unfiction.com

We're sorry we missed this article when it was originally published in the Portland Phoenix back on August 9. It's a well-written take on the genre from a perspective outside the closely-knit ARG player community. Jess Kilby does a great job of capturing the excitement a new campaign, and in fact the whole genre, can generate.

Get a clue – Alternative Reality Gaming taps into the collective detective
By Jess Kilby

I have a confession to make: I was a Nancy Drew freak. While other kids my age were playing with Barbies and GI Joes, I was curled up in the big blue armchair in my living room, engrossed in my mom’s faded old copies of The Password to Larkspur Lane and The Secret at Shadow Ranch. Before Nancy, it was Encyclopedia Brown. And of course, there was always Harriet the Spy.

Though I eventually grew out of the mystery genre, I never lost my love for the sleuthing life. So imagine my delight in April 2001, when I caught wind of a strange new game that was afoot; a sort of viral marketing promotion for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming movie, A.I.

It started with a whisper of something odd about the A.I. trailers and posters: a woman named Jeanine Salla was listed as a “sentient machine therapist” in the trailer credits, and, on the back of the posters, letters circled in silver spelled out the phrase “Evan Chan was murdered.” Letters in gold squares formed the message “Jeanine is the key.” more

Is it sanctioned by LivePlanet or isn't it? That's the question I'm currently pondering when faced with the debut of the NoahBoddy website, which purports to be the online continuation of Push, NV, the way the internet audience wanted it to be. If it is all that, it ought to be a bit more exciting for those of us that were disappointed by the online element of the Push game. It's certainly generating some excitement already….

Trallyus pointed us to this online treasure hunt that launched on October 23 and runs through January 15 of next year in a series of "episodes." The first episode is a tutorial to help get you into the game. And the prize is formidable…

From the website:
Welcome to the Aspen Cologne Gold Rush Treasure Hunt where your ultimate goal is to navigate through virtual Aspen and discover the hidden treasure. But, it's not all fantasy. The first player to reach the treasure wins a trip to Aspen to collect the $10,000 grand prize!

Over on the Cloudmakers list, i_am_the_nyx noticed a change to the terminator3.com site.

i_am_the_nyx wrote:
If you had gone to Terminator3.com in the past and registered in the then non-functioning registration fields, you probably got an e-mail, with subject line "…,,,….%>" Very interesting stuff. Going to the site reveals a new site, with a non-working login box, the registration box, and a countdown timer. Possibly the beginning of a game? Only time will tell.

I "registered" but haven't received a response yet. Anyone else?

While the official game may be over, and most of us who played are waiting on pins and needles to find out who won, a couple of the more mysterious fan sites have continued to update. Sapagoo pointed out on the Unforum that the Speedhunting Club is back with yet another puzzle for the masses. Meanwhile, Martha herself let us know that she's revamping the site for Martha's Boarding House. Check 'em out!