Levi’s is stepping up. Check out this Press Release about a new game and contest with a $100,000 prize, and the chance to choose any non-profit charity for which Levi’s will match an additional $100,000 donation. Relevant links following the release.

LEVI’S® BRAND BURIES $100,000 SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA WITH THE CHALLENGE TO PIONEERS TO “GO FORTH”

The Denim Leader will match the $100,000 fortune for a philanthropic chance to change the future.

SAN FRANCISCO (October 5, 2009) ­ The Levi’s® brand challenges today’s pioneers to uncover a $100,000 fortune buried somewhere in America by solving the question “Who was Grayson Ozias IV and where is his fortune?”

Launching October 5, 2009, at levi.com/goforth, this interactive challenge invites participants to solve mysteries as they unfold, keep up with other players or go for the gold themselves with the final cipher. It is a mystery, wrapped in a puzzle and an adventure across our country.

“The question we asked ourselves was ‘how do we bring the spirit of Go Forth to life out there in the world?  How do we bring the unique history and rich legacy of the Levi’s® brand to life in a fun and compelling way?’ The story of Grayson Ozias’s lost fortune seemed like a mystery just waiting to be solved,” says Doug Sweeny, Vice President of Levi’s® Brand Marketing.

Grayson Ozias IV Fortune

The narrative behind the challenge follows Grayson Ozias IV, a fictional character based on the Levi’s® brand’s pioneering and innovative spirit, on his adventures across America until his 1896 disappearance into the wilderness, after hiding his considerable fortune. Grayson Ozias IV was a friend of Levi Strauss’s nephew Nathan, so the story goes, who recorded newly discovered details about Grayson’s journey that hint at the final hiding place of his fortune. These newly discovered recordings and the story they tell will lead participants on a new adventure of discovery.

The story of Grayson’s 1890s adventure exploring America will guide our modern-day event. The game’s scavenger hunt leads to many cities and towns across America, each a part of Grayson’s journey, encourages players to step out from behind their computers and will lead some lucky player into the real world directly to the buried treasure. Each task triggers the next clue in the challenge.

The ongoing puzzle, an elaborate cryptogram, requires a combination of knowledge, skill and determination. The players will be receiving clues and pieces of the puzzle from launch to finish. The first player to crack the final puzzle and send it to the Levi’s® game team will win Grayson Ozias’s buried fortune.  Players can also win other great prizes throughout the journey.

The Levi’s® brand is not only awarding the Grayson Ozias IV challenge winner with $100,000, the participants of the challenge will be given the opportunity to nominate and vote for a U.S.-based non-profit organization to receive an additional $100,000 gift from the blue-jean-inventing icon. Sweeny adds, “This is the legacy of Levi Strauss who himself donated a robust portion of his first earnings to a local orphanage that the company still supports today. This began the company’s tradition of sharing its prosperity with the community.”

The hidden fortune is the third expedition from Levi’s® Go Forth campaign, first launched July 1, 2009. The campaign will be supported heavily in digital social media (Facebook, Twitter), online via rich media and offline (ESPN The Magazine).  The first two expeditions—the New Declaration and the New Americans—were an homage to today’s America.

 

About Levi Strauss & Co.

The Levi’s® brand epitomizes classic American style and effortless cool. Since their invention by Levi Strauss in 1873, Levi’s® jeans have become the most recognizable and imitated clothing in the world ­ capturing the imagination and loyalty of people for generations. Today, the Levi’s® brand portfolio continues to evolve through a relentless pioneering and innovative spirit that is unparalleled in the apparel industry.  Our range of leading jeanswear and accessories are available in more than 110 countries, allowing individuals around the world to express their personal style.  For more information about the Levi’s® brand, its products and stores, please visit http://levi.com.

While the contest itself is open only to the United States, anyone can participate and enjoy the game.  And in case you hadn’t noticed:  “G“rayson “O“zias “IV“(th)  ;)

Links:

• GoForth.Levi.com
• Grayson Ozias IV on Facebook
• Grayson Ozias IV on Twitter
• GoForth discussion at Unfiction

Tags: goforth, levis

Categories: ARGs General, Miscellaneous Products, Viral General

What did you see?

Back in April, a commercial for an organization named The Mosaic Collective aired on ABC, forwarding people to themosaiccollective.com. Visitors were asked to report into a database what they saw during a very brief flash of an image on screen. The collective would then generate a mosaic of these ‘visions’ for the public.

Recently, The Mosaic Collective has begun collecting more extensive visions from people regarding their 2 minute and 17 second “Flash Forwards” – visions of their lives six months in the future, which everyone on earth experienced during the GBO (Global Blackout).

I was one of the fortunate few to meet up with the collective at Comic Con in San Diego in July, and was able to finally get my flash forward reported and off my chest. I met Mosiac Task Force Intelligence Analyst Marcie Turoff who was intrigued by my vision and asked some followup questions after my report. However, I’m uncertain if this is something I should have done, given the personal and sensitive nature of my vision. But it could end up taking one of two directions: reporting my vision ends up changing the future and I no longer have to worry about my safety, or reporting my vision has made my eventual knowledge public and inevitably leads to that very future and the danger I will soon be faced with.

Judge for yourself. The Mosaic Collective has published my report via their Youtube account. I truly hope this changes things.

The Mosaic Collective is “dedicated to connecting the world one experience at a time.” The GBO wreaked havoc across the earth as 7 billion people blacked out simultaneously for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. Many did not survive. The rest were left dazed and confuzed, having to make sense of what just happened. The Collective aims to unite humanity with their efforts to paint a mosaic of the future by analyzing as many flash forwards as they’re able to get a hold of.

An investigative journalist, Oscar Obregon, reporting for Truth Hack (Youtube), described the collective this way:

Mosaic’s general approach is an interesting one; in one way they’re offering the public a service – an international clearinghouse to find corroborating information for FlashForwards. At the same time, they’re building a database that could potentially create a a vivid portrait of our collective future – and possibly explain whatever could be behind the GBO [Global Blackout] itself. It’s not quite open source, but it’s close, and seeing the Bureau embrace a more “web 2.0” approach speaks well of Wedeck’s instincts.

Something is believed to be scheduled to happen at JoinTheMosaic.com on August 16th.  Keep watch!

---

Flash Forward is a new ABC TV series slated to premiere September 24th.

For more information, visit these sites:

• Official ABC Flash Forward Homepage
• Flash Forward @ Wikipedia
• Flash Forward promo spot

Here are some campaign sites to get you connected:

• TheMosaicCollective.com
• TruthHack.com
• JoinTheMosaic.com
• whatdidyousee @ Twitter
• truthhack @ Twitter

And of course, there is an Unfiction community discussion you can join in as well.

Tags: abc, flashforward, mosaic collective

Categories: ARGs General, TV Series, Viral General

August 5th, primetime, Fox launches a new viral.  Reports are popping up all around the blog-o-sphere that hidden within commercials during shows including So You Think You Can Dance and Hell’s Kitchen was this very short teaser commercial:

Simple, really.  A caduceus, with a cane as the centerpiece.  The teaser quotes the website SnakesOnACane.com.  This website contains the same basic information, with one change, however: There is a countdown timer (staple of ARG/Viral hype!) counting down to September 21, 2009, 8pm (local time).

The leading theory about this teaser is that it is in fact the beginning of a promotion for the season premiere of the hit Fox TV drama House, M.D., of which I am a huge fan.

Well, looking quite a while back, on the ARG Netcast episode 24 from May 13 2007, the panelists were asked for what property they would love to see an ARG created.  This happened to be an episode I was present for as a panelist, and after contemplating the question for some time, I was obliged to answer House!

Have TPTB at Fox heard my cry for a House ARG?

Doubtful. Will this turn out to be the next great TV ARG?  It’s hard to say right now, but my guess is – No. Like the witty doctor House once said, “…like the philosopher Jagger once said, ‘You can’t always get what you want.'” Unfortunately. While I’d love to see a House ARG, I don’t think the show is necessarily all that conducive to an ARGish experience, though I could be wrong (I hope I’m wrong!).  But for now I believe this may just be another viral campaign to drum up interest and press.

It is, however, working.  And I for one, am excited to see what will be pulled from this little hat.

“The problem could be neurological. Everyone knows TV rots your brain.”

(bonus points if you know the quote that inspired the title of this article!)

UPDATE / Aug 10

Snakesonacane.com has updated. A minor update, but the link to House is now quite obvious.

“I was deluded into thinking I was crazy”

Tags: fox, house, snakesonacane

Categories: TV Series, Viral General

It has been a busy summer. Year, even. But two days from now, a community of alternate reality gamers and creators, media and casual folk, fans and fanatics, will descend on Portland, Oregon for the annual ARGFest-o-con.  2009 marks the 6th year of the ‘con, which began as a group of friends gathering for a meetup in Las Vegas. It’s certainly come a long way!

My flights are booked, hotels reserved, and later today I’m heading out for the trip to Portland.  ARGfest has always been an amazing experience, both socially, educationally, and professionally. That it’s also highly entertaining goes without saying.  If you’re also registered for attendance, keep an eye out for me and say hi! :)

For more information about ARGFest and the events of the weekend, be sure to bookmark and visit ARGFestocon.com.  Watch for new announcements, teasers, press, editorials, photos and videos, and much more to come out of the ‘con.  Catch up on the latest discussion at the Unfiction thread.

---

Not to be outdone, after the ARGFesters have dissipated, I’ll be attending the San Diego Comic Convention the following week.  There, all forms of entertainment are present and respresented, from comic book artists, to TV shows, to video games, to upcoming major theatrical releases, and of course many fans decked out in their favourite characters’ costumes.  It’s a sight to behold!

This will be my first attending of the SDCC, and to say I’m extremely excited is an understatement. Be sure to watch this space for updates, news, rumours, and – hopefully – intimations of upcoming ARGs and quality promotional campaigns!  These events are hot spots for mysterious happenings and hints of upcoming announcements. Let’s hope there are some upcoming campaigns with some meat, some substance!

At the very least, there will be a sore lack of sleep, lots of talking, lots of news, definitely lots of photos, and many announcements.  Watch this space for updates!

Two years ago Comic-Con was host to a part of Batman: The Dark Knight‘s campaign Why So Serious, with a live event and lots of fanatical attendee activity. Last year, Comic-Con saw dropping of content related to Resistance 2‘s campaign Project Abraham.  What might this year hold?

We shall see…

As above, if you’re also planning to be in attendance, watch for me – the guy with the black Canadian ball-cap – bold red maple leaf in the front! :)

Tags: argfest, comiccon

Categories: ARGs General

Elan Lee, co-founder of Fourth Wall Studios and long-time ARG Puppetmaster, recently tweeted that a new paper he co-authored about ARGs and storytelling had been published online.

Titled “Storytelling in new media: The case of alternate reality games, 2001-2009“, authors Jeffrey Kim, Elan Lee, Timothy Thomas, and Caroline Dombrowski cover and discuss a variety of Alternate Reality Games that took place over the past 8 years, and compare their strengths and shortcomings.

Abstract:

New media allows previously passive consumers to tell and shape stories together. Yet most information is still disseminated in a top–down fashion, without taking advantage of the features enabled by new media. This paper presents five Alternate Reality Game (ARG) case studies which reveal common features and mechanisms used to attract and retain diverse players, to create task–focused communities and to solve problems collectively. Voluntary, collective problem solving is an intriguing phenomenon wherein disparate individuals work together asynchronously to solve problems together. ARGs also take advantage of the unique features of new media to craft stories that could not be told using other media.

You can read the entire paper at UIC.edu.

Tags: discussion, media, meta

Categories: ARGs General, Educational, Puppetmasters

April 23, 2009, ARG designer, beloved husband, father, and friend Dave Szulborski passed away. 

As announced by Dee Cook at unfiction:

Dave Szulborski passed away last night after a long and incredibly courageous battle with leukemia. He leaves behind his wife Marianne, his baby son Tyler, and many many friends both online and in the real world.

If you are interested in attending the funeral services, here’s the information:

Sunday night, visitation at Long Funeral Home, 500 Linden Street, Bethlehem, PA from 6-8 PM.

Monday morning, memorial service at St. John’s Windish Lutheran Church, 617 East Fourth Street, Bethlehem, PA at 11 AM.

If you would like to send along your respects:

It was Dave’s wish that in lieu of flowers, people contribute towards his son’s education. You can do so by sending a check to the following:

Long Funeral Home
500 Linden Street
Bethlehem, PA 18018

Make the check payable to Long Funeral Home, and put “Tyler Szulborski Education Fund” in the memo.

Also, there is a memorial page posted at the funeral home site where you can write in the guest book, and there will be an obituary posted on The Morning Call tomorrow.

Last, Dave’s wife Marianne would love to hear from you and keep in touch with the community. Her email address is beachmomma8991SPLATaol.com. She said that she is going to put some of the strings of cranes in with Dave to rest.

I personally met Dave only a couple of times, through the annual ARGFest events.  Last year, Dave S. graced us with his presence in Boston, and providing the Keynote address: “The Story Inside: Making ARGs for Fun and Profit”.  Fun always came first.

Two years ago, I had the privilege being selected as Dave’s Secret Santa at Unfiction.  I was floored, and immediately felt that pressure of hoping to find a gift that would be greatly appreciated (knowing, of course, he would appreciate any gift at all).  I gave him a copy of a book he was hoping to read at some point. And as is quite common, I made up a special puzzle for him to solve on receiving the book.  I never found out if he solved it. As a matter of fact, I never even found out whether he liked the book or not.

I was also privileged to be on the receiving end of some of Dave’s ARG swag from a game called Monster Hunters Club for the foreign film The Host.  My name was drawn randomly from entrants to receive – to save – an old collectible monster figurine or action figure.  On my doorstep a short while later was some unique ARG swag from the game.  Don’t worry, Dave.  Bionic Bigfoot will be safe from harm.

It was only two months ago, precisely, that I blogged about Dave’s condition, happy that was back out of the hospital and doing fine. Funny how fast things can change.

The few times I met him and spent time with him, he made an enormous impression. I recently bought his book “This Is Not A Game“, and am slowly reading through it. Dave was a brilliant, creative, intelligent game creator.  Others who’ve known him on a far more personal level and who’ve worked with him are expressing the same sentiments. He was a wonderful leader and inspiration to us all.

This article can’t possible describe all that Dave has done, or even come close to paying a satisfactory homage to the man.  So I resign to simply share my personal reflection of his influence in my life.

Dave, you will surely be missed.

(Please review the announcement above for information about Dave, memorials, donations, and others sharing about Dave)

Tags: dave szulborski

Categories: Puppetmasters

Abrams’ next big screen gem will officially be hitting theatres in 2 1/2 weeks, and the virals are finally ramping up.

Long ago, the website NCC-1701.com was activated, displaying four security camera angles of what appeared to be the construction of a very large vessel (the Enterprise, of course), and it drew throngs of interested followers. This week, however, the website went offline (rather, it now redirects to StarTrekMovie.com) after many months of inactivity, to the disappointed sighs of many fans looking forward to some high quality visuals and experiences.

Replacing it, however, is a very subdued, mysterious multi-lingual chat session occurring between five individuals, believed to be operating under the pseudonyms Si, Ca, Al, Fe, and O. The mystery has ongoing coverage at the fan site TrekMovie.com, first reporting on April 10th about a number of binary-URL websites that were discovered.

Later, an individual named Malak0 reported finding a device in France, and wanted to return it to its owner, but no one could convince him they were the rightful owner. TrekMovie.com covered it on April 15th.

Once again, the website containing the chat between the five individuals was updated with more chatting, as outlined on April 17th.

Most recently, these chatting individuals were discovered to have transferred to Twitter in order to better converse.  Primarily, User #4 and #5 have been active.  This was reported April 20th.

• PHPChatUser1
• PHPChatUser2
• PHPChatUser3
• PHPChatUser4
• PHPChatUser5

(You can also follow the ARG happenings by tracking the twitter keyword #startrekarg)

Today, however, Malak0 decided to share a video where he shows off the strange PDA-like device.  The video is entirely in French, and begs an English translation (or whatever language you may otherwise prefer).

If you are able to translate the video, please comment below. (update: A full english transcript has been added to the wiki)

I had previously set up a wiki, prepared to update with happenings at NCC-1701.com, but it is still a great tool to keep up to date with the happenings of this particular viral.  You can read the chat transcripts and catch up with other details at:

startrek.wikibruce.com

You can continue continue conversing with the Trek community at any of the articles linked above, or you could also join the discussion and coverage at Unfiction.

 

Tags: abrams, star trek

Categories: ARGs General, Movies

On April 3rd, NASA made a startling discovery – the Chandra X-Ray Observatory photographed what could only be described at “The Presence” – a strange phenomenon photographed in recent years. 
Described by Gradiosity:

A buddy and I were getting our asses kicked by a couple cops after they caught us tagging a wall. I remember hearing this crack like thunder right overhead. Next thing I knew, we were all standing there, looking up like baby birds. One of the cops was crying. We were all shaking. It was like realizing I’ve spent my whole life underwater and finally looking up and seeing *real* life on the other side of the surface. The cops just left us, just forgot about us. But we didn’t notice because we’d forgotten about them.  (source)

And now, has The Presence been captured by NASA’s Chandra Observatory?  CNN has also reported NASA’s finding.  You be the judge…

This, on the heals of two nebulous tweets reportedly posted on April 2nd from Trent Reznor saying:

At this stage in my career, there’s few profession-related situations that truly make me nervous. Walking into one right now.

YZ is alive.

The second tweet has since been deleted.

The Presence first made its appearance in an ARG by 42 Entertainment, partnered with Nine Inch Nails, for their edgy album Year Zero.

Yes, this is a real astrophotograph, a real nebula.

Tags: year zero

Categories: Viral General

(updates appended below; most recent update: Sep.25.10 – Please see disclaimers at the end of the article before commenting)

Today, big things happened. The Box was opened. (ongoing updates appended)

The viral nature of this production certainly did its job. The original video on youtube had a description which was consistently updated every few days. But the description was a countdown. It now reads:

000000000000000000
000000000000000000
0000…………………..0000
0000……OPEN……0000
0000……..THE…….0000
0000……..BOX…….0000
0000…………………..0000
0000…………………..0000
www.whatsinthebox.nl
000000000000000000

So what happened? We still don’t know… but something. All content indicates that events are taking (have taken?) place in the year 2018, August 6th. Supposedly this is when the events of the video take/took place.

Read on to find out all that’s been discovered, and dig in to the story…

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: babel research, whatsinthebox

Categories: Grassroots, Viral General