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Urban Hunt - Another Alternate Reality Game?

Posted by simoniker on from the majestic dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Mysterious murders in an abandoned mental hospital, a strange device that reads and records people's dreams, poetry written by dead people, and a reality TV show production company that has pushed the envelope too far and may have a dark secret they are desperately trying to protect. Just what the hell is going on here? It started when "Casting Call" notices for a new reality TV show called "Urban Hunt" began showing up on several popular reality TV fan sites. A secret message encoded into the autoresponder applicants received led to a urban legends website which featured a story about a failed reality TV show called "Dread House" supposedly set in an abandoned mental institution. This appears, on the surface, to be another Alternate Reality Game like the notable and previously Slashdot-mentioned ilovebees Halo 2 ARG, but there are elements that make this game possibly the most realistic and believable yet. So, is it even a game at all? Help us try to get to the truth at the Unfiction forum and game-specific Wiki set up to discuss the conundrum."

4 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. Possible spoilers... by angryflute · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've been poking around this for a while. This is an elaborate mystery game that is unfolding across a couple of hoax web pages.

    The plot, from what I've gathered, has something to do with an abandoned mental hospital where patiens were experimented on. The experiments had something to do with dreams. There's also an underground sewage network beneath the hospital that seems to factor into this tale.

    The website for the fake TV reality show production company appears to serve as the launch point for this game, as well as offering subtle, hidden clues. But other than for these things, the site itself and the other two reality shows it describes are probably red herrings.

    1. Re:Possible spoilers... by ElectricInkPen · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A quick WHOIS lookup of urbanmythology.net, dreadhouse.com, and urbanhunt.com show all three sites being registered to the same company, "Domains by Proxy" through the same service, "GoDaddy." Dreadhouse on 12-May-03, UrbanMythology on 01-Sep-03, and UrbanHunt on 31-Jan-04.

      --
      Jaron _ at _ ElectricInkPen.com Penning the Web Electric
  2. Re:Too scary for Slashdot by Methuseus · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's more like the average slashdotter doesn't have the games topics on the front page. I know I had to specially enable it for me. And I also know most people are too lazy or don't care enough to do this.

    --
    Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
  3. hmmm by XO · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm thinking this is going to turn out to be some sort of version of that mystery game that EA did that played in real life.. hmm..

    --
    "Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/