth a look.

“Missing: Since January” Released

July 2, 2004 / Steve Peters

OK, all you Majestic fans. It looks like someone has finally stepped up to the plate and given the “game that plays you” genre another shot. French developer Lexis Numerique and The Adventure Company have released Missing: Since January (formerly released in Europe as “Memoriam”).

MSJ is the story of a journalist who is investigating a series of murders, which are being committed by a serial-killer known as The Phoenix. When he and his girlfriend suddenly disappear, a disturbing CD shows up at his publisher’s office. Not knowing what to do, they enlist the public’s help in finding out what happened.

Interactivity in the game reaches out and touches you in a way that, while quite common in grassroots ARGs, is a first for a mainstream published game. Many emails to ingame characters are handled by real people, and responded to in a realistic way, as opposed to autoresponders. As time goes on, players attract the attention of both the authorities and The Phoenix himself. This, according to GameSpy, is where “the line between reality and a game gets disturbingly thin.”