Episode 4 of the ARG Netcast contains more of the same tantalizing discussion that you’ve grown accustomed to over the past few weeks. Regular panel members Sean C. Stacey of unfiction, Brooke Thompson of Giant Mice and ARGNet’s Jonathan Waite are joined by special guest Steve Peters of 42 Entertainment. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through this link or via iTunes.
Topics of Discussion
- With our special guest joining us, we grill Steve Peters about his move to professional puppetmastery, and get his thoughts on the directions that we might see ARG move towards in the near future.
- Elan Lee, another 42 Entertainment alum, gave a speech at the Montreal International Gaming Summit this past week (our own Carie Ward broke the story here), and our panel looks at some of the things he said.
Game News
- Ocular Effect — new email suggests closure while maintaining sliver of hope for continuance.
- The Human Pet — As reported earlier this week by Brooke Thompson, new developments have YouTube pulling the plug on the videos, citing TOS violations.
- Deus City — Game launches with fun, mysterious video. Looks like a good one to get into early on. Correction: Thanks to Ian, who commented on this Netcast, we know that the Ares Station team is from Indiana University (not Texas University, as we mistakenly said) and that they went on to create Studio Cypher, and have nothing to do with Deus City. Sorry for the error in reporting.
- Free! Psychic Readings — We have in-depth coverage thanks to Sean and players Sylvia and Ruuku.
- Ny Takma has new puzzles to solve which could be extremely important in figuring out just who Kendra really is.
- Sammeeeees has another trivia night and another character death.
- Descry (from the Studio Cyphers group) is released and includes a Flash-based seance… thingy. Another recent launch which looks to be fun to get into.
Game News
- There’s a Rhombicosidodecahedron to be solved. See this thread at the unfiction forums for current developments.
Listener Mail
- Rose thinks we’re offering a good resource for people who don’t regularly read discussion forums.
- Caspian wants to know more about ARG business models, and notes that we still need more game experts. ARGNet Nation, we’re counting on you!
Shameless Plugs
- Thoughts from the head of Steve Peters can be found at mysdirection. Be prepared to waste time there.
- Sean has a new article up at unfiction, a must read in our opinion.
Contact us at our special netcast email address, netcast@argn.com.
3 Comments Received
November 13th, 2006 @3:14 am
I’d just like to make a small correction: The Ares Station team (from Indiana University) went on to form Studio Cypher, and we have no affiliation with Deus City. Looks like an interesting game, though!
November 13th, 2006 @7:49 am
Thanks Ian. I’ve changed the show notes to reflect that error, and we will make the correction on the next ARG Netcast as well.
November 13th, 2006 @4:36 pm
If indeed thehumanpet videos were pulled from YouTube because of the subject matter, they were wrong to do so.
But I wonder if the problem is that the puppetmaster is doing a bit of a two-step as far as their in-game/out-of-game status. They say the vidoes are fictional, but as I understand it, CodeMaster is also the kidnapper (I could be wrong about this). SAM DEERCOT is an acronym for CodeMaster, which means that the claim being put forth seems to still be that the director of the videos is the character (i.e. *are* the videos real?).
I know they’re not, you know they’re not, but maybe YouTube is worried that not everyone will be able to tell that the illegal activities depicted therein are fake.
Hard to say.