Apparently, they hired a director and 20 choreographers. Those 20 taught the dance to 800 and then taught the 20,000 other members of the crowd.

Fun!

Here’s a behind the scenes making of. Somewhat strangely, it contains a  solid definition of a flash mob that completely contradicts what’s to come.

A large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place and perform an unusual action to surprise onlookers.

I’m not sure how this is “assembling suddenly” or “surprising onlookers” – though I gather that since Oprah, herself, was not in on this even if everyone else was, they feel it counts.

Oprah’s staff plots a flash mob for her Kickoff party

(Oprah has no idea)

Me? I’d call it a Oprah’s staff plotting a great & fun surprise for Oprah.

Still, very fun!

The thing is – we don’t know where it’s going to be in 2010 and we need your help to figure it out! A fairly lengthy RFP has been created which will take you through the steps of many of the various considerations we have to make. So, please, if you have an idea of where you want it to be – fill it out! If you know of others in the area who can help you out – get them in on it!

I’ve already received some comments on “Page 3″ which alludes to the fact that we are seriously considering taking ARGFest to another level – more panels, roundtables, events, and games! At this point, I can’t comment much further on that. It is something that we are thinking about and, so, it would only be right to have those proposing locations and considering getting involved “on the ground” thinking about it, too.

I am really crazy excited about some of the ideas and suggestions that have been talked about. I know that ARGFest 2010 is going to be great and wonderful. And it all starts with choosing the location (publicly, at least) so I can’t wait to see the proposals that come in!

Does the term adequately describe what we do? Is it approachable? What does it mean? Does it mean anything anymore? Should we just kill it? This conversation has been going on since, at least, 2004. It will probably continue until 2024 and maybe even to 2424. It comes and it goes, sure. But it always seems to resurface.

Most recently, it resurfaced as a potential panel for SXSW: The ARG is Dead

Which, humorously, provoked someone on twitter to ask: How can I make an “‘Args are dead’ is dead” panel at SXSW?

But, the thing is, the panel didn’t provoke laughter from me. It provoked anger and frustration. Between the venue and the description, I was suddenly very upset about a topic that I actually tend to enjoy discussing and a concept that I’ve always thought would be fun.. a funeral for ARGs so that we can have some sort of rebirth and reclaim the phrase in our own way.

hmmm…. I’m getting ahead of myself.

The panel description is: Following a New Orleans funeral procession to the Convention Center, join a collection of pioneers from the alternate reality game movement as they deliver their eulogies to a label long past its prime. Share in the remembrance of what ARGs were, celebrate what they achieved, and help us provide comfort to ARG’s numerous children and extended family that survive its passing. Funeral attire recommended, but not required.

The idea of having a funeral has been floating around for a couple years now. I’ll give credit for the idea to Brian Clark and Mike Monello, but I don’t know if that’s completely accurate. And it’s been discussed by others on and off over the years. It seems to have a life of its own, seriously. And, as such, I’m sure that more than a few of us have our own thoughts and ideas of what this could ultimately be.

My ARG Funeral always took place at ARGFest where the community could celebrate the life and history of ARGs together before some grand rebirth. Funerals, after all, are for friends and family. Strangers are welcome, of course, but they’re always the outsider who isn’t sharing in the remembrance as much as they are hearing stories about someone they may have known of but really didn’t know. So, I have always seen the ARG Funeral taking place at ARGFest which is an annual gathering of ARG enthusiasts. Of course, I have grand visions for what happens then and proposed all sorts of craziness but then held back out of respect to Dave Szulborski, who passed away earlier this year.

So, for me, it was always about the community and, more, it was always about reclaiming and reinvigorating the term. Oh, there are practical reasons for this – not the least of which is that so many community resources are named Alternate Reality Game X. And there are emotional reasons – the term was coined by Sean Stacey (SpaceBass) for the Lockjaw Trail which means, on some twisted level, that I created the first Alternate Reality Game (I don’t believe that, but emotionally, I am very close to the term). But it is also because in this strange quest to be mainstream we are finally at a point with ARG that it can be mentioned in an article without an immediate and confusing definition. It often still is, but there is also an assumption that people (real, general, everyday people!) know what ARGs are or can easily find out. We are on some sort of tipping point of the ARG phrase being known by a mass audience so now is, in my opinion, the perfect time to give it life.

And the community. The funeral was, in my mind, never for SXSW where it seems like a gimmick for people just getting to know and understand Alternate Reality Games only to be told that they shouldn’t call them that. It was for the community who has been caring for ARGs for years. The community which the panel description claims doesn’t even know how to define ARGs, that they’ve stopped trying to define them. No, the panel is not for “that community” because they will be discussing what it means for “that community” to be creating in a post-ARG era (and sadly, you know, that community is probably to stupid to be post-arg because they can’t even figure out what ARG).

The truth of the matter is that the ARG Community that I am a part of hasn’t stopped trying to describe and understand ARGs. In fact, we touched on the subject just this weekend as we were discussing the future of ARGFest (which, I suppose, would have to be Post-ARG era Fest if the panel has its way). I heard similar conversations about ARG and what they mean at ARGFest. It wasn’t just the designer & developer types talking about it and the way they pitch them to clients – it was players talking about what ARGs mean to them and the qualities that they feel are important to the games they enjoy.

See, the thing is, it’s not that we have given up talking about it, it’s that we can’t get enough of talking about it. Like any community of enthusiasts, we have definition issues. We’ve all heard the example of Eskimos and their 40 words for snow. Or film school students debating the differences between videos, movies, flims, and cinema.  And, so, it seems as if taking this debate which is somewhat tired for those in the ARG Community to the broader interactive community is like airing our dirty laundry. Or, perhaps it’s a desire to say “hey! look at us! we’re as cool as you! we can debate these subtle differences just like the big kids!”

I realize that I am reading a lot into very few words. But the panel proposal, just feels wrong to me. It’s for the wrong audience. About the wrong topic. Sending the wrong message.

But, perhaps, that’s what will make it a good choice. It’s got at least one person upset and it’s got a gimmick. And, I’m sure, they’ll use this to show how ARGs are all about the gimmicky events and controversy which is why, ironically, the ARG is dead.

Note: The panel is organized by Dee Cook & Brian Clark. I adore them both. They are great people who are very intelligent and smart. I know I’m fairly harsh (or, at least, wordy) here, but at the end of the day it’s nothing. And, honestly, I kinda wish it was the end of the day and we could head out for beers where we probably wouldn’t agree on this but would definitely agree that we love what we do and the community of people that surrounds it.

I have submitted 2 ideas this year that I think would be pretty cool. If you do, too, please vote for them :)

The (R)evolution of Alternate Reality Games

In the search for the mainstream, ARGs have become entwined in PR stunts and companies pimping their stuff. This presentation breaks free of the hype and takes you on a tour of the evolution of Alternate Reality Gaming as seen from someone who’s been standing in the trenches since 2001.

This is me being arrogant and thinking that because I don’t have a company to promote or expecting me to pimp certain games, that I can speak more honestly about the trends. The truth is, I’m coming from the community with the agenda of pimping ARGs as a whole in hopes that we see more great games.  I think that one of the biggest issues that we have, as a community, is how difficult we make it to actually discover what has been done in the space. As of right now, there is no concise resource for this information. Hopefully this presentation will be the start of that. My goal for it is to provide those curious about genre and/or making a game (for whatever reason) a brief understanding of what’s been done  while encouraging them to explore the space and take things further. There is so much potential with Alternate Reality Games. They’re just getting started, so lets see where they can go. To support this panel, go here.

To The Streets: ARGs and Real World Play

From hidden geocaches to flash mobs to all-expense-paid trips to Europe, Alternate Reality Games are pulling players away from their computers and getting them involved in real world play. Join designers, producers, and players who have explored play online and off as they discuss what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why.

I really like the idea of this panel mostly because I want to have people on the panel from every stage of live event planning and participation: the designer, the producer, and the player. The each bring so much to the event and have great insights to share with an audience – whether that audience wants to create live events or participate in them. You can support this panel here.

Other interesting panels or ones that stick out for me…

• Jay Bushman’s Transmedia: It’s The Story, Stupid. I don’t always agree with Jay but I do so love his ideas of story in this connected age and I can relate to his frustrations with ARGs being taken over as advertising vehicles instead of storytelling ones. And while he should have stopped at Transmedia: It’s The Story so we could shorten it to TITS, I can’t imagine that this would be anything other than an outstanding panel.
• I was sold on one question in the description for The Distributed Stream: True Web Native Storytelling… “What is the difference between an interactive and distributed story?” It is not a hard question to answer. In fact, I think it’s fairly obvious. However, over the last few years, ARGs seem to have become more interactive and, at the same time, less distributed. These are not mutually exclusive ideas, but the trajectory is so similar that you’d almost think they were. And, to be honest, I think it’s the distributed story telling in alternate reality gaming that is far more interesting and exciting than the interactive bits. So I am very excited to see that addressed and I wonder if it cause any discussion (I hope so!).
• Say it isn’t so! There’s A Hot Brunette Who Needs Your Help?! It is so frustrating that a genre of entertainment that is so very much about stories, social collaboration and problem solving,  which are not sexist things and areas where men and women excel, is so often about running to the aid of the hot chick. With a number of women in leading positions (designers, producers, community leaders), why is this acceptable? I love that Andrea is not only thinking about this, but getting us to talk about it.
• Another great topic for conversation: Suspending Belief in an Age of Disclosure. This seems to focus on the TruBlood campaign which is a fairly good starting point as far as this topic is concerned – it’s benign enough (vampires are, obviously, fictional) but has had some controversy (how explicit should sponsored content be). There is no way a panel can properly address the topic as a whole – it’s so huge and complex and head-ache inducing that it’s something that can only be hashed out over many many conversations and blog posts and academic articles and so on and so forth. But as long as they aren’t trying to solve any problems or provide solutions but just get people talking about a few of the issues, it’ll be good. Though, the description makes me wonder – would Barnum, Wells, or Irving ever consider marketing cars, movies, or sodas… they weren’t marketers, they were entertainers and storytellers. So, a missing question might be is an audience more or less forgiving of disclaimers if the man eating chicken is just eating chicken and not KFC.
• Playing with Place is probably my biggest competition for the To The Streets panel, but if I totally lost to Catherine Herdlick I’d be totally honored. She is awesome and has done amazing things with Come Out And Play Though, I think it’d be even better if both our panels were selected – they’re slightly different as is, and I’m sure that we could work together to make them complimentary. (on the off chance that she runs across this…it was COAP that inspired me to do Board 2 Street – so, thanks! and yay! you’re inspiring people to make games. awesome!)
• Advertising in the Apocolypse. Ok. He sold me on “Zombie Uprisings”. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I’m preparing for The Zombie Uprising which is pretty much anything but advertising. I wonder if I could get Brian Cain to advertise my non-advertising arg in his args as advertising panel.
• From Mike Monello, another Campfire partner, is Transmedia Storytelling for Filmmakers.This was hidden over on the film side, so I almost missed it. eep. I’m not a filmmaker and I’ve been around transmedia for a while, so I’m certainly not the target audience but still… looks fantastic.
• We’ve been talking about it for, what, three years now? So I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that the ARG funeral finally makes it on the list as The ARG is Dead. I’ve got to admit that I’m quite torn on this one. More on this, perhaps, later.

So, what panels have I missed? What else looks great? What deserves to be shown off? What will elicit strong emotions (and potentially good discussion)?

note: yes. the possibility that people might click on my name on the panel picker and come to the site was the motivation to actually get off my ass and finish the site design. sometimes we need that extra motivation and, I gotta admit, as much as I’d rather be making games than playing with my website, I’m kinda glad to finally get to finishing this. So thank you SXSW! Whether my panels are selected or not, you’ve at least gotten me to update this ol’ site o’ mine

Things will break in the process. I have done my best to stop that, but if you notice something broken and it hasn’t been fixed by, say, the end of the week, holler at me. And if the site hasn’t transformed from a dreary dead blog to a vibrant updated portfolio by Friday, August 21, somebody please just take it all away from me.

I’m making no promises. There will likely be few posts. Though, I would like to actually do the Blog Round Table mentioned in the post just below this from almost a year ago. I may start that back up again if there’s interest (is there?). That would mean a post or so a month from me, at least.

Things have been insane, obviously, over the past year (and the five before it). I’ve continued working on corporate games (training & teambuilding) and with the government (military & intelligence). There’s been quite a bit of consulting with people like tv execs and ad creatives. Perhaps the most notable of my projects, seeing as it’s the only experience open to the public, has been Eldritch Errors for which I’ve been a creator, producer, and writer along with the great guys at GMD Studios.

Of course, there’s also Unfiction and ARGN, both of which keep me a bit busy even though I’m a total slacker (see above and sorry guys!). They’re two websites that I couldn’t imagine the internet without – not because of the design or the content, but because of the people involved both behind the scenes and in the community.

It blows me away when I think that it’s been six years (six years!!) since Lockjaw launched. We were so naive and hopeful and, yet, never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed where it would lead me and, more importantly, the amazing community that would take root during (because of?) it. For as much as I love my job, it is the community that has given me the most. I’m constantly in awe of it, learn from it, and am inspired by it. My job may be crazy, but it is the community that keeps me that way reminds me that I’m sane. So, thanks guys. You all are amazing.

(Wow, this got a bit sappy for a “oops, haven’t blogged in a year!” post. Hmmm, built in motivation to keep posting and to get this off the front page. Gotta love it.)

That’s when it hit me – there are a ton of ARG bloggers and so few of us write or, if we do, it’s not on ARGs. Why not? Is it a lack of inspiration? A lack of topic? The idea that nobody is reading, so why bother? Are we so busy that by the time we actually write it down, it’s no longer topical? The round table solves those things! It can bring people to your blog and give you a topic to think about and enough time to actually write something on it.

Topics will be posted on the the first day of every month. You will have until the 15th to write your post. The topic will change every month – some you’ll love and some you may hate. You don’t have to participate every month and you’re welcome to jump in at anytime. But the more often you participate, the better this all will be. So, without further rambling on, the very first ARG Round Table….

ARGs are Serious Fun!

A “Serious Game” is one that is more than just fun. It’s a game with a purpose – it may be to teach you something or to get you talking about things. ARGs do that.

In honor of yesterday’s launch of World Without Oil, a game designed from the ground up as a Serious Game – a Game for Change, let’s explore this topic. Keep in mind that the topic is nothing more than a guideline and you don’t have to talk about World Without Oil. Maybe you’d like to see more ARGs as “serious games” or maybe you fear ARGs pushing an agenda. You don’t have to get all stuffy and academic, feel free to reminisce on the things you’ve learned as you’ve played or talk about the ways games have dealt with “serious issues” in the past. Are you feeling a bit more creative? Why not think about a game design that could get people talking about your favorite social concern (electronic voting, aids, Darfur, climate change) or about ways that ARGs can be used in schools. There are so many paths to take here and everyone is as good as the last – so have fun with it.

You have until the 15th to write your post. Once you do, be sure to send me an email or catch me in chat so that I can link to it. It might take me a while to get them all up, so if your blogging software allows trackbacks, be sure to point back to this post and if it doesn’t, put a link to your post in the comments. This way, anyone that stops by and reads this post will be able to find you. It’s not an “elegant process” but it’s temporary. Next month, it will all be smoother.

So, to recap…

Topic: ARGs are Serious Fun!
Step 1: write something by May 15th
Step 2: link or reply to this post
Step 3: Send me an email
Step 4: Come back after the 15th and find links to everyone else that’s participated.

I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Finally, I want to give huge thanks to Corvus at Man Bytes Blog for inspiring me to do this and generously giving me the code he’s been using. I also want to thank Brian Enigma for taking a look at that code and giving his time to make it better for all involved.

We need help in a very big way. You see, the site is absolutely amazing, but, at this point it’s only a fraction of the site that it should be. It needs a full database of the games that have taken place over the course of ARG history. Right now, we have most of the games prior to I Love Bees, but even those contain only the most basic of information. This means that we have a number of beta testers, especially those that have joined the community in the past two years, looking at games that they did not play. So they’re looking at the site and seeing the potential, but being underwhelmed and, to a degree, left out of the fun.

The task of gathering the information we need is a huge one. There’s no way that we can expect any individual to gather the information. However, together we can make quick work of this. Who does collaboration better than ARGers? If a couple dozen of us take on a game each, the database could be filled within days. If a few more dozen help out, it could go even faster. A wiki has been set up for this purpose. Please, go and add to it – add whatever information you know or can find. Read the information that others have already added for accuracy, grammar, and spelling. If you don’t know where to start, start with the games you played. If those are taken, start from the present and work your way back or grab that one game you always wanted to know more about. You don’t even need to be a solid writer, if you can go through and pick out the start and end dates for all the games that start with the letter L, that would be a great help. This something that can take so little of your time but really make a big impact.

If you’d like to see what the site looks like and some of the things that it does, you can take the ARGdb Tour. If you feel like seeing it a bit more up close and personal, and promise to tell us your thoughts – no matter how good or bad, you can sign up for the beta.

Most importantly, you can add any information that you have (or find) to the ARGdb wiki.

No, what’s been shown is that a bunch of strangers with both nothing to lose and nothing to gain worked toward a nebulous common goal. I guess its the sheer benevolence on display that amazed me most. — Jon Elek

Jon wrote that after reflecting on the A Million Penguins project. As mentioned in an earlier post (A million Penguins typing), the project fascinated me. The thing that drew me in to ARGs was the idea that a community of strangers from around the world could (and would) come together and collaborate on some strange project with no true understanding of what they were looking at and where they were going with it. They do so in a supportive environment with few arguments. Each giving what they can to the project and the process. In the end, they are rewarded with a story that they have, together, created.

I say story, but it’s really two. There’s the story and the story behind the story – the one of them as they played the game, the reactions they had, the processes that they went through. Both stories are meticulously documented, though only one of them is done so purposefully, and in the end they are so intertwined that it’s often difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins.

That’s what fascinated me with the Million Penguin project. They were given the directive to create a story. The pieces weren’t created by people lurking in the shadows and hiding them for the community to discover. The pieces (characters, places, plots, chapters) were to be built by the community while they were putting them together. It took out all of the other elements – the things that I found myself getting caught up in. The play. The game. The puzzles. The goals. The rewards. They are all important for an ARG, but they will never be as important as the fact that a bunch of strangers with nothing to lose and nothing to gain will come together to work towards some nebulous common goal. It’s a thing of beauty, really, that story behind the story. I’m glad that John and all of those involved with the A Million Penguin project got to experience it and that they were able to remind me of why I love Chaotic Fiction.

Of course I signed up back when and promptly got annoyed by it. It was pointless and stupid and something that only a bunch of kids would enjoy. Or so I thought. After seeing it in action at SXSW, I’ve become a fan. Oh, it’s still pointless and stupid and something that a bunch of kids would enjoy, but only 99% of the time. The other 1% is gold.

If you have somehow missed all the twitter talk (more power to ya!), it is essentially massively multiplayer text messaging and there are times when that is really handy – such as during conferences. With twitter, you can post up to 140 characters via the internet or email or sms and anyone (or just your friends) can recieve your post via the internet or email or sms. One post and everyone can see it in a form that’s convenient to them.

At SXSW this included updates on conference sessions and parties – where people were, what was interesting, what rocked, what sucked. It helped people find each other or, for some, avoid one another. It was fantastic. But, not fantastic enough for me to actually have logged in or used it – besides, others that I was with were getting the twitter updates, I didn’t need to bother.

What really excites me is the potential for ARG events. Imagine the ability for those at live events to post a stream of updates as to what’s going on from their phone that hits the web (or email or phones) instantly. Or, perhaps, a distributed scavenger hunt taking place the world over where people have to keep everyone else informed of what they’ve just found – each discovery building upon the other. Those are both possible with other technologies but twitter makes it fast and efficient and the possibilities excite me to no end.

Charlene Li has a great post on What Twitter is good for and how the program needs to be improved. I completely agree with her on the need for a more robust permission system. Until then, there’s just far too much noise – even if it is just my friends. But oh the possibilities.

Of the three, I am the most lookiing forward to ARGfest. It’s going to be an amazing time and not just because it’s a huge party filled with people that I see once a year (if that) despite chatting with them near daily. First off, I’ll be announcing two projects that I’m really quite excited about and hope that others will be as well. And then there’s the conference. The organizers, notably Rose, have done an absolutely AMAZING job in pulling this together and getting some fantastic people to come in and talk to us. A little taste:

1) The first public appearance by the folks behind lonelygirl15. I’m quite anxious to hear what all they have to say. They’ll be speaking the following week at SXSW, but I have a feeling that the talk at ARGfest will be a bit more intimate. It will definitely be interesting to compare the two, especially the audience reaction.

2) A panel with a number of folks from 42 Entertainment. I’m not sure who all will be a part of it, but from what I’ve heard, it will cover a wide range of roles & responsibilities. It should offer some fantastic insight on how the company approaches a project which is always interesting to me. Plus, they’re just a really fun group of people. I’m sure we’ll be getting our information served with a large side of fun banter & stories.

3) The guys (or at least one of them) from SFZero – a “Collaborative Production Game” which is created by the players almost as much as it is by the developers. By getting people to challenge each other to explore themselves and the world around them, the game makes a very real impact on the players and, by extension, their world. I’ve been a longtime fan from afar and have only heard amazing things by those more familiar with them and their work.

4) Jane McGonigal. She’s hosting Cruel 2 B Kind (a game she created with Ian Bogost) on Friday night and then sitting on a panel about the future of ARGs on Saturday. Her insights on people and play and community are amazing, if only I could sit in her brain for an entire day! It’s going to be nice to get a chance to hear from her before GDC where she’s giving the SGS Keynote on ARGs as serious games – but not serious as in boring, serious as in games for good.

There’s loads that I’m missing, but there’s just no way that I can hit everything that I’m excited about. It was all I could do to limit it to three. Seriously, check out the conference schedule to see for yourself. There will be a bit of coverage of the even on ARGNet, so be sure to head over there for post-ARGfest thoughts, impressions, and whatnots. If I can find a moment or two before getting wrapped up in GDC, I’ll try to add some of my thoughts here as well.

I can’t help but agree with Ben Vershbow over at if:book that the true story is in the discussion pages. The struggles and triumphs as people attempt to come together to create something whole. He’s right in that it is far more a novelty than a novel, but I’m fascinated by the project and anxious to watch it unfold.

I wonder what we’ll see in five weeks when it’s over. Will there be a coherent novel? Will the project continue by those unhappy with the final result? Will it turn into an experiment in hypertext storytelling? What themes will emerge from a novel written by people from all over? What themes will provide the greatest controversy? The more I think about it, the more the questions come. Add your own below, if you’re so inclined.

Common sense, people.

Do not put light brights on highway overpasses and do not duct tape Altoid tins to electrical panels.

I’m not saying this because it could lead to a “chilling effect.” I’m saying this because it’s stupid.

Geocaching is a fun and, sometimes, challenging activity that gets people outside where they may go places they wouldn’t otherwise go and see things they wouldn’t otherwise notice. The location of the cache caused concern not only to the police but also to the first person to find the cache who noted his discomfort in the cache log (in geocaching, it’s common practice to sign a log and, sometimes, trade items in the cache box).

There are thousands of caches out there in the wild waiting for people to find them and new ones are appearing every day. This incident will not put a stop to the activity and the overall effect of this will be an awareness that people think that placing a cache on an electrical box is stupid – the person that might have considered it will now be a bit more creative and that is a good thing.

Fortunately Police Captain Janet Camplin seems to get it. As she pointed out, activities such as these are on the rise and people just need to use a bit of common sense.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Facing a large bill over the city’s reaction (which, Turner will likely have to cover – a fair price for all this internet traffic on a campaign that only took place in a few cities), the Mayor has stated that “this nitwit guerrilla advertising” has no place in the city of Boston. A joke, really. How do you ban something that has no clear definition?

Over at Clickable Culture in a post titled Boston Guerrilla Marketing Scare’s Chilling Effects on ARG Design, Tony agrees with me about the lack of enforceability, but then questions what would happen if other cities follow suit. He goes on to say that, “[i]f any good can come out of the Boston incident, it’s that ARG designers will more carefully consider how the public is engaged, perhaps involving local people–and local authorities–earlier on in the development process, even at the expense of breaking the “this is not a game” mantra some hold dear.”

That statement troubles me on a number of levels, but especially in the way that it implies that designers currently do not fully consider how they are engaging the public as well as their players and that they do not take steps to retain a certain amount of control over the situation or to provide security. Perhaps I am playing the “wrong” games, but in every game that I have played or designed, I cannot think of any examples where designers did not show such concern.

In Art of the Heist, players had to go on a mission at a car dealership and distract the salesmen while another member of the team looked through a vehicle to find a memory card. Not only was the dealership informed of what was going to happen but the diner across the street, where players met, was also informed. People on the design team were present, unbeknownst to the players, and overseeing the situation. Another incident occurred in Chicago when players were taken out on a boat, at night, and in the dark. Again, unbeknownst to the players, members of the design team were hidden on the boat as well as on land overseeing the situation and ready to act as needed.

I Love Bees is notable not only for the amazingly rich story it told but for it’s incredible use of pay phones to tell it. It sent players to phones all over the United States in dozens of cities every week. Unlike Art of the Heist, game designers were not present for each phone call, but they did their best to ensure players safety by flying “payphone scouts” all over the country to find suitable working payphones. This kept players in safe areas and shows that concern was not only given to the game design but also to the public and the players.

Last Call Poker held playful events in cemeteries throughout the country. While the events were organized games and very obviously had members of the team present to oversee and photograph them, they were held in an environment that many don’t see as a playful environment. And, as a matter of respect to the public, not only were cemeteries carefully chosen but the boundaries in which we could play were carefully considered. If someone was mourning, we backed off and let them have their time with their loved one in peace. Every cemetery had agreed to the event knowing full well that it was rather unconventional and, from what I understand, they welcomed the activity provided that people were respectful. In addition, there were separate “missions” that people could take on and perform at any cemetery and these included things like cleaning up a grave site or leaving flowers or finding interesting epitaphs. The designers not only showed great concern for the greater public but encouraged their players to do so as well.

Granted, none of those events dealt with leaving battery operated objects with wires and blinking lights on highway overpasses and the like, but I cannot fathom that the same care and concern for both the public and the players would not be met if the games had included such things. To imply otherwise, is selling those of us involved in the genre short and is rather shocking, if not disconcerting, coming from someone that is involved.

It is important to remember that while ARGs are often part of marketing campaigns, when we engage in public play the goals are very different from that of your average guerrilla marketer. We are not out just to get some attention or after any sort of shock value. Our campaigns are complex and spread out over weeks at a time. We are telling a story and engaging the public in play as part of a play. We act in a spirit of collaboration and community. Therefore, our activities are more carefully designed to elicit a different type of response.

And while Tony was reminded of a similar over-reaction to the Mario Brother’s blocks in Ohio and Zombie Dance Party in Minneapolis, I can’t help but wonder how many dozens or hundreds of displays of public play occurred after those events that didn’t elicit any fear – including the number of cities that did not react to the Mooninite campaign as Boston did, and it took weeks for Boston to react in this way. Stating that these events have a “chilling effect” on ARG Design and/or public play is overstating the situation and, dare I say it, about as reactionary as the Boston police were last week.

THE PROJECT MU ARCHIVES ARE IN PRINT!

huh?

Well, if you haven’t already seen the online version, I suggest you head over there right quick. One of my favorite websites, it’s all about Metacortechs (code named Project MU) but from the players perspective and written in the weeks and months following the actual run of the game. This allowed them to create a unique walkthru of an Alternate Reality Game with the insights of having gone through it. So, unlike the more comprehensive guides and trails, they were able to reduce some of the confusion and speculation as far as the story was concerned – making it much more readable. So readable, in fact, that it’s the first website that I refer to people interested in ARGs.

I was gushing about the website to Giskard, one of the Metaurchins, while staying at his place at the end of September. We were laughing and reminiscing over the game, in part because that was how we met (me a PM, him an active player) but more because it was the third anniversary of the game. Three years. Wow. So, when he handed me a wrapped present at midnight of October 1st, I was flattered and a bit embarrassed. When I opened it and saw this book, I was rendered near speechless. For a good 15 minutes I was unable to say anything but “wow.” As I flipped through the book, my eyes got a bit watery. It wasn’t just the flood of memories or the shock that the players were so drawn to the world that three years later they put a book into print, it was more about the pride and care in which they took in doing it. It shows on every page.

As the ability to talk returned, I came to learn that the copy in my hand was a prototype – they wanted to make sure that they had our (the PM team) permission to take it to print and to check the fonts, cover, etc. Then they explained that they wanted the proceeds of the sale to go to unfiction (wow!). Of course, the moment each of the team saw it, they gushed and immediately agreed to let it go in print. The next few weeks they spent making the few changes that needed to be made and assuring that the referenced websites were in order. So, for 8 weeks, I’ve been sittin gon this secret, quietly admiring the work that they did. But, now, it’s been announced and I can shout it from the rooftops.

So, right quick like, I want to thank all of the metaurchins for this but there are three that really stand out in this effort – Yanka who tirelessly gathered and formatted the original website, xnbomb who somehow managed to translate all of that work to print, and Giskard who has been a wonderful support to both of them and who placed the first prototype in my hands. Over the last three years, you’ve become friends and that’s really been the greatest part of all of this.

So, now, go and check out the book. It really is gorgeous and your grubby little paws would love to get a hold of it!