Tag: transformers

Transformers: Truth in Disguise

wiki_logo.pngImagine:

Little Timmy’s at home on a warm Saturday afternoon, playing away the time with his brand new Optimus Prime transformer and a few of his partners in crime, like Ironhide, Ratchet, and Bumblebee. Timmy’s got some Decepticons, too — Megatron, Barricade, and Starscream — and he has buckets of fun imitating the sepulchral voice of the villains while his toys battle it out for the fate of the galaxy! Hardly an uncommon scene, Unfiction member b_dann_b relates: “I am a loyal fan of the transformers – watched them since I was born and will always remember the day my dad brought me an optimus prime toy as my first transformer.”

But little does Timmy know how close to the truth he is. Those toys Timmy’s playing with, those cartoons he loves to watch, even that lunch pail he carries around daily with the lunch his mother prepared for him…all of it is a cover-up. Far from being mere fictional entertainment, it’s counter-information, with the sole purpose of distracting us from the truth by hiding it in front of our very eyes. And that live-action Transformers movie that you’ve certainly heard about, slated for a July release? That’s part of it too.

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ARG Netcast, Episode 9

argnetcast.jpgCaution: possible spoilers about Perplex City are revealed in this netcast.

It’s our first netcast of 2007, and I’m happy to be joined by regular panel guests Brooke Thompson, Jackie Kerr and Marie Lamb, with special panel guest rose. In our ninth netcast, we talk about games, games and more games. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through FeedBurner or via iTunes.

Game News

  • Vanishing Point is live and full of wonderful prizes and challenging puzzles. And, no, we don’t all think it’s an ARG… even if 42 Entertainment is behind it.
  • Puzzle of the week: The META puzzle from Vanishing Point. Read more about it at the Unforums.
  • Township Heights, the new VirtuQuest alternate reality game, launches with a pay-to-play model and a few T-shirts.
  • Meigeist (the ARG formerly known as Geist) goes live and people are already buzzing about the quality of the game this far. Oh, and there are cute, cuddly cats involved. You can get behind-the-scenes information here if you can’t wait for us to publish an ARGNet article about the game.
  • NeoVenus Construction (AKA Nevec) looked to be stalled before candy bars and a new blog opened the game back up with a resurgence. See Krystyn Wells’ ARGNet article for more information.
  • The Sector Seven/Transformers ARG viral campaign stalls. Fanboys and fangirls around the world really want this to be more than what it currently is.
  • Perplex City has life, as the players feel that they are close to finding that darn cube. It’s not an easy path, however.
  • Second Life Future Salon panel discussion on ARGs took place on the 27th of November, we hope to have access to the audio from that discussion soon.
  • The Human Pet reinvents itself with more videos and a shiny new website, complete with community-forming forums.
  • Deus City is on a bit of a hiatus, claiming that the recent storms in the U.S. have thrown an icy wrench into their plans. Yeah, sure — nice excuse. No, really, we like it.
  • Marie talks about Doom Skull, which we were ready to pass off as just another game… until she really sold us on it.
  • Preview for next week — Bristelgoodman.. On first glance, it looks rather creepy. We’ll know more by next week.

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More Than Meets the Eye? ARG in Disguise?

s7_logo.gif Transformers fans are all atwitter about some mysterious goings-on in the trailer for the live-action Transformers movie, set to come out in July 2007. At a certain moment early in the trailer, the words “Sector Seven Org” and “takara83” appear at the top and bottom of the frame, respectively, leading the curious to www.sectorseven.org. Entering “takara83” in the submit box opens up a very stylish desktop, with a few goodies, including a live-action video and some image files. Also oddly present, a facsimile of a (fake?) legal agreement between “S7 Industries” and Takara, which is the real-life Japanese company that developed Transformers. Many of the desktop icons are locked, leading hopeful fans to believe that more is coming.

Is this a Transformers ARG? In my opinion, it’s too soon to tell, as right now it looks just like a standard movie viral site. But those Decepticons can be tricky creatures.

More details and discussion are at Unfiction.