Alternate Reality Games SIG

GDC08 - Group Gathering summary

The 2008 GDC Group Gathering went well, with approximately 20+ people turning up. We had a quick discussion about SIG activities and then broke out for the standard mingling and networking. Photos + discussion items at this link (IGDA webserver doesn't allow image uploads :( ).

David Gamble

Unlike most people here I'm just recently becoming involved in ARG's through the research I have to do for my job. So I'm here primarily to keep up to date on what's going on in the world of ARGs and also to hear educated takes on the new games that come out.

Stine Ejsing-Duun

I am a PhD fellow researching ARGs and pervasive games. Besides research - or as a part of it - I am developing an ARG prototype as well. And finally I just like the games for the fun of it, so it nice to keep track of what is happening on the scene.

Kristian Leth

I work with DR (the national public service broadcaster in Denmark) where I write and produce ARGs. I've been hosting and producing TV and radio for Denmark's biggest channels (DR1, P3 and P1) and have experience both as a writer and an editor. I'm a graduate from the Danish Writers' Academy, and I've published poetry, prose and essays. Besides that I'm an active musician and I've just started my own record label Speed Of Sound.

GDC 2008 - Group Gathering

We have another Group Gathering at GDC 2008, in San Francisco.

If you're at the conference, come along and say hi to other SIG members, make some new contacts, or simply to find out more about ARGs. As ever, we'll also have an update on all things SIGgy.

Date/Time: Thursday (February 21, 2008) 5:30pm — 6:30pm
Location (room): IGDA Booth, West Hall
Link: https://www.cmpevents.com/GD08/a.asp?option=C&V=11&SessID=6440

(and we'll probably go for food and drinks afterwards)

Portugese ARG: Searching for Miguel

The game will be running in Portugal for 3 months, with free registration on the official website http://www.miguel.sapo.pt

David Varela

I worked at Mind Candy as the in-house writer on Perplex City from the end of 2005 until June 2007. As well as writing, I also found myself producing and directing all the game's AV content. And I looked after a lot of the meta-content, such as the gargantuan Story So Far site.

My background is in drama, so I'm now pursuing ways of combining ARG-style interaction with more mainstream broadcast media – the 'Frozen Indigo Angel' episode of Perplex City, produced with the BBC, was a decent start.

Geoffrey Richards

I am a student finishing up my certificate with a specialization in 3D Environment Art at Austin Community College. As far as my particular interest in ARGs, I believe it has been piqued due in part to a number of things: the film The Game from a few years ago was pretty, a brief brush with the early Matrix-inspired ARG. Also, theres a band (you might have heard of) called Nine Inch Nails, and I thought that the promotion for their newest album "Year Zero," which utilized ARG tactics to get fans involved in decoding art, websites and found flash-disks to promote and help tell the narrative of the album.

IGDA NYC: Writing for Fantasy Game Worlds

IGDA NYC Chapter and Writers Cabal present...

Writing for Fantasy Game Worlds Moderated by Sande Chen, Writers Cabal

RSVP: http://www.largeanimal.com/igda/chapter-2007_06_21/

When: June 21, 2007 6:30 - 8:30 PM

Where: Wollman Hall 65 West 11th St, 5th Floor New York City, New York

]]> "The panel will explore the overwhelming appeal of fantasy computer games and the importance of writing and story development in world building and player immersion. From pitch to production, from pen-and-paper and live-action to massively multiplayer game worlds, the panelists discuss the process of fantasy world building for original concepts or licensed properties. Furthermore, they elaborate on how story development can affect game system design, character design, and environments.

Panelists:

Daniel Greenberg - Free-lance Writer/Game Designer, Story/Tolkien Consultant, Lord of the Rings Online (among others)

John Boomershine - Writer and Content Designer, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, EA-Mythic

Jeff Gomez - CEO, Starlight Runner Entertainment; Story/World Design, Magic: The Gathering (among others)

Steve Balzac - LARP Writer/Game Designer, Founder, Society of Interactive Literature and MIT Assassin's Guild (considered earliest LARP groups in USA, according to Wikipedia :)"

Patrick Moeller

I am the senior editor and owner of the German news site ARGReporter (http://www.patmo.de/). We try to spread the word about Alternate Reality Games to our German readers and to bring them in contact with the Genre. Last year I moved to Berlin, where I am now working for a company called vm-people. We've had some projects that included ARG-Experiences to a certain point and we've had a German Alternate Reality Game last year, too. It was called "A posteriori" and was about the adventures of a young man named "Philipp Retingshof" with nine muses.

Morbus Iff

(a.k.a. Kevin Hemenway) I've coauthored a few books for O'Reilly, tech-edited or contributed to a dozen others, and have written for Apple and MacTech magazine. I had a passing interest in The Beast, bought an Xbox and Halo because of ILB (and was heartily disappointed in Halo 2), and have been fiddling with Perplex City for the past year. I'm waxing poetic internally about what ARG to follow with PXC's now-indefinite postponing. AliceIsLost is currently high on that list. I joined the list a few weeks ago to get a better understanding of the PM side of things, mostly for curiosity. I have a slowly developing idea for an ARG (with optional micropayments) but know I wouldn't have the resources to do it myself (and would rather develop the world/plot and pass it to someone else).

Siobhan Thomas

I'm interested in the learning potential of ARGs, and research, in particular, pervasive learning games. A couple of years ago I developed a very basic ARG (heavily influenced by nokiagame and majestic) to teach economics and politics to 14 to 16 year olds. I've mostly been working on a model of pervasive learning, basically a set of design guidelines that can be used for the design and evaluation of pervasive learning. I teach at london southbank university and next semester I'll be teaching a class in ARG/ locative/ pervasive game design. I'm also part of the london game research group so if anyone out there is living in london would be good to see you at a meeting (we meet once a month).

AJ

I'm an IT Manager from the UK, roleplayer, roleplaying game designer, layout artist and Techno Pagan. I think i became interested on the periphery of Perplex City, but i think i've been interested in the genre for a lot longer, films like Michael Douglas's The Game, and thing like that have always intrigued me. I guess i'm interested these days in what ARGs show us about people, the expectations of them, and what people are prepared to do as players as a mass decision making machine. A friend and I are looking at running a UK Based ARG-lite, based on some roleplaying material we have, definitely a small player base, as a first run to prove the concept.

Bryan Alexander

I'm the research director for NITLE, a group of 110+ small colleges in Europe, Africa, and the US. I study emerging technologies, like web 2.0 and gaming ...which is one way I got into ARGs. For me they're a fine example of Web 2.0 storytelling. And also educational gold. I've been telling academics about these since before ILoveBees, and at last there are some projects. There is bloggery, mostly at http://infocult.typepad.com/ for ARGishness. More of my .edu work is here: http://b2e.nitle.org/index.php .

SXSW 2007 - ARG! The Attack of the Alternate Reality Games Transcript

Dan Hon has posted a transcript of the ARG panel at this year's South by Southwest:

Part game, story and treasure hunt, alternate reality games introduce people to a world of creative play, skywriting, online games, phone calls, radio broadcasts, secret websites, blogs, texts, coded adverts, emails, hidden audio files and helicopter chases. What you need to know about what’s been happening and what’s happening next from industry leaders.

http://danhon.com/2007/05/23/sxsw-2007-arg-the-attack-of-the-alternate-reality-games-transcript/