Well my hopes about having the new ARG be a big one came true. Later in the day, on Monday, the game started rolling. Unfortunately, in today’s legal-wrangled world, the 4th wall had to be broken slightly by a “Terms and Conditions” link on the bottom of a website which outlined all the legal issues, and in fact mentioned who the sponsor was. I actually found this information out myself, because I was hoping for something big, but here’s a better quote from ARGNet, which not only mentions the primary sponsor but in fact confirms the identity of the lead designer.. who prior to the announcement was also suspected but not yet confirmed:

The Lost Ring is a global alternate reality adventure created in partnership between McDonald’s, AKQA and Jane McGonigal. Designed in collaboration with the IOC, The Lost Ring invites players from across the globe to join forces online and in the real world, as they investigate forgotten mysteries and urban legends of the ancient games. The Lost Ring recognizes McDonald’s historic sponsorship of the Olympic Games, and brings the spirit of the Games to people around the world.

This really is big news. You’ve got a major sponsor, a fabulous designer and the backing of the IOC. In fact, one of the trails yesterday led us to information that was posted *on the Olympic website*.

One of the themes of the ARG so far has been the international collaboration. The primary characters we’ve found so far are each from different countries and they are communicating with us in their native languages. This means alot of cross translations and tracking down actual speakers of the language rather than relying on software based translations.

Jane goes on to say:

… that she is “so thrilled to be collaborating with these organizations to create what we hope will be the most global ARG, ever. This is really a dream project for me - we are bringing together the two kinds of games, ARGs and the Olympics, that have the power to engage and unite people all over the world.” So far, the game is succeeding admirably, with characters interacting with players in English, Spanish, German, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, and Esperanto.

I dragged my wife into the game last night and had her watch the opening videos and the storyline so far. I think maybe she’ll be along for the whole ride with me this time.

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Here’s hoping that the new ARG that I am following is going to pan out to be a really good one.

I’ve been disappointed in the last several I have joined/lurked on. For whatever reason, they’ve fallen apart or didn’t meet my expectations of puzzles/interaction. This is often the case when they are grassroots ones run by inexperienced puppet masters, or when they are limited in their involvement tool and are more marketing based.

There have been several bits of information regarding this one that indicate that it may have some serious ARG designers behind it. If that’s the case, then it’s less likely to fizzle and *hopefully* will have the involvement level I’m looking for. Not going to post them just yet in case they are incorrect, but it’s a start.

One of the most inspiring tidbits though is that the theme of the ARG is the Olympics. If it’s truly a professionally done product tying into such a well known product, it’s going to need the proper level of support. It appears to be tied to the 1920 Olympics. Speculation abounds regarding a stolen flag, a 6th colored ring, protests, the works….

If all goes well, today should be the day that more information is revealed. People received boxes last week to draw us into the rabbit hole, and the initial date appears to be 3/3. So I’m anxiously monitoring the website and the unfiction forum for more information. Another indicator that this is being done large scale is the individuals who received the packages have various ties to the ARG community, but more importantly there are also ties to major media outlets and things. Your common grassroots projects don’t send out information like that which gets you covered on big sites likes CNet.

If you think that you might want to follow this ARG, whether it’s your first time or you know about ilovebees and others, here’s some informative links:

Article on CNet with some beginning coverage

Initial Wiki by thebruce (contains rabbit hole coverage and information regarding the packages received)

[Trailhead] Find the Lost Ring (unfiction forum thread covering the initial rabbithole packages, who’s received them, what they include, and rampant specualation)

Find the Lost Ring (the website revealed in the rabbit hold packages.. as of this post, nothing is on it but an error message.. hopefully more will be revealed today)

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Found via GeekDad:

Gen Con Files Chapter 11

So what does the bankruptcy mean for the world’s oldest gaming convention? According to the company’s press release, the show’s still on for 2008. But still, not an encouraging sign for the gaming world.

I haven’t been in a few years since the kids were born, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t planning on going back!

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So I wanted to do something a little different this Valentine’s Day. I’ve been wanting to do a puzzle adventure with Ravenchase Adventures for quite some time. Scheduling being what it is, we’ve missed several opportunities. However, I realized that they were holding a Valentine’s theme event in Philadelphia on Saturday, and I decided that we needed to make room in our schedule to sign up.

So I surprised Jean with the tickets. Well, not really surprised, since part of the scheduling included getting a baby sitter and coordinating not going to other events that weekend, so I kinda had to spoil the surprise a little earlier than yesterday.

Ravenchase has a variety of kinds of adventures, and this is going to be an outside walking one. The weather today is incredible, and I wish it would be 50 degrees tomorrow. More likely, it’s going to be mid 30s. So we’ll just make sure to bundle up.

We got our first clue last night! The way they start their adventures is that they send you the first clue to decipher, and it contains the location where you are supposed to meet.

The clue was setup to use 3 different ciphers: Vigenère, Caesar, and a Polybius.

I’m happy to report that we successfully  decoded the clues (in about 25 minutes) and know where we are supposed to start.

The Polybius one was actually the hardest because we didn’t follow the clue exactly, and wound up filling the grid incorrectly. Once we reread it a few times, we were on our way.

It’s funny, because when we solved the Caesar one, which should have been the easiest as a simple ROT cipher, the first word didn’t make any sense. Luckily we chose to decrypt the entire thing because it was so short and realized that the rest of the plaintext *did* make sense. In the end, we determined that the problem in the beginning was really a error in the encrypting, and when I contacted the coordinators they confirmed that for us. (it was one letter wrong, but it was an abbreviation, so it wasn’t obvious)

It’s a shame that the opening puzzle had an error in it, but I’m confident that the rest of the puzzles will work as expected. I just want to make sure I’m not second guessing our answers on Saturday thinking there is an error with the puzzle.

If you want to learn more about cryptography, there is a very good set of articles on Topics in Cryptography on Wikipedia.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to the game tomorrow. Our team, Team Celtic Lovers, has done our mental calisthenics and we’re ready to rock and roll!

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You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

I like customizing my PC. I look at it all day long at work, and often for hours at home on weekends. I’m a big fan of changing my wallpaper from time to time, and I’ve also purchased and use Windowblinds.

One of the ways I’ve customized is by using Bootskin. Bootskin is a free product that allows you to change the screen you see while loading Windows XP. Granted, I rarely reboot, but when I do, I’m pleasantly surprised when I see my bootskin. It’s also kind of cool when someone else watches your PC boot (at a LAN party for example).

So I’m listening to Wil Wheaton’s PAX 2007 Keynote (mp3), and there is a portion when he’s talking about historical video games. If you recognize the phrase, then you’ve obviously played (for many hours) the game. Look at the blog title and opening sentence. Do you recognize the game? Of course *I* do. So I decide to be creative and make myself a new boot screen:

Link to Grue Bootskin (for your very own!)

I tracked down an Apple IIe true type font, and tried to find a green color similar to my old dimming monitor.

Welcome to my world…

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From IMDB Memorable Quotes: Shaun of the Dead

Shaun: [in concerned tone] Mum, have you been bitten?
Barbara: No, but Philip has.
Shaun: Oh, OK.
Ed: [concerned] What’s going on?
Shaun: We might have to kill my step-dad.
Ed: Oh, OK.

Zombies.. who doesn’t love ‘em. Friends of ours had a zombie gaming party last week. I don’t know if either of them have a blog or I’d link to it.. In any case, since you can never have enough zombie games, especially simple ones, I ran across this Zombie Chow Down, compliments of this week’s Nodwick links.

Current Mood:  annoyed

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{Video}

Damn.. I wanna go home and play some more video games… looking forward to the holiday season… means more games…. games…. games… gotta have em…..

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So you think you’ve been practicing your Rock, Paper, Scissors 25 enough? Maybe you haven’t had enough friends around to actually get good at it.

Doncha worry. The problem has been solved with a flash version which allows you play against the computer.

I fully expect Steve and I to bring hand outs again for Kingdom Crusades, if not other events. So get practicing!

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