Must Love Reboots

If you follow the LG15Today Blog, you’re probably already aware that the Maddison Atkins ARG restarted the other day but rather than just a new chapter added to the story, this time around marks a reboot of the entire plot. Maddison Atkins was an interactive, episodic video series along the lines of Lonelygirl15 that originally launched in 2007, produced by Jeromy Barber, centered around the titular character and her friend Adam, and their experiences related to some unexplained local murders or something. We’re not sure if any kidnappings were involved but if there are this time, we might be persuaded to help with a rescue attempt! Rowr.

ARGs are notoriously un-replayable so this reboot intrigues us. From comments we’ve seen around the blogosphere, it appears that the characters and settings may be the same but the storyline will not necessarily depend upon the previous history. Could Jeromy be the next J.J. Abrams of alternate reality gaming? How about the first, then (because those Lost experiences were kind of, well…)?

Since we’re already breaking new ground here, we decided to hit the Puppetmaster himself up for some hints. Here’s what he had to say:

Hmmm Exclusive Tips… I do know that people are already passing up opportunities to progress the plot. It’s not something they can just watch, and waiting has its consequences. They have to interact to uncover what is next. To be absolutely honest, there’s a drop out there right now that the fans might miss if they don’t hurry up …. I don’t know if that’s what you were looking for, but there you are.

Sounds to us like a call to action! Check out the new videos, follow Maddison on Twitter, and head over to the Unfiction thread to discuss developments, if you’re so inclined.

The Hidden Park

Brace yourselves, for we are about to concoct a post without the use of our customary snark. In truth, we’re completely enamored of this new App for the iPhone (2G or later, App priced at $6.99) called “The Hidden Park” which combines elements of location-based gaming, augmented reality, and alternate reality gaming to produce a fantastical romp through real-world parks for kids and their parents. Says the creator, James Kane:

Kids follow a GPS enabled map, answer phone calls, and collect evidence of magical creatures.

I thought you’d be interested because it’s kind of like an ARG with training wheels. Currently it’s only available in specific parks, but we’re working on a version where parents can add their own parks.

Indeed, according to the website, the app works in Central Park in New York City, Boston Common in Boston, High Park in Toronto, Kensington Gardens in London, Englischer Garden in Munich, Royal Botanic Gardens in both Melbourne and Sydney, Botanic and Zoological Gardens in Hong Kong, and Ueno Park in Tokyo. ARGh, why not Portland?! Also, how come we want an iPhone so very, very badly again?

Stein (one of the animated characters)

Here’s a bit more detailed gameplay description from The Hidden Press Pack:

The adventure begins when the children receive a video call from a troll named Trutton, head of the Magical Wildlife Protection Association. Trutton explains that their park is in danger of being bulldozed by greedy developers. The kids must collect evidence to prove the existence of magical animals in their park.

The children navigate their way through the park by following a map that lets them know where the magical creatures live. Of course, Trutton’s map is magical – as they move past landmarks in the park the map tells them where to go next.

The children must solve puzzles and riddles on their way to the next destination. Clues to the answers can be found on the signposts in the park.

Following Trutton’s directions, the children take photos of various landmarks. As if by magic, Trutton’s fantastical friends appear in the photos – sometimes right next to the children! The photos are stored in a gallery, so at the end of the day the children have an album of their adventure.

Children then have the option of joining The Hidden Park online community, where they can enter their photos into weekly competitions and learn more about the game.

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to be able to take their picture with a dragon?!

Family Posing with a Dragon

Bonus, if you’re in the area of New York City, you can try out the game for free at the Come Out and Play Festival 2009 from June 12 through 14. Also, we’ll be insanely jealous of you!

A couple more pics after the jump. Any readers out there who want to try this out and review the gameplay for us? At least until we can convince The Hidden Park to come to our town?

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Mazda Goes All Vinz Clortho with 33 Keys

What do 33 keys, La Société de la Croix Verte, and a girl from the future named Xira have in common? A brand new car! Well, if you live in or around Québec anyway, which we don’t, but we didn’t have anything better to do today.

As far as we could piece together from the following video, Xira is looking for something she refers to as the “essence” and the website referenced in the video, reperio.ca, has page titles translating to “find the soul,” so she’s probably a vampire. This would fit in with our current theme recently begun by the invasion of robots and then werewolves, but would have absolutely nothing to do with the title of this post. Dammit! We’re always doing that!

33 Keys is an alternate reality game that challenges players to immerse themselves in a real-life, sci-fi adventure for the chance to win a brand new 2010 Mazda3.

Check out the Unfiction thread here. Or don’t, it’s pretty pathetic and a little whiney. Where is this fan site they mentioned in the video anyway? And while we’re at it, why the hell is the domain name Italian for “found” but the entire ARG is in French? And are you the Gatekeeper? And when are these super-awesome blogger web TV radio outdoor guerrilla mobile tech events coming to our town?!

We’re staging a protest! Watch for us on the news at 11. Or “onze.”

Do Werewolves Love Robots?

Are you a werewolf? Hey, thanks for asking! Nope.

Oh, was there more? You thought we wouldn’t be insulted and hurt and crying a little on the inside when you sent us a dog biscuit in the mail? What do you take us for: cold, heartless, automatons? Jiminy Christmas, that was the subject of our last post, for crying out loud (which we are, now. Jerks)!

Dog Biscuit, with Sticker

Informative! Check out a pic of the package after the jump, and a challenge

Let’s Do the Robo-Boogie

If we learned anything from The Beast, it was that Mechas are people too, they’re just better than us. Except for when they’re lonely and pathetic like our new friend 011iver (pronounced, “Oliver”). 011iver sent us a postcard because he’s looking for a date! Unfortunately, while we like robots just fine, we are not exactly robosexual if you catch our drift.

[R]obots need love too! -011iver

Postcard Reverse – Click to Embiggen

Luckily, 011iver’s friend “Tim Scribbles” (note: not his pr0n name) has hit upon a foolproof idea to find love for his cybernetic buddy…a World Wide Web Home Page delivered direct to your Browsing Machine via the Magical Intertubes! Oh, is there nothing that cannot be done by the Information Superhighway? Our hacked credit card account responds with a plaintive, wailing, “Noooooooo!”

Pic of the front after the jump.

Dial “A” for ARG

As reported on this week’s ARG Netcast (Episode 88), we received the following tip from the Pleasant Valley High School Drama Department, which appears to be putting on an interactive murder mystery play on May 16th. Anybody live in or near Iowa?

Someone has been messing with our poster and created this awful one. Can you help us find out who?

Poster – Click to Enlargenate

The poster includes a link to the blog of a small-town reporter who already appears to be following this mystery somehow. And her blog links to what might just be the most hilarious choice of in-game sites evar, an online escort service! We have to wonder if the Pleasant Valley Faculty is aware of this particular part of the marketing strategy for this play and, if so, we’d like to shake their collective hand. After we stop laughing.

Take a Walk with Rachel

We’re adding a new category today. Usually we receive tips and trailheads for campaigns just launching or already in play but our latest tip doesn’t fit so neatly into that slot. It’s not that this news is too big, you understand, it’s just that we can’t be sure that every announcement labeled as “upcoming” might or might not, prior to its projected date of fruition, turn out to have in the interim suffered from the ARGospherical equivalent of “premature ejaculation.”*

Never fear, however, for David Flor, founder of Darklight Interactive (who you may remember from such past projects as Looking Glass Labs and BrainClouds), promises that he is one puppetmaster who knows how to place his partner’s pleasure first.

Today Darklight Interactive (”DLI”, for short) officially announced their upcoming game Rachel’s Walk. The team behind Looking Glass Labs now aims even higher to bring an unprecedented cross genre alternative reality game. Rachel’s Walk will combine elements of traditional ARGs as well as old school role playing, adventure games and interactive fiction to engage players in an unparalleled immersive world. The players will have the ability to control and interact with almost everything around them – people, places, and objects – through a specialized interface. The players will have the opportunity to explore the vast lands, interact with the diverse population, and discover a domain that exists only in dreams.

Though much of the story is still shrouded in secrecy, DLI revealed that the players will follow a young girl named Rachel into an unfamiliar fantasy world, and embark on an epic journey that blurs the line between fantasy and reality, a journey filled with mystery and fantasy, heartache and joy.

Check out the full press release at BrainClouds, register to play at Rachel’s Walk, and/or jump into the Unfiction thread to compare alternative spellings of “Darklight.”

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Charlotte’s Fly Parlor

The latest package to arrive at the Despoiler campus definitely wins a prize for the most enigmatic. In fact, if we hadn’t already been aware of an ongoing discussion at Unfiction about this new campaign, we would have had exactly zero ideas how to title this post. Parodoxically, no title at all might have represented less fail than was realized here just now.

Hmm, a dictation recorder with a sticky note taped to it reading, “Play me.” Pause for a moment to ponder the double-meaning. And seeing as how the device came stocked with working batteries, what did we have to lose?

The tape itself is marked (in what appears to be a distinctly European hand) “1/1.” Other packages received by ARG community members have been inscribed with “1/2” and “2/1,” although an argument raged for a time about whether or not the one was in fact a letter A or V, or maybe the two was a Z. Arguing is fun!

Near as we can tell, the woman – a novelist or former novelist – suffers what they technically term in the medical community as “Crazytown,” and a handful of antipsychotic meds she rattled off in the interview just “made things worse.” If it weren’t for her accent, we could swear we dated this woman at one point.

Speculation has it that this may be related to the book Therapy, written by Sebastian Fitzek and published by St. Martins Press. Where do we go from here? You know, baby, we’ve been trying to find out but we’re still some way from knowing. Transcript of the audiotape after the jump.

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Descendant: The Ice Shock (Joshua Files) ARG

Who knew an Alternate Reality Game could have three different titles at once? Well, only everyone who has ever tried to figure out what to call an unnamed campaign during the first few days of its run, that’s who!

Back in our day, ARGs didn’t have titles, they just poked you in the eye with a sharp stick and you were HAPPY for the nostalgic remembrance constantly afforded to you for the rest of your life by that scratchy ol’ eyepatch you’ve had to wear ever since then, not to mention the unending ridicule. Kids these days just don’t know how easy they have it….

Hi there. You might be able to help us with something. It seems that Josh Garcia’s blog, reprinted in copies of The Joshua Files: Ice Shock contains another, coded message. And we’ve noticed that the Ice Shock book trailer on [YouTube] isn’t quite the same as the one we’re showing on our site for The Joshua Files. Maybe you know some people who could work out what’s [going] on? We’d appreciate [your] help. If Josh and his friends are in danger – we need to know!

Astute observers of ARGNet in recent months may have already heard of Ice Shock – a sequel to the first in the Joshua Files series, Invisible City – and its promotional ARG. The book was released yesterday by Scholastic Books and UK-based author M.G. Harris blogged today about the campaign.

Checking out her links led us to the following video trailer via the Joshua Files site:

Four weeks, twelve websites, and one mystery wrapped around Josh’s murdered godfather and Gabi’s need to escape her own father’s killer. Could Gabi somehow be Josh’s godsister? Is she, by any remote chance, an attractive brunette? Maybe Josh’s blog will shed some light on the situation. Or perhaps clues may be found in, and call us crazy on this one, Ice Shock the book? We guess if you get stuck, you can always resort to the meta-site, which happily promises upcoming “[r]umours, hints and news about [the ARG.]”

Have at ye!
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Update: The Jejune Institute

Beware, my Friscoey peeps! There’s nothing more disturbing than a dire warning delivered via SMS:

ALERT-We’re on the move! Tune-in 2 Radio Nonchalance (Dispatches from Elsewhere) 107.9FM Upper Dolores Park for further instructions
Beware the Jejune Institute

You may remember The Jejune Institute from our previous post on the subject. Or you may already have clicked away from this page in bored disgust.* Take us with you!

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