So, today is Valentine’s Day. This post is gonna be short because I already ranted about this so-called “holiday” yesterday; instead I’ve chosen to invite you to 2 things that Porto Diao has cooked up for you. Up in the brand-spankin’ new Porto Diao blog, we’ll be posting all of the special events and other things we have in store for you in terms of events and projects, but you can also find all of the info concerning our movements, social experiments, etc. As you might or might not have heard, A couple of weeks ago Yamile and I kick-started a movement of protest against St. Valentine’s day (or rather it’s current incarnation) in the form of “Cupido Must Die!” Ever since then, the response has been mind-blowing and I thank everyone for supporting, seeing the through the bullshit of this bullshit holiday. I think it’s safe to say you’ll have a 2008 “Cupido Must Die!” button when the time comes.

As an add-on to the “non-festivities” of February 14^th, I came up with the idea of protesting in the best way I can so I chose to talk to some friends with the idea of simply going to a park somewhere that’s crowded with musical instruments and food or whatever and do an impromptu gig… thankfully the idea was well-received and a group of us will be chilling out at the Via Argentina park at around 8 PM, if all goes as planned. I stress the point of this being guerrilla, as is with a lot of things organized by Porto Diao; the whole idea of this is to be able to celebrate with people we love and appreciate together in kumbaya harmony without spending a dime… hopefully that goal will be achieved. Also, we’ll be in a very talkative mood so if you see a rowdy crowd of people jamming at the park don’t hesitate to drop by and say hello. There will be flyers being handed out not only of Butterfest’s Deftones Tribute gig coming up soon, but if I get off my ass you’ll also be handed flyers to “Matador!,” Porto Diao’s first “Alternate Reality Game” tournament. What’s Matador!, you ask? Read on!

I’m not gonna spoil everything to you because all of the info you could ever need is at the MAtador! page, but the gist of it is this: an Alternate Reality Game (or “ARG,” for short) is a game where you take the role of whatever the game requires you to be in order to achieve a determined goal. You hear of this in video games all the time (hellooooooo, RPGs?), board and dice games like Dungeons & Dragons and other hardcore geek niches, but whereas in most role-playing games you either don’t have much of a social life and you spent the majority of the game’s running time sitting down concentrating at a board/TV (I know the feeling, too. Final Fantasy VIII consumed me when it came out, and it wasn’t that good of a game to begin with. Same with Ragnarök Online, the son of a bitch), ARG’s take place in the real world, with designated areas of actual real estate as your maps. In this particular ARG we’ve got here for you, we’ve chosen to adapt the tried-and-true “Assassins” spin to it… simply put, every participant of the tournament is an assassin, and with the Matador! tournament we want to see who’s the best of them all… the winner, well… winning a whole wad of cash.

The “map” where the tournament will take place is all corners of the Panama province. There is no limit to how many people can participate in the tourney; in fact, it’s encouraged to tell your friends to participate because the more people participating, the bigger the grand prize will get! The rules are simple: every week-long round you’ll be sent a profile of your opponent via e-mail and your mission is to use the information provided by Porto Diao to find him/her and “kill” her using any of the various methods stipulated in the rules: “guns,” “grenades,” “knives,” “poisons” and “car bombs” are all acceptable forms of assassination, and once a victor emerges he will have to take a picture of his slain opponent and post them on the forums. Assassins can use any kind of transportation and have to abide by the “holy ground” rules as stipulated in the rules… but aside from that, assassins can do anything in order to kill their opponent. And we mean anything.

Alliances can be formed. Information can be sold. Challenges can be made. Porto Diao can choose at any time to raid and “kill” members at will, just as much as they can put a bounty on any given member at any given time. All of this information can take place either in the Porto Diao forum or in any type of communication… really man, the way you can spin this game around are too many to count. Be creative and you can get to the final!

You can read more about the rules, know about how exactly the “weapons” thing works and begin the sign-up process by hitting the “Matador” page. You can also leave comments in the F.A.Q subsection if you’re still confused about anything. The tournament kicks off in May, so get to recruiting and honing your assassin skills… the game of a lifetime is gonna begin soon! If you want to help raise awareness of the tournament and therefore have even more fun participating (as well as fattening the jackpot) please steal this flyer and print it out; post one in your office, college, community center and tell your friends about it… I believe this can be something really special.

By the way, have you seen ButterFest TV episode 3 already? It’s quite funny.

Share This