Page 78 of 198

Our down time, explained

March 13, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

network_cables If you’ve arrived at the site in the past few hours and had some trouble connecting, there’s a good reason. Our lovely (and I’m not being snarky, I do like them a lot) hosts at Dreamhost have been responding to my support emails about intermittent downtime today, and they have offered to move the site to a newer server!

This hopefully means fewer problems and improved uptime, and if there are any problems along the way, they’ll be helping out with that as well. So, if you find the site hard to get to in the next 72 hours, it’s a temporary effect of a more permanent solution.

No Mimes Media: New company, familiar faces

March 13, 2009 / Jonathan Waite

nomimes While the news hasn’t been all peaches and cream in the world, what with companies finding themselves in financial trouble and the what not, here’s a feel-good story for fans of alternate reality games: a new start-up called No Mimes Media has been officially launched, and there are some pretty heavy-duty names attached to the “full-media company.” We received a press release late last night, and here are the details:

No Mimes Media is a collaboration between “[f]ormer 42Entertainment creatives Behnam Karbassi, Maureen McHugh and Steve Peters,” which will be based out of Los Angeles and Austin. The company bills itself as one that “produces engaging cross-platform narrative entertainment, popularly known as Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), to support a wide-range of projects including feature films, television, games and original content.” You may know the trio of Karbassi, McHugh and Peters for their work on large-scale ARGs like Why So Serious and Year Zero while under contract with 42Entertainment. You may also know Steve Peters as the original owner of ARGNet (then ARGN). Needless to say, this is a very experienced, savvy group of creative designers, and it appears that they have hit the ground running, as they are already reaching out to project partners for opportunities.

Perhaps by design, this announcement comes days before a panel scheduled at SXSW Interactive, entitled You’re Living in Your Own Private Branded Entertainment Experience. The panel includes Peters, who hints in the press release that the panel may be hijacked, commenting, “Weâ€™ll be announcing something thatâ€™s sort of an ARG wrapped in enigma wrapped in an ARG; and itâ€™s not without controversy, let me tell you!â€ More controversial than a nearly naked man with temporary tattoos? Sounds juicy! Hopefully, we will have someone on hand to take in the panel and relate their experiences here in the days to come.

Editor’s note: Article title revised after initial publication.

Deepwell: Tell It to Someone Who Cares

March 9, 2009 / Brandie Minchew

rubyesbequest

The Institute for the Future once again opens a window into tomorrow’s world, this time letting us peer into 2010 where in the town of Deepwell a woman’s mysterious will has the townsfolk in an uproar. On December 7, 2009, the citizens of Deepwell learned that a woman named Ruby Wood left a “substantial” sum of money to their town, but with one condition – that the townspeople learn to take better care of each other. Who is Ruby Wood? No one in the town seems to know. The town will learn more when the last will and testament of Ruby Wood is opened on March 9, 2010.

In order to get a little outside help and advice on caring, the citizens of Deepwell have launched a website called Ruby’s Bequest, along with a town blog, Deep Into Deepwell, where citizens can discuss the bequest and other town interests. Accusations of being “the town that doesn’t care right” and the tragic death of an elderly citizen have upset many of the townspeople and sparked a debate about caring.

JC Hutchins thinks you should be taken to the brink and committed

March 9, 2009 / Michael Andersen

brinkvale Last November, podcast novelist and author JC Hutchins spoke with ARGNet about his upcoming transmedia novel Personal Effects: Dark Art, produced by Smith & Tinker. In the interview, Hutchins explained that a number of online-based transmedia experiences would be released prior to the book’s release that would leverage his strengths as both a storyteller and a podcaster. Earlier this weekend, Hutchins announced that he was seeking volunteers interested in becoming committed…to an insane asylum.

By visiting JCHutchins.net/thebrink, volunteers can commit themselves to Brinkvale Psychiatric Hospital. After filling out their patient profile, volunteers receive their admittance papers and are eligible to submit their “art assignments” to Brinkvale’s art therapist and Personal Effects protagonist Zach Taylor. Submissions will appear in The Brink’s patient gallery. The first assignment, Your Mad World, is already available.

ARG Lab: UT Dallas Class Offers Practicum in ARG Design

March 9, 2009 / Michael Andersen

Last fall, veteran alternate reality game designer Adam Brackin taught a class on alternate reality gaming at the University of Texas at Dallas’ Emerging Media and Communications program. The course required graduate students interested in the developing field to read a series of academic works on the subject, learn about the history of the genre, and follow a currently running game. This semester, Brackin is offering students the opportunity to put their theoretical knowledge to the test with the ARG Lab, a class where students will design their own six-week long alternate reality game, scheduled to launch in early April.

Brackin’s graduate students seem eager to trade their tuition dollars for the opportunity to experiment with game development through the practicum. Candace Barnhill, one of the ARG Lab students, explains that “we learned so much about the history of ARGs and player experiences last semester that I coudn’t resist a peek behind the curtain. I had no idea PMs did so much to prepare for what often appears to be player developed.”

Roller coaster enters phone booth, exits as alternate reality game

March 9, 2009 / Nicko Demeter

Up in the sky! Itâ€™s a birdâ€¦itâ€™s a planeâ€¦itâ€™s the New Superman ARG!

A new project set in the world created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932, this alternate reality game is taking an interesting shape. Within the boundaries of the game, the existence of Superman is recognized, but in a way that a citizen of Metropolis would — by having Superman be a very real super-hero within their â€œuniverseâ€.

The game includes Clawshun Industries, a company hired by Six Flags to build a Superman ride. However, a little bit of investigation on the companyâ€™s site informs that Clawshun is actually owned LexCorp, the fictional conglomerate steered by none other than Lex Luthor, Supermanâ€™s nemesis.