ARG Netcast, Episode 52: The Return

 

 ARG Netcast, Episode 52: The Return [66:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (822)

After a bit of a hiatus (unintentional, we swear), co-hosts Jonathan Waite (ARGNet) and Sean C. Stacey (Unfiction, Despoiler) are back with a jam-packed episode of the ARG Netcast series! On this episode: The Dark Knight, Find the Lost Ring, indy ARGs and Battlestar Galactica.

News Items and Links From Discussion

• The Dark Knight alternate reality game has ramped up in the past month. On March 13th, Geoff May of ARGNet reported on real-world rallies for Harvey Dent, as Dentmobiles rolled into various locations across the U.S., which caused quite a stir in at least one city. Also, just last week, there was another swagfest live event in the vein of the Joker cake extravaganza, this time involving bowling alleys. We’ve got the details in our discussion today.
• The Lost Ring continues to gain worldwide momentum after launching earlier in the month. The campaign has gotten players involved in finding ancient artifacts called the omphaloi, with one being stolen as part of the plot of the last few days. You can jump into action by reviewing the excellent resource at olympics.wikibruce.com.
• Congratulations go out to World Without Oil, as they won the Web Award for Activism at this years SXSW festival. You can listen to the team from WWO as they talk about their experiences in episode 27 of our netcast series.
• Speaking of SXSW, Brandie Minchew of ARGNet was at the event, and was fortunate enough to be in the audience for two ARG related discussions.
• The new Aporia Cross-Media Entertainment project, Aporia Agathon, was in the news two weeks ago for sending ornate tribal masks to players that contributed to a YouTube video contest. The masks were accompanied by a note starting that the project would be launching in July 2008.
• Six to Start, a new venture that involves the Hon brothers, formerly of Mind Candy Design, has partnered with Penguin Books to launch a campaign called We Tell Stories. The stories, in this case, are well-known novels, but they are told in slightly different ways. You can read more about the first story, a retelling of “The Thirty-Nine Steps” by John Buchan, in a story by Michael Andersen at ARGNet.
• Over at the Despoiler blog, my co-host Sean C. Stacey has been hard at work in delivering news of the latest trailheads and game tips. In the past week there have been three new and exciting posts, including information on The Rivard Project, Faceless Invasion N.Y. and The Hope Ranch Foundation. You can read more at despoiler.org.
• While we’re on the topic of new games, Licorice Films, who you might remember from MeiGeist, is set to launch their new project The Sky Remains any day now. According to the metasite at theskyremains.com, this new venture combines interactive narrative, social networking, geocaching, alternate reality gaming and Hewlett Packard’s Mscape technology.
• And finally, amid the usual pile of bills, invoices and department store flyers that usually pollutes the ARGNet snail mailbox, an unusual and unexpected package arrived containing a set of headphones — broken, according to the documentation accompanying them — with the words I WAS BLIND scratched into electrical tape holding the top together. This is a new immersive experience by Dog in a Dress Media, and it might be related to a camera being found in a DJ’s bag in the UK, but perhaps not. Judge for yourself by clicking this link.
• The New York Times Article on Find the Lost Ring
• The Christian Science Monitor article on Find the Lost Ring
• The LA Times article on The Dark Knight

Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through this link or via iTunes. Contact us at our special netcast email address, netcast@argnetcast.info with your tips, suggestions, concerns and submissions. Call us on the ARGNet voicemail at 630-274-5425.