Marble Hornets Entry #38

 It's a good'un.



It feels like we might be finally getting a grip on where the Slenderman has come from. I suppose the implication is that he is one of the unfortunate criminals to have been stretched out by the trees. It's a real and concrete move by Marble Hornets to explain their storyline; a lot of these YouTube series go for a long time surviving on scares and freaky imagery without providing any answers - it's brave of Troy and the guys to lay some of their cards on the table.

Plus, Troy has told us that the DVD is just around the corner (Warning: don't follow the link if you don't want to see OOG MH stuff). He released it with a pretty nifty jigsaw puzzle for us to solve and decipher - smart move, the guy knows his audience. The DVD will include (quoted directly from Troy Wagner's Blog Machine):

MARBLE HORNETS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
--------------------------------------------------------
-Two discs!
-Includes Introduction, Entries 1-26 and their respective totheark responses.
-Commentary by me, Joseph (Alex), and Tim.
-Behind the scenes funstuff like bloopers and Tim being a constant, hilarious distraction.
-The tweets/twitpics
-Bios
-Festival trailer
--------------------------------------------------------


I'll be looking into getting a copy for myself as soon as poss. Should be good! I'm looking forward to seeing how they tie in all the Entries and convey all the stuff that went on between the YouTube videos (the Twitter trail to the Red Tower, for example).

This Is Not A Game

TINAG is the mantra of a good ARG player and a effective PuppetMaster. It binds the whole game together, keeps players involved and immersed and ensures that the PM can hide effectively behind the curtain pulling the strings at will. It stands for "This Is Not A Game" and essentially translates to that whilst we are "in-game" all characters, players and external game objects must act as if they exist in their own Universe - as if the whole charade is real. TINAG keeps the players in the Universe of the PM's creation, and keeps the PM safely hidden behind the "curtain", it allows the players to experience the game in its purest form, without constand reminders (at least from in-game sources) that it is, in fact, just a game.
UnFiction is strictly OOG (Out Of Game) and anything which is said there must have absolutely no bearing on the game in question, of course, there aren't ARG-police out there to enforce this rule and many a PM has encroached on uF's immunity by posting there as an in-game character (see the Slenderman Mythos board for several examples) or using information shared there by the players to drive their story:

• For example, say Player A finally cracks a puzzle which has been bugging the community for weeks - he posts his conclusions on unFiction to the delight of his peers, they share a flagon of Butterbeer and rejoice, but no-one posts the solution to any ingame source as they want to release the information carefully and get the best result possible. The PM, having seen that the players have solved the puzzle (after perusing the thread for their game on the forums) declares the puzzle solved and releases the next puzzle. Players would probably consider this a breach of the trust which goes with uFiction and be significantly displeased with the PM.
• Another example could be a single player given information by an in-game character and told "not to share it with a single living soul". It is perfectly within their right to release that information on unFiction if they choose to - theoretically, the in-game character could never know as unFiction doesn't exist in their Universe. If there are in-game ramifications for the player releasing the information on unFiction then again, the players would be rather miffed.

Thats not to say there can't be a back and forth between the PM and the players; I've interacted with a number of PMs whilst playing their games - sometimes for OOG hints and sometimes just to chat. The VA interview I did a few weeks ago allowed the players to see how Paul put the whole game together. It gave us a deeper understanding of the story which we might have missed (OK, lets be honest, we missed a LOT).

I've followed Troy's blog for a few months now and I feel its given me a greater understanding of the creative process behind the Marble Hornets series. Troy talks about managing his schedule with MH updates, school, filming, work and other such things and to be honest I'm incredibly impressed. The MH team drop some seriously high quality content every couple of weeks or so and manage to maintain a zealously loyal following of viewers across the Internet whilst simultaneously studying, working and, seemingly, going to Mardi Gras (see left). The MH game has never really been about player interaction. The closest we've come to actual puzzle solves are the cryptic TTA vids which crop up every so often. With this minimal interaction, there have been few chances for the players to get behind the "curtain" and see the cogs which drive the story. Troy's blog allows us not only to peek behind the curtain, but to leap out between the crack in the drapes and shout "Oi Oi boys!".

As a rule to go by, TINAG is a good one. But its not set in stone and it is changing. A while back I talked about Gaming and the Real World, and how Jane McGonigal hopes that through gaming we might influence real world change. It isn't difficult to fit TINAG into this conception - I suppose it only serves to truly emphasise the point: it really isn't a game if it has real world implications. It sounds like a brilliant idea in my opinion and I hope that as a medium gaming begins to gather credibility as a vehicle for change. I hope, however, that if we begin to see more and more games which seek to impress real world changes onto their players, that PMs will not forget that, deep down inside, we are all kids who want to play, we want to be sucked into a world without consequences and just escape for a while. I hope that PMs won't forget that, whatever we say... TIAG.

The Return of Tothecarp

The look which sparked a thousand FanFics

The archetypal "totheark" character has become a staple in most Slenderblogs nowadays - for EMH we have HABIT, for Tribe Twelve there is the mysterious package person, for Dark Harvest there is the Slender-impersonator...
But totheark himself is, obviously, the purist's favourite. He's up to his old tricks again with the new season, giving us a glimpse into his mind with the "Fragments" video from a couple of weeks ago - which included a torn up picture of Alex.
Yesterday he uploaded his second installment for this season: "broadcast" - 14 seconds of what appears to be the visions of a drowning person; watching their punisher from below the surface of the water. Its creepy stuff, amplified, of course, by the overlay of distorted audio. Currently, the theory is that the audio is something like "In time, you will suffer for what you did to me". Made all the more chilling due to the previous Entry of Marble Hornets depicting Alex caving Tim's head in with a rock.

This season is just hotting up.

Marble Hornets #34/35 - Aka - Why I need new Trousers

I haven't done a Marble Hornets post in a while, so I thought I'd update because things just hit the effin' roof.
Entry #34 sees us follow Jay to the return address for the package he received at the end of Season one. It seems to lead him to an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere - other than some rubble and bad graffiti, theres absolutely nothing to see. Until of course, you reach Entry #35.

Entry.Freaking.Thirty.Five. Watch it now. I demand it!


Now, without spoiling it for those not already clued up on what happened - what are the implications of this? How will Jay react to this news? Also, where the hell is Jay at the moment anyway?!

I'm still reeling, and so is the Marble Hornets community. Less than a day the thread on unFiction has almost 500 posts and is nearing 30 pages as I type this. As Jay says at the end of the video. This changes... everything.


ps. oh yeah and theres the TTA video "Fragments" with a cut up picture of Alex - but I guess we won't be seeing many of them anymore, right? WRONG! You forget, the contents of #35 are in the past. We have 2 options: TTA is someone else is still posting (and Tim is dead - although I suppose he could still be alive) or TTA was Tim all along and he somehow survived Alex's rock of doom.

Marble Hornets Entry #33

I... I'm just... holy crap - just watch this.




I continue to be astounded by Season 2 guys. Muchos kudos, you do not disappoint.

Had a very busy day, my sister was taken to hospital earlier after fainting at work - considering her medical history and whats happened over the past year, its not been an easy night. Thankfully she has now recovered, but not without scaring the crap out of us all.

Marble Hornets: Entries #28-32

There are a couple of things I want to talk about re: Marble Hornets today, so I reckon this is probably going to be a long one - first I'm going to talk about the Entries #28 - #32, and second how a really well constructed narrative like Marble Hornets can affect your life/sanity/wardrobe. For your delectation, Entry #32:


So, #28-32. If you haven't seen them, head here for #28, #29, #30, #31, aaaand #32 - do it now - the story is just getting juicy and I like where they are going. Troy and the gang have resisted the temptation to jump straight back into the sequence of normal vid, slendy reveal, TTA response, normal vid. They are ramping up the tension and its not until #32 that the intrigue really kicks in. There are chekov's guns galore going on in the Entries up to #32 (the pills, the safe, the blood on the stones etc). Jessica, Jay's neighbour in the hotel, is slipped in as early as #27 as just a passer by, but its not until #31/#32 that you really get to grips with the role she's going to play in the story.
Talking of Jessica - the acting in the series so far is really top notch. Troy (on his blog) talks about how he's attended a really good acting class between the shooting of the previous series and this one and I believe its really payed off. In addition, watch #32 - Jessica's acting in that scene is excellent, she looks genuinely haggard and scared, desperate for Jay to affirm to her that she isn't going insane. There have been some complaints on unFiction that the smirk which comes in a little to the end is an acting tick, but I like to interpret it as a result of her relief that maybe Jay is in the same crazy ass boat as her.

#29 is an interesting one, seemingly showing Jay discovering the scene of some bloody massacre in a tunnel out in the wilderness. Its not clear yet whether this has occurred yet (as there are some thoughts as to whether Slenderman can manipulate time/space), or whether it happened in the 7 months between the two series. All I know is that when this happened, I crapped myself:

#30 shows Jay freaking Jess out by showing up at her door in the middle of the night with a camera. Smooth moves ex-lax. He feeds her some awkward lies, and retires to bed in a grump. #31 has Jay heading out to the nearest park to see if he can find the location from #29, he doesn't really find much more than a rolly-polly hoody dubbed "trailguy" by the community. #31 is actually very well shot, you really begin to feel Jay's paranoia as he darts through woody groves and goes prone in piles of leaves to try to lose this clearly confused rambler.

#32, well - I won't talk too much about it, just commend Jess's acting and the "tired eyes" make-up she had applied. The story is really hotting up now, I'm not sure whether they'll go down the dynamic duo route quite yet - but I'm very excited about where the story is going and I can't wait to see if TTA/Masky is going to make his grand entrance soon.

Click here to view the article on Entry #27

Apple of our Eye

I crave content! Which is why the "Holiday Season" *nod to all you PC peeps who reject the word Christmas, keepin' it real...* is frustrating. We waited a good month or so for Entry #29 from Marble Hornets and then its a whole minute long! Don't get me wrong, in that minute I went through 3.5 pairs of underwear, but nonetheless it only fills a one minute slot in my otherwise meaningless day!

Which is why its nice to come across a half-decent youtube grassroots horror series once in a while. The more I amass, the more of my day I can fill watching 5minute long incerpts of little nuggets of tension. So, without further ado: Apple of our Eye. Their latest offering is here, however, I would suggest watching the series from the start - just to get to know the characters a bit more.

This is a strong start from these guys, their first video came out about a month ago and it seems pretty standard. The classic "teens filming themselves as they frolic near wooded areas" premise is strong in this one. Its a little hacknied but it seems natural enough and its believable. There are forshadowing events such as the missing persons poster in the "Young Fools with an Old Camera" video, the tall manequins in suits in the shop window etc. 

The videos set you up nicely, there are subtle video distortions which you could easily miss but a trained Slendy-hunter will notice immediately, and when the big reveal comes, its EPIC. The unFiction thread regarding this series can be found HERE. Follow after the jump for a bit of a spoiler!

(btw, had to pause the video and then maximise it to get this screenshot. I actually was a bit scared he'd start moving again. CURSE YOU INTERNET FOR MAKING ME A WUSS)

Nice thing about this series is I've caught it at the start, unlike EMH and MH. I get to watch the story unfold in REAAAL time baby. To the AooE crew (wow, that does not acronymise as well as MH and EMH) I say keep up the good work - check unFiction for the dos and don'ts, because you are treading on very thin ice, its only one slip up between Slenderblog and Slanderblog.

Gaming in 2011: Part 2

Phew, I've finally got around to thinking about the second part of my "Gaming in 2011" series, Alternate Reality Gaming. Now, in recent months the ARG boat has been rocked by the ripples of the return of Marble Hornets, and the rise of EMH and Tribe Twelve - these chaotic fictions have really grabbed the limelight when it comes to storytelling and intrigue, but there are a significant number of outstanding games running which DON'T concern our Slender friend and I am hoping that in the New Year we can cover a few of them and really give them the attention they deserve.
As in the previous post, I'm going to focus on the aspects of Alternate Reality Gaming which I am most excited about for 2011. Three different aspects, and one honourable mention:

Alternate Reality Gaming

The ARG scene is something I tend to flow in and out of, I will be obsessed for months (particularly if there is a good game going on) but then I will begin to drift away. I drifted away a few months ago (I think it probably coincided with the end of Season 1 of Marble Hornets), but recently I have drifted back and I am very glad I did. UnFiction, to me, is the home of ARGs. It has certainly been the way I have heard about most games, and the main way the majority of players interact and play. If you are at all interested in ARGs, I suggest you head over there right away and take a look around.

The first thing I am excited about for 2011 is Marble Hornets: Season 2. I've posted about Marble Hornets before, with the new Season coming out 2011 is going to be a very busy year for Troy Wagner and the team. In an "Out of Game" sense, I've been following Troys blogspot for a while now and its been interesting to see a little bit behind the scenes on what the guys have to face when they make the series, if you're interested his blog can be found here: Troy Wagner's Blog Machine (although, if you want full immersion, I would avoid it until the series is over). Season 2 is shaping up to be super-duper epic, with Entry #29 just released I would suggest purchasing industrial strength underpants, and watching it with the lights off and headphones on (although not too loud, I about blew my drums out through my bumhole). I'm probably going to lump Entries #28 and #29 into a post later tonight and talk about where the storyline is going fairly soon. Very very excited about this.

Secondly, I am quite excited about the latest offering in the Vanessa Atalanta/Ministry of Argon series, this time called Fifteen Days of Darkness. Last time I played a game by this PM he had me scouring google maps of London, attempting to misdirect operatives to allow a character to escape with some vital evidence. If you haven't had a chance to get in on one of these games, Fifteen Days is still playing (although we are reaching the end game) and we would really appreciate any help! Now, I must admit, I am not the best person to summarise the VA/MoA/Fifteen Days storyline - I came in at the start of MoA and came in late to the currently running game - which is why I am keen to get another player to write an article about it in the New Year. However, what I can tell you is that the games are incredibly well constructed, varied, sometimes impossibly difficult and immensely satisfying to solve.
During Fifteen Days of Darkness myself and other players have solved a series of puzzles meant to represent our breaking down the barriers in the mind of Jayden, the leader of The Order of Oberon. The OoO are a werewolf cult, with a focus on transformation. We have reached the conclusion that Jayden's ultimate aim somehow revolves around the "Flower of Life", a geometric arrangement of overlapping circles which represent numerous spiritual and mathmatical theorums. Our reaching this conclusion has allowed one of the series running characters Vladamir Sirin to hack into Jayden's mind and force him to speak the truth, just for one weekend. Hopefully, we made full use of this opportunity.
I have thoroughly enjoyed this game so far, and I have to admit MoA was the most thrilling ARG I have ever participated in. The PM puts an astounding amount of thought into the running of this ARG and it really pays off. I cannot wait for the finale of Fifteen Days and I am really looking forward to where the story will go from there.

Thirdly, there are a number of low-level grassroots games going on with small casts which really talk to me. The two I will focus on for the moment are: The Sound Guy and TheArtoftheOak. Sometimes I want the big, complex and flashy ARGs like Fifteen Days, but sometimes I just want to sit down and play a BLARG! Thats a blog-ARG, I just created the term - like it? The Sound Guy is the story of a normal British bloke, much like myself, who is into metal and wants our opinion on the sound quality of his recordings, unfortunately the audio is plagued by strange background sound which he can't seem to get rid of - lets just say, everything is not as it seems! One of the things which hindered the real blast off of this game is the fact that TSG hid the message so well! After a few weeks we have only just cracked the file and I'm hoping the game will blast off from there. I think the reason I like this game is because it is ballsy, often games are just stumbled upon, but TSG had the guts to just send his trailhead out to members of the community inviting them to take part. I'm looking forward to where he's going from here.
TheArtoftheOak is the story of Shannon, a simple girl who is into the paranormal. One day her friend reads a passage from the necronomicon, and, well, what do you think happens?! Shit goes down! Now Shannon is haunted by strange children in the night, the visage of Ingrid Cold and crazed stalkers. The blog has been eerily quiet over the past few weeks (holidays, finals etc), but I am interested to see how the PM marries these quite varied threads together - it could turn out that Shannon's friend has, well, just released all hell upon them! Poor gal.


Finally, the honourable mention. Slenderblogs/Slenderblags. The good and the bad, Marble Hornets and EMH have spawned numerous Slenderblogs which, more often than not, fall to the wayside due to overwhelming weariness from the Slender-community. The writers over at The Slender Review do a great job of keeping tabs on what's hot and what's not, if you'd like to really get the cream of the crop then head over there for some top notch reviews. My personal fave is Hiking Fiend, find the review HERE.

Its going to be a very exciting year for games in general. My social life is going to be baaaad....

Tribe Twelve - The Young Pretender

Having looked at the family tree of Slender-fiction, its obvious to see the original Somethingawful.com thread at the top, and branching down you have a number of "where's Wally?" type photoshops and then branching into the ARG community you see Marblehornets and then underneath, attached to the spindliest of twigs, is the sea of Slender-blogs/video fictions which we seem to be swimming in today.

Few stand out above the morass of near identical stories. But when one does stand out it can blow up fast, EMH stands at just over 3.5 thousand subscribers, Marble Hornets is at a whopping 31.6 thousand. Tribe Twelve is comparatively fledgling in status to these two behemoths in terms of age but has still managed to rack up an impressive 2.5 thousand subscribers on youtube. I'd like to look at why I think this series is gained popularity in an already saturated field.

Tribe Twelves tells the story of Noah Maxwell, a twenty something living alone in Florida. It begins with Noah explaining how he had a close relationship with his cousin Milo, how they grew apart and how strangely Milo acted in the few weeks before he was found dead in his home of an overdose on prescription medication. Each of the first few videos (described as "Layers") depicts Milo's final visit to Noah, as the videos progress we realise that Milo is being stalked by Slenderman. When Milo dies, Slenderman seemingly stays behind. Noah is thrust into a freaky world of mysterious packages, disturbing phone calls and cryptic messages.


One of the things which makes TT stand out is the technical ability of its producer, the latest Layer "Hello There" has a slick nature to it. It uses a two-tone filter to give the whole message an eerie feeling, images are sometimes too dark to make out until the filter shifts through a spectrum and you can make out the subject for a split second before it becomes too light. This "there and yet not there" approach is indicative of the thread I feel which runs through this whole series - claustrophobia and loneliness.



Once Milo is gone, Noah is alone and facing his demons. Unlike MH and EMH, where the subject is a group of friends, Noah has no support - even putting out a request to fans for somewhere to stay over Thanksgiving. I believe this sense of isolation has built quite a connection between Noah and the TT fans, you feel his pain because he has to share it with you, you believe he has no one else to share it with and so you feel more part of the story.

Tribe Twelve feels more akin to Marble Hornets than EverymanHYBRID. Jay has become increasingly isolated in the latter part of the MH story, and the epic use of silence which MH employ is similar to the cloyingly quiet scene where Noah is pursuing a stalker around his house.

Recently, Noah has been to see "Sarah" - the fan who accepted his request for somewhere to stay over Thanksgiving. They did a live stream and had some laughs but in the end Noah had to leave early with the tweet:

left early. some shit went down. dont know where im headed. fuck this. sorry sarah.



7:21 AM Nov 27th via Twitter for iPhone

So, there has been shit! I know I'm not alone in my curiousity as to what this shit was. I think Noah should just bite the bullet and stomp out to the tower again, alone, at night. Whats the worst that could happen?
 

EverymanHYBRID: Murder is a Dirty Habit

Having spent the last post talking about the latest Marble Hornets info, I thought I'd focus on the other big Slend-romp of the moment - EverymanHYBRID.

[WARNING SPOILERS FOR EMH]
As I was saying in the last post - although the subjects of the two Slenderman stories might at first seem similar, group of friends, Slendy-goings-on, and stuff "goin' down" - in fact the way the stories are approached and presented to the viewers are quite different. Take, for example, the latest offering from the guys over at EverymanHYBRID:

The video comes after a torrent of excitement from the followers over at UnFiction when we heard in the last entry that one of the characters, Ryan, had been in a car accident (it seemed). Vince threw us a small bone stating "I heard that noise"...
Most of the latest video shows the crew over in what appears to be a field, they are dimly lit by candles - presumably they are at the scene of the accident. Before this, we hear Jeff telling Evan to slow the car down so he can get a shot of a mutilated deer by the side of the road - uh oh, I smell the work of a particularly gougey garden-utensilly named foe (although, Slendy has also been known to mess with animals). The camera then cuts to laughter and a darkened interior location, we hear a sneering voice talking loudly in the next room, the place appears to be lit by lots of candles. The camera cuts again to the guys in the field. Vince tells us that Ryan was in an accident and passes on to Jeff to describe the rest of the story. Jeff describes to us how he was asked by Ryans Mother to help identify the body, how he had been mutilated with scratches all over his body and a broken neck.

The EMH crew doubt this is a car accident. Using their super-power detective skills they summise that as most of the glass was inside the vehicle it means something smashed through from the outside, rather than Ryan going through it from the drivers seat. The guys then go on to describe how Ryan recieved a strange email from a person known as HABIT (see here for a description of this character) asking for information, Ryan pressed him for his identity but also provided the information. We see the address come up on screen and the screencap of Ryans reply is linked in the description:

In the final scene in the field the guys describe how they have now sent their info to this guy and are so similarly "signed up". Almost everyone in the world has now also done the same! Some have been provided ID numbers for this "contest" already, I'm eagerly awaiting my reply!

The final scene is back in the candlelit house, the camerman moves closer to the voice in the next room and we see that it is Evan, talking to someone across the table - weilding a butcher knife. Evan describes how he has brought these "little fishes" for this person. Finally, as the cameraman moves further into the room we see the seat opposite is empty - finally the cameraman speaks and we hear that it is Jeff. He asks Evan what he's doing, as Evan gets up and advances on Jeff he turns and immediately runs into the ghastly figure of what appears to be Slendy - accompanied by his signature audio/visual distortion:

I really liked this episode - it was fast paced, it had a slick feel to it - with events seemingly occurring simultaneously until we realise who the characters involved are. The camera always cut away from one scene just as it got juicy and left you wanting to go back.

Feels to me like the guys really stepped up the game in response to the new season of MH coming out. I can't wait to see how insane Evan is going to go, how long Vince's beard is going to grow and where they are going with the whole Rake-in-Alex's-bedroom dealio. As always, the best place to follow the debate is over at UnFiction - I'd definately suggest getting an account over there and getting involved. I'd also suggest heading over to YouTube and Twitter and subscribing to both EMH, Marble Hornets and also Tribe Twelve - who I will do a post on tomorrow.

Marble Hornets Season 2: Entry #27

Squeeing like a schoolgirl.



This video is very similar in format to the "Introduction" video we saw at the start of the first season. There's a lot of debate over at UnFiction as to whether we see The Operator (Slenderman) in this vid, and I'd have to lean more towards the no camp. It would be rather crude of them to stick him in the first video, it would ruin all the suspense and tension which goes hand in hand with Marble Hornets.

One of the things that did strike me is how quiet the whole thing is. Having spent the past few months watching EverymanHYBRID and then yesterday watching TribeTwelve, you forget how the Marble Hornets crew use silence as an effective tool to really ramp up the tension. EverymanHYBRID and to a lesser extent Tribe Twelve are quite noisy and fast paced series', EMH introduced Slendy early on (although, we've learnt it was just them playing a prank) and when he showed up the first time it was accompanied by loud distortion and video cutting. When we first see Slendy in Entry #1 of MH, he is silent, and Alex is running from window to window - all we hear is his restless breathing.

People are complaining about how this is too boring and slow paced, but what you must realise is that this is how Marble Hornets has always worked. EMH is fast paced and, at times, very busy. They introduced their Slendy character and Evan reacts early on with violence, we see bags of blood and dead bodies - they even introduced a second monster: The Rake. Its racy, bolshy and exciting.

Marble Hornets is an altogether different beast. It builds the tension slowly, Slendy lurks, you barely see him move. He just... lurks. When he first turns to look at Alex in E#1, I about crapped myself. The Slenderman in MH is slow, he eats away at your subconscious, if the MH Slendy was at the Ashen Waste in EverymanHYBRID land, Evan wouldn't have got within 20 feet of him, let alone get him with the bat. There is a creepiness which is totally different to the EMH creepiness. Then before you know it; your friends are missing, your apartment is burnt down and you're bleeding from your forehead, convulsing on the floor and coughing like a trooper.

Entry #27 is slow paced. It is a set up for the coming happenings. Jay has been out cold (or at least, thats what he thinks!) for 7 months. He has woken up with a camera strapped to his chest, in a hotel in the middle of nowhere. Talk is of him being the new "Alex" - on the run, with his own months of screwy tapes to go over, only this time he will be the focus, he is the one being stalked.

Oh yeah, and what happened to Alex and the smokin' hot blonde in E#26?


Don't get my wrong, I love EMH and also I've really got into TT recently. But they are different kinds of scary - I'm loving where EMH are going with The Rake, and TT has a real sense of claustrophobia and loneliness.

Argh! Porcelain Bees!

I've mentioned in a number of my posts that I am an avid gamer. However, what I haven't mentioned is that I also like to indulge in a bit of ARG-y goodness now and again. ARGs or "Alternative Reality Games" are games in which the player can get totally involved, the story unfolds in front of them through a number of different mediums and more often than not the puzzles are solved through community collaboration. I've mentioned my interest in online communities and their composition, evolution and cohesion in previous blabberings.

One of the most widely known ARGs is the horror/thriller game Marble Hornets (although, it is often seen as more of a chaotic fiction). MH tells the story of a group of friends who are haunted by the ghostly figure of Slenderman, as well as a number of other unsettling characters. The story revolves around the character Jay who is given a bin bag full of old videos by his friend Alex and told to destroy them. Instead Jay watches the tapes, originally meant to be film from the budget movie they and a few friends were filming, and sees Alex's sanity unwind as his is stalked by Slendy.

The story is mostly told through youtube and Twitter (@marblehornets) posts, with updates coming in the form of "Entries" - beginning with The Introduction and culminating in Entry 26. I don't want to give too much of the story away, just in case you are interested in getting involved, but its certainly worth watching from the start - also keep an eye on the video responses!

The main reason for this post is that "Season 2" appears to be starting, with Jay's Twitter being updated with 3 new mysterious and cryptic pictures - the ARG forums are furiously attempting to decode them, check out the action on unFiction here. I would thoroughly suggest getting involved in the forum and contributing, they are all very friendly and the community spirit of solving each problem as a group is really rather thrilling. There are tonnes of other viral and grassroots ARGs to get involved in on the unfiction forums, it was a big part of my life in the early part of this year and I've lost contact with the group of late, I'm hoping to get back into it with the new season of Marble Hornets.

Just.. erm, watch your windows, do not start to film yourself and, whatever you do, don't go into the freaking woods...