Midnight Madness X.

[angledge]

This weekend, I am playing a new game. This game is called Midnight Madness.

Now you know as much about it as I do.

OK, OK – I actually know a little bit more than that. MMX (so called because this is the game's tenth iteration) is a species of urban game/alternate reality game. The name & idea seem to have come from a 1980 movie, Midnight Madness.

I have recruited an eleven-person group to form Team Heliotrope (all teams must use a color for their name, a detail that matches the movie). Our players are: hotpantsgalore, katieledge (who told me about this game in the first place), chaosvizier, marasca, a new acquaintance named petit_chou, & a bunch of non-bloggers. So far, all we know is that the game will start some time on Saturday night. The boundaries of previous MMs have been defined as Houston Street, 34th Street, & the East & Hudson Rivers - BUT games have left those boundaries, too. The basic form of the game seems to be a scavenger hunt. We will be given a starting point & there we will find a puzzle. Solving that puzzle will lead us to the next clue. Onward, until someone wins.

I only have three communications channels with the game operators (called "GameControl", another detail from the original movie). First, there is an MMX messageboard. Currently, the messageboard contains mostly smack-talk & speculation. Other than the messageboard, I have received two emails from GameControl. One let me know that my team registration had been accepted. The second message contained instructions for registering my cell phone & a team password with GameControl’s text messaging server. So... really, we know next to nothing.

But we're excited! One member of our team has played several other urban games before but the rest of us are complete n00bs. The MM website has messageboards from several previous incarnations of Midnight Madness, & some of those games lasted all night & took teams all over the city. I counted 13 possible team names in the chatter on the messageboards - we could be facing a large field. We will be armed with nothing but cell phones, maps of the city, & our wits.

Wish us luck.

Edit: new email from GameControl. We're starting at 8:00 PM somewhere in Riverside Park! They will email us a map tomorrow. Squee!!

Comments

[kielbasa-007.livejournal.com]

damn this sounds AWSOME!
I remember the movie and thought it was just all about "real" college life-- of course I was 12 at the time. But the movie did have some nice hooters to oogle.

[susimoscoso.livejournal.com]

that sounds like fun! don't forget your metro card!

[bad-latin.livejournal.com]

God, that sounds ridiculously cool. I am seething with jealousy and a sudden desire to move to New York after I graduate.

Have tons of fun! Good luck!

[effrontery.livejournal.com]

I read about this somewhere, and I've been wanting to play! If you do it again, I'd love to come up if I could make it. And good luck, can't wait to hear all about it. :)

[angledge.livejournal.com]

...I've been wanting to play!

We're allowed up to twelve players....

If you do it again, I'd love to come up if I could make it.

The organizers say this is the last time they're doing it.

[effrontery.livejournal.com]

Ah, my mom's here all weekend, or I'd totally be into coming up. Oh well, hope it's a blast and can't wait to hear about it!

on with the adventure...

[buglife5.livejournal.com]

Good luck...I've heard of there games before, from my friend who lives there as well. She might even be involved with this one, I'll have to ask.

Anyway, she says it's tons of fun...enjoy.

Doreen

[angledge.livejournal.com]

I wanted to rent that movie tonight but Blockbuster doesn't have it.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

We are making sure everyone has a Metrocard, several maps (park map, borough map, bus map, etc.), rain coat (30% chance of thunderstorms at game start time (http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=10001&hourly=1&yday=236&weekday=Saturday)), cell phone, & flashlight.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

According to the plan my subconscious has mapped out (http://angledge.livejournal.com/227006.html), everyone has to move to NYC by 2010 so you might as well get a move on.

[funkyplaid.livejournal.com]

I'm near my phone just in case...and when we can start breaking out the Midnight Madness film quotes, all will be right with the world. Good luck!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

You would've had so much fun with this. Well, OK, two hours sitting in the gutter on East 9th Street considering that I might actually be too stupid to play this goddamned game wasn't too fun, but the rest of the night was awesome!

If I ever hear about one of these with enough lag time, you & H* are going to have to come out to play! And if you hear about one in San Francisco that you want to play, please call me!

Re: on with the adventure...

[angledge.livejournal.com]

So, did you find out if your friend played? What team?

[funkyplaid.livejournal.com]

Oh, you bet, baby. This kind of thing makes me pucker with delight. You might be interested in the craze that Seth and Lara introduced me to in Scotland last month: http://www.geocaching.com/

When they come over in September, we're going to dig all over the place. I think you'd really love this stuff.

And congratulations on finishing the game!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

One of my uncles just completed a huge geocaching adventure in the deserts of central Oregon. It sounds pretty cool!

[angledge.livejournal.com]

We finally got to see the movie last night & it was fucking HILARIOUS. Horrible. And hilarious. And horrible.