archive for May, 2005

Ares Station Wraps

Friday, May 6th, 2005

Ares Station, a popular grassroots alternate reality game, wrapped up yesterday with an announcement posted to the main page of the game's titular site. Not originally conceived as an ARG, the game was in fact a joint thesis project by two students at Indiana University Bloomington, Nathan Mishler and Will Emigh.

The Puppetmasters will be appearing on the player chat network at irc.chat-solutions.org in the channel #aresPMchat tomorrow, Saturday, May 7, 2005, at 8:00 pm GMT to chat with players about the game. A player/lurker survey about the experience is also in the works.

Congratulations to the entire Puppetmaster team on their successful run!

posted by SpaceBass in rumors | Comments Off

Adrian Hon, Perplex City

Thursday, May 5th, 2005
With recent developments surrounding 333 mysterious parcels being delivered to people around the world, and more specifically with the speculative meaning in the contents thereof, many questions were raised about the direction this game was taking. Perplex City is an ambitious project, first announced in February of 2004. In pre-game teaser episodes, it has run the standard alternate reality gaming gauntlet, from email puzzles and blogs to mysterious videos and live one-time events. These episodes have built a steady following among the ARG community over the past year. When a recent puzzle solution led to a sign-up page to receive a posted package, which turned out to contain a set of puzzle cards along with assorted Perplex City swag, chaos ensued as players tried to determine how they fit with the game so far.

Of course, the most obvious route to enlightenment was through Adrian Hon, currently known as "Executive Producer and Director of Play, Mind Candy Design" and the joint lead PuppetMaster behind this alternate reality game. It is unknown whether Mr. Hon was required to relinquish his duties as "Acting Ambassador Plenipotentiary to Perplex City" in order to take up his new post but we're hoping that, at the very least, the pay is better. Anyway, the point is he probably knows a thing or two about stuff and we figured he could set us straight.

read the rest of this entry»

posted by SpaceBass in compendium, interviews | Comments Off

I Love Bees Wins Webby!

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005
Well, in spite of the valiant efforts of the Beekeepers and the ARG community in general, the relentless onslaught of Gamespotters sent the People's Voice award to Gamespot instead of I Love Bees. But thankfully, the Webby judges saw the light and awarded the main Game-Related Webby to our favorite Haunted Apiary! Check out the results of all the other categories at the official Webbys website.

Congratulations to 4orty2wo and the entire I Love Bees team!

posted by SpaceBass in rumors | Comments Off

Prove Your Worth

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2005

What is Zoe's World? We're pretty sure it has something to do with the following missive, which was delivered to us via email a couple of days ago:

The residents of “3rd” live along side us, and watch our every move but also keep their distance. The populous of “3rd” are there to protect us and watch over our interests. Occasionally holes (or leaks) are found in the boundary between dimensions and sometimes “3rd” is seen by us, but normally mistaken as paranormal activity.

The 5th dimension is a dangerous place, and houses the demons and evils in our lives. 5th is usually safely contained, however some problems are occurring and holes are appearing.

Time is limited, and the residents of our secret neighbour need our help.

PROVE YOUR WORTH.

posted by SpaceBass in rumors | Comments Off