Fresh, Hot Wastes of Time

Is it possible to distill the definition of Alternate Reality Gaming into one sentence?

Usually when someone asks me what an ARG is, I’ll say, “It’s like a murder mystery dinner theater that takes place over weeks rather than hours, and has components on the internet and in real life.”

There’s all sorts of meta-talk in the community right now about defining ARGs, and whether that should even be done. But for those who have family and friends asking them what they do with their time, it would be nice to have a simple, brief reply upon which you can elaborate more later. Does anyone else have an answer that they use?

ETA: Here’s a thread I started on Unfiction about this.

Jamesi has done a beautiful job reworking the ARGN archives. If you’re interested in seeing my articles, you can read them here.

A contact to ARGN earlier today netted me a phone call from a company who’s looking to put together a game. If I can manage to work it out, they asked if I could be a point-of-contact for the whole thing.

What a nice thing to happen on a Monday evening.

I loved Cliff Johnson’s games “The Fool’s Errand” and “3 in Three” with all my heart. They were puzzly, they were clever, and they were well-written. I’ve been anxiously awaiting the release of his next game, “The Fool and His Money.” For a long time.

Here are some quotes about the release date:

“The Fool and his Money ships Halloween Day.”

“The game’s new release date is currently slotted for December 1st, 2003.”

“Yes, the Final Official Drop-Dead Sue-Me-for-Damages release date is April Fool’s Day-2004.”

“So I take a deep breathe and whisper… July 5, 2005… and run for cover.”

“Some of you might have noticed that the ever-retreating countdown clock is now set to December 18.”

“My production managers, Chicken Little and The Boy Who Cried Wolf, assure me that the final, absolute, no-fooling-around, drop-dead, unequivocal, categorical release date is April 24th, 2006, I hope and pray.”

“The game ships, August 7th, 2006, a week before my birthday, or else I eat a bug.”

Sheesh.

Every night our dog Cuervo sits in Jo’s room to keep her company while she goes to sleep. We let him out when we go up to bed. We’ll usually hear a little bit of thumping while he gets comfortable, but nothing serious.

The other night hub fell asleep on the couch and I ended up plugging in my headphones and listening to Queen for hours. Every once in a while I’d hear some serious thumping around from Jo’s room, along with the doorknob rattling and some occasional crashes. I still wasn’t too concerned; sometimes the dog will have his ear under the door as he lies there and one of the cats will see it from the hall and attack it. Eventually the noises quieted down.

I went upstairs to go to bed and opened the door to let the dog out. Normally he’s right out the door as soon as it opens, but that night it took him a while. Finally he slunk out, looking sheepish. He had managed somehow to wrap himself up in the handles of the tote bag which was hung on the doorknob. I’m guessing he was attached to the door knob for a while, hence the rattling, and had to jump up and down to get loose, hence the crashes.

What a blonde dog.

Even the puppetmasters at the CIA make mistakes. What was thought to be the correct decrypted text of Kryptos 2 was wrong, not by fault of a decoder’s transcription error but rather that of the person who did the encryption.

Hey guys, I’m available for hire as a proof-reader.

It was inevitable that the moment would come this spring. Nevertheless, I wasn’t looking forward to it. It heralds bad things.

I was heading to fill something from the kitchen faucet when a roach scampered up from the sink to the backsplash. I managed to last 2 whole seconds before the shriek of terror escaped. Hub told me to grow up. As if he were.

– Really cool, short music video. The music reminds me of Radiohead.
– What happens when a skunk invades a coffeehouse?
– It took a lot of balls to make this commercial.
– Don’t you hate it when your leg sneaks up on you? I do.
– Is there anything cuter than a passel of bellylaughing babies? The answer is no.