unfiction.com

Ever wished you could play online games instead of doing your homework? Okay, so maybe many of us have done just that. But here's a guy with a novel approach: Tommy Nordkvist is a Danish student living in the Netherlands who is writing his thesis on social interactions in the world of EverQuest. Not only that but he wrote a semester paper about Alternate Reality Gaming. Unfortunately it's in Danish, and he won't be able to translate it for us until next March at the earliest.

We told Tommy that we were surprised there was enough material already in the ARG universe to write a thesis and here's what he had to say:

Tommy wrote:
Believe me, there's was already back in June more than sufficient material for a thesis and a doc.disp. in that subject. Just establishing the phenomenon as a genre took a LONG time!

Check out his blog, Tempus Tommy, where he's been tracking the ARG and MMORPG genres since at least February.

Thanks to Trallyus for putting us in touch with Tommy! Stay tuned for a huge list of interesting webgames Trallyus also pointed us toward.

ARGN and Unfiction.com will be hosting a chat with Push, NV, consulting producer and "Push Puzzle Kingpin" Doug TenNapel on Sunday, December 1, 2002, at 5:00 p.m. PST (8:00 p.m. EST). Join us live as we grill Mr. TenNapel on all behind-the-scenes aspects of the Push campaign.

Before working on Push, NV, Doug TenNapel got his start in television as an animator for the cartoon version of "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes." Later, he got into video games and created both the "Earthworm Jim" game and subsequent television show. His upcoming TV effort, entitled "Gear," is based on his graphic novel of the same name, published by Fireman Press. Mr. TenNapel has dozens of comic book, video game, animation, and television credits, and he also wrote, directed, and played a part in the 2000 movie Mothman.

The chat will be held in #unfiction on the Chat-Solutions network (irc.chat-solutions.org). Please try to arrive a little early. This will be a moderated chat. Chat and question guidelines can be found here.

A new game trailer has been posted over at the Chasing the Wish site, with two (count 'em, two!) bandwidth options.

There's also news of an upcoming teaser puzzle/contest scheduled to start on November 30. While the puzzle won't be integrated into the CTW storyline, it is intended to give prospective players a taste of what's to come, along with being an entertaining diversion in its own right.

Regular registration is also scheduled to start soon, and more information should be available next Tuesday, November 26, about this, the puzzle, and getting involved behind the scenes. If you have pre-registered (check the main CTW page for this option), you'll get some updates early.

Prophet over at GameSpy cornered the CEO of MindQuest, Keith Griffin, and grilled him about the as-yet-unlaunched TerraQuest game. The interview provides an excellent overview of the TerraQuest concept, the mechanics of playing and winning, the target audience and the types of media planned for use.

It's interesting that Mr. Griffin again cautions against teaming up online to play, and instead recommends playing alone. I wonder if that attitude will affect the difficulty level of the puzzles involved, since a community of players tends to be quicker and smarter collectively than the single individual (in general). Then again, I haven't heard yet whether the gentleman who won the Push million was a part of a group of players.

On a related note, it's been reported that players who were among the first 450 to register for TerraQuest have received emails from the company indicating they will be sent a free TerraQuest hat! So, yeah, it still hasn't started yet even though it was supposed to launch a couple of weeks ago, but hey, free hat!

Congratulations to Mark Nakamoto of West New York, NJ, who cranked out the Ultimate Solve in two minutes. Kudos also to the 500 who solved the puzzle and called in within twenty minutes of the Final Clue's airing. Read the full press release at ABC Media Net (page 6).

ABC Media Net wrote:
Mark Nakamoto, 24, of West New York, New Jersey, is the lucky viewer who claimed the $1,045,000 prize from the Push, Nevada Game, it was announced today by the ABC Television Network.

Nakomoto solved the “Push, Nevada” puzzle after watching the “Push, Nevada” series and the Final Clue, broadcast live during ABC’s “Monday Night Football” on October 28, which completed the information viewers needed to solve the puzzle. The Final Clue led viewers to a series of letters taken from the episode clues that, together with a cipher, corresponded to a telephone number. Less than two minutes after the final piece of the puzzle was broadcast, Nakamoto, an assistant editor for a Manhattan publishing company, was the first contestant to call the winning number. more