ARG-guru Jane McGonigal has designed a new game for the 2008 Olympics, The Lost Ring.

At the moment it seems like a sort of collective-blogging/web 2.0-story-game.
We’re introduced to six characters. Ariadne, Markus, Noriko, MeiHui, Diego and Lucie. They all woke up in some form of labrynth with amnesia, some funky white fitness suit, white goggle that you can’t see through – blindfold and a funky tattoo on their arm which reads: Find the lost Ring in Esperanto.

I’m quite pleased that this is truly international. French, English, German, Spanish, Chinese and I think Japanese (I can’t be bothered to look up right now). I also like the way they use many different types and brands of web 2.0 media. I’m astonished by how much work they’ve put into it and how thorough they’ve been. I think Jane McGonigol’s genious is clearly evident.

So these six characters are unified by the same problem. They’ve also realised that their bodies are well in tune, like olympic champions, which made me wince. Reading about it in blog form made me sort of urghy – it just sounds so lame.

I guess the goal of the game is to figure out the big mystery. Enter the professor Eli Hunt who coincidently has some podcasts on the ancient mysteries of the Olympic Games. I really enjoyed listening to his podcasts and I found myself wishing them to be non-fictional. I honestly felt like I was learning something new about the Olympic past and listening to a very learned archeology geek. Here’s one about the lost sport of Olympia.

This was really a great way to get someone like me hooked. After all, we have become an information society – we truly do want to learn more and we love going on information safari’s on the net. There’s a New York Times article about this somewhere – a new study of the brain that explained why we like it so much – but I can’t seem to find it at the moment. Eitherway – these podcasts are what got me hooked.

That said – I’m not sure I get what I’m supposed to be doing in this game. I don’t really feel compelled to do anything except keep reading and watching and listening as this bunch figures things out. But maybe that will change in the course of time?

I’m not a language buff so I’m keeping in tune to the game through Ariadne – and unfortunately she’s no LonelyGirl15. Seriously, it needed a semi-bad actress before I truly understood what a great actress LonelyGirl was. It’s really hard to believe her and her charm is very pressured. But I’m sure she’ll grow on me and her acting will probably become better. But right now I just found it a tad annoying.

But I’m hooked. And at some point I need to figure out what the hell this is. It’s described as a strange sectret portal site – but they’ve managed to get loads of information from it – but I can’t seem to figure it out.

For now, though, I need to find a job from 1st of May – or at least some form of income – if anyone knows of anything let me know!