T minus x days to ARGfest ’08
In less than 5 days now, ARGFest-o-Con 2008 will kick off in Boston, MA. Last year, ARGfest invaded San Francisco for an awesome weekend of meeting and greeting, joining (most for the first time) community and industry members, puppetmasters and players, lurkers and veterns, young and old, local and foreign, from across the nation and across the continent, ushering in an era of world peace! Ok… getting carried away.
ARGFest stretches vaguely from Friday through Sunday morning. People typically arrive anywhere from Thursday through Friday evening, so that entire period is a general social meet and greet and drinkering. This year, some key elements strengthening ARGFest’s position as an event you don’t want to miss:
- Friday night, 42 Entertainment (the company behind the TDK ARG themselves) has graciously sponsored 75 free tickets to see Batman: The Dark Knight at 10:30pm! Tickets are available first come first served to registered ARGFest attendees, though regular tickets can still be bought while supplies last.
- The team behind the Holomove game will be performing a PM chat Friday at 4pm (which also be available online for those not at ARGFest)
- There will be a special labyrinth training event in Boston for The Lost Ring ARG on Sunday morning at 11am. Exact location (near the hotel) TBD.
- If you’ve been to Boston, there’s an attraction called “The Tomb” for which Jason Chrest of AporiACME has performed some magic, granting special reduced group rates (of up to 12) for the experience.
- Of course there’s the meet & greet cocktail party Friday night (before TDK) at the hotel. Who’d want to miss that?
- The traditional FestQuest takes place Saturday afternoon! It’s always a mystery… you never know what’s going to happen… but for some reason it typically ends up gathering everyone for dinner. Strange.
- Thanks to bingo-master BrianEnigma, there may very will be another implementation of Buzzword bingo – Unfiction member Bingo!
Much of this event has been made possible thanks to the gracious sponsorship of:
But with additional sponsorship from other organizations, ARGFest has been made possible again this year, with ever-more exciting content.
The panels and speakers planned for this year, taking place through Saturday’s schedule, include:
- ARGs and Extended Media Experiences – Evan Jones, Lance Weiler, Yomi Ayeni, Blair Erickson, and Elan Lee
- Serious and Independent Games – Ken Eklund, Alice Leung, Dave Szulborski, and Brian Clark
- ARGs and the Rules of Engagement – Steve Peters
- The Future of Alternate Reality Gaming – A Speech Blitz of 10 individuals with 3 minutes each (oooh)
- The Expansion of Alternate Reality Gaming into the international arena – Brian Clark, Patrick Moeller, Alexander Serrano, and Geneviève Cardin
- Long Live Unfiction – Sean C Stacey (who else?)
- Player to Puppetmaster – Michelle Senderhauf, Andrea Phillips, Lindsay Mills, Jan Libby, and Jonathan Waite
- Keynote address, The Story Inside: Making ARGs for Fun and Profit – Dave Szulborski
For full details, how to sign up, where to go, and loads and loads of additional information and excitement, visit the official website: www.argfestocon.com
For other input and details that may not be officially listed (like konamouse’s ARG Museum), see the ARGFest Wiki.
To skip right to signing up (because you’re going to anyway, right?), go now, to the signup page, now!
I am personally arriving in Boston on Thursday evening, hoping to make it to the oh-so-famous Cheers inspiration (Bull and Finch Pub) on Beacon Hill, a few blocks from the official ARGFest hotel.
ARGFest events officially begin Friday night with the meet and greet at the hotel.
Hope to see you there!
Tags: argfest
Categories: ARGs General
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