Night Watch Newswatch

Fox Searchlight's Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor) website put additional content up last week and a game called The Hunt up over the weekend. The attention seems to have killed their server tonight, so try this URL instead.

On Sunday, I tried to join as a "Light Other", but ended up as a Witch of the Dark. (Which is only slightly less annoying than being a Vampire. I console myself with the thought that I'm really a Ved'ma and not your ordinary witch.)

It's a fairly simplistic game at the moment. I amassed a ton of points in a very short time (650 or so), mostly by exploring the website and cursing Light players. You have to get 500 points as a Light player and 750 points as a Dark player to become members of your respective Watches. Until then, you can lose points by being cursed or bitten (if you're of the Light) or arrested (if you're of the Dark), so it doesn't behoove you to spend much time logged on in the game. Everyone can earn points from the website, from posting in the forum, or from getting their friends to sign up. You have to have at least 1000 points to be eligible for the prize drawing in August, and IIRC, you need 10,000 points to be eligible for the grand prize of a trip to Russia. So it's pretty much the marketing version of a pyramid scheme; but at least it's a fun pyramid scheme.

If you'd like to see the trailer for Nochnoi Dozor 2, it's on dozornyi.ru.