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Gamasutra's 20 Women in Games list
For those who complain that there aren't enough women in gaming, you need look no further than this -- the Gamasutra 20: Women in Games list. This is a compilation of the movers and shakers in the industry who just happen to be female. It's a broad spectrum list, but there are a few MMO-specifics in there -- notably Jane McGonigal, most famous for her work on the ilovebees ARG; 38 Studios' Vice President of Business Development Jennifer MacLean; Laralyn McWilliams, SOE's Lead Designer; and Disney Interactive Studios' Senior Designer Patricia Pizer.Each entry includes the subject's career overview, major accomplishments, innovations, and what her peers say about her. It's a fascinating read, and you may discover that there's more gender diversity in gaming than you previously suspected.
Adjutant Reflex hints at possible Halo 3 ARG
Cryptic messages have been appearing on the forums over at Bungie.net and halo.bungie.org from a mysterious "thing" that goes by the name of Adjutant Reflex. It talks of data, hibernation, and events related to the Halo universe all while maintaining a veil of secrecy. Just what are we talking about? Well, simply put, things are coming together that make us believe that a new ilovebees style alternate reality game is about to begin, but Halo 3 style.Adjutant Reflex seems to be some sort of in-game AI who's data-mining the internets, responding cryptically to user's questions, and is connected to the Bungie.net and HBO forums. Communication, details, and knowledge about this whole Adjutant Reflex stuff is a little over our heads right now, which heavily favors the idea of a complex new ARG getting ready to begin. But what we can tell you is that this "thing" has stated that "Archives/Resources will be compiled" at around 1:00AM PST Thursday morning, so hopefully we'll get a feel for what's going on at that time. Until then, we advise checking out Hushed Casket's writeup of the events that have taken place including all kinds of links or checking out the UnFiction forums where experienced ARGers are looking into this.If this is a new Halo 3 ARG similar to ilovebees you can count us in. We just loved the adventure and community behind the fun. But what about you? Did you follow ilovebees and do you enjoy this alternate reality gaming?[Via Joystiq]
April Fool's Alert #4: Bungie announces Halo Zero
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool the Halo faithful and in any case, prime time Saturday night isn't the crack of dawn by any interpretation. An April Fool's prank of the "We didn't even bother to research it" variety from Game Stooge is what we have for you this time and it has to do with a prequel to Bungie's Halo series.Don a pocket protector and start up your favorite MC Frontalot album because it's about to get real nerdy up in here.The story as it goes has a prequel to Halo starring the beloved cast of the alternate reality game sensation, I Love Bees, in a tactical shooter much like the Rainbow Six series. The problem being that none of the characters would know each other prior to the original Halo, nor would any of them have any combat training whatsoever. Hell, the protagonist, Janissary James' great accomplishment was getting shot in the chest. Okay, so she broke some limbs and generally beat the crap out of some folks along the way, but she isn't exactly the Chief.Another, more obvious error, is the Cortana-like A.I, Melissa (see also: Durga), being referred to as Dana by Game Stooge. If they had listened to the I Love Bees audio files for, oh, let's say two minutes, they would have gotten that one right. Hello? Wikipedia? Ever heard of it?This exercise in epic fail concludes with a fake address by Bungie co-founder Jason Jones that makes him sound more like a public relations robot than a human being. When was the last time any of you remember Jason Jones doing a public anything, much less a statement outside of the Halo 2 documentary? You have a better shot at finding Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny playing a game of Strip Uno at the end of a rainbow than you do finding Jason Jones doing anything public, ever.If we're lucky, this "Doctor Who" marathon we're in the middle of will last until April Fool's is over.
42 Entertainment interviewed, ARG book discussed
Gamasutra interviews Elan Lee, vice president of 42 Entertainment, alternate-reality game superstars. The company created I Love Bees for Halo 2, a project for the movie A.I., and other ARGs; one of its current projects is clothing with clues to an ARG game.42 Entertainment recently released Cathy's Book, a story with an ARG built in. The book includes phone numbers readers can call as they progress and a few self-contained puzzles. Lee says that this is the company's first attempt at an ARG book, but that more releases are planned; he thinks that the main plot will always be delivered in prose, but he wants to add even more puzzles to unravel sub-plots.We're uninterested in the ARG clothing line, but we're not big fans of collectable card games either; there's always something more to buy. But the ARG book sounds like an interesting twist on ARGs and fiction. Count us in.
Joystiq interviews Elan Lee of 42 Entertainment
For most gamers, 42 Entertainment gained notoriety after creating i love bees, a massive Alternate Reality Game (or ARG) that served as marketing for the launch of Halo 2 on the Xbox. Since then, Elan Lee has been busy. 42 invited poker fans to graveyards across the States as part of the promotion for GUN, and helped launch the Xbox 360 with a unique "casual ARG." Recent projects, however, are pushing Alternate Reality Games away from the world of marketing, and giving them a life of their own. In his chat with Joystiq, 42's VP of Experience Design discusses Cathy's Book, an attempt to design an ARG under the guise of a young girl's diary. We also discuss Microsoft's ARG mishaps with the Our Colony campaign, and EDOC Laundry, the first alternate reality clothing line.And it just so happens than Elan is wearing one of the code-embedded garments during our interview.For starters, great shirt. Is this your favorite piece of EDOC apparel?You know, my favorite EDOC shirt is one that's coming out next week. We've got a winter line coming out with these really cool hoodies and sweatshirts, and long-sleeve shirts. It's this very cool serpent print, with a really fun code on it, and I'm very excited about it.Are you excited because of the design, or because of the code?My favorite shirts are always ones where the code compliments the design. One of the main problems I had with Season 1, the shirts that are currently out, is that we designed all the shirts, and then thought "Holy crap, we've got no time. Let's just throw codes on all of these." And we just found random ways to throw on the codes. For Season 2, we had a lot more time, so I got to sit down with our art director, Shane Small, and we designed them all at the same time. So it was "Well, what if that guy's head was tweaked a little to the left, and it was a weird semaphore type of thing?" and "What if that strange emblem was..." So, all of my favorite shirts are ones where the code doesn't seem slapped on, and it seems like this really wonderful synergistic merge of code and design.
PS3 viral web code cracked
A few days ago, Sony launched the PlayB3yond web site with a picture of a melting clock and minimal fanfare. Yesterday, the site updated to a feature a mysterious assortment of 26 clickable symbols that bear a passing resemblance to the PlayStation controller buttons. Mere hours later, the mystery has been solved by intrepid Joystiq reader Zelda X (who either has an inside source or way too much free time). Using the alphabet key and codes in the image above, PS3 fans can use the PlayB3yond site to unlock wallpapers, soundtracks, videos and behind-the-scenes interviews for some big name PS3 launch games. Try not to get too excited.It's not clear whether this list is complete or if other words and phrases will also unlock content. Some common PS3-related phrases returned nothing when tried by Joystiq, and the codes found on recent PS3 billboards were similarly useless. Perhaps something more interesting will come out of the site in the weeks leading up to the PS3 launch, but as of now, this attempt at a viral ad campaign doesn't really hold a candle to a major multimedia marketing event like ilovebees.
