Tag: end game (Page 3 of 4)

Studio Cypher: Perfect Friends Forever

August 18, 2006 / Michelle Senderhauf

Studio Cypher’s second case, Perfect Friends Forever, concluded last month and players finally discovered who was trying to kill Madame Z, the psychic founder of the Perfect Friends Forever website.

Perfect Friends Forever is a friend matching service where six ghostly spiritual advisors examine and compare members’ spirits to pair up perfect eternal friends. Madame Z lives with these six spirits in the former residence of the wealthy E.S. Wylie and the most famous house in Bay Horse, MO. Just as the PFF service was about to launch, Madame Z received a grim warning, “Die Z”, written in plates and silverware on the floor of her bedroom. Yes, that’s right. Not only did the psycho madman threaten Z, but he threw grandma’s fine china on the carpet to do it!

Players joined forces with a skeptical gumshoe named Anton Jeffries and solved the case. Or did they? As the perp, an antiques dealer who wanted to find the hidden treasure of E.S. Wylie, was handcuffed and taken away to the big house he yelled out that the treasure was still out there waiting to be found. The Studio Cypher PMs have confirmed that the treasure’s location can be found in E.S. Wylie’s will. So those who are looking for a good unsolved puzzle to defeat, check out the thread about it at UnFiction.

You’ve Got Mail – The Message Center Turns On

July 28, 2006 / Jessica Price

On July 20th, UnFiction member tallerbird logged into her Kingdom Of Loathing account, and found a message from someone called The Messenger:

http://www.freewebs.com/themessagecenter/

Please go there as soon as you can! I need your help!

At first she thought it was spam, but after a little exploring, it became clear that the mysterious message was actually a clever grassroots launch. (During popular ARG Last Call Poker, players started games of Tombstone Hold ‘Em in cemeteries in the online realms of World of Warcraft, but to the best of our knowledge, this marks the first time an ARG has launched using virtual spaces; it will be interesting to see if the Message Center sparks a trend.)

The Message Center turned out to be a portal into a twisted plot resembling the unholy offspring of Saw and Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians. The Messenger started his site because of an email he received describing some horrifying circumstances. Trapped in the “Room Of Doom” are eight people, each of whom corresponds to a label: the whore, the robot, the doctor, the father, the shy person, the liar, someone who is already dead, and the sender of the email. Through a series of site updates and instant messenger conversations with the characters, players were drawn into the room of doom, in which they and the characters must decide who lives and who dies to appease a sadistic killer who is lurking among them.

Catch up with the discussion on UnFiction here, or visit The Message Center to check for the latest dispatches from the Room Of Doom.

Editor’s Notes: And as quickly as it came, it went — the game wrapped up earlier this evening. For words from the Puppetmaster, check the chat log hosted at UnFiction. Also, we originally unintentionally reported that Tallerbird was a male, when in fact, she is a female — those errors have been fixed in the article.

Did Studio Cypher Leave Agents Out in the Cold?

June 10, 2006 / Michelle Senderhauf

The first Studio Cypher Case, Out in the Cold, was released last month when a Cypher field agent, Chuck Lehner, disappeared. Soon after the case launched, players started to receive postcards in the mail from Lehner which led them to his website and a blog that belongs to his friend Sue Terrini. The game, which ended yesterday, had some difficult puzzles, real world hidden caches and even an ingame band which seems to be the hip ARG thing to do these days. Players had been working to unravel the mystery of what happened to dear old Chuck and what mysterious brown pieces of clay had to do with it.

To many, the real mystery surrounding Studio Cypher is whether or not the pay-to-fully-play model is working on all levels. In order to fully participate in each case, players must become a Wakeful Agent for $9.99 ($13.99 outside the U.S.). Only Wakeful Agents will receive special content and can interact directly with the characters. Paying players also get access to game updates before the non-paying players. Those who don’t pay can still play along, but it still remains to be seen whether or not this limited access really allows players to immerse themselves in the story enough to want more and become a Wakeful Agent.

syst3m, We Hardly Knew Ye

May 20, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Often, when we report on a game that has started and completed within a two week time period, it’s not great news — it usually indicates some sort of meltdown or premature departure from the Alternate Reality Gaming landscape. Today is different, though, as we learned that syst3m, a game that launched a scant eight days ago, wrapped up earlier today. While we didn’t have a chance to experience the game play first hand, we did see the end-game video, and were thoroughly impressed with the production values. Regardless of whether or not this is a grassroots campaign, as has been speculated at the unfiction forums, the game creators seem to have done their homework in creating a fun gaming experience.

Here’s what we can tell you: The game launched innocently enough through emails sent out by a group calling themselves the Tarot Terrorists. From there, the game introduced GLOBAL (self-described as “the ONLY telecommunications, Networking and media solution in the world”) and many, many puzzles of varying difficulty. By solving the puzzles and interacting with characters in the story, players were able to maneuver through to today’s ending. We’re not going to spoil it for you, as it appears that all of the original content is still unchanged and available for viewing, so “replaying” the game is an option for those who want to know more.

Where does this all lead? According to the META information page , this is part of a larger ARG called Arcana. As well, the end of the end-game video list another web address that doesn’t reveal too much… yet. We’ll definitely be watching this site for future updates, and will do our best to report on developments as they happen — seeing as how leaving this story alone for a mere eight days turned this article from an introductory news piece to an end-game report.

Who Is Benjamin Stove? Wrap Up & PM Chat

April 11, 2006 / Carie Ward

The question of “Who Is Benjamin Stove?” has finally been answered after four months of intense speculation. Depending on who you ask, Ben Stove is: a tinfoil hat nut job; a teacher; a research; a shaman; an alien; hot-headed; a great guy; a man of vision; enigmatic; a scientist; a friend. In other words, just your average internet personality.

Players were first introduced to the mystery of Ben Stove in the form of a painting of a crop circle. From there, they found Ben Stove’s mentor, Dr. Martinez, and obtained copies of letters written from Ben to Dr. Martinez over the years. The letters were filled with secret codes that led to libraries all over the country at the same time as they caught the eye of some mysterious Men In Black. Eventually, Ben Stove himself was found, along with his website filled with research into crop circles. His research showed players that the crop circles were a warning to the people of earth about the dangers of fossil fuels and that using alternatives, such as ethanol based products, were the way to save humanity.

Find Araya Wraps Up

March 30, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Find Araya, a grassroots Alternate Reality Game that began in late January, came to an end last week, and from what we gather, the experience was satisfying for players of the game until the end, when the game ended suddenly. We caught up with Mountain Girl, an UnFiction forums member who was one of the most active participants in the game, and she had this to offer:

The premise of Find Araya was just as the name implied. Araya Benedict was missing. An anonymouse note led detective James Pearson to the case. The note described a young girl missing for over a month and pled for help finding her.

After searching diligently for any links to who Araya was, the team was led to Ditch Media. The company appeared to be a group specializing in the creation of alternate realities in order to secure a better future for a subject the company deemed needy. The alternate reality would not be revealed to the “subject” but instead completely take them by surprise and change their life forever.