Tag: metacortechs

Project MU Archives Book Released

November 26, 2006 / Jonathan Waite

Once upon a time, there was Metacortechs, a Matrix-themed alternate reality game that ran from August to November 2003. The game was good, and the players enjoyed it. Some players enjoyed it so much that in 2004 they wrote a comprehensive archival book, which can still be found at Metaurchins.org. And one day, those dedicated souls took that online book and had it made into a full-color, 218 page print version. That day just so happened to be this past Wednesday, marking three years since the end of the Project MU ARG.

While online guides, wikis and trails for ARGs is commonplace, books related to specific ARGs are rare. And while we don’t have a physical copy of the book in the office (yet), we’ve seen the electronic version of the print copy, and it looks good. Darn good. Plus, at $39.99 (â‚¬32.19), the book authors are donating all proceeds to unFiction, the ARG player resource. You can find and purchase the MU Archives Book through its online store on Lulu.com.

ARGFest NYC 2005 Resurrected!

December 23, 2005 / Jonathan Waite

Just in time for the holiday season comes the online release of the ARGFest NYC 2005 DVD “How Do You Like Your Reality?”. Consisting of two torrent files (hosted by GreyLodge), the release was made possible by Dave Szulborski and Abacus Video Productions.

The files (available for download with your favorite .torrent program) include all of the presentations that took place at the Pennsylvania Hotel during the three day event, including:

* Perplex City by Mind Candy Ltd (with Michael Smith and Adrian Hon)
* The Art of the Heist by the PM team (with Mike Monello, Brian Cain, Brian Clark, Matt Fischvogt, Jim Gunshanan, Gabriel Georgeian, and Dave Szulborski)
* MetaCortechs by the PM team (with Steve Peters, Krystyn Wells, Brooke Thompson, and Sean Stacey)
* There is No Such Thing as an ARG (by special guest speaker Jane McGonigal)

There is a section which includes various pictures from ARG Fest NYC 2005, most of which were submitted by the attendees, as well as a “few special surprises!” So, if you missed the event, or simply want to reminisce, now is your chance to get your hands on these recordings.

By the way, in this writer’s humble opinion, what better way to introduce your friends and family to the wonderful world of ARG than by stuffing their stocking with a DVD copy of these presentations?

E3 Report: Alternate Reality Games Bust Out

May 19, 2005 / Steve Peters

Greetings from sunny Los Angeles! This year’s E3 is proving to be a landmark occasion in the world of Alternate Reality Gaming. Not only is there a veritable ARG Development Team (Puppetmaster) Summit going on, with representatives from five different teams in attendance, but this whole ARG thing is creating quite a stir, especially on the exhibition floor.

Project MU Anniversary Tribute and Book Release

November 30, 2004 / Steve Peters

October 1st marked the one-year anniversary of Project MU, a grassroots ARG that was based in the Matrix universe. To commemorate the occasion, some of the more dedicated players created an anniverary puzzle trail that took folks on a trip down memory lane, complete with some pretty tough puzzles.

The trail was finally completed today, and led to a nice credits page and a link to an online book that chronicles the Project MU experience for those who may have missed it. It provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of the players and puppetmasters alike, and was obviously a labor of love to compile. If you’ve got some spare time, grab a cup of coffee and sit down for an entertaining read.

Mad props go out to giskard, wishi, xnbomb and yanka for a job well done. If anyone wants to recruit some pm’s for a future ARG, you know where to look! 🙂

2nd Anniversary Puzzle Trail Completed

June 21, 2004 / Steve Peters

After three days of intense puzzle solving, a select few intrepid ARG’ers completed the 10 puzzles that comprised ARGN’s 2nd Anniversary Puzzle Trail. Dozens of players speculated, researched and contributed solutions to the puzzle series that culminated with tribute puzzles to Chasing the Wish, The Beast, Lockjaw, and finally Push, NV.

Puzzles were contributed by former puppetmasters, who were coaxed out of retirement to resurrect some old favorites. Special thanks go out to Scott Rossi (Plexata), Bill Shaw (Acheron), Jonathan Waite (JMX), Dave Szulborski (Chasing the Wish), Dan Carver (The Beast) and Derek Jensen (Lockjaw) for providing quality, fun, and sometimes nostalgic challenges.

To show our appreciation, we’re awarding prizes to the first players to have completed the trail, which required emailing a specific address here at ARGN. In order, the first three to cross the finish line:

1st Place – Omnie
2nd Place – JustinCase
3rd Place – Danman_d

Omnie will receive her choice of any item at the ARGN store, plus a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate, while JustinCase and Danman_d will each receive an ultra-cool ARGN sticker to adorn their favorite CPU. Congratulations go out to everyone who played. Maybe we should make this an annual event. Let us know your thoughts at [email protected].

Finally, for those of you who were following along, the trail consisted of 10 puzzles:

Puzzle 1 (The Beast)
Puzzle 2 (Lockjaw)
Puzzle 3 (Plexata)
Puzzle 4 (Metacortechs)
Puzzle 5 (Metacortechs) [user: malvolio / pass: innerdolphin]
Puzzle 6 (Acheron)
Puzzle 7 (JMX)
Puzzle 8 (Chasing the Wish)
Puzzle 9 (The Beast)
Puzzle 10 (Lockjaw)

All the spec and solves can be found in this Unfiction thread. Great job, everyone!

Completed ARGs and Hopeful Possibilites

January 23, 2004 / Steve Peters

The ARGN staff had a great winter break, but now it’s time to get back to business. A lot has happened in the past few months, so let’s get up to speed, shall we?

Acheron has been progressing. The time-travel related ARG has a very nice Guide up and kept current, so be sure to check things out.

A Matrix-related game caused a buzz and ran for 8 weeks beginning on October 1st of last year. As we were part of the development team, we just didn’t feel right about shilling it here, but hey, now that it’s over I guess it’s okay. Codenamed Project MU, this ARG was a fan-fictionesque game taking place in the Matrix universe, but not directly involving any actual characters from the movie. The trailhead was at MetaCortex, the company that Neo worked for as Thomas Anderson at the beginning of the first movie.

According to The Guardian, this was “the most successful ARG ever, with around 12,000 players and visits
logged from 118 different countries.” Admittedly, not all of these players were actively involved throughout the run, but the response definitely exceeded expectations.

Project MU employed many of the classic ARG techniques of blurring reality with the game world, utilizing emails, IM’s with ingame characters and even a Halloween night phone call that went out to almost 1,000 players.

From our viewpoint now looking back, Project MU really set a precedent for a new form of fan-fiction. While not endorsed by the film’s producers, they had no problem with it whatsoever as long as it wasn’t connected with a commercial enterprise and didn’t “degrade their intellectual property.” In case you missed it, you can find discussion and links to all of the pertinent sites at Unfiction.

In other news, Hidden Alliance has been showing signs of………. something. Hidden Alliance is an ARG that has, as far as we know, been in development since 2002. We’re not quite sure what, if anything, is going on, but the situation is being monitored at Unfiction.

In addition, there have been quite a few instances of possible ARGs that have so far become dead ends. It was thought something was afoot that was related to the Stephen King Dark Tower series of novels, but it turned out to apparently be a small fan-based site. Other possibities that went nowhere over the past few months included Paycheck, RYT Hospital, IRobotNow, Lacuna Inc., Hunt for Riddick, a Harry Potter site, and even a Doom site.

So, currently, Acheron’s you’re best bet as far as live games go, but you could always wait a few weeks……