Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gif Joystiq http://www.joystiq.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/Chain Factor: Addictive Puzzle Game, Numb3rs ARGhttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/17/chain-factor-addictive-puzzle-game-numb3rs-arg/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/17/chain-factor-addictive-puzzle-game-numb3rs-arg/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/11/17/chain-factor-addictive-puzzle-game-numb3rs-arg/#commentsFiled under: ,


Casual gamers with some time to kill (actually, casual gamers are, by definition, people with time to kill) would be wise to check out the latest distraction taking the nation by storm - Chain Factor. This simple, Connect Four lookalike is enough to captivate numerophiles and puzzle enthusiasts for hours on end. But behind the pastel discs and perky staccato chimes, there's free advertising for CBS a pseudo-alternate reality game just waiting to be discovered.

The game was the focus of last week's episode of Numb3rs on CBS. The episode featured it's own fictional ARG, where one pesky competitor was murdering other contestants to win a million dollars. The killer, named Spectre, wanted the money to create his own game, Chain Factor. Shortly after the episode, many Numb3rs fans and forum-goers started receiving emails from Spectre, telling them to play his game. We suggest that everyone set up a spam filter for incoming messages from serial killers - a lesson we learned during that whole Phoenix incident.

As a puzzle game, it's pretty charming, and extremely addictive. However, you might find the ARG elements a bit more engrossing. Players have been finding codes which will unlock in-game bonuses and further mysteries about the game's programmer all over the place: On billboards, TV ads, in error codes that appear under certain conditions in the game, even hidden in the episode of Numb3rs which introduced the game.

If ARG's aren't your thing, the standalone puzzle game is still pretty captivating. We'd definitely recommend it over, you know, getting murdered.

[Via ARGNet]

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]]>ARGChain Factorchain-factorChainFactorNumb3rsGriffin McElroy2007-11-17T18:05:00+00:00Let's Change The Game: Design an ARG and help cure cancerhttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/02/lets-change-the-game-design-an-arg-and-help-cure-cancer/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/02/lets-change-the-game-design-an-arg-and-help-cure-cancer/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/10/02/lets-change-the-game-design-an-arg-and-help-cure-cancer/#commentsFiled under:


Adrian Hon, ex-Director of Play at Mind Candy, has been suspiciously quiet since Perplex City's disheartening suspension. It now seems he's been sneakily setting up new companies with his brother Dan and starting new projects. Let's Change The Game is the first of these new projects and sees Adrian joining forces with Cancer Research UK in order to raise money for a good cause and give someone the opportunity to design their own ARG.

Teams around the world are required to submit a 500 word Alternate Reality Game concept to the panel of judges (including Heavenly Sword story writer Rhianna Pratchett). The winning team will receive £1000 to develop their game as well as the full resources of Cancer Research UK at their disposal for marketing purposes. This includes 600 retail stores, TV adverts, live event fund raisers and mail outs to 20 million people. Not to mention behind-the-scenes help from some of the most prolific ARG designers in the industry. Think of it like Dragon's Den, with less chance of being shouted at.

The due-in date for entries is the 16th of November. More information, including what an ARG actually is, can be found on the Let's Change The Game website. There is also a discussion board for anyone interested. Ultimately, you have the chance to raise money for a good cause and get your ARG developed. How can you say no?

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]]>Adrian-HonARGCancer-Research-UKLet's-Change-The-GameJem Alexander2007-10-02T17:26:00+00:00New J.J. Abrams flick promoted with ARGhttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/07/new-j-j-abrams-flick-promoted-with-arg/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/07/new-j-j-abrams-flick-promoted-with-arg/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/07/07/new-j-j-abrams-flick-promoted-with-arg/#commentsFiled under: , ,


Don't ever say we never gave you a good way to waste a few hours on a Saturday morning. From our friends at Cinematical comes the story of this strange ARG, one that is apparently promoting new J.J. Abrams movie currently codenamed Cloverfield. If you're into surprises, just click this link to a blog called "Ethan Haas Was Wrong" and you're off to the races.

For those who prefer a more direct approach, the meatiest part begins here, at EthanHaasWasRight.com. What you'll find is a series of games (within a game?) leading up to an even bigger mystery that will begin to unravel itself on August 1, so now's your chance to get in on the ground floor. If you need a little more help, try clicking on the blue star and asking for it. If you really need it, you can track down a few walkthroughs on the internets, but you didn't hear it from us.

[Update: Apparently, our friends at Cinematical were a bit off-base, as they're now saying that the site isn't related to Abrams' movie. But hey, it's still a game and still weird.]

[Via Cinematical]

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]]>argcinematicalcloverfieldJustin McElroy2007-07-07T08:00:00+00:00Halo ARG causes 300+ calls to unwitting college studenthttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/20/halo-arg-sends-300-calls-to-unwitting-college-student/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/20/halo-arg-sends-300-calls-to-unwitting-college-student/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/20/halo-arg-sends-300-calls-to-unwitting-college-student/#commentsFiled under: , ,

It's all fun and games until someone gets 300 cell phone calls in a matter of days. That's what your mom might say about the story of Michael VanderZand, an innocent bystander whose cell phone got accidentally drawn into an alternate reality game promoting Halo 3.

It all started when ARG followers came across what looked like a cell phone number template in the Xbox Live motto for a mysterious Bungie.net user called Adjutant Reflex. The number led followers to VanderZand's cell phone which, coincidentally, had a Red vs. Blue audio clip as his voice mail message. The message set off alarm bells for callers, and the number was soon being passed around message boards and ARG sites all over the 'net.

In actuality, VanderZand is just a Halo fan and a business and marketing student from Michigan who has nothing to do with the game (Or is that just what he wants us to think? No. It's true). In an interview with Hushed Casket, VanderZand seemed mostly bemused, especially with some of the more nervous callers. "Most of you wouldn't even respond when you got a live person on the phone. ... How do you expect to get anywhere if you don't even have the balls to respond?" he asked. We bet these same people don't even have the guts to ask Jenny for a good time when they call 867-5309.

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]]>alternate reality gamesAlternateRealityGamesARgcallscell phoneCellPhonehalohalo 3Halo3harrassKyle Orland2007-06-20T13:25:00+00:00Bungie receives an unexpected guest: Adjutant Reflexhttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/13/bungie-receives-an-unexpected-guest-adjutant-reflex/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/13/bungie-receives-an-unexpected-guest-adjutant-reflex/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/13/bungie-receives-an-unexpected-guest-adjutant-reflex/#commentsFiled under: ,


At 10:26AM Monday morning, someone -- or more accurately, something by the name of Adjutant Reflex, compromised Bungie.net, the website of the acclaimed Halo developers. Classifying itself as an administrator and compound intelligence (we smell an acronym), it created, stickied and released the first of what would be a confusing two days worth of messages.

"This will be a good place to begin."

The being then touched down on the HBO forums, declaring it another good place to begin. Begin what, exactly? While plenty of folks have tried, it has proven difficult to gather much information from Adjutant Reflex as, once it achieves its goals (which are vague to begin with), it tends to go into hibernation.

Though, the most recent incident, has been given a time table.

In one of its final transmissions on Bungie.net, Adjutant Reflex states that in 38 hours, "Archives/Resources will be compiled." With a completion time set for 1AM (PST) Thursday morning, the community is buzzing over Adjutant Reflex's origin and perhaps, more importantly, its intent. If it truly is an A.I. slipping through time to warn us of something, it most certainly wouldn't be the first time. Until then, only believe half of what you see as there are more than a few time burglars lurking about.

[via UnFiction Forums]

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]]>arghalohalo3Jared Rea2007-06-13T03:00:00+00:00Mystery RTS studio revealed as Smoking Gun Interactivehttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/05/mystery-rts-studio-revealed-as-smoking-gun-interactive/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/05/mystery-rts-studio-revealed-as-smoking-gun-interactive/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/05/mystery-rts-studio-revealed-as-smoking-gun-interactive/#commentsFiled under: ,


A mysterious press release sent out last week hinted at the formation of a new studio led by Company of Heroes producer John Johnson. The text pointed to cryptic website Exoriare.com, Latin for "rise", which was quickly recognized as a hotbed of secrets relating to both the studio and their first project. Now that Smoking Gun Interactive is out in the open, John Johnson has a lot to say about his plans for the fledgling studio.

Smoking Gun will focus on broadening the real-time strategy genre by looking for ways to "revolutionize and merge the strategy genre with others". According to Johnson, Exoriare.com offers a few clues about the game. One group of fans discovered a trail of hints leading to an abandoned airfield in Death Valley. Two runways crossed there, forming an "X" that hid an "artifact" buried by the Smoking Gun team. A plaque was there with strange markings and Morse code that read "this is smoking gun". A video of the unearthing is embedded after the break. Note to other game studios: this is how you promote your game.

An interview on Next-Gen.biz is filled with more of Johnson's often cryptic thoughts on his studio and videogames in general.

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]]>argcompanyofheroesjohnjohnsonrealtimestrategyrtssmokinggunJohn Bardinelli2007-06-05T10:29:00+00:00Is Perplex City over? Writing staff leaves Mind Candyhttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/01/is-perplex-city-over-writing-staff-leaves-mind-candy/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/01/is-perplex-city-over-writing-staff-leaves-mind-candy/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/01/is-perplex-city-over-writing-staff-leaves-mind-candy/#commentsFiled under: , ,



If you were a fan of alternate-reality game Perplex City, which finished its first season earlier this year, we regret to inform you that Season 2 has been unofficially canned. The writing staff has moved on due to some internal issues with the game's developer Mind Candy.

Adrian Hon, the lead designer of Perplex City, writes, "In particular at Mind Candy, there's the Story Team: Andrea, David, Jey and Naomi, all of whom are also moving on to different places and projects."

Hon doesn't explain in detail what happened, but it looks like the brains at Mind Candy have left the building. The next season of Perplex City was to start in June and Hon even says that the puzzle cards for the season are at the offices. Hon goes on to say that he's not at "liberty" to say what went wrong, but says fans of the series should feel free to email him. With any luck, Hon and some of the crew will move on to a company that they can work with on another ARG.

[Via Wonderland]

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]]>ARGhonmind candyperplex cityseason 2Alexander Sliwinski2007-06-01T17:28:00+00:00Company of Heroes producer creates new studio, working on mystery gamehttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/30/company-of-heroes-producer-creates-new-studio-working-on-myster/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/30/company-of-heroes-producer-creates-new-studio-working-on-myster/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/05/30/company-of-heroes-producer-creates-new-studio-working-on-myster/#commentsFiled under: ,


A rather cryptic press release was sent out today hinting at a new development studio led by the producer of the "most critically acclaimed real-time strategy game of all time". According to Gamerankings, that title goes to Company of Heroes, and the producer is John Johnson. The website Exoriare.com was listed in the release (a quick whois search reveals Johnson owns the domain), inviting everyone to "confirm the first clue and break the puzzle".

Pick apart the password to gain access to the map shown above. We're assuming the "activation threshhold" shown at the bottom of the screen, 12211, is a hit counter and not the date January 22, 2011. Once the number is met, one of two things will happen: candy will rain from the sky, or a few more clues about the studio will be revealed. Sounds like a win-win situation.

[Via Firing Squad]

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]]>argcompanyofheroespcrealtimestrategyrelicrtsJohn Bardinelli2007-05-30T11:15:00+00:00SXSW: ARG! The Attack of the Alternate Reality Gameshttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/11/sxsw-arg-the-attack-of-the-alternate-reality-games/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/11/sxsw-arg-the-attack-of-the-alternate-reality-games/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/11/sxsw-arg-the-attack-of-the-alternate-reality-games/#commentsFiled under: , , , , , , , ,


Ever since the success of The Beast, the alternate reality game created to help pimp Spielberg's A.I. back in 2001, alternate reality games (ARGs) have been popping up left and right, most notably the I Love Bees ARG that was used to launch Halo 2. Based on what the panelists were telling us, there are a lot more coming down the pipeline.

However, one of the problems was that the panel promised to help define the term "alternate reality game," but that never happened. Wikipedia calls it "an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions." Which is quite a mouthful. But that makes us wonder, does it have to use the web as a medium to be an ARG? When people used to play T.A.G. or Killer on college campuses, that was definitely an ARG ... but where did those games go?

Basically the web has taken that model and made it much easier to disseminate, but the current ARGs that have been appearing over the past few year have been operating on huge budgets and large amounts of resources. The Audi Art of the Heist game actually parked a car somewhere at the Coachella music festival in California that game players were actually supposed to "break in to" and steal an SD card that contained further clues. Although Audi forgot to leave the doors open, and no one got the card. Oops.

Mind Candy's enormous ARG Perplex City has really taken things to an extreme. Their game has been running for the past three years, and recently one of the "historical objects" (the Receda Cube) that gamers try to find through puzzles, clues, and cards was found, and netted the player $200,000 (that's real money, too) in the process. The game designers stage car chases, have black helicopters buzz people, and can generally scare the bejeezus out of you. Not too shabby for gaming.

Although most ARGs tend to be tied to something that they are promoting (Halo 2, Audi, A.I., Perplex City sells "game cards" that you have to purchase), some are starting to appear that have a purpose other than driving a product or a brand. Recently announced at GDC was Jane McGonigal's socially conscious A World Without Oil ARG that asks users to imagine how they would function in a world without gasoline or oil.

Both aspects of ARGs have the same goal, they want to harness the community aspect of the ARG to do something, whether it's educate, get a message across, or sell a product. It taps into Linda Stone's theory of "continuous partial attention," meaning that you'll keep coming back into the game day after day (possibly hour after hour) to check on things, and see if the game has advanced, or if anyone has figured out the riddles. It's almost like incessantly checking your email, just in case you might have missed something in the past few minutes.

Check out some of the ARGs out there right now, including the panelists' own ReGenesis, and the fairly amazing Perplex City. With more on the way (including a mystery "socially responsible ARG from panelist Brooke Thompson) we'll be excited to see what comes our way, alternatively. Plus we really feel like pirates now after typing ARG so many times.


LINKS:
ARGnet - the Alternate Reality Gaming network
Unfiction - all about Alternate Reality Gaming

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]]>2007A.I.AIalternatealternate realityalternate reality gamesargaudiaustinDan Honevangelistfuni love beesMicrosoftmind candyperplex citySXSWSXSW07The BeatKevin Kelly2007-03-11T21:58:00+00:00Overheard at GDC: "Don't you feel like you're in Doom?"http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/overheard-at-gdc-dont-you-feel-like-youre-in-doom/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/overheard-at-gdc-dont-you-feel-like-youre-in-doom/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/overheard-at-gdc-dont-you-feel-like-youre-in-doom/#commentsFiled under: , ,


"They need to do an augmented reality game in here. I mean, don't you feel like you're in Doom already?
- A random GDC attendee talking about the labyrinthine, ExpoSuite corridors of Moscone West (pictured above, totally unaltered.)

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]]>ARGaugmented realityAugmentedRealityDoomGDCGDC07overheardKyle Orland2007-03-07T19:25:00+00:00Perplex City: Receda Cube unearthed, Season 2 plannedhttp://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/08/perplex-city-receda-cube-unearthed-season-2-planned/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/08/perplex-city-receda-cube-unearthed-season-2-planned/http://www.joystiq.com/2007/02/08/perplex-city-receda-cube-unearthed-season-2-planned/#commentsFiled under: ,

found: the cube
Amateur archaeologist Andy Darley has discovered the Receda Cube, ending the first season of alternate reality game Perplex City and earning a hefty $200,000 reward (before taxes). Darley was joined by more than 50,000 other registered players, spread throughout 92 countries, on the two-year hunt. The cube was unearthed in Wakerley Great Wood, England, about 110 miles north of London.

Perplex City's first season was "played" using a deck of cards (collectible in packs) that featured various types of puzzles, from simple trivia to optical illusions; to an answer masked with heat-sensitive ink. Solutions often pointed players to further clues posted on websites, written in books, recorded in voicemails, and held by real-world individuals. Creator Mind Candy has confirmed that plans for a second season are underway.

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]]>Alternate Reality GameAlternateRealityGameARGEnglandLondonMind CandyMindCandyPerplex CityPerplexCityReceda CubeRecedaCubeUKJames Ransom-Wiley2007-02-08T20:25:00+00:00Transformers alternate reality game?http://www.joystiq.com/2006/12/22/transformers-alternate-reality-game/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/12/22/transformers-alternate-reality-game/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/12/22/transformers-alternate-reality-game/#commentsFiled under:



In the Transformers movie trailer between :37 and :39 the frame shows "Sector Seven Org" at the top and "Takara 83" at the bottom. If you go to SectorSeven.org and type in takara83 as your password you are treated to a screen full of mess. It looks like a person's desktop and clicking on the exclamation mark on the dock brings up a video sequence where a Lt. Col. Powers talks about discovering a "blip." Beyond that we have no idea what's going on. Go forth puzzle-loving ARG folks and figure it out.

See also: Hi-Def version of the trailer

[Thanks Animus]

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]]>argmovietransformersAlexander Sliwinski2006-12-22T17:15:00+00:0042 Entertainment interviewed, ARG book discussedhttp://www.joystiq.com/2006/12/07/42-entertainment-interviewed-arg-book-discussed/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/12/07/42-entertainment-interviewed-arg-book-discussed/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/12/07/42-entertainment-interviewed-arg-book-discussed/#commentsFiled under: ,

Gamasutra interviews Elan Lee, vice president of 42 Entertainment, alternate-reality game superstars. The company created I Love Bees for Halo 2, a project for the movie A.I., and other ARGs; one of its current projects is clothing with clues to an ARG game.

42 Entertainment recently released Cathy's Book, a story with an ARG built in. The book includes phone numbers readers can call as they progress and a few self-contained puzzles. Lee says that this is the company's first attempt at an ARG book, but that more releases are planned; he thinks that the main plot will always be delivered in prose, but he wants to add even more puzzles to unravel sub-plots.

We're uninterested in the ARG clothing line, but we're not big fans of collectable card games either; there's always something more to buy. But the ARG book sounds like an interesting twist on ARGs and fiction. Count us in.

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]]>42 Entertainment42EntertainmentARGCathy's BookCathy'sBookElan LeeElanLeeI Love BeesILoveBeesZack Stern2006-12-07T19:25:00+00:00Joystiq interviews Elan Lee of 42 Entertainmenthttp://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/14/joystiq-interviews-elan-lee-of-42-entertainment/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/14/joystiq-interviews-elan-lee-of-42-entertainment/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/14/joystiq-interviews-elan-lee-of-42-entertainment/#commentsFiled under: ,

For most gamers, 42 Entertainment gained notoriety after creating i love bees, a massive Alternate Reality Game (or ARG) that served as marketing for the launch of Halo 2 on the Xbox. Since then, Elan Lee has been busy. 42 invited poker fans to graveyards across the States as part of the promotion for GUN, and helped launch the Xbox 360 with a unique "casual ARG." Recent projects, however, are pushing Alternate Reality Games away from the world of marketing, and giving them a life of their own. In his chat with Joystiq, 42's VP of Experience Design discusses Cathy's Book, an attempt to design an ARG under the guise of a young girl's diary. We also discuss Microsoft's ARG mishaps with the Our Colony campaign, and EDOC Laundry, the first alternate reality clothing line.

And it just so happens than Elan is wearing one of the code-embedded garments during our interview.

For starters, great shirt. Is this your favorite piece of EDOC apparel?

You know, my favorite EDOC shirt is one that's coming out next week. We've got a winter line coming out with these really cool hoodies and sweatshirts, and long-sleeve shirts. It's this very cool serpent print, with a really fun code on it, and I'm very excited about it.

Are you excited because of the design, or because of the code?

My favorite shirts are always ones where the code compliments the design. One of the main problems I had with Season 1, the shirts that are currently out, is that we designed all the shirts, and then thought "Holy crap, we've got no time. Let's just throw codes on all of these." And we just found random ways to throw on the codes. For Season 2, we had a lot more time, so I got to sit down with our art director, Shane Small, and we designed them all at the same time. So it was "Well, what if that guy's head was tweaked a little to the left, and it was a weird semaphore type of thing?" and "What if that strange emblem was..." So, all of my favorite shirts are ones where the code doesn't seem slapped on, and it seems like this really wonderful synergistic merge of code and design.

So your official position at 42 is "Vice President of Experience Design."

Yeah, that title has changed many many times.

What has it been before?

Um, it was "Vice President of Design," it was just "Founder," it was "Interactive Design," it was... you know. Because we've got one of those strange companies where no one has a classic title, or a classic role, our titles are very fluid. Ultimately, we've got to just put something on the business cards, so we're sorta forced into that corner.

So you have a little fun with it.

Well, the idea behind Vice President of Experience Design, the term "experience design," was when I was sorta forced to sit down and think about what I do, I thought that probably the most important thing that I do is control how our users, how our players, experience the entertainment: how they experience a story, how they experience a strange narrative. And I thought if I focus on that, that probably encompasses more of what I do than any other term I can think of.

So what is your role? What do you offer to 42?

If you cut up all our projects into two basic elements, there's always the story, and the way that story is delivered. That's really rough, obviously. There's a million more parts, but let's call it those two parts. My role is to orchestrate that second part. My role is to take really cool stories and find ways to put them in front of people in ways that they've never experienced before.

You touched upon this in your talk yesterday, but 42 Entertainment has previously done a lot of marketing work, and you guys are just now starting to move away from marketing with EDOC Laundry. But from the website, it doesn't actually look like EDOC is a part of 42 Entertainment at all.

No, it's a completely standalone entity, actually, with different founders, and a different financial model.

But do you internally credit 42 for EDOC, or is it so separate that it's not possible to do so?

We have employees in common, but that's about as far as it goes. Although, EDOC was based on many of the learnings that came from 42, so as far as how to build a cool mystery, and how to tell a cool story. It's just that in this case, I met up with a bunch of my friends in the clothing industry that said "Ooh, we want to play too." So we started this new company.

So in terms of commercializing ARG's, in one way you've taken it to a completely different company. But Cathy's Book seems to be very explicitly a 42 product.

Exactly. Cathy's Book is 42's very first experiment in a product. Our dream is, of course, that we want our own intellectual property, and we want to promote our own ideas, and we want to create something start-to-finish that does not support another property. You know, why don't we just try to run the whole show, at least once?

So Cathy's Book was our very first attempt at that, because the problem with that is "Oh my god, how do you make money off something like that?" So we've broken it into three basic models. You can have a product -- Cathy's Book, and you'll see more books from 42 coming out next year. We've said "Okay, there's a subscription model," which as I was talking about yesterday, Majestic tried to do, but ultimately may not be appropriate for this kind of product. You'll see some creative interpretations of the subscription model coming out next year, but ultimately it's experimental. And I have my own healthy doubts about it.

And the third one is product placement, or banner ads, or things like that. Ad revenue, basically, and I think that is probably the best fit. But it's different from movies or TV. We've all seen really bad product placement in TV and movies. It looks so fake and so contrived. But if you think of an ARG, the whole point of an ARG is to engage the audience member in kind of this bizarre "trust dance," this concept where they want desperately to believe that this stuff is real because it makes it more fun, and the role of an ARG is to do everything in its power to make them not feel stupid about taking that leap with us. And we are in this bizarre position where product placement actually enhances that. If the characters in your story are doing real things, are going to a restaurant that actually exists, that makes the game better, rather than worse. That kind of product placement lets you take that leap with us so much more easily. Because "Oh my god, what if this thing is real? What if this person does exist? What happens if I go to that restaurant? What happens if I buy that product? What if... what if... what if..." So that's the kind of model I'm most excited about as far as creating products in the future that do not support other people's products.

You know, a similar thing is actually happening in video games right now, in terms of in-game advertising. And there's controversy over it there as well, and questions of when does it disrupt the 'bubble' and when is it actually lending itself to it.

Don't get me wrong. Even in ARG's there's a fine line. I know first hand that you can absolutely butcher this concept if you insert things in the wrong way. If it feels contrived, if it feels forced, you've accomplished the exact opposite. Your realism is just shattered and that bubble bursts. But I think ARG's are in this very unique position. The reins are a lot looser, and we can experiment a lot more than movies, TV, or even video games have traditionally been able to do.

So, Cathy's Book is your first attempt at commercializing. It's a Young Adult novel, aimed at a young female audience. Why did you go for that audience first, before any others?

Our staff writer, Sean Stewart, who's an award-winning science-fiction writer, it was an area he was really fascinated with. He has two young teenage daughters, and he really wanted to try to create a product for them. It is a huge market; it's really just enormous. And in some senses, we kinda looked at it as "If we can do this, we can probably do anything." (laughs) So, we knew that Sean could write a good story, we knew that there was an audience out there for it, and we knew that, if done right, the concept of a book that is fun to read beginning to end -- but also lets you poke at it, and it'll poke back a little bit -- we knew that a teenage female audience would be really attracted to that, or so we hypothesized. And the book just made it to the New York Times Best Seller Lists.

Congratulations.

Thank you. So, so far that experiment has gone very well and validated a lot of our assumptions.

Let's talk about Xbox 360 marketing. You guys did Hex 168 for the 360 launch, but before Hex even started, Microsoft ran the Our Colony campaign, which I'm sure you're familiar with. What were your thoughts about that campaign? Since a lot of people from the start were assuming it was 42. But at a certain point, it started getting sloppy, and people began reconsidering whether or not it was something actually put together by the i love bees team.

Well, first of all, oh my god is that flattering! If people see a product that starts to go poorly, and that is the reason they think it can't be us, we're in a really good place with the community. And it's something we've worked really hard to establish, that our products are of a really high quality, and to see that the audience is responding to that, and building their assumptions off of that... Wow, it doesn't get better than that.

I think that Our Colony did a lot of things right, and a lot of things wrong. Like any other ARG, there is no rulebook, and there is no reference to look at and say "Let's imitate that, because that's the right way to do it." They were trying a whole bunch of new stuff. We watched them very closely, and learned a lot from their mistakes. But ultimately, the thing that we are allowed to do that Microsoft is not -- and perhaps one of the reasons that you haven't seen "Our Colony 2" -- is because Microsoft can afford to take a risk like that about once. And if it doesn't work, they have responsibilities to the stockholders, they have responsibilities to the internal teams, and they have resources that have to be allocated in a certain way, because they're big and they're huge and they've been around for a while.

Whereas a company like 42 is much smaller and much more experimental. We can afford to make a product, make a ton of mistakes, and then iterate. One of the reasons that I think our fans are enamored with the quality of our products is because we've learned those lessons early on. We've been doing this for three, four years now and we've made tons and tons of mistakes, and we're getting really good at not making those mistakes, again because we can afford to try and iterate and do it again and again and again, in a way that a company like Microsoft with Our Colony can not.

So they developed Our Colony, and for the same exact product, just further down the line, you guys were hired to do Hex 168. Did you find that Our Colony's performance affected your market at all? Were they burnt out? Are two ARG-type experiences almost too much for one product?

One of the early decisions we made for Hex 168 was to try and address that exact concern. We made it a much more casual game, a much more accessible game, because we knew we weren't going to be able to hit the exact same audience. Because they are burnt out, and they've seen one before, and they've already formed opinions on Microsoft's ability to launch an ARG for this product, and why work uphill? Why try to change their opinion on that? Let's aim for a new audience, one that hasn't been tapped yet. So we made it much more casual. We made it more fun, much more tongue in cheek, and ultimately I think that's the reason it succeeded -- because it didn't try to fix a mistake that was made earlier.

It kinda leads to a much larger problem with ARG's. Because they're so new, and because it's a genre that doesn't have a rulebook yet, there's a lot of people trying them, and messing up. Each time that happens, it makes it that much harder for a good one to get out there and do well. Because a lot of times those bad ones are people's first exposure to them, and if your first experience is a bad one, you're almost entirely unlikely to try again. That is the thing I'm scared of the most -- when a product comes out that makes some very large mistakes, in a very public arena.

What brings you here to the Montreal International Game Summit? Are you here as a marketer, or as a game designer?

I am here as a game designer. I think that one of the directions we really want to take 42 in is as an entertainment provider, much more so than, or even in lieu of, being a marketing agency. And with a lot of our new designs, the trend lately has really been to push things in that direction. You see that in Cathy's Book, and you see that in EDOC, which embraces that new thinking, and so it was very important for me to show up to a conference like this, to kind of establish that. To say "You know what, we think of ourselves as a game company, and we think of ourselves as an entertainment company, and a storytelling company." And to prove it, we're going to talk about our games in that forum, and we're going to other industry leaders in that forum, and the things you see from 42 as we move forward into 2007 will very much embrace that thinking.

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]]>42 Entertainment42EntertainmentARGARGsEdocEdoc laundryEdocLaundryElan LeeElanLeeI love beesILoveBeesMIGS06Scott Jon Siegel2006-11-14T14:25:00+00:00The hottest ARG ever: lonelygirl15http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/05/the-hottest-arg-ever-lonelygirl15/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/05/the-hottest-arg-ever-lonelygirl15/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/09/05/the-hottest-arg-ever-lonelygirl15/#commentsFiled under: , , ,

At this point, internet starlet Lonelygirl15 should need no introduction, least of all to net-savvy Joystiq readers. But if you've been asleep all summer, here's a brief intro: Lonelygirl15's Youtube videos have garnered over 18 million views. She's the second-most subscribed-to channel of all time on Youtube, and she's crazy cute to boot.

But she's not real. In fact, but she may be part of an alternate reality game (ARG).

Bree's ARG-ness is discussed in detail over at the Alternate Reality Gaming Network. Admittedly, the evidence that she's part of some big ARG (ZOMG! The Halo 3 launch?!) is rather flimsy, but if we went with more mainstream conspiracy theories, we couldn't very well cover her on Joystiq now, could we?

Whatever the outcome, this whole episode shows how powerful storytelling and internet video might be interwoven to create compelling new forms of gaming that entertain millions of people who don't normally consider themselves gamers. The interaction between whoever's producing these videos (the game master) and the millions of players is intricate, exciting, and very game-like at heart.

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]]>alternate reality gamingargbreelonely girl 15lonelygirl15youtubeVladimir Cole2006-09-05T11:58:00+00:00I Love Bees redux? Halo 3 hints? Or just spam?http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/04/i-love-bees-part-ii-halo-3-hints-or-just-spam/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/04/i-love-bees-part-ii-halo-3-hints-or-just-spam/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/04/i-love-bees-part-ii-halo-3-hints-or-just-spam/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,


The timing and subject of an email I received (and posted above) are so coincidental with this season of game fever that I could not but immediately wonder whether I had been targeted for the beginning of some Halo 3 launch campaign. Alas, my Portuguese is lacking. Perhaps a reader can help bunk or debunk this strange missive that arrived in my inbox with the following envelope info?

From: APACAME [mailto:convite@apacame.com.br]
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 10:16 PM
To: Convite
Subject: XVI Congresso Brasileiro de Apicultura - CBA - 02/05 - 8

My hunch is that it's just mis-directed email. The website that it leads to looks too legit. But you never know in this age of ARGs.

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]]>arghalohalo 3Halo3xvicbaVladimir Cole2006-05-04T01:00:00+00:00Google's Da Vinci Code: two weeks inhttp://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/01/googles-da-vinci-code-two-weeks-in/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/01/googles-da-vinci-code-two-weeks-in/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/05/01/googles-da-vinci-code-two-weeks-in/#commentsFiled under: ,

The Da Vinci Code web-based game from Google is on its fifteenth day of twenty-four, and we've had time to figure out quite what the game is all about. It's effectively a serialised puzzle game, with daily challenges which increase in difficulty as time wears on.
 
What's more interesting is the sheer weight of Google's cross-promotion. For example, a link to the game appears on standard search results, and the game itself plugs into Google's personalised homepage service. While the logic-based puzzles are straightforward, follow-on questions require some searching, promoting Google's more obscure services such as SMS translation.

With the entire Google machine behind it, this game could become very popular indeed -- this seems like a lightweight experiment to test the model, but we wouldn't be surprised if more 'casual' games come out of Google in future.

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]]>argcasualcross-promotionda vincida vinci codedan brownDanBrownDaVinciDaVinciCodeflashgooglepuzzleserialweb gamesWebGamesJennie Lees2006-05-01T21:30:00+00:00Google's Da Vinci Code puzzle quest launching soonhttp://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/16/googles-da-vinci-code-puzzle-quest-launching-soon/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/16/googles-da-vinci-code-puzzle-quest-launching-soon/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/04/16/googles-da-vinci-code-puzzle-quest-launching-soon/#commentsFiled under: ,

We've already seen the Da Vinci Code spun into a video game and a mobile game; starting tomorrow, it will also become an online puzzle trail, an Alternate Reality Game-style code quest run by Google and accessible from your Google homepage. This movie tie-in game fits with the book's themes of brain-bending puzzles, and it should hopefully be an enjoyable ride, with puzzles being issued daily until May 10 -- coincidentally, the start of E3 -- and a prize draw for those who answer all 24 puzzles correctly.

There's something of a discrepancy in prizes, thanks to regional sponsors -- the US grand prize winner will be flown on a first class trip to England, Rome and Paris with three guests, bagging over $120,000 of goodies along the way, whereas the top UK winners get a trip to Paris on the Eurostar. It's an interesting move to add this kind of daily ARG-style play into a personalised homepage service such as Google provides; people using the service already will find it easy to play the game, whereas those who haven't tried the service have a new incentive to do so.

[Via ARGN]

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]]>argargscode breakingCodeBreakingda vinci codeDaVinciCodefilm tie-insfilmsFilmTie-insgooglemoviesonline gamesOnlineGamespuzzlepuzzle trailsPuzzleTrailsJennie Lees2006-04-16T07:00:00+00:00Rumor: game based on TV's Lost this fall for consoleshttp://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/28/rumor-game-based-on-tvs-lost-this-fall-for-consoles/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/28/rumor-game-based-on-tvs-lost-this-fall-for-consoles/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/28/rumor-game-based-on-tvs-lost-this-fall-for-consoles/#commentsFiled under: , , , ,

Lost logo and castEGM's April 2006 issue sports a short entry under its monthly Rumor Mill section telling readers to expect a Lost video game this fall for unspecified consoles.

The Q also claims that the playable adaptation will "even feature an online multiplayer mode called something like 'Passengers versus The Others.'" Predicting possible genres is sketchy at this point, but one could imagine modes such as Capture the Hatch, Pregnant Woman Rescue, and Team Freak-out popping up like a season or two's stranded passenger hallucinations. (Then again, maybe not...)

Whatever the case may be, is this alleged adaptation of ABC's hit TV show a clever April Fools' Day con, or does it signify the next step in viral game licensing (with a series that's as ARG-y as they come)? Given the nature of licensed television titles--if true--it's unlikely that the property will hit next-gen consoles at launch with only the Xbox 360 in sufficient stock for the holidays this year. Episodic content for a console version of Lost would probably not occur, either, as developers usually have to play catch-up with the typically fast-moving plotlines of their TV-based material (at least in comparison to an average game development cycle). We're forced to wonder, however, how such a game would work as an online shooter, action-fighting hybrid, or story-centric mystery/RPG. Puzzling...

See also:

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]]>ABCadaptationApril Fools'AprilFools'ARGCapture the HatchCaptureTheHatchconsoleEGMepisodiclicensedLostpassenger hallucinationsPassengerHallucinationsPassengers versus The OthersPassengersVersusTheOtherspossible genresPossibleGenresPregnant Woman RescuePregnantWomanRescueTeam Freak-outTeamFreak-outThe QTheQTV showTvShowviral gameViralGameDan Choi2006-03-28T02:00:00+00:00Gaming and 'Lost'http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/02/gaming-and-lost/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/02/gaming-and-lost/http://www.joystiq.com/2006/03/02/gaming-and-lost/#commentsFiled under: ,

In an interview with Lost star Jorge Garcia, it transpires that Garcia is something of a video games fan, as he discusses how Lost could be turned into a game. It sounds like perfect MMO material.

Of course, Lost and gaming are no strangers to each other--a network of websites themed around the show has exhibited suspiciously ARG-like behaviour. With this added on to the interactive nature of Lost, perhaps it doesn't need to be turned into a game--it already is one.

[Via Cathode Tan]

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]]>argculturejorge garciaJorgeGarcialostmmoJennie Lees2006-03-02T19:00:00+00:00