Just Tripping Along The Freakazoid

So still playing the Niantic project/INgress and still in it up to my head  -  niantic.schlarp.com and  https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117368337781687210813 Sucked into one called Acoustic Distortion Inc  - here is our g+ community -  https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/111927037478605146634 and the game site -  http://www.acoustic-distortion.com/ --- we need more interns and players to help vote projects along! Come play -  http://acoustic-distortion.com/internforums/index.php I have been trying to follow The Black Watchmen (started as Division 66) - it is way deep, weird and complex, but I am trying ;)  here  http://www.blackwatchmen.com/ and https://twitter.com/division66 and here  https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.freenode.net/division66 And one I am just getting into and looking forward to - Son of Sommerset -  https://twitter.com/SonofSomerset  and  http://www.seedandspark.com/studio/son-somerse...

Well, the google Niantic Project is going strong and seems to have more coming.  A lot has happened just in this last month of full on launch.  There was a massive shift in the ARG about half way into the month when Google released Ingress - www.ingress.com  it made a huge split and created a new wave of "players" many of these however were not interested in the ARG or backstory (some in chat have said that very thing) but just the Ingress video game app - it was fascinating to watch the IRC channel change from the puzzle solving and chatting to the new audience of gamers - there was such a difference... it was, odd and a definite people watching moment to see the shifts and changes. It looks like this project has no signs of stopping, a second month timeline at www.nianticproject.com looks to be starting tomorrow. Plus in this article -  http://allthingsd.com/20121115/google-launches-ingress-a-worldwide-mobile-alternate-reality-game/  J. Hanke, the head ...

As mentioned, have been following this ARG or more that somehow is Google related and who knows what else.  One item that has come up is how all these different people and communities have sprung up working to solve the codes and puzzles and brainstorm.  Making for a fierce collective.  Some of the in game characters have even been referencing some of the collections and IRC chats and so on). In fact, something the one character said got me to thinking.  There are so many communities that have been springing up.  Some more active and "fast" than others.  It is neat watching the different communities and how they are structured, their pace and so on. That said, it also made me think how if we all tried to stream to the one IRC chat or the one wiki - would that be a case of putting all our eggs in one basket? What is someone hacks the main wiki or something goes wrong with the IRC?  Is all our data and knowledge and solutions lost?  Backups, mirro...

I am soooooo behind in my blogs and posting and projects (thank you real life and Sandy megastorm and Nor'Easter and...) But just caught wind of this Niantic Project and you might wanna check it - looks cool - and yes, I am bias as I like Google -  http://www.argn.com/2012/11/google_niantic_project_smartphone_portals/ - great article by Michael Anderson Will explore and report back this weekend - this is a good wiki and resource to track what is going on -  http://niantic.schlarp.com/ Other places to check reddit - http://www.reddit.com/r/NIANTIC/  and  http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/12u9ih/google_this_is_getting_pretty_weird_the_niantic/  unforum discussion -  http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36434 map with some of the locations marked -  https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=203685585566952099382.0004cd94033b5f5265661 http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1222933 ...

UPDATE 4/5 - Mr. Toasty on Unforum added a bunch of twitter, facebook and linkedin accounts connected to Agent Intellect Corp - I am making a twitter list to try and follow these people (I'm @geologylady and the list is miracle mile paradox) - if you check it and I am missing people, let me know - ----------- OK, I wrote up an entry for unforum and decided might as well flush this out more here I have come across and ARG - Miracle Mile Paradox, that is using a Kickstarter campaign ( http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/susanbellfilm/the-miracle-mile-paradox-arg ) for funding and I suspect to build a base (many of the trailhead pieces have already been circulating, as I wrote at Unforum. I like steampunk and love old gadgets, so the pics the main character, Rex Higgs has been posting via his twitter accoutn @RexHiggs are kinda cool Examples are at end of blog. He seems to be talking to a couple people so far, mainly, on Twitter (although he has replied to one of my tweets so he is ...

Well, I have been swamped with this and that, but, finally getting back to things I love to do and play with, including World of Depleted. There are three things I am playing with 1. My next two stories. One is the next installment in my Business series - I will post it here in a couple days in a rough draft form, anyone willing to read it and give me opinions and help with editing it :) pleassssseeeee :o) 2. Strange email from Gavin Got an email from Gavin a little bit ago (from the account which I am still trying to figure out what the name means - any ideas)? but I digress - the subject line read: Rift..*&&@ !!@89o8#!# #...mail.. . There was one word Meta. and there was only a QR code attached. When I scanned it - the following popped out Book of Enoch. Beta Israel. Read Metadata. ok - so, I finally figured out how to read metadata of image files (yeah, ok you seasoned ARG players, I know that is a skill you do in your sleep, still, I am giddy I managed to do this, and...

So, two new narratives, events, games, interesting way to tell a story can across my Twitter scanner this evening and both look fun, although one is better lending to my time than the other. Also, something very, very interesting is the diminished turnaround time between the story being introduced and fans taking over and setting up shop (aka discussions on unfiction, working the wiki and more) to take advantage of a story - are readers/story users finally starting to really groove to alternate story delivery and beginning to make connections to make the story better and to keep it flowing? I hope the answer is yes... also, I have to admit, I am not a crack puzzle solver, so middle level puzzles/interaction projects are more accessible to me, and it seems like more of these types of projects are starting to come out (part because mainstream has caught this form finally, part because people are better at making this type of story and part because it has finally really moved into the ...

this looks really interesting, but alas $60 is not something right now I can part with. I wonder how well this will do. The idea of having the puzzles delivered is cool and I wonder if there will be connections between players or if all players are essentially going through the same puzzle? I wish, to, there was a transmedia/puzzle site kinda like trip advisor that could be used to rate people and organizations that run these events, especially as more and more are popping up - kinda part catalog for what is out there and part user comments about whether the person/group is valid, delivers good product, etc. Hmm - is there a transmedia/ARG/stuff like this ratings site out there? I started to rate things with my transmedia maps - maybe I should go back to that. Anyhoos, here is the game - let me know peoples if you play and if you know of a ratings site. http://www.blacklettergame.com/faq.html

So - a project that has come across my scope is looking for people to build an ARG - take a look - jump in, have fun - http://passion-perfect.livejournal.com/4291973.html

Running like crazy as I am supervising a student-run environmental conference - but - as a hold over until time once more is mine.... I've been using a few tools of late for some ARG fun and other cool projects and just wanted to give them a quick shout out 1. http://zxing.org/w/decode.jspx - a very handy tool for online qr code reading when a smartphone or similar device is not handy. 2. QR code tag extension for Chrome - now I can quickly make any site into a QR code and blast it to the basic social media outlets - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bcfddoencoiedfjgepnlhcpfikgaogdg 3. http://camerasummary.com/ - Camera Summary allows for quick decoding of image exif data - http://www.exif.org/ 4. http://regex.info/exif.cgi - Jeffrey's Exif Viewer - and I also have that as a chrome extension So - just a few QR code readers and Image metadata - hidden data readers - great for finding all sorts of hidden treasures!

Ok - so I got sucked in - it is funny, odd, weird, definitely WTF territory - and yet, I am laughing my butt off clicking happily away. I speak of this performance, game, something called "The Dark Room" a choose your own adventure type story that uses YouTube as the platform, minimal effects and yet keep me and, at this writing, 1000s of others coming back and clicking. It uses the old-school MMORG concept of "typing" the directions for your character to explore. However, it quickly leaves that behind as the humor of the options and the unexpected choices leave you with a deer in the headlights feeling. I did enjoy the love poem and love letter ;) What was your favorite bits? below the video link I am adding a couple of my favorite screen shots - the actor in this story has wonderful expressions Here is the link - http://youtu.be/hvkjP6dqpfY

Well, life has been a bit rough, would make sandpaper look like a baby's smooth butt ;) However, things seem to be settling into a bit more of a routine, which means I can get back to doing what I like - including writing here. I hope to be a bit more vocal as so much is going on. This weekend I may actually get to enjoy my World of Depleted: Day 419 DVD - complete with secret codes and other fun :) I hope to get back to writing on my Nikki and Nora fanfiction series. And my wikis have been so neglected (poor transmedia wiki and world of depleted wiki and my upcoming storyworld wiki) And yes, a couple storyworld projects I've been working on are finally starting to take shape. And of course I got caught up in a few ARGs, cool transmedia projects, awesome Kickstarter campaigns and more. To that end - I leave you with my YouTube debut ;) I did this in support of a Kickstarter campaign for this awesome ARG app project about Snowtown - so - enjoy my geek vaudeville craziness htt...

Ok so researching games, Twilight 2013 (related to www.worldofdepleted.com ) and such and came across this blog http://meltei.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/twilight-2013-week-seven/ - and what she writes, kinda really, in a nutshell, explains why I think transmedia, game mechanics and the like are good and important from the blog (not my words) "Over these weeks of Twilight 2013, I have learned a lot about the real world. Not all radios talk to each other. Some cars drink gasoline, some drink diesel. There are bullets with balls, bullets with holes and bullets capable of penetrating armour. During each game session, Ángel’s player draws pictures of guns and bullets on all pieces of paper he can reach and tries to educate me. Internet is also a great teacher." Back to me I have researched so much for the different games I find - a new one is opening - http://pandemiconedotzero.com/ and it seems to swirl so nice into the other topics I have been looking into for World of Deplet...

I watched something very interesting yesterday. Something I have seen in a few other places and disguises; something I wonder if I shall see more of. I jumped in on the Flynn Lives – Tron legacy ARG yesterday as a page on the Flynn Lives site was counting down to zero. I was sooooo excited and in high anticipation. When it reached zero – a couple of things happened – an "access'"gate appeared (not what I want to talk about) and the twitter stream/facebook wall for the operationtron – Flynn Lives ARG began transmitting. I was like ohhhh cool – this is real time interaction. That right there was the first rub – what about all the people sleeping, or working, or not at a digital device? Eh, ah well, their loss, right? On facebook, people were starting to comment and get excited. Then, as the event unfolded, the mood of the group changed. It turns out instructions were tweeted for people to go to certain locations in San Diego and photograph themselves with different ...