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How He Found The Cube
Via GameSetWatch an in-depth article on the Alternate Reality Game Network site explaining how Andy Darley found the cube, and completed the first season of the Perplex City game. Written by Darley himself it's an engaging account of what it's like to actually play one of these games, and the process by which the cube's location was discovered. "It was then that I realised I was practically standing on a spot where the topsoil was the colour of the clay that ought to be hidden underneath it. It wasn't 10m from the post, it was slightly further - practically a continuation of the line I'd just investigated, exactly where you'd end up burying something if you walked 10m, stopped, and leaned forward to start digging. Seeing sub-surface clay with just a very thin covering of the material that was several inches thick elsewhere was deeply suspicious." GSW also links to an exhaustive look at an older ARG-in-a-children's-book, the game Masquerade, which is well worth reading up on.
I've read through the article twice now, and I have absolutely no idea what this all is about. Is the Cube some kind of treasure hunt, a fountain of youth, a cult?
Beat spheres into cubes.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
I'm waiting for the PS3 version, though. Think of how much better the graphics will be once they start using the Cell processor!
I guess I'm a bit slow today, but it took me a while to figure out that this wasn't a computer game. I guess Alternate Reality games are computer games that you don't use computers for...you know, what we used to call games, but now we have a high tech sounding term for them.
It sounds like this was a game in England where people buy puzzle cards that gave them clues on how to find a real life object. The person who found the real life object won a 100,000 pound prize by doing so (which, is like, really, really heavy).
So is "Beloved Other Half" British slang, game slang, or this guy just sounding like a whipped puppy who is just happy someone is staying with him? The article really could have done with 'my wife,' or hell, given her a name.
As a perplexcity player, I'll fill in the rest:
Perplexcity involved a series of puzzle cards, which somehow lead to a cube buried somewhere in the damned ground, and a big cash prize to whoever could find it. This also involved some online puzzling and drama, in the usual fashion of these types of games.
From the looks of things (and the whole Cube 2/3 bit), there's multiple cubes buried so that potentially an American player could win without traveling to England. This guy just happened to pull it off first.
Kudos.
A) The finder states he didn't really complete any of the puzzles. Seemed like the whole "game" devolved at the end to a treasure hunt that was prone to sniping. I wonder how others who actually spent money to buy the cards or took the time to solve the puzzles feel about this?
B) The object was hidden on public property. What happens if it was accidentally found / dug up / thown out / etc.? How do you validate that the game is still in progress without tiping your hand? I guess they could have put a GPS tracker in the device?
Seems to me to play the game you would not have to care about either a), b) or the money?
I took a look at the site and thought about playing but I always wondered if it would be worth playing given the amount of time required vs. the reward.
Seems like the game devolved into a treasure hunt at the end where there was a very large possibility of "sniping" throughout.
The idea that the object was physically hidden somewhere was also put me off as that seemed to put a large burden on those outside of the UK. Seems like playing for a year or so only to find out the object was in a place most people couldn't realistically afford to go wouldn't exactly be "fun".
I've also wondered about the end result. Now that the game is "over" and the end location has been "spoiled"; how do people feel about the experience given that they can no longer "solve" the puzzle regardless of the cash reward?
Seems like the only reason to get involved, to me, is the process, not the end result. Which seems kinda odd in some respects.
There's a new Nine Inch Nails ARG based around the new concept albums (Year Zero and (possibly?) Year One). It's driving us crazy and the server's are periodically crashing under the load, so I thought I'd try and slashdot the ARG site to see if that helps :)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
There is only one cube.
http://timecube.com/
-Darkshadow (There was a thing called Heaven; but all the same they used to drink enormous quantities of alcohol.)
...hardly anybody knows that it should be alternative, not alternate.