It’s always disappointing to see an Alternate Reality Game pull up roots and disappear before its intended endgame. So far we have seen a handful casualties in 2006, and we are adding Another Contest Worth Entering to that list. Rumblings of an implosion came late last week, when UnFiction community member Chewy shared an email he received from the ACWE Puppetmaster team. While the email originally states that the team would be taking a two week hiatus to re-evaluate the situation, the latest word is that the game is, indeed, over.
Tag: end game (Page 4 of 4)
Sometimes addiction to ARG games is not a good thing. We players always seem to want more stories, more puzzles, and more action, even after the game has finished. Especially after the game has finished, players will attempt to find more secrets hidden away, squeezing every last drop out of the game before they walk away.
So has been the case with Vaporlofts. I am sorry to report that ARGN has received information that the game has come to an end, just the way it was meant to, even though none of us realized it. In a vast departure from previous games, Vaporlofts ended the way things in life tend to do. There were no ending credits, no happy endings, just more questions than answers. Anne never returned from Atlanta and with information going missing, it seems that only Vaporlofts can know why. With the company so good at keeping secrets, we may never know what truly happened to her. All of our leads have gone cold, so it’s time to put this into a cold case file and hope that one day a new lead may turn up.
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.
Search4e has seeminly joined the list of failed Alternate Reality Games, as an email was sent out this morning to players seemingly cancelling the game. The email states, in part, “It is with deep regret that True Crime Books announces that it is ending all formal ties with the Ed Sobian case….This decision was not taken lightly.” Continuing with their attempts at making player communications look to be a part of the search4e world, it seems the producers are announcing the cancellation of the search for Ed Sobian.
The troubled game was suspended for a while at the end of 2002, while new sponsorship/financing was sought. Once it restarted, the producers seemed unable to regain momentum, and compounded their problems by making decisions that further limited their player base. We are still awaiting final confirmation of the death of search4e, at which time it will be added to the list of ARG meltdowns.
Another ARG bites the dust. According to a wordy announcement on noahboddy.com, “…the current Noahboddy.com game must be brought to a definitive close.” This cancellation was attributed to lack
of sponsorship and funding.
There is still plenty of action out there for Alternate Reality Gamers, however. Current live games include:Chasing the Wish, Time Hunt and the JMX Experience, with L3 and Ark II possibilities in develpment.
Players of the MindQuest game Terraquest were shocked to discover that the game is being discontinued due to lack of an adequate player base. According to a statement posted today at TerraQuest1.com, “there is simply not enough participation in the experience to keep this version of TerraQuest going.”
Registered players will be refunded any money spent on registration or express clues. In addition, there was indeed still a winner of the initial $25,000. Congratulations go out to Roland Spencer of San Diego, CA for solving the first (and unfortunately only) game period.
This marks yet another online game meeting an untimely death. We can now add TerraQuest to the likes of Push NV, Majestic, and Search4e.
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