Hide & Seek | ARGNet: Alternate Reality Gaming Network

AEWMM An Expedition With Mr Mirrors is a collaboration between Failbetter Games and A Door In A Wall (ADIAW), designed for Hide&Seek’s Sandpit Night on Friday, March 26, at the storied and majestic Victoria & Albert Museum. Expedition will be one of several games in this monthâ€™s V&A Friday Late, themed “Playgrounds,” where possibly thousands of participants will invade the museumâ€™s halls for an evening of games and revelry.

Expedition will bring to life some of the dark yet droll inhabitants of Fallen London, the Victorian-inspired universe of Echo Bazaar, a browser-based RPG with strong social and narrative dimensions. Well-received since opening for beta late last year, Echo Bazaar has been nominated for The Escapist‘s Best Browser Game of 2009.

In Expedition, amnesiac players have been drawn to the V&A at the behest of Mr Mirrors, enigmatic Master of the Bazaar and “purveyor of the frangible and the fine.” Travelling the halls of the museum, participants will encounter possibly allegorical strangers who can helpÂ participants recoverÂ their memories after revealing some cryptic secrets. In addition to cards and puzzles, participants will be treated to “glimpses of some new Fallen London back-story and splotches of [contributor] @emilystaubert‘s trademark salacity” as they try to learn who they once were.

holmes_icon The new Sherlock Holmes movie comes out Christmas Day, but before then, fans of the Great Detective have a chance to try out their own sleuthing skills with a slick game promotion put out by AKQA and Hide & Seek in the UK, called 221B.

While I wouldn’t go as far as calling 221B an alternate reality game, it is very entertaining, when it actually works.Â The game is trying out new space by tetheringÂ itselfÂ to Facebook. To play,Â you canÂ sign up as either Watson or Holmes and then invite a friend to play along in the other role.Â Some people have reported problems with the Facebook interface, but there is also an option to play the game by yourself, switching back and forth between the roles to get all the clues. There is also a special, free version of TweetDeck you can install which gives out hints for the weekly games and allows you to follow some of the characters from the movie.

After you sign up on the web site and link the game to your Facebook login, you can dive into the first chapter.Â Each story begins with a video of a character explaining what’s going on and what they need you to do.Â Materials are presented for you to click on and read–photographs, documents, etc.Â The best thing about this game are the graphics–eachÂ item is beautifully designed and rendered to look like an authentic 19th century artifact.Â After you examine each piece of evidence it’s added to your notebook and you can proceed to the next step.Â Each action you take in the gameÂ provides experience points which are available for use later in the game.

Tag: Hide & Seek

Salt Your Unfolding History with Hope or Doom on an Expedition with Mr Mirrors: An Adventure at This Monthâ€™s Victoria & Albert Museum Friday Late

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