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AWARE Goes Live

April 19, 2004 / Steve Peters

AWARE is currently in a live pregame. If you’dÂ like to jump in and get up to speed, a newÂ Wiki Guide is being maintained by the playersÂ here. In addition, there is now an AWARE Forum set up at Unfiction, along with an IRC chatÂ channel: #ruaware on chat-solutions.org. AWARE is picking up steam and looks toÂ be a very innovative ARG, alreadyÂ having hadÂ an established player at UnfictionÂ turn outÂ to be an in-game character, orÂ so it seems.

In other news, there have been some interestingÂ sites discovered lately. Stop by the Godsend Institute and take a look at the fine job done inÂ creating a very realistic site, completeÂ with a real address and phone number, andÂ no obvious disclaimer, although there isÂ one there if you look hard enough for it. Â The promotional departments in HollywoodÂ are getting so close, but not taking thingsÂ any further, which is disappointing.

Also, if you’re a fan of Cyan/Ubisoft’s URU:Â Ages Beyond Myst, you’ll probably find www.pathoftheshell.com an interesting distraction while you waitÂ for the next expansion pack. There is a GuideÂ for this mini-game here.

ARGN welcomes two new affiliate sites: metaurchins.org and varin.org. Metaurchins is an online book project aboutÂ the Project MU (Metacortechs) ARG, currentlyÂ being worked on by numerous players. A veryÂ interesting read so far. Varin.org is a veryÂ nice site dedicated to gaming in general,Â and includes quite a bit about AlternateÂ Reality Games. Be sure to check them bothÂ out.

Project Syzygy Announced

March 7, 2004 / Steve Peters

This comes to us from one of the Grand MastersÂ of ARGs himself, Adrian Hon: Project Syzygy. Billing itself as a “new type of immersiveÂ game, one that will change everything,”Â PS will be a cross between Masquerade,Â TheÂ Beast, Pattern Recognition, Rubik’sÂ Cube,Â The Matrix, Eternity, The DaVinciÂ Code, NokiaÂ Game, The Game, and MajesticÂ (whew!), PSÂ promises to be a ride like noneÂ other, atÂ least in our opinion.

The teaser page already has aÂ couple puzzlesÂ for the curious, and you canÂ sign up to beÂ informed of the launch. For thoseÂ of youÂ who are inclined, you can alsoÂ apply to beÂ a part of the development team. Â Project SyzygyÂ is scheduled to launch in lateÂ 2004. LookingÂ forward to it!

For further discussion, go to the Unfiction Forums.

JMX, Acheron Wrap Up

February 20, 2004 / Steve Peters

Two major ARG events finished up over the last week or so. The 6 level hardcore puzzle competition JMX was finally solved. JMX spanned months and provided countless hours of fun and frustration for the players. A final chatlog can be found here.

In addition, the time-travel ARG Acheron came to a conclusion this last week. If you played or were following, you may be interested in the PM post-game chat log, a copy of which is posted here. Acheron was plagued by many behind-the-scenes challenges, but the PM team withstood everything that was thrown their way, plugging on to give their players a great ARG experience.

From the rumor mill comes a pointer to two sites: www.beta-7.com and www.gamerchuck.com. We haven’t been able to check into these at all yet, but wanted to pass the info along. If anyone can make any sense of these sites, let us know.

Also, word comes to us that Aware is slated for a mid-summer launch and a spring pre-game. Folks are also keeping an eye onÂ www.lacunainc.com, which is connected to the upcoming movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.Â Nothing conclusive there yet at all, but who knows?

A Blow for Myst Fans, Plus New Rumors

February 11, 2004 / Steve Peters

On February 4th, UbiSoft/Cyan announced the premature demise of the multiplayer portion of their most recent addition to the Myst franchise, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst. The online version, which was in an open beta ‘prologue’ had attracted thousands of diehard Myst fans who eagerly logged on to explore the virtual 3D world of D’ni together. A thriving community was built over the holidays and into the new year, and the official launch was looked forward to with much anticipation. Unfortunately, the player base proved to be inadequate to support the ongoing development, and after what surely must have been a painful decision, the plug was pulled on February 9th at midnight PST.

Cyan had done an amazing job in creating the most realistic alternate reality yet, made up of 3D worlds, cities and neighborhoods that were beautiful to explore, and added the capability of interacting live in the same space with other players from around the world. Think of the multiplayer version of your favorite 1st-person shooter game and take away the weapons and gore, add cooperative interaction, chat and intelligent puzzles, and you’ll get an idea of what it was like.

Well, at least what the potential was. The mourning players went through at the end of Uru: Live was visceral, with many gathering in their neighborhoods to be with friends as the clock counted down to midnight. Players wanted to be together at the end of the world, so to speak, and spent their last minutes partying, taking group photos and reminiscing. All is not lost, however, as Cyan announced it will be releasing much of the content developed for Uru: Live as single-player expansion packs. To get an idea, we’ve archived some DivX videos of Uru: Live before it was killed.

In other news, a rumored rabbithole has seemingly been found for a possible upcoming ARG (geez, can we be any more non-commital?). An anonymous tipster pointed us to the Amboy Monthly, and we’re told this will become a trailhead site for an ARG in development entitled Aware. Stay tuned for this one, as it looks very promising.

Completed ARGs and Hopeful Possibilites

January 23, 2004 / Steve Peters

The ARGN staff had a great winter break, but now it’s time to get back to business. A lot has happened in the past few months, so let’s get up to speed, shall we?

Acheron has been progressing. The time-travel related ARG has a very nice Guide up and kept current, so be sure to check things out.

A Matrix-related game caused a buzz and ran for 8 weeks beginning on October 1st of last year. As we were part of the development team, we just didn’t feel right about shilling it here, but hey, now that it’s over I guess it’s okay. Codenamed Project MU, this ARG was a fan-fictionesque game taking place in the Matrix universe, but not directly involving any actual characters from the movie. The trailhead was at MetaCortex, the company that Neo worked for as Thomas Anderson at the beginning of the first movie.

According to The Guardian, this was “the most successful ARG ever, with around 12,000 players and visits
logged from 118 different countries.” Admittedly, not all of these players were actively involved throughout the run, but the response definitely exceeded expectations.

Project MU employed many of the classic ARG techniques of blurring reality with the game world, utilizing emails, IM’s with ingame characters and even a Halloween night phone call that went out to almost 1,000 players.

From our viewpoint now looking back, Project MU really set a precedent for a new form of fan-fiction. While not endorsed by the film’s producers, they had no problem with it whatsoever as long as it wasn’t connected with a commercial enterprise and didn’t “degrade their intellectual property.” In case you missed it, you can find discussion and links to all of the pertinent sites at Unfiction.

In other news, Hidden Alliance has been showing signs of………. something. Hidden Alliance is an ARG that has, as far as we know, been in development since 2002. We’re not quite sure what, if anything, is going on, but the situation is being monitored at Unfiction.

In addition, there have been quite a few instances of possible ARGs that have so far become dead ends. It was thought something was afoot that was related to the Stephen King Dark Tower series of novels, but it turned out to apparently be a small fan-based site. Other possibities that went nowhere over the past few months included Paycheck, RYT Hospital, IRobotNow, Lacuna Inc., Hunt for Riddick, a Harry Potter site, and even a Doom site.

So, currently, Acheron’s you’re best bet as far as live games go, but you could always wait a few weeks……

The ARGs of Summer

August 29, 2003 / Steve Peters

Well, it’s been a while since we’ve been able to post any news, as there just hasn’t been a lot of news going on. The summer has been pretty quiet, as far as new announcements and events go.

Chasing the Wish kept throngs of players occupied, and finished up two days ago on August 27th, much to the bittersweet delight of fans. Although the story of Chasing the Wish has wrapped up, word is there are still quite a few loose ends leaving players hanging and chasing the wish of a sequel.

Literally on the heels of the Chasing the Wish finale, Acheron began showing signs of life, showing that the folks behind this game seemingly were indeed waiting for Chasing the Wish to finish up. The known introductory site pages have been updated, and it seems momentum is building for a proper launch any time soon.

In addition to saying farewell to CTW and hello to Acheron, ARGN and Unfiction have announced an East Coast version of their Super ARG-Fest-O-Con. This time, ARG afficianados will be gathering in Orlando, FL on November 7-9, 2003. There are already many fun things planned, along with a few things that I’d tell you, but I’d get killed for. For more information, see this thread.

That’s about it, well, that we know of. Remember, if you hear rumors of something, or find something suspicious, drop us a line! Hope you all had a great summer!