Sept 25, 2008 – Another countdown hit zero. This one located on Bungie.net, with the target time at 7:07am Pacific. What happened at zero?

A mysterious Bungie.net user named IIIIlll or otherwise known as “The Superintendent” posted two news article recently, including segments of audio log transcripts from ONI (UNSC Office of Naval Intelligence).  Of course, the community analyzed the logs to no end.  But this latest update had everyone refreshing bungie.net’s homepage seconds before the counter hit zero.

The Superintendent has a history of cryptic, vague posts at Bungie.net’s forums. Recently, Bungie had planned to unveil an annoucement, but Microsoft, being their publisher, pulled the plug on their plans just before it was to happen at E3. That didn’t set too well.  So this countdown was eagerly anticipated, to say the least.

On hitting zero, a news article was posted including links to a teaser trailer for what is believed to be a new Bungie game.  Not a very ARGish result in itself, but the trailer does contain many, many, many scenes and frames with text and numbers for people to document and analyze.  Speculation and theories are already running rampant about the time period and the visual content of the trailer. Suffice to say, The Superintendent AI has the starring role in the trailer.

The trailers can be downloaded here:

Quicktime Small
Quicktime Medium
Quicktime Large
Windows Media Player Small
Windows Media Player Medium
Windows Media Player Large

I also managed to export a full frame-by-frame compilation from the high definition trailer, and uploaded the significant frames with visual/transcribable content to flickr, available here

Of significant note are a few frames bearing resemblance to some teaser images posted to bungie.net over the past months of the Superintendent.  Mainly, one phrase has been kicking up a dust storm.  Reported at ComputerAndVideoGames.com, the phrase “Maddie, where are you?” appears to be possibly be connected to the (very real) search for a (very real) missing girl.  A post by Shishka, a Bungie.net “overlord”, indicates it’s “an unfortunate coincidence, but a coincidence nonetheless“, confirmed by Sketchfactor of Bungie.  The phrase was connected to a bebo.com profile with a title of the same phrase, raising awareness for Maddie.
Quite a coincidence it is!

Current speculation is that the trailer is taking place between Halo 2 and Halo 3, from the perspective of New Mombasa as the Covenant Prophet Regret opens his slipstream portal in its skies (recall in the game, the Covenant ship exited slipspace bringing with it tatters of New Mombasa buildings and general destruction – her we get to see how that immediately left the city).  It appears that the Superintendent is an Urban AI located at New Mombasa – perhaps much like a Halo Wall-E!

A date also appears in mangled text in later frames – 01/06/09 – which may refer to January 6, or June 1, 2009.  There’s also a set of numbers that resembles a 1-800 number that appears, but it resolves to a real bank and may likely also just be a coincidence.

Who, or what, is “Vergil”?
And what’s special about “Level 9”?

With so much content, much of it random and undoubtedly insignificant, there’s probably going to be a lot more coincidental connections reported while the trailer is ripped to shreads by the community.  That said, if you still haven’t watched the trailer, GO NOW

So this is in all likelihood not another ARG promotion, but for any Halo fan, there’s certainly more Haloverse campaign goodness on its way…  PREPARE TO DROP

• Frame-by-frame discussion can be found at carnage.bungie.org or at args.bungie.org
• A detailed analysis by Pailkilla05 is readable at podtacular
• An easier Youtube version of the trailer is available
• Visit halo.wikibruce.com to read up on Iris and other recent ARGish/viral campaigns in the Haloverse.

Tags: bungie, halo, microsoft

Categories: ARGs General, Video games, Viral General

DharmaWantsYou.com updated tonight with the 5th task for its recruits, and a new video message.

Each task has had a relatively hidden ‘cheat’ that allows the player to tweak the rules in their favour, and achieve is much higher, if not perfect score.

Tonight’s 5th task once again had a ‘clue’ hidden in the video message viewable once logged in. (though not technically a cheat, it is a hint for a difficult question)

SPOILERS BELOW—————-

(skip to the end if you just want to see the answer and not the process)

In the lower right of the video message is a small white square that flash erratically.  A keen eye would notice that it’s actually morse code.

I managed to get the solve with a little bit of work, but mostly using a combination of short cuts and batch routines, as described below.

I opened the video in an editor, and exported the frames from the relevent range of the video with the morse code, but clipped to the lower right 20×20 pixels (the rest is unneeded).  I sorted the resulting image file list by size (since there would be only two unique ‘images’ thus effectively grouping the ‘dotted’ images apart from the plain).  This made it easy to select and batch rename all the ‘dot’ images for easy reading in sequence.  Once renamed, I re-ordered the file list back to the frame order, transcribed the ‘dot’ and ‘dash’ regions of frames (dashes composed about 4 or 5 frames, where dots were 1 frame each), then ran the result through a morse translator (quicker than doing it all manually), and finally made a few letter/word spacing adjustments, and here’s the result:

- .... . -.-. .... . .- - .. ... .. -. - .... .
T H    E C    H    E A  T I  S   I  N  T H    E
... . --.- ..- . -. -.-. . -... ..- -
S   E Q    U   E N  C    E B    U   T
- .... . ... . --.- ..- . -. -.-. . .. ...
T H    E S   E Q    U   E N  C    E I  S  
- .... . .- -. ... .-- . .-.
T H    E A  N  S   W   E R

• THE CHEAT IS IN THE SEQUENCE BUT THE SEQUENCE IS THE ANSWER

Oh what fun!  :D Now how does this apply to the task…

Question #7/10 is always based on the same formula, the trick question for which this clue is intended.

There is another interesting point, however – the numbers in question 7 appear clickable, where none of the other questions’ numbers are. But clicking doesn’t appear to do anything.
(will update as more info comes in.)

* UPDATE:

An analysis of the flash source code has revealed the purpose of the clickable numbers in question #7, posted over at spoilerTV.  The question shows 3 numbers in a sequence – consider them button 0, 1, and 2 respectively. In short, the example below explains their function:

What is the next number in the sequence?
11, 21, 1211, ______

The answer is 111221. So if you get this question you click button0, button0, button0, button1, button1, button0 (1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1). BAM! There’s your 100% regardless how you did on the previous 6 questions.

So, there is indeed a cheat for Task #7, and the clue’s full meaning has been revealed – “The cheat is in the sequence, but the sequence is the answer.”

• Join in the Lost/Dharma discussion at Unfiction (one of many online communities!)

Tags: lost

Categories: ARGs General, TV Series

A rainbow?  Aurora Borealis?  The Titanic?
I Am Blind.

Someone is.
Recently, ARGN received a mysterious message on its tipline (download and listen here) with an computer-emulated whispering voice saying:

Alone in the darkness. Send your mailing address to 1003@iamblind.org

The email address we’re not sure of yet, because all attempts to email it have resulted in bounced responses.  Perhaps someone else might be figure out an alternate transcription of the email address?

The website, however, contains the single phrase, barely visible: “I am blind”.  Placing your mouse pointer over the phrase causes another sound bite to be played.  This one sounds like a recording in a crowded area such as a mall, where a number of voices are overlaid of people answering this simple question:

The last thing I want to see is…

What does it mean?  One theory is that it’s a viral campaign for the upcoming movie Blindness, releasing Sept 26th.

The final response, however, feels eerily significant:

I would try to remember each day, and maybe if I was successful enough, maybe it would be like I could see again.

• Join in the discussion at Unfiction

Tags: iamblind

Categories: ARGs General, Movies, Rabbit Hole

With the airing of Fringe on the 9th, and the opening of MassiveDynamic.com, I’ve decided to open a wiki for Fringe Extended Reality specific information tracking. There already exists quite a number of general Fringe-related fan sites, wikis, and blogs, but each generally approach Fringe from the TV show perspective.

Not many have detailed online component resources, approaching the franchise from the extended reality campaign direction.  Taking that into account, I’ve created fringe.wikibruce.com to help organize and track online components, how they’re connected to the TV episodes, and linking to general-Fringe-lore websites for detailed canon information.

Also, other major ARGs have completed or are winding down. Gotta keep active :)

If you haven’t seen Fringe, the pilot (and subseqent future episodes) is downloadable via Fox.com/fringe (US only) and via CTV.ca (Canada), and available on Hulu.com.

Visit the extended online components, currently known at www.MassiveDynamic.com, www.GlowingMonkeys.com, and www.ImagineTheImpossibilities.com

Other significant Fringe-related sites:

• Official Fringe website @ FOX
• FringeTelevision.com
• Fringepedia.net
• Fringe Eastereggs
• And now Fringe ERE Wiki

Tags: fringe

Categories: ARGs General, TV Series

With the Fringe TV Series premiering tonight on Fox, the website everyone’s been itching to explore has finally removed its ‘under construction’ facade.

Massive Dynamic is a technology coropration that has developed a number of items in the show in various areas, including weapons testing, robotics, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals. It’s also located in Toronto, Ontario disguised as the Royal Ontario Museum.
… er… well, that’s the outer appearance they used for its office architecture in the pilot episode.

• Fringe premieres tonight on Fox and CTV at 8:00pm Eastern.
• Go and explore what may very well become an immersive extended experience at MassiveDynamic.com
• Take a look at the Fringepedia wiki to get caught up on all things Fringe

*UPDATE:

With the official airing of the Fringe pilot came a number of changes to the show’s content, including a new Massive Dynamic office facade, and some updated mysterious content, such as text on the kayak in Dunham’s dream sequence, writing on a gravestone in the same sequence, the well-known Fringe objects appearing very quickly before commercials, and much more, all hidden in the show.  A new website was also discovered – www.glowingmonkeys.com – written on a poster attached to a street light outside the new MD building.

• To see a great collection of what’s been found, visit the fan site eastereggs.fringetelevision.com.
• Also visit the new ERE Wikibruce wiki at fringe.wikibruce.com

Tags: fringe

Categories: ARGs General, TV Series

August 24th marked the end of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics – the XXIX Olympiad. What most still don’t know, is that it marked the closing of another Multiversal Olympics, celebrating what is known here as The Lost Sport of Olympia.

Without going into details, August 24th was the day that athletes, Agonothetai, from various parallel worlds would perform the necessary deeds open a portal and return to their home worlds, bidding farewell to ours.

To get to that point, they enlisted the help of many, many people in our own world – to learn the Lost Sport of Olympia, to train, and compete with the other worlds, and in doing so bring our worlds closer together, uniting them and allowing the portal to open and send them home.

By August 24th, the closing ceremonies, five teams around the world had trained and qualified to compete in the final olympic sport:
* Team London, Team Tokyo, Team Wellington, Team San Francisco, and Team Salvador.

While the world was focused on the closing ceremonies in Beijing, these teams ran 3-circuit and 7-circuit labyrinths – a blindfolded runner, and a number of individuals forming a living ‘wall’ to guide the runner and keep him/her on route (yes, they can be disqualified!). They competed for the fastest times, and claim to gold, silver, and bronze placements.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: lostring

Categories: ARGs General

This week, Cassie’s voting crew chose Nathan Hale [wiki] as the next injection candidate. Thankfully, it appears another serum being delivered from Base Station Genesis has had far more positive results, and this will be the injection Hale faces this coming Tuesday.

Not only that, Cassie’s actions have been under observation, due to the ‘personal’ nature of some of her interactions with the candidate soldiers – specifically Hale and Khaner. Jarod Daltings has been suspended, and his observations catalogued in the SRPA Terminal [wiki].

But of most importance, is an image discovered in this observation package – a very high quality (1920×1200), surveillance photo of Katee Sackhoff Cassie Aklin. Of course, the image has now been made public, so who knows how many will now have Katee Cassie officially gracing their desktop background.

Download the full image here (or from the original source)

A list of today’s update events can be found on the wiki timeline

• Get involved at ProjectAbraham.com, GetAWarJob.com, and AmericaFirstAmericaOnly.com
• Join in the discussion at Unfiction, SuperHeroHype, and MyResistance
• Track the events and help organize at the wiki – fallofman.wikibruce.com

Tags: 42E, resistance, sony

Categories: ARGs General, Video games

Someone’s been locked up in a warehouse in Thailand and they need our help!  Though, I don’t really know who to trust… I mean, I received this tip from someone named slayher.  That doesn’t sound too reassuring.

hey, i’m not getting a lot of traction with the regular gaming crowd, but i heard youre a good detective?  My brother, 2600, and his gaming team, B Dangerous, are locked up in a Thai warehouse.  They had a run-in with some bad guys after winning a tournament at the Caribbean Club.  tryin to figure out ways to help them help themselves, know what I mean??
 
www.SaveBDangerous.com
 
help me, the bruce, yr my only hope!
oh, bring your friends.  i heard they’re smort.

Despoiler also received a tip this week, although with different content.

Nevertheless, if you’re smort, go get’em!

• Join the discussion at Unfiction

Tags: slayher

Categories: ARGs General, Rabbit Hole

During Comic-Con 2008 in San Diego, many, many things happened.  Viral drops are a growing trend at events such as this, and Year Zero’s headline-making flash–drive–in–bathroom stunts at Nine Inch Nails concerts seems to have opened the ‘flash-flood’ gates.

A number of reports have streamed in of people receiving USB flash drives for various exhibitors – one of which was Sony’s upcoming Playstation 3 game, Resistance 2 – the sequel to Resistance: Fall of Man.

Sony launched their ARG / viral campaign back on July 1st, with a “Popular Technologies” flyer ad in Gamepro magazine, which directed people to GetAWarJob.com.  Since then, numerous videos and content and a few other websites have appeared or been discovered.

But this week at Comic-Con, a few lucky attendees managed to take home a special “America First – America Only” flyer, and a USB flash drive loaded with an image and a video.  The flyer was primarily intending to direct people to AmericaFirstAmericaOnly.com.

But thanks to an unfiction community member, celina63, I managed to acquire the contents of the flash drive.  Neither the image nor the video were ‘new’, at least to the online community already following the campaign, but rather intended to draw Comic-Con attendees/bloggers into the campaign.  The image and video are shown below.

As the video explains, Cassie (Katee Sackhoff!) has been commanded to select individuals from a group of soldiers, who have been transferred to a secret base in Alaska, to undergo a top secret medical experiment – an injection supposedly related to an outbreak of influenza.  But the moral toll the decision is taking on her is too much, and she enlists the help of the online community (hey this is an alternate reality – they had internet in 1950!) to make the decision.

Test subject #2 (the first, shown in the video, was Pvt. Joseph Capelli) has been chosen already – the voting results led to Channing Brown becoming the next injectee.  He was informed on Friday (July 25), and the results of the injection will be made known tomorrow (July 29).
What will happen?

Resistance has a hefty back-story built up from the first PS3 game and other media.  The Resistance 2 ARG looks to expand on the events taking place between the first and second game.

• Get involved at ProjectAbraham.com, GetAWarJob.com, and AmericaFirstAmericaOnly.com
• Join in the discussion at Unfiction, SuperHeroHype, and MyResistance
• Track the events and help organize at the wiki – fallofman.wikibruce.com

Tags: 42E, resistance, sony

Categories: ARGs General, Rabbit Hole, Video games

In less than 5 days now, ARGFest-o-Con 2008 will kick off in Boston, MA.  Last year, ARGfest invaded San Francisco for an awesome weekend of meeting and greeting, joining (most for the first time) community and industry members, puppetmasters and players, lurkers and veterns, young and old, local and foreign, from across the nation and across the continent, ushering in an era of world peace!  Ok… getting carried away.

ARGFest stretches vaguely from Friday through Sunday morning.  People typically arrive anywhere from Thursday through Friday evening, so that entire period is a general social meet and greet and drinkering.  This year, some key elements strengthening ARGFest’s position as an event you don’t want to miss:

1. Friday night, 42 Entertainment (the company behind the TDK ARG themselves) has graciously sponsored 75 free tickets to see Batman: The Dark Knight at 10:30pm!  Tickets are available first come first served to registered ARGFest attendees, though regular tickets can still be bought while supplies last.
2. The team behind the Holomove game will be performing a PM chat Friday at 4pm (which also be available online for those not at ARGFest)
3. There will be a special labyrinth training event in Boston for The Lost Ring ARG on Sunday morning at 11am. Exact location (near the hotel) TBD.
4. If you’ve been to Boston, there’s an attraction called “The Tomb” for which Jason Chrest of AporiACME has performed some magic, granting special reduced group rates (of up to 12) for the experience.
5. Of course there’s the meet & greet cocktail party Friday night (before TDK) at the hotel. Who’d want to miss that?
6. The traditional FestQuest takes place Saturday afternoon!  It’s always a mystery… you never know what’s going to happen… but for some reason it typically ends up gathering everyone for dinner.  Strange.
7. Thanks to bingo-master BrianEnigma, there may very will be another implementation of Buzzword bingo – Unfiction member Bingo!

Much of this event has been made possible thanks to the gracious sponsorship of:

But with additional sponsorship from other organizations, ARGFest has been made possible again this year, with ever-more exciting content.

The panels and speakers planned for this year, taking place through Saturday’s schedule, include:

• ARGs and Extended Media Experiences – Evan Jones, Lance Weiler, Yomi Ayeni, Blair Erickson, and Elan Lee
• Serious and Independent Games – Ken Eklund, Alice Leung, Dave Szulborski, and Brian Clark
• ARGs and the Rules of Engagement – Steve Peters
• The Future of Alternate Reality Gaming – A Speech Blitz of 10 individuals with 3 minutes each (oooh)
• The Expansion of Alternate Reality Gaming into the international arena – Brian Clark, Patrick Moeller, Alexander Serrano, and Geneviève Cardin
• Long Live Unfiction – Sean C Stacey (who else?)
• Player to Puppetmaster – Michelle Senderhauf, Andrea Phillips, Lindsay Mills, Jan Libby, and Jonathan Waite
• Keynote address, The Story Inside: Making ARGs for Fun and Profit  – Dave Szulborski

For full details, how to sign up, where to go, and loads and loads of additional information and excitement, visit the official website: www.argfestocon.com

For other input and details that may not be officially listed (like konamouse’s ARG Museum), see the ARGFest Wiki.

To skip right to signing up (because you’re going to anyway, right?), go now, to the signup page, now!

I am personally arriving in Boston on Thursday evening, hoping to make it to the oh-so-famous Cheers inspiration (Bull and Finch Pub) on Beacon Hill, a few blocks from the official ARGFest hotel.

ARGFest events officially begin Friday night with the meet and greet at the hotel.

Hope to see you there!

Tags: argfest

Categories: ARGs General

A quick two-fer for those of you looking for something to look into, something mysterious, something life-changing?

I recently received a blog comment from haguruma, who links to his blog at kuromoritoshio.blogspot.com, including the following image:

The image also led to EklipseGlobal flickr account.  As a little background, haguruma is one of a number of aliases used by this person.  Pancito did a bit of research at Unfiction.

• Sign up and join in by visiting EklipseGlobal.com
• Follow the discussion at Unfiction

I also received an email from Tyler Mills earlier, simply reading:

Won’t you help me [decode] this, please?

It also included the following attachment

How does one decode a barcode?  Why, by scouring google for a barcode decoder, of course.  After a bit of searching, and trial and error, the linear decoder demo from Intelcom.ru came through very nicely.  The result?

www.deletedthegame.com

Time to go check it out!  The game itself hasn’t yet started, but launches August 15th and much has happened so far, setting the stage.

• Follow the discussion at Unfiction

Tags: deleted, eklipse

Categories: ARGs General

Recently I was privileged to be invited to Hollywood to meet with the company Double Twenty, the creative team behind “The Secret Device” – the Alternate Reality Game tied to Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming sequel film Hellboy II: The Golden Army. I was also granted entrance to the special advanced screening of Hellboy II at the Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood, hosted by Guillermo del Toro himself, on July 1st. Having played “The Secret Device” devotedly, I can certainly say that it successfully had me ramped up for the movie, which I did find quite enjoyable, to say the least! But, this isn’t a movie review…

I had an amazing time meeting the team of Double Twenty and some of their partners for this project, having time to discuss ARGs, Hellboy, HETFET, and many other random topics. I was able to sit down with them and learn more about the company and their practice, and bombard them with questions. Below is the “Double Twenty 20 Questions” session I had with the lead designers, Matt Wolf and Tania Thiele.

GM: Hello and hello! First off, if you could introduce yourself – who you are, what your role is at D20, and, oh I don’t know… your favourite ice cream flavour.

MW: Hello. My name is Matt Wolf, I’m the founder and Creative Director at D20. I’m here with Tania Thiele, she oversees Community Experience for D20. Hmm, favourite ice cream would have to be Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup :)

Continued…

Tags: d20, hellboy

Categories: ARGs General, Puppetmasters

In the past, researchers were lauded and honored for curing a single disease. But what if we could cure ALL illness? No more cancer, no more HIV virus, no more ebola… The suffering of millions could be lifted with a single injection. A working strain of Intragen will mean the end of all disease as we know it.

Brave words we hear all too often from genetic biologists these days. Most recently, it comes from IngenBio.

The owner of that twitter account is recording comments, thoughts, messages, all related to experimentation on this cure-all drug Intragen.  But where is it leading?

IngenBio’s website (IngenBio.com of course) contains some background on the company, including an image of their headquarters.

The site’s whois information lists PCBProductions.com as the primary contact.  Checking their site, we find that Contagion, an industrial band, references “40-CFR-761” – a log code series repeatedly mentioned in IngenBio tweets, along with mentions of video logs in the IngenBio archive.

Archive.ingenbio.com leads to much more “eyes only” information about the company, and Dr. Leonard J. Kendall, Ingen Bio – Senior Director of Applied Biotechnology.  He apparently died in a lab fire on April 16, 1995.  Many test subjects have undergone treatment of the experimental drug, most of whom are now ‘deceased’.

Sending an email to kendall@ingenbio.com returns this reply:

CLASSIFIED
>>INGEN BIO ARCHIVE – EYES ONLY PERSONNEL
INTRAGEN ITC LOG RECORD Recovered video log fragments: 40:CFR1 – 40:CFR40. Kendall, Dr. Leonard J.
– Restored from Kendall lab Fire 04-16-95
<<Kendall>>

Kendall, Evelyn – Surveillance record: incomplete
Thorne, Garrett ? Quarantine Holding. Control 9 – Intragen ITC Adjuvant testing

INFEX Status – UNKNOWN
Secure server login: http://www.infex.tv
978-0-615-21243-2

Returning to PCBProductions, we also find that Infex is a graphic novel in development by Keith Arem and Brandon Humphreys.  It also links to Infex.tv.

A recent IngenBio tweet includes the cryptic phrase: 32.7075.117.1638>32.42.5>117º, 9.8mW>08.07.23
Breaking it down, it’s composed of a number of components:

1. 32.7075.117.1638 is 32.7075, -117.163  (decimal GPS coordinates)
2. 32.42.5>117º, 9.8 is 32° 42.5′, -117° 9.8′  (latitude/longtitude)
3. 08.07.23 is 2008/07/23 – July 23

Other tweets are numbers indicating a countdown which appears to end at midnight GMT, July 24.
Locating the coordinates above, we’re taken to the San Deigo Convention Center, July 23.  The countdown time in local time would be 5pm, July 23.

The San Diego Comic Con event is being held July 24-27.  What mysteries shall be revealed about Infex and IngenBio?

PCB Productions in currently in pre-production on the new Contagion project, INFEX™. Based on the upcoming Graphic Novel created by Keith Arem and Brandon Humphreys.

• Infex graphic novel trailer (watch on youtube)
• Watch Infex.tv for updates
• Follow along discussion at Unfiction

Tags: infex, ingenbio

Categories: ARGs General, Books

One of the 5 lost rings has been recovered!  Or is that one of the 6?

The first ring, “La Sesa Ringo”, was recovered from Wellington, NZ yesterday, after receiving tips from TheO(pposition) about its location.  The Lost Ring is believed to be composed of portions of each of the 5 rings – a composite sculpture made long ago.

This NZ ring was located by solving the tips heard in a private voicemail message left by TheO:

This is Theo agent Dewaldewaard with a report about the transport of La Sesa Ringo, ring number one. The former location of number One was 35,402 stadia in the direction of Hestia 12 from Omphalos number 8. From there, I have shifted the ring 13,550 stadia in the direction of Hestia 7.8. From next Tuesday the ring will be hidden in clear daylight in a gallery in the center of a three circuit left-running labyrinth with a width of 5.51 stadia, where the entrance of the labyrinth falls together with the Tattoo Museum and the cross of the labyrinth is located under an angle of Zeus 12. In order to get hold of the ring, you have to give the ring keeper a password.

Tell the ring keeper the name, according to Hesiod, of the first monster born from the two-headed dog and his sister, who were both born to the mate of the last-born son of our present pan-cosmological state.

After intensive analysis and discussion about where the instructions lead, a team of players in NZ met at the Pop Up Gallery, 57 Ghuznee St (the green peg seen here) and gave the password: Sphinx – ultimately uncovering the first ring.

Around the inside are messages in Braille and Esperanto.

As of this writing, the 2nd ring is in play, somewhere.  Where is it located?  If you can understand this voicemail, join the hunt!  (even if you don’t understand, still join the hunt :)

• Connect with an english speaking Lost Ring community at Unfiction
• Get caught up an check out the game at olympics.wikibruce.com

Tags: lostring

Categories: ARGs General

What is Aladygma.com?
What is the significance of 00 | 11 | 22 | 88?
The site has been active for a number of months, offering strange, cryptic webpages. It began with people thinking it might be related to a Cloverfield movie sequel, but over time, the web pages became less and less related to JJ Abrams’ work. Now the pages are appearing quite random.

The homepage of Alagyma currently shows the instructions: “follow the whitespaces“. If you hit CTRL-A, you’ll notice a number of ‘spaces’ scattered around the page. Clicking on them takes you to the hidden webpages.

As of this writing, the available cryptic pages linked by the whitespace are:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: aladygma

Categories: ARGs General, Viral General

A recent bout of chaotic fiction named “Notes to Mary” has come to a close.  Well, as a game at least.  The creator came forward revealing everything about his original plan, and how he decided to take it a step further… even to the point of ending it in potentially one of the most entertaining ARGish conclusions to date – The Rickroll.  And people liked it!  In a time when ARG imposions and unsatisfactory conclusions seem just around every corner, somehow this one snuck by unscathed.

You can read all about the PARG: Prank Alternate Reality Game here – by “Robert Valdemar”.

The creator does intend to continue his fiction series, but not as an ARG.
Check out the discussion trail over at Unfiction.

Tags: notestomary

Categories: ARGs General, Viral General

The Joker’s just released his HaHaHa Times volume 3.  Once again making light of serious Gotham news, and yanking Batman’s chains.  Check it out

Wednesday morning, on hovering the mouse over the upper left corner of the most recent Gotham Times, the paper slowly smolders to reveal the link to the Joker’s spoof.

Throughout the paper, in typical Joker fashion, are circle words and letters.  The letters spell:

Herrings are red
Corpses are blue
You’re on the right track
But you don’t have the clue

And the words: party, chaos, level, aren’t, twice, world, level, Dent’s, Dent’s, faced, urban

Where’s the Joker taking us now?

UPDATE:
Shortly after, people began receiving text messages from the Joker, containing image attachments labelled 1A.jpg through 6F.jpg.

After aligning all these image attachments in a grid once they were reported in, it was noticed that each image was made up of four smaller patterns.  Replacing each of these patterns in the 12×12 grid with a letter produced a substitution cipher!  The solution to that puzzle was another clue:

color me impressed just use the second letter of the fourth word to the right of each circled five letter word to find out where to go from here

That takes us back to the new HaHaHaTimes from the Joker.  Looking for each five letter word, then the fourth word after each, and the 2nd letter of each of those words results in the Joker’s next game – Red Balloons.

Now, while it’s a fun game in and of itself (YMMV), it’s similar to the Joker’s previous game – LaughTilItHurts – there’s a ticket slot.  The game requires pushing the clowns’ noses to blow up the balloons to exploding within the allotted time.  But if you look closer, the clowns’ eyes turn blue at a certain ‘pressure’.  Try getting each clowns’ eyes blue simultaneously!  If you’re successful, you’ll be given a ticket, and a pass to Inept Lackeys, where the Joker left us a new message:

Hired goons are so unreliable these days. That’s why I only employ the ones who graduated at the top of their class from Clown College (and being opera-lovers didn’t hurt, either). But Maroni’s got his hands full with inept lackeys like little Stevie and Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou, Romeo?  I’ll tell you where they are: sittin’ pretty with a smile on their face. They tried to reschedule their pick up service at Pasquale’s, but things didn’t go according to plan.

HAHAHAHA.

Analyzing this message, and the number of subtle opera-related hints, composer Giuseppe Verdi seemed to be fairly important.  Calling Pasquale’s business number, 1-877-678-7277, forwards you to voicemail, where you have the option of providing a 5-digit administrative PIN.  Guess what?  “verdi” is 5 letters.  Entering 83734 gets you into the voicemail.  The first and only voicemail says:

Hey, Frenchie – me and, uh, Rosolio ain’t gonna to make it to, uh, Sunday Night Crepefest. Something came up – in the Gotham River. I think his name was…Fred. Anyways, we’ll be there Monday night for our ‘box of pastries.’ Baker’s dozen this time, capiche?

This eerily seem to explain what may have happened in regards to to this security feed at the end of LaughTilItHurts…

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Tags: 42E, batman, TDK

Categories: ARGs General, Movies

It certainly hurts, playing the new and frustratingly unending game that’s shown up at Whysoserious.com, care of the Joker.

Earlier today, holders of the Joker’s cell phones received a new text message, though a few variations were reported.  One read:

Welcome to Short-Attention-Span Theater: Align This Tutu Hurl (-un)

The letters of the strange phrase form an anagram which leads to whysoserious.com/laughtilithurts – a typical fairground race game where you spin a wheel, and move ahead a number of spots, trying to beat out 3 other cars.  There’s a ‘skill shot’ spot, however, which if hit, doubles the spinner value and moves your car ahead faster.  So you play.  And play… and play… and scream at the universe… then play some more.

Until you realize that hitting the skillshot spot continuously in a row leads to a colour pattern on the spinner – make note of the colour pattern (of Blue/Yellow/Green/Reds): “bgygbrgbyrygbgybbrbyg”, and manually click that same pattern on the spinner itself (any number works).  The machine spits out a ticket!  Clicking eventually leads to a new location – whysoserious.com/laughtilithurts/static.htm

Security footage of Acme Security Systems – CAM 4131 Dock 138.  Watch carefully.  Before the video ends, you’ll see a familiar face.

The trail continues… watch for updates!

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Tags: 42E, batman, TDK

Categories: ARGs General, Movies

What kind of stunt is Gotham City Pizzeria trying to pull?  Sponsored by Dominoes Pizza, reports are they’re selling their pizzas in new boxes that have cut-out Batman custumes for people to run around in.  And this, just on the heels of Gotham Cable News‘ report of Batman sightings, and asking the public to send in their pictures and videos?  This is just asking for chaos!

Also, Gotham Tonight’s first episode, originally airing only on Comcast On Demand, is now available on GCN.

UPDATE: Free pizzas are to be delivered as part of Gotham City Pizzeria’s one-day-only promotion – today!  Go to their availability map to find out where the free pizzas are available!  Get ordering!  Only 245 will be available across the country!

Check back for updates…

• Follow along the events at the wiki: batman.wikibruce.com!
• Join the hype at Superoherohype, or at Unfiction

Tags: 42E, batman, TDK

Categories: ARGs General, Movies