ARG Netcast, Episode 43: Sir, Your Cake is Ringing

ARG Netcast, Episode 43: Sir, Your Cake is Ringing [ 1:05:28 ] Play in Popup | Download

Yo! It’s another episode of the ARG Netcast, and today’s superfreaky show features Jonathan Waite (ARGNet), Sean C. Stacey (Unfiction, Despoiler) and Brooke Thompson (Giant Mice, Eldritch Errors). The down low on the convo is this: J. Marcus Xavier is one bad muthatrucker, the Joker send a calling card via cake, Chain Factor is wildly addictive, and it takes a lot of effort to stage a live event. Word.

News Items of November

• It has been revealed that Red Monday, an alternate reality game that showed up in early October, is a promotion for a new audio drama series. The first episode of the five part post-nuclear story is available for free, but subsequent parts will cost you. It also appears that the game is continuing, but is 99% finished, with only one puzzle remaining. The game found itself embroiled in a bit of controversy in November when J. Marcus Xavier, the creator of the game and the audio drama, showed up at a podcasting symposium and handed out mysterious red envelopes to slightly bewildered attendees. We’ll talk more about this incident in our topic discussion today.
• The Dark Knight ARG expanded in late November with a multitude of new web sites and an interesting mission from the Joker that involved cakes and cell phones. All indications are that the recent additions to the game point to a larger, more complex ARG that will compliment events taking place in the film, which is still months away from release.
• Numb3rs, a crime drama on CBS, featured alternate reality gaming in an episode that aired in early November. The episode included references to a game called Chain Factor, which is a highly addictive web game that can be found at chainfactor.com. However, the Flash-based puzzle game is not what it appears to be on the surface, as players have discovered secrets within the site that point towards a more robust transmedia experience. The site currently has a hidden countdown that will expire minutes after we stop recording marking either the end of the campaign or the beginning of the next stage of game play.
• Deus City has wrapped up after a more than a year of existence. The game, which often blurred the line between reality and fiction, concluded with a thirteen part narrative that detailed the end of the Time Communications project, according to Michael Andersen of ARGNet. Adam Brackin, one of the project creators, plans to release his dissertation based on the game in late spring 2008.
• Tom Tooman, a game that first showed up on our radar in early August via a Despoiler alert, is the official ARG for the ABC television show Jericho. In mid-November, ARGNet received a tip from a source close to the game confirmed that the game was linked directly to the show, and has hinted that more will be in store for players and viewers alike.

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