Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Woohoo, resume updating time again. It was a crazy summer, but now I’m setting into a new project that’s not at all ARG-like. I think I’m really going to enjoy it.

Here’s the rest of my Fredericksburg cache swag for Violette’s Dream.

It’s real, and it’s spectacular. 😉

This is about a game called Violette’s Dream. The ARG is to promote the release of a first person shooter called Velvet Assassin, due out soon.

The upshot is that I went to get a cache hidden in Fredericksburg, Texas, found a phone number in it, called it up, and had an out-of-game conversation with the person at the other end who works for the game publisher. He’s going to meet me on Monday to supplement my cache goodies with actual gold. I’m not sure yet what kind or quantity (he wanted to keep it a surprise), but it’s certainly not your ordinary game swag.

There were some hiccups along the way; the cache had been in Fredericksburg for 3 weeks or more waiting to be retrieved, but there were no takers. I hate to see a game stall like that, and it’s a pretty drive out there, so I decided to try to talk the family into going out there to pick it up. When I told my husband that it was supposed to be the second part of a cache one of the characters discovered in France (full of money), he readily agreed. Our first trip out there I thought I just needed to pick up a book from a bookstore and follow instructions hidden in it to another location. Instead, I had to do some role-playing and have more of a grasp on the game than I did; I had to claim I was one of the characters and pick up a second book.

To our frustration, neither book had any markings, so we came back home to regroup. When I thought of looking at them with a black light. Doing this revealed writing in both books, and although I then had the address of the storage place that was the next stop, I had no idea what unit number or combination for the lock.

A cry for help both in-game (a PM to one of the game characters) and out (a post to Unfiction wishing that a shadowy character would contact me with advice) got me more than enough help. The PMs contacted me while remaining in character to help me with the unit number and combination lock code.

We got the cache this morning with no hitches and it was an ammo can (which hubby promptly claimed as his own) with some foreign currency in it, a replica bar of Nazi gold, a letter of instruction to the operative who the cache was originally placed for, and a card with a note to call a phone number – “out of game.” It turned out to be the person I mentioned earlier, and he was very excited that someone had gotten the cache. Sounds like it’s the first of many.

I imagine they won’t have as many problems getting someone out to retrieve the subsequent caches if they’re giving away gold!

I’ve got a little photo gallery of goods online if you’re interested. I’ll post an update once I have my Monday meeting.

Everybody and their dog blogged about the Manhattan ARG-house. Now chief Lost/Alias/Cloverfield dude J.J. Abrams is going to turn it into a movie.

I’ve gotten a ton of trailheads in the last several days.

First came Violette’s Dream, who emailed me a Carroll-esque poem. Turns out that one’s for Velvet Assassin, an upcoming video game.

Then there was this huge protracted spammy conversation on Twitter from a couple of people who had recently friended me. I made a small comment once it was over to tickle people with the clue feather rather than hit them over the head with a clue-by-four, after which said spammy conversators unfollowed me. Ah, well.

Then I got an email in code from Mr. Boddy promising drinks, dinner, and mayhem on May 11. This appears to be a grassroots for-fun event. I was assigned my character and backstory this morning. Seems like Clue online. I’m pretty excited about it, but that could be because I pretend it’s Tim Curry I’m talking to.

Today I found this package on my doorstep. Inside was a redacted letter, a package of Emergen-C with a sticker on it, and… an origami crane? At first I thought someone sent me a crane instead of Varin, who’s putting together the strings for Dave Szulborski, but then I realized this was a trailhead. I’m a little disturbed about the contents. We’ll see what happens.

ETA: I’m less disturbed. I think it was in respect, not anything underhanded.

I’ve been away from regular net access for a few days, so it’s taken me a while to have a moment to post this here. Some of you might know that Dave Szulborski is ill. It’s serious. He could definitely use some well wishes, prayers, and spirit lifting. If you have a free moment, please make him a crane, or email me with your wish and I’ll make one for you.

If it weren’t for Dave, I wouldn’t be in the position I am now, able to get paid to do that which I love: making ARGs. He loves to take new, enthusiastic converts to the ARG world and put them to work behind the scenes on a game. He asked me back in 2004 if I would be interested in working on a grassroots game called Dread House (a.k.a Urban Hunt), and the rest is history. He also wrote a letter of recommendation for me when I returned to college. He’s not only a pioneer in the world of alternate reality games, but he’s one of the sweetest, gentlest, kindest, funniest, and diabolically brilliant people to walk the face of the earth. If I sound like I’m fiercely devoted to him, it’s because I am. He’s been through a LOT in the last several years and deserves to have some peace and happiness with his new wife and beautiful baby boy.

God bless you, Dave, and bring you health.

This is mostly to keep myself from going crazy in 2 years when I’m looking for this link again.

Postmortem of Majestic by one of its designers.

Also, I turned off the Twitter digest posting for now, although there will still be some over in the sidebar. It was just too creepy to have it automatically update my blog without intervention.

World Without Oil won the SXSW Web Award in the Activism category. There’s a pic on Wired with those of us who were at the conference on stage accepting the award. Many thanks to Ken, Jane, Cathy, Michelle, Marie, and Krystyn for helping make the world’s most awesome game – but especially to the players who made it easy and wonderful. 🙂

Our panel went very well, I think, and I’m grateful to Tony Walsh and Dan Hon for asking me to join them.

Can’t believe SXSWi is almost over already!