Alternate Reality Games have existed for far longer than most people realize, I just wanted to talk about some of the first ones. (the outro has all the music used in order)
CONTENTS: 00:00
Intro 00:55
Ong’s Hat 04:17
Publius Enigma 09:13
Blair Witch 11:44
The Beast 14:03
ilovebees 16:04
Closing Thoughts
17:10 Outro
Si hoy es miércoles, hay nuevo episodio de #333podcast, el programa que Perra de Satán y yo hacemos con
@PodiumPodcast
. Hoy exploramos las relaciones entre una revista contracultural de los sesenta, el misterio de Ong’s Hat, 4chan y QAnon.
LINK: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6klpVzZoq7I4fqfWK5gzo2?si=2Y1E7CDtQSuJN7oPvGeoNQ
- I then moved on to my three examples, the first of which was Ong’s Hat. Gizmodo produced an excellent overview, Ong’s Hat: The Early Internet Conspiracy Game That Got Too Real. The Ong’s Hat story was created by Joseph Matheny, and his story is excellently told in the two-part Information Golem podcast.
Read the rest of the Orbific article here: https://orbific.com/writing/some-links-on-args/
- Note: I have collected all three parts of the mentioned podcast mini-series here: https://josephmatheny.com/2022/07/05/information-golem-new-mini-series-from-toowi-arts/
The Prop Anon Podcast explores the life and work of American novelist, Robert Anton Wilson through interviews and discussions with some of the most cutting-edge artists and thinkers around today. The Prop Anon Podcast presents interviews with Artists, Journalists, Comedians Comic Book Writers, Scientists, Community Activists, and Musicians as we think of ways to make existence, in the words of Bill Hicks, “a better ride” for everyone on Spaceship Planet Earth!
Joseph Matheny, transmedia Artist and creator of Ong’s Hat, the first Alternative Reality Game speaks about ‘weaponized’ ARGs, propaganda, how to free oneself from mental slavery, and works of Robert Anton Wilson
Tune In, Turn On, and Prop Out!
LP is in Aruba…so Joe Conte keeps his chair warm while KP tells Kahuna and Joe about the mysterious abandoned town of Ong’s Hat, NJ….ghost town, time portal…work of fiction…government cover up??? You tell us when you need to hope off the train…we all know it’s coming. ENJOY!
Page Link: https://player.fm/series/american-loser-podcast/ongs-hat-abandoned-town-or-time-portal
Sometimes the fabric of our world thins out, and people slip through – either from another dimension or into one. So some people think, while others claim it happened to them. Come along on a trip through different times and places, visiting 12th century England, 19th century Germany, Spain, Japan, Mormon mythology and, of course, the United States, including Ong’s Hat, New Jersey – site of the very first internet conspiracy theory.
SECTIONS 01:42 – It’s Not Easy Being Green – The Green Children of Woolpit 05:57 – There is No Map, and a Compass Wouldn’t Help at All – Jophar Vorin from Laxaria 09:33 – The Man from Taured & John Zegrus from Negus-Habessian 16:16 – I Wanna be Your Boyfriend – Breaking up is hard to do for Lerina Garcia Gordo 20:43 – Baby, You Can Drive My Car – The “Gadianton” Canyon Incident 25:23 – Pedro Oliva Ramirez tries to get to Alcalá de Guadaír 27:01 – Carol Chase McElheney visits a Bedford Falls version of Riverside 31:03 – “James Richards” mixes Everyday Chemistry 32:13 – You Can Leave Your Hat On – Joseph Matheny, Ong’s Hat and Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) 43:51 – Travelling in other dimensions
A Portal to Another Dimension in the Pine Barrens
I first learned about Ong’s Hat from Bradley Sands, bizarro fiction writer extraordinaire, back in the late 90s. Hearing the story of paranormal activity happening in a New Jersey ghost town reminded me of other conspiracy theories involving the tri-state area and travelling through space and/or dimensions-like the Montauk Project and the Philadelphia experiment, which I found intriguing at the time. Later, I heard about how groups of people were venturing to Ong’s Hat in search of the secret magical remnants of a secret village of inter-dimensional time-travelling ex-Princeton professors.
Ong’s Hat was alive. It was so because of the active participation of its readers. It had become an urban myth where “legend trippers,” searching for a fun and free night of entertainment, went to the place and then by added interpretations of the everything on the Ong’s Hat internet forum. The story’s enigmatic quality and its exoteric insistence that it was true and not a fiction fantasy made it that more much engaging. However, as you will read, Matheny watched as groups of anonymous people swooped into the forum and attempted to high jack the story he created.
As you will read, it wasn’t just the plot of Ong’s Hat that made it so engaging. It was also the structure. Ong’s Hat is the original alternative reality game. As such it laid the tracks and created the foundation for many of the ARG’s that came after. For those still making sense of and deconstructing the destructive quality of QAnon, which looks to me like a propaganda campaign representing as a distorted and schizophrenic alternative reality game, Matheny’s insights offer a way out of the angry confusion.
