As many faithful readers of ARGN know, the game to play this fall was Last Call Poker, a promotion for Activision’s GUN. Created by 4orty2wo Entertainment, the innovative game provided players with 9 weeks of exciting storytelling and game play, both on- and off-line. The story was the final wish of Lionel “Lucky†Brown, a fictional character who passed away earlier this year, and a portion of his estate was used to celebrate his life with wakes held at six of his favorite cemeteries throughout the United Sates. The final wake was held on November 19th at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. Dozens of players from throughout the United States and Canada came together to celebrate his life and play one last round of poker… Tombstone style.
Tag: 42 entertainment (Page 7 of 8)
A reminder to all interested parties that the post-game Puppetmaster chat for Last Call Poker is happening tonight at 7:00 pm PST. As we announced last week, the chat will be happening in the #lastcall chat room on the Chat-Solutions network.
The members of 42 Entertainment that are scheduled to be in attendance are:
- Elan Lee: Lead Design
- Sean Stewart: Lead Writer
- Maureen McHugh: Writer
- Steve Peters: Design
- Patricia Pizer: Design
- Jane McGonigal: Live Events Lead
- Jim Stewartson: Technical Lead
We will see you in #lastcall tonight — it’s going to be a full house of fun!
This weekend marked the end of the highly successful Last Call Poker ARG, which culminated in a large real-world event taking place in Hollywood, California. ARGN, along with UnFiction, are pleased to announce that the LCP Puppetmaster team from 42 Entertainment will be stopping by for a live post-game chat on Wednesday, November 30, 2005 at 7:00 PM PST (10:00 pm EST, 03:00 GMT) on the Chat-Solutions IRC network.
The moderated chat will be taking place in the #lastcall chat room. Attendees will only be able to speak when asking questions. If you have a question and cannot attend the event, please feel free to post your question to the UnFiction forums or email it to ARGN using our Contact page.
Thursday was the official kick-off of the Austin Game Conference, a trade show primarily directed at companies who produce Massively Multiplayer Online games, or MMOs. This morning, Jane McGonigal from 42 Entertainment gave a talk in which she outlined what ARGs are, how they are a type of MMO, and why they are so interesting.
And the best part, other than the Massively Multiplayer Thumb Wrestling? The unofficial nickname for the talk: “Too Weird for GDC”.
Jane began the session with some explanations of what ARGs are. They are interactive narrative, or immersive drama. They are played out online and in the real world, taking place over several weeks or months. Tens, hundreds, sometimes tens of thousands of people play, forming collaborative social networks and working together to solve a mystery or problem which is impossible to solve alone. Platforms utilized include e-mail, websites, SMS, phone calls, radio, IRC, instant messages, newspapers, real world artifacts and events, and Elan’s dream: toasters that print messages on your bread. Since this is the second time in two days that a 42 staffer has mentioned toaster messages, extra vigilance is recommended when cooking your breakfast. Be prepared.
Today saw the opening of the Game Writers Conference, a subset of the Austin Game Conference which opens tomorrow. Of particular interest to ARGers was the discussion by Maureen McHugh from 42 Entertainment about the work that went into The Beast and I Love Bees.
Maureen was contacted in 2004 to write for I Love Bees. She has a background in teaching English and writing science fiction. She made some interesting points about the emergence of varying types of entertainment being dependent upon what technology is available. As the printing press made novels possible, so has the internet made Alternate Reality Gaming possible. Additionally, she spoke about the emergence of the novel in comparison with the different ARGs we’ve seen so far. In the beginning were fake memoirs – Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders – which were originally published as actual diaries rather than a made-up story. From there, novels moved to an epistolary form (such as Clarissa) where the reader eavesdropped on conversations between strangers. She compared this with The Beast, where the players dropped in on writings which were originally intended for other in-game characters. Next in history, the novel moved into an art form with an omniscient narrator, such as Tom Jones. Could this be where ARGs are headed?
These days, you can take nothing for granted.
What seems to be a very well-researched feature article in the East Bay Express discussing 4orty 2wo Entertainment, I Love Bees, and what goes on behind the scenes in an ARG also seems to have its own secrets buried within it. The article, entitled The Buzzmakers, seems to indicate that Alex Handy (the article’s author) is missing. Clues to his disappearance have been hidden within the article, the paper edition of the weekly Oakland area East Bay Express, as well other real world mediums.
simulacra
undertone
generation loss
the wedding party
subtext game
curators request