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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).
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.
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
Well there's also the fact that they are starting up Season 2 next month. Plus you can still solve the cards for thier own puzzle sake. Some are fun. Some are frustrating. And earning the points will get you rewards. (when you earn X amount of points you earn a Leitmark. And they actually send you a pin/badge in the mail.) Its a small reward vs cost but its something. :)
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.)
It's a pay-to-play game, not a pay-to-win game. It's not even very unusual - nobody buys a board game, or a computer game, or pumps their cash into WoW just to win a "big prize"; they do it to enjoy the gameplay and social interaction with other players. The same goes for the puzzle cards in Perplex City.
Seems like the only reason to get involved, to me, is the process, not the end result. Which seems kinda odd in some respects.
Really? Isn't that true of every game? If I put down my money for a Monopoly set or a copy of Half-Life 2 or a WoW subscription, am I really only doing it for the "end result", or am I interested in spending time playing the game?
Putting money into something to get a guaranteed end result is called investment...