WEBVTT - What are alternate reality games? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:08.959 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:17.720 tech Stuff from how Stuff Workstop coming, Hello everybody, and 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.000 welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polette and 0:00:20.000 --> 0:00:22.720 I'm the tech editor here at how stuff works dot com. 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.239 Sitting across from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.920 Hey there, Crispy, you know the baron wants to talk 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.120 to you. Baron, Yes, he said it was urgent, but 0:00:33.320 --> 0:00:36.879 that sounds even worse. Yes, apparently you have to get 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.960 to Cairo by midnight. That doesn't but I have improv 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:46.240 workshop tonight. That's it's too late. That's all improvise. UM. 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:48.320 So you might be wondering what we were just doing. 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:50.800 I was because we didn't talk about that before I 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:53.960 started recording. I just sort of thought about it based 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:55.760 on the topic that we picked for to right, the 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.720 topic that was suggested by a listener. So let me 0:00:58.800 --> 0:01:03.520 read this and introduce is a brand new segment. Yes, ready, 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:13.160 it's listener tweets. Yes, this listener tweet comes from Emily, 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.160 and Emily, aside from being totally awesome, said I think 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:21.319 we need a podcast on alternate reality games, and I agree, Emily. 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:24.880 So this is it. We're gonna talk about alternate reality games, 0:01:24.880 --> 0:01:31.880 which are a very interesting, sometimes peculiar, incredibly addictive form 0:01:32.000 --> 0:01:36.120 of gaming. It's also considered a form of marketing in 0:01:36.160 --> 0:01:38.080 a lot of instances. Well, yeah, there are a lot 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:39.840 of a lot of the alternate reality games that are 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:42.440 out there are actually part of some sort of marketing 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.600 uh strategy. As a matter of fact, the very first 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.200 one I read about, the very first one. There was 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.320 one that went before the major one, but there's one 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:56.320 that's credited as starting off the entire uh fad. So 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.520 but we'll we'll get into that first. Let's kind of 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.840 try and explain what reality game is. This a little complicated, 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.200 all right. So you've got role playing games, and in 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:07.560 role playing games, you take on the role of a 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.600 character living in some other world and you try to 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.440 have that character achieve certain goals and achieve certain tasks, um, 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:20.200 in very in some format. Yeah, and um, the point 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.079 of a role playing game is to imagine what it's 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:25.799 like to be that person. So, I mean, if you're 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.160 playing somebody who may not be able to smell very well, 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:31.720 and you get in a situation where everyone else might 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:36.440 smell something deadly like you, yeah, but you totally don't 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:41.040 notice because you can't smell well exactly, thanks, but I'm saying, 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:43.160 you know, you have to imagine what it's like to 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:47.160 be in that person's shoes, and so you might know. 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:50.359 They might say the person who's running a game might say, 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:53.160 you know, this deadly thing is waiting around the corner 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:55.920 for you know, what are you gonna do? And you 0:02:55.960 --> 0:02:58.000 have to go, well, you know, my character has no 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.919 idea that that's there. What am I know? My character 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.480 would walk through the door because he doesn't know what's 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:07.679 going on, right, and everyone else is saying, no, leroy, no, 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:15.280 he's back Lee Rod Jenkins. Um. Yeah. The so the 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:17.200 idea behind a role playing game again is that you're 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:20.920 playing a role and there are all yes, exactly, there 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:22.680 are all sorts of role playing games there. You know. 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:24.720 Of course, Dungeons and Dragons is the one that that 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:26.919 people bust out all the time because it was sort 0:03:26.960 --> 0:03:31.320 of the role playing game. Um, it was certainly played 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.480 a very important part in my childhood. And then there's 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:36.480 those you know, role playing games that they get you 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.600 to do for a team building and you're, you know, 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:42.040 company when the stairs and go. Okay, so you're trying 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.240 to sell your car, right? Those are far more fun 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:47.600 than No, okay, no they're not. No, they're not fun 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.000 at all. Please stop doing that. I used to work 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.000 for a company that used to do those. Um yeah, 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:57.280 I'm not proud of that. So alternate reality games, it's different. 0:03:57.440 --> 0:04:00.240 That's slightly different. Now. Alternate reality games what they do 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:04.400 is they span two worlds. There's a fantasy world in 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:08.360 which the game is actually kind of a real a 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:11.360 real thing, all right, and then there's the real world 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:15.760 where it's a game. It's yeah, that's the whole point 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:18.400 of the alternate reality game. So let's say, let me 0:04:18.440 --> 0:04:20.560 give you an example. I'll give you the example. The 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:24.520 first game that really launched alternate reality games, which was 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.359 commonly known as The Beast. Now. The Beast was part 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:33.600 of a viral marketing campaign for the movie AI, the 0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:39.119 Kubrick Spielberg film with um, what's his face in it? 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:45.600 Haley Joe Osmond? M Um, well, where's he been anyway? 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.000 So Haley Joe Osmond playing this little robot character blah 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:54.840 blah blah. Really interesting. Kubrick's last film, uh, What got 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.560 a lot of people interested in this movie, wasn't the preview, 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.600 wasn't the poster? Well kind of wise, but for the 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:08.640 reason Head gears, it's because there were little clues left 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:13.920 behind that something weird was connected to this movie, and 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.839 the the marketers kind of took a big gamble, uh 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.880 and hoped that people would notice the weird stuff and 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:26.279 that that would precipitate this alternate reality game. And it did. 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:28.920 If you looked at the poster, if you looked at 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:33.200 the credits that were listed on the previews, you started 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:36.400 to see odd little messages, and by putting it together, 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.520 you began to find out that there was a murder 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:43.560 mystery connected to this world that the movie is about. 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:46.880 If you played a little bit longer, you would discover 0:05:47.040 --> 0:05:50.360 that the mystery exists in a world that's forty years 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:55.479 after the main events of the film. AI all right, so, uh, 0:05:55.520 --> 0:06:00.400 you know that's the mystery inhabits this this fictional world old. 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.200 But as you start to play, you begin to have 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:07.799 an impact on this fictional world, and ultimately you begin 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.839 to be able to contact people within this fictional world 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.040 and they can contact you, and you become an active 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:18.200 participant in a game that again exists in a in 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.719 a world of fantasy, but it's bled over into the 0:06:20.720 --> 0:06:23.239 world of reality to the point where some people playing 0:06:23.240 --> 0:06:25.760 the game might get a phone call or a text 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.080 message or facts three in the morning and it would 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:31.680 have something to do with this game, and then by 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:35.240 following the instructions or solving a puzzle, they would get 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:38.520 further along and get one step closer to solving the mystery. 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:43.520 So it's completely immersive. It is incredibly immersive in a way. 0:06:43.640 --> 0:06:46.240 It kind of changes your life into an action movie 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:50.680 because you become a character who, through your actions, you 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.919 can make a big impact on this this story, and 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:57.279 it feels like you're suddenly in the Bourne identity or something. 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.440 It's amazing because you know, you get the feeling like 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:04.320 you're really important. Yeah, you're no longer some person who's 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.520 just saying they're looking at a computer. You're helping solve 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.279 a murder. Yeah. Yeah, and I imagine it. It's no 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:14.920 good for productivity either, probably not, And it was really 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.400 not good from my product. Let's say that, all right, 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.040 So let me let me give a few more um 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.360 definitions before we get too far. So within the game, 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:26.920 you have the people who are running the game, and 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.600 they're commonly known as puppet masters. Now, these are the 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.960 people who know the storyline. They know the the route 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:36.520 that the story is supposed to take that's important to 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:41.360 note supposed to take, and they know the solutions to 0:07:41.400 --> 0:07:43.720 the puzzles that they are giving out, and they know 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:46.720 what the next logical steps should be once you figure 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.040 out the puzzle. So they're the ones running the game. 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:52.120 They're kind of the game master or dungeon master that 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:53.720 we would think of in a in a role playing game, 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:58.720 you have the curtain. The curtain is the the veil 0:07:59.200 --> 0:08:03.960 that covers the puppet masters, right, so it's essentially the 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:07.760 the level of of obscurity the puppet masters put up 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:10.560 so that players don't see behind the curtains see how 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:14.720 the game works, and therefore solve the game unfairly. Actually, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.160 I heard UM. I heard I read as I was 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:20.360 doing my research for this podcast that UM that curtain 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.920 is is basically critical to the game and because otherwise, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:29.280 without UM, it basically has to take itself very seriously, 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.160 because otherwise the illusion is ruined. Even if even if 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.360 it's not necessarily promotional vehicle as not tied, if it's 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.680 just a game. If it if it stops taking itself 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:42.160 seriously and you can actually see what's going on, it's 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.480 it's a lot more fun if you take it, if 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:47.720 you pretend that you're part of this work exactly, it's 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.000 I would I would say that it's almost exactly the 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:54.760 same thing as being able to enjoy a magic trick. Now, 0:08:55.200 --> 0:08:57.240 if you're watching a magic trick and you're enjoying it, 0:08:57.640 --> 0:08:59.760 you know that there's a trick there. You know there's 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.560 an lusion, there's some sort of misdirection, there's something going 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:05.679 on that is tricking you so that the effect that's 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.760 being achieved appears to be magical, but deep down you 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:13.240 know that it's not really magic. And you could find 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:15.760 out how it works, and then you might be able 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:20.040 to appreciate the skill with which the magician executes the trick, 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.160 but it's not magical anymore because now you know how 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:26.680 it works. And the same thing with these games, once 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.000 you know how they work. Um, it's kind of like 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.400 putting in a cheat code for a computer game. You you 0:09:31.160 --> 0:09:33.720 you know there's no challenge there, there's no art to 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:38.439 it anymore. For you. It's just mechanics at that point. Um, 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:40.720 not the most interesting thing to see, although I will 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.080 say running one of these games has to be one 0:09:43.160 --> 0:09:48.400 of the most stressful, time consuming things I can imagine. Um. 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.960 I was reading a Sean Stewart's website. He was instrumental 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:56.079 in creating The Beast, and he said it was extremely 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:58.080 stressful because they were trying to come up with things 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.760 on the fly and he was having to write all 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:04.200 kinds of parts for all kinds of people, uh, you know, 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:06.080 and they would they would give him a call and say, well, 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.160 we need you know, uh, you know, this particular thing, 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.560 and he's going, all right, well, I'll get on there. 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:14.719 He said it was very stressful, but it was kind 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.000 of fun at the same time, because you know, it 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:18.959 was all part of this big puzzle and they were 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:21.120 sort of making it up as they went along because 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:25.120 the needs of the game kind of well it turns out. 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.280 It turns out just like role playing games. If any 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:29.600 of you out there have ever run a role playing game, 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:31.360 I'm not talking about playing, and I'm talking about being 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.200 the game master. You know that players have this nasty 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:38.720 habit of coming up with plans that you never considered 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:43.160 while you were designing the game. And what's worse is 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:45.120 when you come up with a group of players who 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.160 come up with a plan that should work, but you 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:50.000 didn't think about it, and then you're thinking, okay, well, 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.120 i've got two choices here. I throw out my planned 0:10:53.280 --> 0:10:56.240 stuff because it no longer applies, and I run with 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:58.200 what they've got and I just make up the rest 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.080 on the fly, or I didn't eye them their plan, 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:05.559 which in all fairness should work. Now, if you do 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:09.080 the second choice, that really tends to upset players because 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.400 they're they're thinking, well, now the stuff I do doesn't matter. 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.600 It's not that what I do affects the game. It's 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.199 that I have to be led to a very specific 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.080 linear path and if I stray from that, then the 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:23.680 game does not progress. That's not much fun because really 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.880 that's just you know, that's just trying to find your 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.320 your path in a dark room. That's not a whole 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:33.199 lot of challenge to that. It's just irritating. But if 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.680 you do the second the first way, rather where you 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:38.200 adapt to what the players say, that's a lot more 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.080 fun for the players. It results in going gray very early, 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:47.440 or if you're me, losing your hair because I would 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:52.240 say that was a contributing factor among several but yeah, yeah. 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:56.360 Sean Stewart said that the players were often very quick 0:11:56.440 --> 0:11:59.640 and very clever with their responses, so they had to 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:02.360 hard to stay ahead. Well that, yeah, that's the worst 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:04.199 part is you come up with a puzzle where you're 0:12:04.240 --> 0:12:07.240 you're sure that's gonna take the players days to figure 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:09.200 it out, and then they figure it out in a 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:11.400 matter of hours. But we'll get into that as well. 0:12:11.440 --> 0:12:14.880 I'll explain why that happens in a second. Uh. Some 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:19.040 other interesting little um terms and I'm getting these, by 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:22.000 the way, from Cloudmaker's dot org, which is where you 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:26.680 can find the entire Beast. Yes, cloud www dot Cloudmaker's 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:30.320 dot org. Slash trail will give you a full outline 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:34.760 and description of the entire Beast storyline. And it is epic. 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.560 And I played in this game. This was and I 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:42.720 was part of the cloudmakers um and the way some 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.520 of the other terms they use, lurkers, that's that's the 0:12:45.640 --> 0:12:49.080 term for someone who is watching the game but not participating, 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.600 but they're they're interested, they just don't either feel like 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.080 they can contribute, or for some other reason they don't 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.400 they don't want to contribute, so they just watch they're 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:00.600 just watching the developments and they're fat snay. But and 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:02.360 there were times where I was more of a lurker 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.480 than a participant, mostly because my skills just were not 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:09.880 up to par with the puzzles. Um well, lurky here. Yeah, 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.480 then there are rubber neckers. Rubber Neckers will participate in 0:13:13.960 --> 0:13:16.040 puzzles and they will try and solve things, but they 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:18.800 don't want to take that extra step to become part 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.839 of the game world. So they don't want to necessarily 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:25.280 register their phone number or their email address. Uh, they 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:27.640 don't want to make a phone call or stand outside 0:13:27.679 --> 0:13:29.360 of a strip mall next to a pay phone and 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.120 wait for that phone to ring so that they can 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:33.680 get the next clue. Wh wouldn't you want to do that? What? 0:13:34.120 --> 0:13:35.760 I would say that, it's just, you know, that's a 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:38.240 that's a step that some people just aren't willing to take. 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:42.000 And I'm sure you can't even identify with that. Collette. Well, 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:44.640 there are no pay phones anymore, no, but back when 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.200 they were, um so yeah, that like in The Beast 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:49.680 or or I Love Bees is another one there were 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:53.439 I Love Bees was the Halo two? Uh a r 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.360 G fantastic a RG by the Way loved. I love 0:13:56.400 --> 0:13:58.720 Bees love the Beast too, I love I think both 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:03.080 of those were amazing, amazing games. Um And like I said, 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.680 it must have driven people crazy trying to keep those 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.240 up to speed. But they use things like payphones where 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:11.640 at a specific time, if you were next to that payphone, 0:14:11.640 --> 0:14:13.480 it would ring and you would get the next piece 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:20.160 of the puzzle. Um okay. Another term that cloudmakers use meltdown. 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:25.640 Meltdowns are bad. A meltdown is when a game totally 0:14:26.280 --> 0:14:30.040 implodes because of some sort of problem, usually because one 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:34.560 of the puppet masters has decided to reveal the curtain 0:14:35.160 --> 0:14:38.240 and show how the game works. Or it maybe that 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.560 perhaps the company that's behind the a r G has collapsed. Um, 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:44.200 it may be that the person who is running the 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.440 game has had a mental breakdown and no longer wants 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.160 to do that. But at any rate, it's it's when 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.280 a game goes away before its conclusion. And that's that's 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.520 pretty traumatic for players because players get sucked up in 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:00.480 these worlds. They really want to, um to get to 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.920 the conclusion, because I mean, you know, you're personally involved 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.040 at this point, you feel like you're part of this 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:08.160 bigger thing and therefore you want to see it to 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.640 its conclusion and when it when it ends up collapsing, 0:15:11.680 --> 0:15:16.800 it's not satisfying at all. So that's a big issue. Hopefully, 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:18.720 if you do play an a ARG it doesn't suffer 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.760 meltdown because people get really you know, they're they're pouring 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:26.200 hours of their lives into these games. Uh. There's another 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.840 term they use is rabbit hole, which is the initial 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:33.720 thing that gets you into the game. Reference to yes, 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:36.560 and it could be everything from a movie poster with 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.400 an odd you know, there's like a phrase that's circled 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:41.800 on it and you're thinking, why is that circled? Or 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:44.080 it maybe that you're watching a preview and you see 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.240 something flash on the screen really quickly and when you 0:15:46.280 --> 0:15:48.680 slow it down you see that it's a website. Or 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.080 it could be that you go to a website that 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:54.520 someone has sent you a link to and it behaves oddly. 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:57.880 It could be anything like that and uh, but it's 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:02.960 it's the the hook that gets you into the game. Um. 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:06.920 And then another great term, which this is not unique 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.760 to cloudmakers, is steganography. That's the art of hiding a 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.320 message in something else, and it could be anything. It 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:18.080 could be hiding a message by using a specific color 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:21.640 pellette in a picture. It could be that you've hidden 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.920 it in the HTML code for a web page. So uh, 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:29.400 it's something that codebreakers have to pay attention to. I mean, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.800 people who who break codes for a living. Steganography, that's 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.800 a that's actually a way of passing secret messages. It's 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:39.960 spy stuff, which is also why this is cool. Yep, 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:45.920 um yeah, I was just lost my train of thought. 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.880 Um yeah, I mean that's one of the cool things about, uh, 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.240 these games is that these the game is broken down 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.560 and there's so many different pieces and I think probably 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:58.800 the Internet this is not the kind of thing that 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:02.160 could have happened my before the Internet age, because there 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.800 are so many other venues, uh, you know, websites and 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:10.320 message boards and all kinds of online venues inside which 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:12.720 you can you can really get involved where I mean 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:14.600 the phone. You might before you might have the phone. 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.440 You know, you'd have print, um, but there just weren't 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:22.480 as many opportunities for people to you know, uh, stick 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:24.400 different messages out there. And that's one of those things. 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:26.320 I mean, their videos and all kinds of things where 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.120 they break down parts of the game, which just makes 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.320 it that much more complex. Yeah, I mean there there 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.080 are definitely precursors to a r g S, like scavenger 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.520 hunts would be fun or geo cash ing or um, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.399 there are lots of you know, just various letter boxing. 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:43.480 That's another good one. Actually, letter boxing is probably one 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:45.480 of the closer ones to a r g S. But 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:49.440 the you know, the the a r G gets so 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:53.479 complex and so involved that I think it goes beyond 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.520 all of those. And like you said, the Internet is 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.680 really instrumental, and that's also instrumental for the players being 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:04.240 able to solve the puzzles, as these puzzles often are 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:07.920 really complex, and then they're not just complex, but they're 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.440 very specific as to the set of skills you need 0:18:10.480 --> 0:18:14.560 to solve it. So, for instance, and I love bees, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.679 there were some puzzles that required you to have a 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.640 pretty extensive knowledge of literature, which was awesome for me. 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:24.960 I was like whoo, because I was a literal literature 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.000 major in college, so um, I felt like I could 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.040 really contribute to that one. But then there would be 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:32.760 other puzzles where it would be a bunch of blocks 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:35.080 and different colors, and I had no idea what it meant. 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:37.680 And later on we figured out that the different colors 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.479 corresponded to different heights and that the boxes were actually 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.400 a top down view of a city escape and if 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:47.280 you decoded it and then plotted it in three D 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.600 and rotated at ninety degrees so you're looking at the city, 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.200 you would see a skyline. But I never would have 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:55.400 figured that out, and I was just like colored blocks. 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:57.919 Why okay, wait, no, two yellows are touching? Does that 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:01.560 mean something? No, it didn't mean anything at all. Um. 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:03.720 But the reason why the Internet is important is that 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:08.320 it allowed communities to spring up around these games, like Cloudmakers. Now, 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.640 the cloudmakers were able to that almost sound like clown makers. 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:17.440 Cloud makers. Clown Makers are totally different. Yeah, they all 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:23.320 drive in the same car. They're annoying. Yes, so cloud Makers. 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:27.040 This was a community community that sprung up around the beast. 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.320 And the nice thing about the online community was that 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:33.280 you didn't have to worry if your skill set wasn't 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:37.480 strong enough to tackle a specific puzzle, because you could 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.280 be sure someone in that group had the skills. And 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:42.639 as the group grew, it just meant that the the 0:19:42.880 --> 0:19:45.879 skills of the group increased. It's kind of like we 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.600 suddenly became the most intelligent human being on the face 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:52.080 of the planet. You know, no individual person in that 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:54.359 group was the most intelligent person on the planet, but 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:59.440 collectively we made an incredibly difficult opponent for the puzzlemakers. 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.639 The term that Cloudmakers used for it was the collective detective, 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.199 because as a group we could solve any puzzle in 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.640 a matter of hours, sometimes a matter of minutes after 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:14.600 it went live. There are people who had developed scripts 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.360 to crawl the web and search for new material as 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:20.240 soon as it went up, and so as soon as 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.600 it went up, people are like, new puzzle, and then 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:25.439 thirty minutes later it solved it, and then it was like, 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.560 I can't believe the next part of the puzzle is 0:20:27.560 --> 0:20:30.720 not up, whereas the puppet masters are like, holy crap. 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:33.440 We worked for two weeks on that, we have to 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:37.960 get a new piece up now. So um yeah, I 0:20:38.000 --> 0:20:41.840 mean that it was an ongoing battle between the community 0:20:41.880 --> 0:20:44.399 and the puppet masters. And the puppet masters, I have 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:46.200 to say for both the Beast and I love Bees 0:20:46.240 --> 0:20:49.880 in particular, we're really good most of the time, and 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:55.320 any opportunity for the people to participate and make contact 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:58.480 with characters in the a r G made it even 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:01.719 more special because it's suddenly felt like you really like, 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:04.200 now you really have had an impact because you've talked 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:07.239 to a real, live human being. And granted that real 0:21:07.280 --> 0:21:09.640 live human being is playing a character, but you feel 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:12.480 like you've just done something. There was a point in 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:14.840 UH I think it was the Beast where there was 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.160 a security guard in the Statue of Liberty and if 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:20.119 you solved a puzzle, it would give you a phone number, 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.600 and it was supposed to be it was the security 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.639 guard's phone number. So the first time someone called the number, 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:27.680 because we weren't sure it was a phone number at first. 0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.640 First time, I was watching while this was happening. First 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:34.320 time someone called it, they said the person picked up 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:36.159 on the other end said it was the Statue of Liberty. 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.600 I hung up because they freaked out. But then the 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:41.679 next person called it and say they said it was 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:44.320 the Statue of Liberty, and that the Statue of Liberty 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:47.359 is closed on Tuesdays, but it's not really closed on Tuesdays. 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.399 And it was through that that we began to figure out, oh, wait, 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:52.840 this is the Statue of Liberty that exists in the 0:21:52.840 --> 0:21:56.800 world of AI. So then we figured out, Oh, the 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:58.600 security guard actually is a character, and we had to 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.080 give him a pep talk and convince them to rush 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.399 into another room and rescue another fictional character who was 0:22:05.440 --> 0:22:08.040