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This is a small but important change for the premier website on Alternate Reality Gaming. Way back when in 2002, there wasn’t a whole lot going on in the world of ARG. In fact, when ARGN was born, it and unFiction were the only sites dedicated to the genre and you could count the total number of games on one hand. Steve Peters, who started ARGN, knew how important it was to get ARG players and sites to work together. So, he had a grand vision that included linking the various ARG related sites - whether their focus was players or designers and whether they offered news or forums or guides and trails. Now there are dozens of sites and dozens of games. It’s easier than ever to find others playing and talking about ARGs. It’s time to refocus the site on what it does best - offering up news. And Jonathan Waite, current owner and editor of the site has taken the steps to make sure that we, the staff of the site, get focused and do just that.

So, the change is small and one that many of you will never miss the way things were. The strange banner on the top of various ARG sites will be gone, but the news and coverage will be better than ever. And to help celebrate the birth of ARGNet at argn.com, the site launched its inaugural netcast. I’m pleased to be part of it along with Sean Stacey/SpaceBass and Jonathan Waite/jamesi and really excited about the possibilities with the netcast. So head on over to ARGNet, check it out (pretty new logo and all), and download the first netcast.

After 5 years at mirlandano.com, it felt like it was time for a new and, hopefully, permanent home on the web. I love the uniqueness of the mirlandano domain and it’s meaning fit me so well (a resident of Wonderland) as a fan of all things Alice and constantly in wonder of the possibilities of the internet. But, it always bothered me that it wasn’t easy to remember or spell. So, when it came time to redesign the site and update the ol’ portfolio, I figured it was also time to move on to something bigger and better. But to what?

I played with a lot of variations of things that were meaningful to me and was trapped, for a bit, on getting something from the lyrics “the sky was yellow and the sun was blue”. From one of my favorite songs, Scarlet Begonias, it’s my personal reminder that everything is masked by our own perceptions. Not only do perceptions color the way in which we look at things, they can be really fun things to play with - especially in ARGs. But something kept drawing me back to an an old domain I purchased for a game that never came to be. So, here we are, at giantmice.com.

The enigmatic nature of the phrase Giant Mice has always cracked me up. After all, mice aren’t giant. They’re tiny and cute and still able to inspire a wide range of emotion in people. The shock of seeing a harmless little mouse scurry across the floor is really one of the great joys in life. It’s a fun term that’s a riddle and story in and of itself - just like the games that so many of us love to make and play.

As you can see, I’m back to blogging. I can’t say that there will be a whole host of new and fresh content on any sort of regular basis. I will promise, however, that when the mood strikes and I have something to say, that I’ll put it up here. I’ve also developed quite the habit of writing long postmortems after each and every project. They’re casually written and have never been written for eyes other than my own - tips, tricks, and things that I’ve learned that might help me in the future. One of my goals with this site is to share such thoughts with others making these experiences. By sharing and talking about them, we’ll all learn something and be able to push ourselves further - to the benefit of our audience. Over the next few months, as time allows, I’m going to be cleaning up my old notes and making them readable to people other than myself. So, keep an eye out for them and whatever else manages to find its way here in the meantime.