Five brilliant young scientists collectively known as “MHD-6″ disappear from Belgrade University. Shortly after, a video of the kidnapping makes its way to the foundation that sponsored them. A mysterious person known only as “The Donetsk Voice” feeds bits and pieces of information relating to the disappearance of the MHD-6. As the investigation progresses, the Alvinson Foundation puts out a global call for help solving the mystery. Players who respond to the call are thrown headfirst into the European-based transmedia experience Alt-Minds, an eight week long paranormal mystery that incorporates puzzles, websites, geo-locative content, and a Facebook game.
French telecommunications corporation Orange joined the French game development studio Lexis Numérique to create the Alt-Minds experience, which launched on November 12th, in four languages: French, German, Spanish, and English. According to a press release by Orange, “Alt-Minds is a cohesive set of films, games, monitoring tools and web documentaries.” The story unfolds live over the game’s eight week span, using the web series format as the framework for players stepping into the role of investigator.
Lexis Numérique is no stranger to this kind of transmedia product. In 2004, the studio launched the game In Memoriam, published by Ubisoft. In Memoriam incorporated a network of websites, film footage, and real-time emails into its game play, where the player matched wits and interacted with a serial killer in order to achieve the game’s objectives. Those familiar with In Memoriam will easily spot its influence on the Alt-Minds game structure.
Alt-Minds allows players to choose whether to interact with the game through the main website or via their mobile devices, and those who are located in Europe can enter their mobile number for additional layers of interactivity. An Alt-Minds app for Android and Apple devices, available to European users, allows players to follow the story in real-time. Non-European users may also follow along, although their experience is limited to the website’s content.
Logging on to the main website, players access their dashboard, which shows their progress through the experience. Documents and videos are provided to the players to help them solve the puzzles and advance the content. The interfaces provide tools that players can use to analyze videos and documents, such as a zoom function or sliders that alter brightness, contrast, and saturation. Players may send puzzle solutions through the in-game messaging system, earning experience points in the game, or they may skip ahead to the next part of the narrative. As the game progresses, more content becomes available, such as the geo-locative content or the related Facebook game. Alt-Minds is also releasing a series of mini documentaries that explore some of the themes and questions raised by the narrative.
The creators of Alt-Minds have experimented with the “pay-to-play” model by offering the first week of story, puzzles, and clues for free, then charging a fee for each week following, much like buying episodes of a television series from week to week. The full series can be purchased for EUR 14.99 or per episode at EUR 2.59. After the live stream ends, the Alt-Minds experience will still be accessible by those who purchase episodes or the whole game, through the system’s “catch-up” mode that allows players to replay past episodes and events. According to the Alt-Minds FAQ, game play can exceed 50 hours if players opt to take on the secondary missions.
It's very difficult to really speculate at this moment what may be the outcome of these talks. On the one hand, I think it's good that the two parties meet. Its always good when confronting parties decide to try to find a negotiated solution which otherwise might quickly escalate into another armed conflict. But we have also seen since the past 9 months that the agreements lack the will to implement and so far neither the parties nor their international advisors nor the United Nations or the security council have found a convincing method to ensure that agreements are honored and implemented. I am very very doubtful that we will see sort of a breakthrough or that we see a major substantive change. According to my information I think we will see this round of negotiations but we will not see fundamental changes on the ground, which would means the parties whole heartedly commit to what they have agreed.
I think you are alluding to the internal leadership rivalries within the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM). I don't think that we are seeing a major rift within the SPLM, I think it's the fundamental distrust which continues and which will not be resolved unless we have a political breakthrough which would include a resolution of the armed conflict of the Nuba mountains, Blue Niles and this areas. And we have more stability also in the border area. It is all highly fragile, and it depends on the time of the year, If you have the rainy season, if you have the dry season, the dry season is the fighting season and this is the way it has been going all along. So I am very skeptical that we are witnessing a major change as I said before I think we are seeing some cosmetics. Some tactical maneuvers but we are not seeing a major shift that we can say the North and the South are really determined to now make sure that the economic development is starting and people feel safe and secure. It's all highly highly fragile.
Santa's work may have been completed on Christmas Eve, but for Montezuma County birders it was Dec. 26 that offered an opportunity for making a list and checking it twice.
Despite a fresh layer of snow on the ground and frigid temperatures, 12 volunteers gathered at the Cortez Cultural Center last Wednesday to participate in the National Audubon Society's 113th Christmas Bird Count. The goal of the day was simple, albeit ambitious: count all the avian creatures visible in a 15-mile diameter circle centered on Totten Lake.
Local count organizer Carolyn Gunn met with volunteers to explain the purpose of the count and hand out route maps. She stressed the amateur nature of the count and the safeguards in place to protect against errors.
"The beauty of this count is it is built for amateurs," she said. "Every year we collect data and after decades any inaccuracies become such a small percentage of the total count they are basically weeded out. All the data is useful."
The count originated at the turn of the 20th century with what was called the Christmas "Side Hunt." People would choose sides, grab their favorite firearm and bring back to the table as many birds as they could bag. Over time, concern over conservation prompted avian enthusiasts to leave the guns at home and instead track the feathered friends with paper and pen.
"People would try to kill as many birds as they possibly could and then they tallied those numbers and that was supposed to be a good thing," Gunn said. "One hundred years ago that was the accepted thing, the idea that we need to kill birds to learn about them. Then, there came the realization that highly populated bird species were declining and we really needed to know what these birds were doing instead of shooting them. So people went out to count them instead of kill them."
Matis said he has always considered himself an environmentalist and the bird count affords an opportunity to be part of the science of the environment.
The two took their time looking for birds, and though the local preserve seemed an ideal location, only a few starlings, a junco, two sparrows and a Cooper's hawk were sighted. The two were somewhat disappointed as they packed up their gear, but expressed optimism that the next site may be home to numerous species, and perhaps even a rare sighting.
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