ARG Netcast, Episode 14: Cow Farts [53:48m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s a whole new world for the ARG Netcast series. We have our spiffy new website, and a whole new attitude. It’s like Extreme Makeover, ARG style! Episode 14’s panel, hosted by ARGnet’s Jonathan Waite, includes Jessica Price, Marie Lamb, Jackie Kerr, and Sean C. Stacey. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through this link or via iTunes.

Game News and General Discussion

• MeiGeist has a live event, a hilarious video, and a farting cow website. Jackie is now playing the game (go Jackie) and you should be too! I mean, come on — check out all of these interesting game references! Discussion also trails into discussion of more frivolous things, such as sexy game characters.
• Gamejackers Ahoy! Save VT is (apparently) a gamejack of Stop VT, which is a game that sprang up after Beast of Black River. The Giantology (alternate reality?) game of ARG past has been gamejacked due to an errant, unregistered email address. We have the details, for those of you brave enough to follow along with the confusion.
• ARGNet has an article up about I Am Trying To Believe — the Nine Inch Nails Year Zero ARG.
• Jackie talks about a very interesting article from the Nature scientific journal involving collective intelligences.
• Jane McGonigal wants game designers to be eligible for the Nobel Prize for Science. See the article here. In the discussion, we bring up the recent news about how SETI helped a woman get her laptop back, which we promised would also be linked to in the show notes. So, here’s the link.
• More news about geocaching nightmares in Boston — naughty boomboxes and the Dr. Pepper coin hunt. Marie sets the record straight.
• The Restaurant Game is a creation of the fine people over at MIT.
• Members of the NYU College Republicans create a game called “Find the Immigrant.” Um, tacky.

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It’s a whole new world for the ARG Netcast series. We have our spiffy new website, and a whole new attitude. It’s like Extreme Makeover, ARG style! Episode 14’s panel, hosted by ARGnet’s Jonathan Waite, includes Jessica Price, Marie Lamb, Jackie Kerr, and Sean C. Stacey. Subscribe to the ARG [...]

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 ARG Netcast, Episode 13: You Can't Handle The Truth [62:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In our last episode before migrating the netcasts to a shiny new web site, we reflect on the many, many emails we received in response to Episode 12. Episode 13 assembles the same panel as last week, which (in case you missed it) includes Jessica Price, Nicko Demeter, Jackie Kerr, Sean C. Stacey, Brooke Thompson and Jonathan Waite. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through this link or via iTunes.

A Disclaimer, A Discussion
The views expressed in the ARG Netcast do not necessarily represent the views of ARGNet. The opinions offered in the ARG Netcast are those of the panelists, and should not be assumed to be factual reporting for the ARGNet web site. We discuss this for a bit, just to make sure we leave no stone unturned.

Game News

• A new Nine Inch Nails game is out in the wild (starting at www.iamtryingtobelieve.com). It may or may not be a 42 Entertainment game. Nicko has been playing and talks about what’s in the water. Head over to the Unfiction forums for discussion.
• The Monster Hunter Club summary from molecularr has been published! Also, The Host movie screening was last Monday and included in-game character yumminess!
• The Gumshoe interactive radio play has been postponed until Wednesday the 21st of February, due to inclement weather.
• There’s a new game called The Wyoming Incident making waves at the UF forums. With 32 pages of threads so far, we’ll need some help from helpful listeners in sorting out the details for the next netcast.
• The Vanishing Point post-game chat finally happened yesterday (Saturday), and Jessica was a moderator. She talks about the chat, and Rob from Neowin sends in a special message for the ARG community.
• Lost Envelope is a new marketing campaign that Nicko has started… and finished playing, with less-than-awesome results.
• MeiGeist had a live event in Bristol. At airtime there wasn’t much to report, but Russell_k at Unfiction sent us a link to his summary post. Thanks Russell_k!

(more…)

In our last episode before migrating the netcasts to a shiny new web site, we reflect on the many, many emails we received in response to Episode 12. Episode 13 assembles the same panel as last week, which (in case you missed it) includes Jessica Price, Nicko Demeter, Jackie Kerr, Sean C. Stacey, Brooke [...]

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 ARG Netcast, Episode 12: The Supersized [82:55m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Episode 12 of the ARG Netcast series is supersized! Why, you might ask? The answer lies within the netcast itself, with three monster discussions on ginormous topics that found their way into this week’s agenda. So, if you don’t want to hear about how the Receda Cube was found in Perplex City, or how the Deus City creative team has responded to one of their players, or about the true meaning of This Is Not A Game, then stay away! However, for those interested, listen in as the panel consisting of Jackie Kerr, Jessica Price Brooke Thompson, Sean C. Stacey and Jonathan Waite and first-time panelist Nicko Demeter discuss these topics, and more. Note: we’re having substantial problems with audio lately, so we’re sorry for the quality of this netcast, which is not the best. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through this link or via iTunes.

Game News

• Oh joyous day, the Receda Cube has been found! Of course, we talk about the center of attention in the Perplex City game, which officially ended (Season One, anyway) with the discovery of the Cube by Andy Darley, an admired and loved Unfiction forums member (Rand0m). Darley writes about his adventure here, and here. Also, here and here. Finally, here is the end of his tale. He’s a great storyteller. Aside from Darley’s discovery, we dish on how clues might have been given to one particular group and not the overall player base, and wonder why Violet was Combed Thunderclap, and how she knew about quirkyacuity.com months in advance of the site being registered.
• Deus City has responded to a player who offered suggestions, help and bug reports by asking her to leave the game, citing Terms of Service violations. We’ve got the details! We also discuss how players might become confused by the gameplay, given that two of the characters in the game are real people.

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Episode 12 of the ARG Netcast series is supersized! Why, you might ask? The answer lies within the netcast itself, with three monster discussions on ginormous topics that found their way into this week’s agenda. So, if you don’t want to hear about how the Receda Cube was found in Perplex City, [...]

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 ARG Netcast, Episode 11: Save the Netcast, Save the World [60:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

So, after hours of post-recording edits for Episode 11 of the ARG Netcast series, the audio quality for one side of the conversation is terrible at best. Don’t let that dissuade you from listening though, as this week’s roundtable is as entertaining as it is informative. Regular panelists Brooke Thompson, Jackie Kerr, Sean C. Stacey and Jonathan Waite are joined this week by Jessica Price, ARGNet writer and Unfiction forums moderator. Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through this link or via iTunes.

Game News

• The Heroes 360 experience moves along, albeit very slowly. There is a lovely player wiki (yarr, there be spoilers) that has been created, so hopefully the game gains a bit more momentum, soon. Also, see this Blogspot page for more (spoilers ahoy!) information.
• Meigeist is getting love from afar. They also have a nifty player wiki which will get you caught up in less time than you can say “Save the cat, save the world.” Although, you’d sound silly saying that.
• Perplex City players are pretty darn close to finding that cube, we hear. Something about a rock, and a Jurassic… something. They also have some pretty cool plans for the reward money.
• Monster Hunter Club explains away some advertising, and characters show up at the Today show.
• Puzzle of the week: A grid puzzle needs reconstruction (and deconstruction) for Monster Hunter Club. See this thread at the Unfiction forums for more details.
• The VirtuQuest people send us a response to our questions about Township Heights. Jackie weighs in on the “mildly insulting” situation. Then the rest of the panel piles on.
• Check out this beautiful mock-up (totally unofficial, we understand) of the Neowin-Unfiction branded AMD chip. This will apparently be possible thanks to the winner of the meta puzzle of the Vanishing Point game. Neowin/Unfiction for the win! We also report on the now-postponed VP post-game chat with 42 Entertainment, so ignore that part when you get to it.
• Studio Cypher will be releasing the fourth chapter in their Multiplayer Novel soon, called High Stakes.
• Jessica talks about her experiences with Ravenchase, which you can also read about in her outstanding ARGNet article.
• Jane McGonical is going to be the first ever female keynote speaker at the Game Developer’s Conference in March. We couldn’t be happier for Jane and wish her the best!
• ARGFest is less than a month away.
• We let the cat out of the bag about ARGNet’s partnership with SXSW for the Screenburn festival. Details will be released in the coming weeks. Brooke will be speaking at the conference, for those who can make it.

(more…)

So, after hours of post-recording edits for Episode 11 of the ARG Netcast series, the audio quality for one side of the conversation is terrible at best. Don’t let that dissuade you from listening though, as this week’s roundtable is as entertaining as it is informative. Regular panelists Brooke Thompson, Jackie Kerr, Sean [...]

Continue reading " ARG Netcast, Episode 11: Save the Netcast, Save the World "