Complex ARG game "Crow 64" sparks widespread interest

[doomsriker]

 

 

Summary

This imagined ARG game for the N64 has a creepypasta esc yet interesting story behind it. 

 

Quotes

 

"filmmaker Adam Butcher uploaded a new video to YouTube detailing the history of Catastrophe Crow, a forgotten Nintendo 64 game whose mysterious creator went missing before the game was completed"

 

 

 

My thoughts

Quite an interesting (fictional) tale to dig into with a surprisingly large community of fans with a lot to say. I think the bulk of interest here is based on N64 nostalgia which seems to be at it's peek right now. 

 

Sources

 Article:https://kotaku.com/the-story-of-crow-64-a-game-that-did-not-exist-1845386675

Fan made Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18UTSshuwH0MG3TYWHNqdyw4PRpqJltG-PivizkXNlgc/edit

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kUgjbqE

Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastropheCrow/

Original Video:

 

Inside A Mind's update video on the topic:

Fan Made Playlist of known related videos:

 

[PlayStation 2]

So it's just Polybius all over again?

[doomsriker]

5 minutes ago, handymanshandle said:

So it's just Polybius all over again?

Apparently there is an actual PC game made by the person behind Crow 64 and probably used by the creater of the ARG to make the videos that has leaked (partially) but I have not dug into this much so don’t quote me on that. 

[Arika]

2 hours ago, doomsriker said:

Apparently there is an actual PC game made by the person behind Crow 64 and probably used by the creater of the ARG to make the videos that has leaked (partially) but I have not dug into this much so don’t quote me on that. 

So like Petscop 

[Video Beagle]

what's an arg?

[Bombastinator]

18 minutes ago, Video Beagle said:

what's an arg?

Googled “define arg” and got this

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game

[Bombastinator]

9 hours ago, doomsriker said:

 

 

Summary

This imagined ARG game for the N64 has a creepypasta esc yet interesting story behind it. 

 

Quotes

 

"filmmaker Adam Butcher uploaded a new video to YouTube detailing the history of Catastrophe Crow, a forgotten Nintendo 64 game whose mysterious creator went missing before the game was completed"

 

 

 

My thoughts

Quite an interesting (fictional) tale to dig into with a surprisingly large community of fans with a lot to say. I think the bulk of interest here is based on N64 nostalgia which seems to be at it's peek right now. 

 

Sources

 Article:https://kotaku.com/the-story-of-crow-64-a-game-that-did-not-exist-1845386675

Fan made Google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18UTSshuwH0MG3TYWHNqdyw4PRpqJltG-PivizkXNlgc/edit

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/kUgjbqE

Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastropheCrow/

Original Video:

 

Inside A Mind's update video on the topic:

Fan Made Playlist of known related videos:

 

So you’re saying the history described by the narrator is false?

[doomsriker]

Just now, huilun02 said:

Not news. I demand a refund

How is this anything but technology news?

[doomsriker]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

So you’re saying the history described by the narrator is false?

Correct, it is a sort of social experiment type Alternate reality building game created by someone for people to "solve". 

[minibois]

I saw the "Inside a Mind" video on this a couple days ago.

Pretty fun (fictional) story to hear about

[Bombastinator]

29 minutes ago, doomsriker said:

Correct, it is a sort of social experiment type Alternate reality building game created by someone for people to "solve". 

You’re talking about the plot of the game or of the description of the makers history in the video?

[Bombastinator]

33 minutes ago, doomsriker said:

How is this anything but technology news?

I think the complaint was not that it wasn’t about computer gaming, but that it is history rather than news as it is not something that is happening now.  An event, but not a current event.

[doomsriker]

9 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

You’re talking about the plot of the game or of the description of the makers history in the video?

It was all made up in the last 4ish years most likely and all the vids are fake. It's a complex creepypasta essentially. 

[doomsriker]

8 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

I think the complaint was not that it wasn’t about computer gaming, but that it is history rather than news as it is not something that is happening now.  An event, but not a current event.

Oh ok yea It took me a while to figure out this was all just a complex story made up over the last few years than "released" this year so I can see the confusion. To be clear this is strictly an ARG even though there is a real pc game. 

[Bombastinator]

6 minutes ago, doomsriker said:

It was all made up in the last 4ish years most likely and all the vids are fake. It's a complex creepypasta essentially. 

So this person developing a game and apparently developing a mental illness never actually happened? It’s fake news?  If so this absolutely does not belong in the news section.  I don’t know what “creepypasta” is, but it sounds kind of “war of the worlds”

[doomsriker]

10 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

So this person developing a game and apparently developing a mental illness never actually happened? It’s fake news?

It was world building by the creator. Think of it as a metacommentary (though I wouldn't necessarily say it is a particularly good one). The whole story is completely fake and is part of a larger ARG game meant to be solved by the community. Incidentally, here is some new footage of someone playing the leaked build on PC.

 

 

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, doomsriker said:

It was world building by the creator. Think of it as a metacommentary (though I wouldn't necessarily say it is a good particularly one). The whole story is completely fake and is part of a larger ARG game meant to be solved by the community. Incidentally, here is some new footage of someone playing the leaked build on PC.

 

 

Sounds like a prevarication rather than a yes/no.  

[doomsriker]

2 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Sounds like a prevarication rather than a yes/no.  

The PC build is thought to be the game used to make the videos (not an N64 game btw) and most people think it was leaked by mistake, though it is really hard to say what is or is not intended with how cryptic this whole thing has been. 

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, doomsriker said:

The PC build is thought to be the game used to make the videos (not an N64 game btw) and most people think it was leaked by mistake, though it is really hard to say what is or is not intended with how cryptic this whole thing has been. 

Still avoiding.  

[doomsriker]

1 hour ago, Bombastinator said:

Still avoiding.  

How so? 

[Bombastinator]

The definition of “whole story” remains unsdefined.  The claims made in the video about the game?

 There seem to be two claims made in the video:

1: this game exists

2: the creator of this game did certain things

 

if the game exists but the story about the creator is false that’s one kind of “war of the worlds” sort of thing.  More like a wildly unethical marketing attempt for the game perhaps.

 

if the game is also fake that’s a somewhat different kind of “war of the worlds” thing but still not real news.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Bombastinator

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

The definition of “whole story” remains unsdefined.  The claims made in the video about the game?

 There seem to be two claims made in the video:

1: this game exists

2: the creator of this game did certain things

 

if the game exists but the story about the creator is false that’s one kind of “war of the worlds” sort of thing.  More like a wildly unethical marketing attempt for the game perhaps.

 

if the game is also fake that’s a somewhat different kind of “war of the worlds” thing but still not real news.

 

Let's put it this way: the first video linked by OP is fiction. The person there is following a (his?) script. It's just presented in a documentary style, like Blair Witch Project or Marble Hornets, for delivery purpose.

 

I think the argument OP is making is that the hoax presented in video 1 is itself part of a bigger game, where you pretend to believe it and then "figure out the mystery" (like a Laura Bow game will present a fictional mystery for you to solve; in this case the fictional mystery involves a fictional video game). The "news" would be about this game (the one where you solve the mystery surrounding a fictional game) is/was/has been getting popular.

In turn, its existence and popularity seem to be not all that "new".

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Let's put it this way: the first video linked by OP is fiction. The person there is following a (his?) script. It's just presented in a documentary style, like Blair Witch Project or Marble Hornets, for delivery purpose.

 

I think the argument OP is making is that the hoax presented in video 1 is itself part of a bigger game, where you pretend to believe it and then "figure out the mystery" (like a Laura Bow game will present a fictional mystery for you to solve; in this case the fictional mystery involves a fictional video game). The "news" would be about this game (the one where you solve the mystery surrounding a fictional game) is/was/has been getting popular.

In turn, its existence and popularity seem to be not all that "new".

Ah. So the problem is that the mystery game was presented not as itself but as an actual news story in the news section. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

3 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Ah. So the problem is that the mystery game was presented not as itself but as an actual news story in the news section. 

Well, not really, OP did say that this was a game (although using the acronym ARG, but the G was for "game"), then presenting it as:

Quote

Quite an interesting (fictional) tale to dig into

 

The news would be that the mystery game had some success. Think of it as "A lot of people playing Ovrewatch right now", or something like that.

 

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Well, not really, OP did say that this was a game (although using the acronym ARG, but the G was for "game"), then presenting it as:

 

The news would be that the mystery game had some success. Think of it as "A lot of people playing Ovrewatch right now", or something like that.

 

It seems This story has the same problem at least for me, and possibly a few others as the original “war of the worlds” did.  Because of the venue where it was presented, even though it was announced multiple times to be fiction, some people thought it was news and it created an immense reaction.  
 

One can take a fiction story too weak to survive on its own, and give it legs subverting news systems where one assumes the thing presented is at least believed to be true by someone.  
it is such a very strong boost it can apparently even be done by accident.