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	Games - Nokia Game

The Nokia Game was a series of Alternate Reality Games produced by for Nokia. Although mainly a competition through which Nokia promotes their latest phones, it is a true ARG which fuses various forms of mass media, promotes communication between players, and features involving storylines which change every year.

The original Nokia Game took place in 1999, and was only open to residents in the Netherlands. The 2005 edition was open to participants in more than 20 countries. Although notorious for the frequent bugs and crashes experienced during the Europe-wide live finals, the games were very popular. It is unknown if Nokia will continue producing Nokia Games, as there was no game in 2004 and the 2005 game was very different in style from the others.

=The Games=

1999: The Nokia Ultimate Connection Game

The very first Nokia Game was only open to residents in Holland, and centred round a young boy called Sisu, who is taken to hospital after a serious snowboarding accident. From there on it was up to the player to discover what had happened to him, and what to do next. It was a true Alternate Reality Game, with hidden clues in phone calls, magazines and TV adverts. Some sections even required to players to phone each other to discover their usernames. Many games in this edition were also under a strict time limit, and failing the game once meant being instantly eliminated.

2000: Sisu & Mika

Following criticism of the previous game for being too hard, the 2002 edition not only allowed people from more countries to play, but was also more lenient during eliminations - players could usually practice games for as long as they liked, but could only "play" the games once.

The 2002 story centred around Sisu, a man taken into hospital after being poisoned in an ice cream parlour. Once concious again, the player has to piece together what happened from clues left behind at the scene, eyewitnesses and a mysterious young boy called Mika, who claims to know a lot about Sisu and his past. The story was very mysterious, with many plot twists. Although future Nokia Games had a bigger audience, they lacked the secrecy and mystery present in the first two.

2001: The Tone

The first Nokia Game open to residents in the UK and most of mainland Europe. It was also the first game to be widely publicised onTV, radio, print and at live events.

The first contact with the game happened 2 weeks before the advertised start of the game, with pre-registered players receiving a phone call from the mysterious "Geneva", begging the player to watch a certain TV channel at a certain time. At the time given by Geneva, a television advert placed by Nokia was played. This explained the story so far: a strange blue light ("The Tone") has imbedded itself in the bodies of a group of skateboarders, who have been found and captured by an unknown organisation. Only one boarder managed to escape. We learn her name is Alpha when, in the advert, she receives the same phone call all the players received previously. The address of the first challenge then appeared on the screen, warning players to complete the challenge before the 3-day deadline or risk dropping out of the game.

What followed was mainly a series of Internet-based Flash games, which tested abilities such as memorisation, note-making, decision-making, skill and research. One memorable section of the game, "Tunnel", involved a maze of tunnels which had to be navigated in real-time. In order to complete the game in time, many players had to wake up in the middle of the night in order to make their crucial last move before the deadline. Hints, important information, and phone numbers needed to progress in the game were featured as radio adverts, newspaper classified ads (featuring fake phone companies which were used to instantly transport the player to another area of the "Tunnel" maze), further TV adverts and even a full-page article on national newspapers (featuring a photo of Alpha, the player, with the caption, "Have You Seen This Woman?").

The live final was scheduled to take place simultaneously around Europe, and was divided into three sections: a Snake mini-game, a navigation game (which required a map previously printed in a national newspaper), and a quiz section relating to the game's story. Unfortunately for players who did not complete the Snake mini-game within the alloted 15 minutes, the sheer number of requests to the game's server meant the entire site crashed and remained offline for half an hour before emergency SMSs were sent to all players instructing them to log in again and resume the game with an extended time limit.

Nevertheless, this game was extremely popular and is well-remembered for its exciting storyline and sense of reality.

2002: Music City

The 2002 game took players by surprise as it transpired that there would not be an involving storyline, but rather a main stock-trading game in a fictional "Music City", with mini-games included every week in order to rack up extra points. The 2002 game also did not feature any TV clues, only advertising for the game. However, every few days the Nokia Game team would appear in a certain, pre-announced European city and ask the winners of the previous game to help them roll 2 inflatable dice, which would cause a positive or negative effect on the game. The dice rolls, as well as the introductory films, were available for download from the Nokia Game web site.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Nokia Game ]

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