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Pistolsniffer Industries: Head into the Woods with Earl and Randy

October 14, 2010 / Jane Doh

The two adorable hicks depicted in the above video sell Sticky Itchers Shower Scrub, a men’s shower scrub so manly it’s “like a hand grenade wrapped in bacon,” and in the past 2 years they’ve developed something of a cult following in the ARG community. Just recovering from a bout of undeath from a previous game called Purity Towers, Earl de Rosa and his best buddy Randy Porknut have been kicked out of a Civil War reenactment society for being too manly. So, the pair has joined an ultra-secret organization and are heading into the woods in search of adventure.

Earl and Randy’s latest adventure is the newest alternate reality game produced by Pistolsniffer Industries. Formerly known as Funnel Productions, the grassroots team has created several well-received independent alternate reality games in the past two years for embracing a light humorous style and implementing several recurring motifs. The Pistolsniffer “brand” revolves around the characters Earl and Randy, and their trials and tribulations span the entirety of the Pistolsniffer/Funnel “game-ography.”

Anthony Zuiker Takes CSI to the Next Level 26

October 12, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Images courtesy of Level 26

It’s been over a year since CSI creator and executive producer Anthony Zuiker unleashed the grim world of Steve Dark upon readers with the release of his first digi-novel, Level 26: Dark Origins, and on Thursday October 14th, Zuiker is returning to the Level 26 universe with the release of Level 26: Dark Prophecy. The date also marks a CSI-Level 26 crossover, as the “forensics-proof” Level 26 villain, Sqweegel, is scheduled to make an appearance in this week’s episode of CSI. What follows is a look back at the Level 26 franchise along with hints of what’s to come for “Special Circs” agent Steve Dark stemming from an interview with Zuiker about the series.

When Level 26: Dark Origins launched last year, it quickly secured its status as an international and New York Times bestseller, now boasting over 100,000 members at the digi-novel’s website, Level26.com. The novel was peppered with 20 five-minute videos serving as “cyberbridges” in the unfolding narrative. The story centered around Steve Dark’s near-obsessive hunt for Sqweegel, a fastidious serial killer who committed his crimes while wearing a white body condom. Zuiker notes that “the book [Level 26: Dark Origins] was very sexually deviant, very dark . . . and it was vamped that way back then beause we were definitely shooting to do things that were too-hot-for-television.”

During the novel’s concluding cyberbridge, viewers were treated to a tantalyzing glimpse of an empty, black body condom, a prelude to Sqweegel actor Daniel Browning Smith’s entrance into the CSI universe. Thursday’s episode, entitledÂ Sqweegel, will serve as an extended cyberbridge of sorts, linking the events of the first book to the sequel. Zuiker explains that “Black Sqweegel will be on CSI as a forensic-proof killer, and when that particular episode ends, the storyline will continue in Dark Prophecy.”

Open Source Convention Planning: ARGFest 2011 General Meeting This Sunday

October 6, 2010 / Michael Andersen

Every year, alternate reality game developers and players assemble at ARGFest to talk shop, discuss recent innovations in the field, and find exciting new locations to discuss future plans while partaking of drinks sporting umbrellas. This year, ARGFest’s planning committee is aiming for transparency throughout the process, and will be holding a General Meeting this Sunday, October 10, online at 1PM EST.

ARGFest has pulled off some impressive activities since its humble beginnings in Las Vegas. At ARGFest 2008 in Boston, attendees watched The Dark Knight alongside creators of the film’s viral experience, took part in The Lost Sport as part of an alternate reality game for the Olympics, and witnessed a bodybuilder clad only in a banana hammock flex for the crowd. The following year in Portland, attendees donned cardboard and tinfoil robot costumes for an invigorating round of Robot Speed Dating, experienced the premiere of the 10-minute alternate reality game Mime Academy, and learned of the early days of the genre at the feet of Jordan Weisman. Â This past summer in Atlanta, the Transmedia Artist Guild officially announced its formation, Jim Babb trained attendees in the delicate art of sockpuppetcraft, and Ian Pottmeyer led a rousing game of No Talent Required, a quickfire artistic showdown.

Clearly, ARGFest has a strong history of bringing together strong panelists and engaging events, but according to Unfiction creator Sean Stacey, it’s “the impromptu discussions between sessions and events that make ARGFest all double rainbows and shit. Â It’s a good place for ARG and transmedia enthusiasts of all stripes to get together and concoct crazy ideas, such as she-crab.” Based on anecdotal evidence, a number of alternate reality games and partnerships have spawned out of casual conversations in hotel rooms and hallways across the country.

Creating the perfect world for ARGFest’s fruity bounty is a daunting task for the ARGFest staff, and they need your help to make ARGFest 2011 more delicious than the cocktails at a tiki bar.Â Think you have an idea for a great location, panel, or event? Interested in adding your voice to the discussion on how to make ARGFest 2011 a resounding success? Log on to IRC on Sunday at 1PM EST to join the conversation. Â The discussion will take place in the #argfest channel on chat-solutions. If you’re less accustomed to IRC, you can get there by clicking on ARGNet’s chat link, selecting a username, and then typing /join #argfest.

How to Build Legends Out of Stories

October 6, 2010 / DaniÃ«l van Gool

During the Netherlands Film Festival the brand new transmedia event From Story to Legend was held in Utrecht as an initiative of both the Dutch Organisation for Professionals in the Movie and TV Industry (NBF) and the transmedia agency Dondersteen Media. The goal of FSTL was to introduce professionals in the TV/movie industry to transmedia and the opportunities and possibilities it has to offer by having several experts who have earned their stripes in the field speak on the subject. And ARGNet was there to report!

What follows below is a recap of the four presentations that were held by the panel of international experts, after which everyone who attended got a chance to join the experts for Q&A in several round table sessions.

Dexter Game Concludes with a “Bang”

September 28, 2010 / Nicko Demeter

Just in time for Sunday’s premiere, the Dexter alternate reality game ended on September 23rd with the Infinity Killer’s death.

The game’s conclusion was appropriate for a game riddled with references to the inevitability of fate. Driscoll Connor, also known as the “Infinity Killer” and “F8,” arranged to meet the self-professed “Serial Huntress” Dee Pratt at a restaurant with two remote-operated rifles trained at both of their heads. The Infinity Killer thenÂ left both of their fates in the hands of the players, asking them to vote for who would live and who would die. This dramatic stand-off, streamed live at a hacked version of the Serial Huntress website, echoed both characters’ formative experiences as potential victims of the Roulette Killer over thirty years ago. As a child, Connor chose to shoot the Roulette Killer instead of shooting Pratt. And finally, decades later, the players chose to spare Pratt, condemning ConnorÂ to a death worthy of a serial killer of his caliber.

The final moments of the game were broadcast live and are now available on YouTube,Â providing a look inside the mind of a deranged psychopath and also insight into his determined hunterâ€™s motivation. During The Infinity Killer’s final moments, he looked at his monitor, tallied the numbers, and accepted his fate.

The end of this alternate reality game also serves as a chance forÂ Modernista! to tally the numbers and reflect, as the creators of this experience. Â The team should be lauded for providing an overarching plot that was easy to follow along with at the developer-created Hunter Prey blog, for allowing for a significant amount of interaction between the characters and the players, and for remaining intriguing to the last moment. Active player discussions led to over 11,000 posts on the Serial Huntress forums alone over the course of the game. Those that followed the Dexter alternate reality gameÂ from the beginning will remember it fondly.

PICNIC: Everything We Know About Transmedia Is Wrong

September 26, 2010 / DaniÃ«l van Gool

This installment returns to our coverage of PICNIC with one of the “PICNIC Specials” sessions, and advanced masterclass entitledÂ Everything We Know About Transmedia Is Wrong! It’s worth noting that some speakers referred to the session as Everything You Know About Transmedia is Wrong!, a subtle distinction.Â The panel was moderated by Seth Shapiro, two-time Emmy Award winner, principal of New Amsterdam Media,Â and a leader in the field of digital media, having worked for a number of media initiatives. One of these initiatives that may be familiar to our readers is Tim Kring’s Conspiracy for Good.

All of the panelists were first given the opportunity to introduce themselves along with a short presentation on their ideas on transmedia. First up was Dan Hon,Â co-founder of Mind Candy and Six to Start, currentlyÂ a senior creative at the London branch of Wieden + Kennedy.Â Dan started by showcasing one of W+K’s recent major success stories, the Old Spice viral campaign. He then prefaced his definition of transmedia by discussing The Beast, a game that many consider to be the first alternate reality game. HonÂ reminded the audience that The Beast played out on the pre-YouTube, pre-Facebook and pre-Twitter “archaic web”, a time when sharing and collaboration online was synonymous with email.Â The Beast and its launch was based on the principle of “Internet archeology”: if you start digging for something online, you might just discover a story and even get involved in it. So, in the case of The Beast, people intrigued enough by a brief mention of a “sentient machine therapist” working on the movie A.I. to search further would stumble upon a deep narrative.

According to Dan, there’s a major challenge facing the traditional alternate reality game, something we might nowadays call transmedia entertainment: people seem to associate them with massive collaborative problem solving and puzzles. One of Hon’s major complaints with current alternate reality game and transmedia development upon which he as waxed eloquent in the past is thatÂ ARGs are not mainstream enough because they “incorporate obscure shit that no one want to see or do” by relying on tactics such as steganography, cryptography and solving stupid puzzles. Hon chastises developers, saying,

Stop doing this! Your audience is not stupid. If you put a work of fiction in front of them, they will understand what it is and we do not have to pretend that ‘it is not a fucking game.’ The number of people who are interested in mathematical cryptography is very very small; instead, let’s make stuff that just entertains people. I don’t want to jump through hoops to enjoy something, I want to view Charlie bit my finger on YouTube.

What if, Hon posits, the first alternate reality game wasn’t based on a scifi movie, catering to a geek audience? What if it was based on the movie AmÃ©lie, which also came out in 2001? An interesting question. What would have happened? It begs the question: are we are using the alternate reality gaming genre in the right way?