ARG Netcast, Episode 18: Studio Cypher [58:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In the eighteenth installment of the netcast series, we are pleased as punch to have special guests Will Emigh and Nathan Mishler from Studio Cypher joining us for a fantastic discussion. Will, Nathan and I are joined by Brooke Thompson of Giant Mice, Nicko Demeter of ARGNet and Sean C. Stacey of Unfiction.com. 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.

Discussion about Studio Cypher

• Game-specific discussion about Perfect Friends Forever, Descry.us and High Stakes, including an answer for the IRC chat that took place during Descry.us.
• Will and Nathan talk about the restructuring process and what it may mean for user-generated content.
• Discussion about the larger picture of alternate reality gaming, and how Ares Station (their first game) got the Studio Cypher team interested in ARG.
• The duo talk about their subscription model and what it means for the future of their efforts.
• With so many themes used in the chapters of their Multiplayer Novel, Nicko wants to know where the motivation for the game themes come from.

Game and News Discussion

• OpAphid, the official ARG for the Lonelygirl15 video series, is looking for new leadership after Glenn Rubenstein is released.
• A donation by Andy Darley to Unfiction, Inc. makes us feel warm and fuzzy inside.
• The Brooke Thompson 2007 Conference Tour is over, but watch ARGNet for her series of articles about her experiences at ARGFest, GDC and SXSW. Alternate reality gaming was definitely a buzz term in these conferences, and Brooke, Will and Nathan talk about how cool that is.
• There may be an ARG at Indian Lake.
• Hey, listeners! Get over to IonARG and get involved in their important initiatives!
• Origami Shadows swag has been showing up in the mailboxes of ARGFest attendees. It’s a mysterious trailhead that you may want to keep an eye on.
• ARGDB is accepting applications for beta testers. The site is going to be a central database catalog for every ARG ever created and played.
• Nicko reminds us that “a href=”http://www.perplexcitystories.com”>Perplex City Stories launches in a week.

Listener Mail and Voicemail

• Celina Beach calls in to let us know how important Unfiction member catherwood was to the organization of ARGFest. We then talk about love.

Last note…

• If you haven’t already go read Will Emigh’s article at ARGNet about accepting criticism. It’s a must-read for the Puppetmasters-in-training.

See you next week!

In the eighteenth installment of the netcast series, we are pleased as punch to have special guests Will Emigh and Nathan Mishler from Studio Cypher joining us for a fantastic discussion. Will, Nathan and I are joined by Brooke Thompson of Giant Mice, Nicko Demeter of ARGNet and Sean C. Stacey of Unfiction.com. [...]

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To all our faithful listeners (and beyond!):

Will Emigh from Studio Cyphers (and possibly one of the other PMs) will be appearing on the ARGNetcast we’re recording tomorrow. Sorry for the short notice, but if you have questions you’d like us to ask them, please post a comment for this entry, call our voicemail at 630-274-5425 or email them to us at netcast@argnetcast.info.

Thanks!

 

 ARG Netcast, Episode 17: Meigeist, Yourgeist! [67:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

ARG Netcast 17 is the Meigeist special!

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.

This week we welcome special guests Hazel Grian of Licorice Film, puppetmaster of Meigeist, and Karl Smith (a.k.a. Thunderwolf), one of Meigeist’s active players.  The panelists pepper our charming and patient guests with questions from the forums, and a few of our own.
Discussion and Player Questions

• What made Licorice Film decide to do an ARG?  Poor innocent Hazel had no idea what ARGs were, but wanted to do interactive online fiction, and luckily she had partner Jonathan Williams to tell her that there’s a name for that stuff.
• Part of the inspiration for the plot was a robotic head at a university, named Eva.  No, seriously.
• Hear all about Hazel and Jon’s backgrounds.  You may have seen Jon’s ARG work before.
• We (or rather Meigeist players, by proxy) grill Hazel about all sorts of lingering game details.
• Hazel describes her feelings about the community, its collaborative ethos, her original expectations for the player base, and all sorts of other goodies.  She likes us!  She even comes up with some pretty convincing explanations for why.
• We ask her tons more questions about how the game’s design worked with the player community.
• Hazel gives us behind-the-scenes details on how much of the game was planned in advance vs. how much was changed while it was running.
• The Meigeist PMs are psychic.   Or they’re stalkers.   Find out how they recognized their players on sight.  But they don’t actively spy on the community.
• Learn the dark secrets of welovebeef.co.uk.  And what happened to Daisy the Sentient Cow.
• More on dreamy ARG guys.  Dreamy married ARG guys.  Darnit.
• Asked about the number of links on a webpage and a few other detail questions, Hazel leads us off on a trippy discussion of black light, Schroedinger’s cat, probability and quantum physics.  This is why PMs are cool.
• There will be photos and videos from the Bristol event posted. The photos can already be found here.
• One of Hazel’s favorite moments was the short film challenge.  She’d like to congratulate the players now that she can finally do it out of character.
• We talk a bit about player trust in the context of Meigeist.
• Curious about the music used in Meigeist?  We have the scoop on where it came from.
• We discuss the development process and how long it took.
• In a surprisingly touching moment, Hazel turns the tables on our format by asking Karl what the game meant to him.
• Finally, Hazel answers the question we were all wondering about:  will there be a sequel?

Next week…

Tune in for more special guests:  the Studio Cyphers PMs!

ARG Netcast 17 is the Meigeist special!
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.
This week we welcome special guests Hazel Grian of Licorice Film, puppetmaster of [...]

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 ARG Netcast, Episode 16: Back to Basics [64:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

One week after the Greatest Show in ARG, panelists Nicko Demeter, Sean C. Stacey, Marie Lamb and Jessica Price join host Jonathan Waite for an hour long look at recent game developments and the fall out from ARGFest-o-Con 2007.

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.

Game News and General Discussion

• Meigeist has concluded, successfully according to most players. Hazel Grian, one of the PMs, was interviewed by BBC Radio. Next week the Meigeist PMs will be on the Netcast to answer your questions. Send them to netcast@argnetcast.info now!
• Deus City and tCotSA “merge” which really means they were 2 trailheads for the same game.
• Doom Skull/13 Crystal Skulls: is it over? Not quite. Jon wonders if we’ll ever see a curtain call for this one.
• World Without Oil will be launching April 30th. Whether or not it’s an ARG in the classical sense, it has generated a lot of buzz, with a multipage forum thread and big mentions at GDC and SXSW.
• We finally answer the question Caspian asked during the Festcast. What is the line between letting players shape the story and the PMs keeping control? Tell us what you think.
• The Wyoming Incident fizzles.
• Hacksaw seems to be a dark scifi story but no clue yet as to whether the creepy video is the start of an ARG. NOTE: We mention “videos” in the Netcast, but there is actually only one video at this time. This leads to talk about Nicko and Michael Anderson writing editorials on “dark ARGs” for ARGNet.
• Year Zero continues to cross into all kinds of media with the announcement of a movie in the works. The ARG’s websites continue to be updated, and the in-game forums are lively. Mike Borys ages well.
• Project Ashcroft seems to be back for part 4 in the guise of www.romxnce.net. We hope it’s better than parts 2 and 3.

(more…)

One week after the Greatest Show in ARG, panelists Nicko Demeter, Sean C. Stacey, Marie Lamb and Jessica Price join host Jonathan Waite for an hour long look at recent game developments and the fall out from ARGFest-o-Con 2007.
Subscribe to the ARG Netcast feed through this link or via iTunes. Contact us [...]

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