Applied IRC very generously held a chat with Rand0m at 7pm (GMT) tonight to enable us to ask those burning questions we have!

There was a special bot coded for the occasion, called QBot which we PMed our questions to and then the ops picked which questions were to be asked, and asked them in the room.

The following logs have been put behind a cut due to the large length of the chat! Click the link to view the rest of this post.

Jojojojo was the first op to be given the opportunity to post questions that people had asked..

<jojojojo> Good evening everyone and welcome to the chat! Please PM your questions to QBot and they will be added to the list. Our first question to Rand0m is from ixalon and he asks: “What are your fondest memories of Season 1 (excluding the obvious!)”
<Rand0m> Hi folks, thanks for having me here.
<Rand0m> Aside from the obvious?
<jojojojo> well, I think Ixalon is refering to finding the cube!
<Rand0m> Mostly card-related, I think, when some of the puzzles fell into place
<Rand0m> For instance,
<Rand0m> opening a pack very early on and taking out ‘Between the Lines’ and seeing the answer straight off, but also, I love that card, such a silly, simple idea
* Rand0m tries to think of other moments that weren’t cards
<Rand0m> Ah yes
<Rand0m> Remember when we were all bombarding the police department with phone calls?
<Rand0m> And people kept reporting a bear on the loose?
<Rand0m> I called in pretending to be the owner of a fancy dress shop who’d had a bear costume stolen… they cancelled the SWAT team bnecause of that. Great fun
<jojojojo> Hehe! I think we all remember the bear! Next we have a question from chippy, he asks: “Andy, what are your thoughts to the future of perplex city, what are you looking forward to?”
<Rand0m> Am looking forward to seeing how the stories side of it works out - that’s interesting
<Rand0m> Will it simply end up as fan fiction or will it be the main driver of the ARG side?
<Rand0m> Also, I’m looking forward to proof emerging that Tippy is the big BIG villain with Von as her humble sidekick
<Rand0m> I’m also finding myself ridiculously excited by having new packs of cards to open - shiny goodness
<Rand0m> One thing that worries me:
<Rand0m> Mind Candy seem to be aiming at a lot of markets at once, from ARG players to parents with curious kids… they were in the last season but it looks like they are more so now
<Rand0m> Will they spread the PXC concept too thin? Will it become the Richard & Judy of games? I hope not
<Rand0m> And I think not. But we’ll have to see…
<Rand0m> Next question?
<jojojojo> Next up, themandotcom asks: “What is the first thing you will do with the prize money?”
<Rand0m> Ha.
<Rand0m> My answer now is not what it was a few days ago.
<Rand0m> Now, my answer is dentistry
<Rand0m> A wisdom tooth is emerging.
<jojojojo> Oh noes!
<Rand0m> Oh yesses. Apart from that, me and Beloved Other Half are house buying so a lot will go into that.
<Rand0m> Plus, you know, stuff. I hate my phone. My car doesn’t work.
<Rand0m> And some will go back into the PXC community, but I have to talk that through with Beloved Other Half to work out exactly what yet.
<jojojojo> Ah yes, the wonderful thing that is STUFF!
<jojojojo> (And yippee!)
<Rand0m> I should say at this point - although the publicity says that I won, actually we won. We are a couple, we do everything together. But she is a very private person and didn’t want the attention. So, to the world I won. But thpse who know different, know different.
<Rand0m> Hence, joint decisions.
<Rand0m> Sounds like a cue for the next question
<jojojojo> I think we’re all winners in a way
<jojojojo> HerringHale asks: “are you a celeb now or what? Any show biz invites yet?”
<Rand0m> Well, I actually agree with that Jo. We did a hell of a thing here, as a community across all its offshoots, and the fact that it’s carrying into a new season is a huge, huge thing
<Rand0m> Am totally not a celebrity
<Rand0m> Even in my own household
<Rand0m> My Mum’s disappointed with me that the Richard & Judy booking fell through and that the local papers in her town didn’t carry the story
<jojojojo> Still keeping your feet on the ground then?
<Rand0m> Haven’t got a lot of choice in that!
<Rand0m> I’m retired from politics now, but one thing it teaches you quick is that the moment you start to believe you matter, someone will come along to show you that you really, really don’y
<jojojojo> That’s good to hear
<Rand0m> And that person will usually be Chris
<jojojojo> Yes, lovely Chris, speak of the devil!

At this point duckie took over to ask a few questions:

<duckie> First of all, a lot of people are extending you their congratulations, so I’ll add mine to the list
<Rand0m> Thank you
<duckie> We all know that you found the cube, but Tornan asks: “Who did you think is CT and how did that change as the game progressed + why?”
<Rand0m> My first big theory was that Anna stole the Cube as a power play to discredit Sente and take his job.
<Rand0m> My logic was, who benefits most?
<Rand0m> I believed that up until quite some time after she died
<Rand0m> I was waiting and waiting for some big revealation that she was evil
<duckie> I think a lot of us were! What changed your mind?
<Rand0m> It became increasingly clear that CT wasn’t evil, which changed the list of candidates
<Rand0m> If CT was good, it meant that probably he/she had to be someone centre-stage
<Rand0m> You can pull a villain out of the shadows I think, but not a hero
<Rand0m> So, like everyone else I thought it was Scarlett
<Rand0m> Especially the red kite centre at Fineshade
<duckie> Now, you see, this is something that I vocally disagreed with… so I want to know, from the man who found the thing, just where you got this idea from!
<Rand0m> Alright, nearly everyone else :p
<duckie> Was there something she said? Something she did?
<Rand0m> Um… I guess it semmed like a plausible plot twist - while big sister was running around being clever, little sis had all the answers
<Rand0m> That would have worked, for the characters
<duckie> I’ll let you off of the hook and move on…
<Rand0m> Trying to get too meta, I think, and not looking at the clues
<Rand0m> OK
<duckie> We’ve all read your story on http://www.andthenhesaid.com/cube/, and there are a lot of questions about the discovery.
<duckie> skenmy asks: “What was your first thought when you uncovered the cube?”
<Rand0m> At bloody last, was a major one
<Rand0m> Thing is, it took a bit of time to be sure of it. It wasn’t like opening an advent calendar window and seeing - ooh, a robin!
<Rand0m> I had time to keep telling myself ‘this isn’t it, it can’t be’
<Rand0m> You know, the whole English thing of expecting disappointment and things to go wrong
<Rand0m> The point at which I couldn’t pretend any longer was when I had enough uncovered to feel its edge
<Rand0m> And at that point I didn’t think, it was just incredibly, incredibly exciting
<duckie> benanddad asks: “does the cube look nice?”
<Rand0m> Yes. Very. I didn’t want to give it back
<Rand0m> It’s so solid
<Rand0m> Heavy and cold
<Rand0m> And, well, square
<duckie> Did you try dropping water on it, just to see what happens?
<Rand0m> Nope, but we did take it out in the snow so I think that might count!
<duckie> Tornan asks: “What had you envisioned the cube to look like before you found it??”
<Rand0m> You know, I really hadn’t.
<Rand0m> We’ve all seen the picture of it in which it glows
<duckie> Not at all?
<Rand0m> So I suppose my mental picture of it was coloured by that
<Rand0m> But I didn’t sit and think ‘I wonder what it’ll be like’
<Rand0m> Dunno why. Seems silly now
<duckie> giggsey asks: “What was your journey home after finding the cube like? Excited? Nervous?”
<Rand0m> Oh my
<Rand0m> I kept getting phone calls from Beloved Other Half
<Rand0m> Partly to check I hadn’t fallen asleepat the wheel
<Rand0m> I had the cube on the passenger seat next to me and I kept wanting to touch it
<duckie> Hahaha! Long weekend?
<Rand0m> Very…
<Rand0m> 4am on Friday and Sunday, killer migraine on Saturday…
<Rand0m> But it was the fourth time I’d driven those roads in short succession so I was bored rigid with them :_)
<Rand0m> I just wanted to get HOME and show Beloved Other Half
<duckie> To leap back a little, I think this has crossed all of our minds… Flabyo asks: “cube in hand, alone in a forest, were you worried other players might attack you for it?”
<Rand0m> Not attack, no. I never once thought that might happen
<duckie> Not at all?
<Rand0m> We might have our squabbles as a player community, but I honestly don’t believe for a moment any one of us would do that
<Rand0m> I did want to get it out of the ground undisturbed, simply to avoid any possible disagreements. But that’s different
<Rand0m> Why, Flabyo - were you stalking the wooods with a bit of 2 by 4 waiting for me?
* Flabyo looks shifty
<Rand0m> lol
<Rand0m> Moving swiftly on…
<duckie> So what was the flying leap that you made that got you there first?
<Rand0m> Beloved Other Half’s intuition. On the Friday, she just felt… drawn to go down that path where the Library of Babel quadruped was
<Rand0m> Nothing very logical
<duckie> So… the cube called you to it?
<Rand0m> But it could have won us the Cube on the Friday and spoiled everyone’s weekends, if only I hadn’t been so bone-headed about what to do once we reached th epost
<Rand0m> Well, it may have called her…
<Rand0m> But we still didn’t find it on that day, did we?
<duckie> I guess the cube works in its own ways.
<duckie> Before I hand over to Ollie, one question I couldn’t resist… ixalon asks: “And now a little psychometric question: If a 3P agent was to approach you in a dark alley, what would you do?”
<Rand0m> Hmm
<Rand0m> One past form, try something stupid and get six types of hell beaten out of me
<Rand0m> Sorry, couldn’t think of anything witty to say

At this point, the question asking was handed over to Ollie, who started with my question!

<Ollie> On the subject of the 3P, _SilentlyBroken asks: “Do you think the Cube will be stolen at the party on the Saturday?
<Rand0m> If it is planned that way, no-one’s told me..
<Rand0m> ie, no ‘expect the unexpected during the cheque presentation’ hints
<Rand0m> Actually, I think it won’t be
<Rand0m> Because although we know next to nothing about season two, it looks like it’s going off in a different direction
<Ollie> On a similar note, Yembles asks: “Are you looking forward to the party this saturday and have you been briefed by MC about anything that may be happening there?”
<Rand0m> I’m dreading it, and no I haven’t
<Rand0m> I always hide in kitchens at parties, but I won’t be able to at this one
<Rand0m> But I’ll have some family / friends down from Manchester to hide behind
<Rand0m> Including my 11-yr-old neice Emily, so everyone who goes to the party make sure they say ‘hi’ to her
<Ollie> All eyes on you, then, I hope you’ve picked out a nice frock. A lot of questions are about your visit to MCHQ, ChildOfSai asks: “What was it like visit the Mind Candy HQ? Did you see any interesting secrets?”
<Rand0m> I have my best black taffeta
<Rand0m> Mind Candy HQ is very new media, but tucked away in the backstreets of Battersea which makes an odd contrast
<Rand0m> They were very careful not to let me anywhere neasr s2 puzzlecards
<Rand0m> I saw some web pages on screen, but nothing that wasn’t launched today
<Ollie> Back to the party, idlemichael asks: “As the resident PXC DJ, what do you want to shake your booty to at the party on Saturday night?”
<Rand0m> Oh, it’s got to be the Human League
<Rand0m> Um
<Rand0m> Is anyone in here old enough to remember the Human League?
<buzman> o/
<_izzy_> idlemichael says he can sort that out for you
<jojojojo> I’m not actually old enough, but I do
<Rand0m> Still going strong, still touring, really nice people too
* Rand0m is so relieved that someone does
<Ollie> We have an…interesting question next, Coxtin asks: “Is finding the cube better than being the 35th best Lib-Deb blogger?”
<Rand0m> You ought to see the blog post I wrote after Iain Dale published that list… scathing ain’t the word for it
<Rand0m> I had a big burst of political blogging at the time of the leadership election
<Rand0m> Including one particularly brutal post titled “Chris Huhne: Just Say No”
<Rand0m> But that was only a few months in a blog stretching back to 2002. So Dale can take his list and, well, bury it in the woods
<Rand0m>
<Ollie> ok, back to finding the cube, ambskunk asks: “After you beloved other half, who was the first person you told that you found the cube?”
<Rand0m> My half-sistery-type person in Manchester, Emily’s mother.
<Rand0m> It needed to be someone I could trust to keep quiet if we decided to keep it and not claim the prize
<Ollie> again about the BOH, tally asks: “Are you looking forward to meeting al of us? Will your Beloved Other Half be attending too? We are certainly looking forward to meeting you both :)”
<Rand0m> No, she won’t be
<Ollie> oh, that’s a shame, though probably a relief for her!
<Rand0m> Exactly
<Rand0m> I’m kinda nervous about meeting you all
<Rand0m> You’re mostly a lot younger than me and I fear I’ll feel like a dad at a school disco
<_izzy_> we’re a nice bunch really
<Ollie> I’ll finish up before handing over to Flabyo with a question from myself, Do you still have the cube, or have Mind Candy got it at the moment? Will you be able to keep it after the party?
<Rand0m> They have it and i don’t get it back
<Ollie> that’s a shame, would make a lovely paperweight
<Rand0m> Whatever happens in the storyline, there’s only one in real life and it cost a grand to make
<Rand0m> There is talk of replicas

And on that note, Ollie handed over to Flabyo for the next few questions:

<Flabyo> with season 2 starting soon, HerringHale asks: “are we likely to see you creating lots of puzzles on the new site - or do you prefer solving them?”
<Rand0m> I have some ideas I want to pitch to MC, but I suspect I’ve left it too late
<Rand0m> And if I do pitch them, it will be on the same terms oas the rest of you would - no special treatment for me
F<Flabyo> season two looks like having a new team of scribes, Arkasha__ asks: “Were you told anything about the new puzzle scribe shown on Opochtli, “Finch?”"
<Rand0m> I wouldn’t mind some involvement with season two, particularly on the writing front, but I’m a career freelance and get restless if I get tied too closely to anything
<Rand0m> No, I wasn’t told anything at all about that sort of thing
<Rand0m> Big veil of secrecy
<Flabyo> care to speculate? Finch has been a topic of much debate on the forum…
<Rand0m> Well, I know how I’d script it: the new puzzle team is assembled by Kurt to put togther clues to rewards for helpful earth people, so he brings in people he knows and trusts
<Rand0m> But that’s really really *really* spec
<Flabyo> a question on the minds of a lot of players going into this weekend, Ollie asks: ” Silver Leitmarks. You have one, what does it look like? Is it real silver, or rubber?”
<Rand0m> Real silver, as far as I know
<Rand0m> Certainly all metal
<Rand0m> It’s unpolished and dull with no pattern a,d the llittle square in the corner is highly polished
<Rand0m> We have one each - 98 left Divinia says staff aren’t getting them…
<Rand0m> And she is the keeper of them…
<Rand0m> Why did I guess it would be Ollie who asked that one?
<Ollie> <_<
<Ollie> no reason
<Ollie> >_>
* duckie puts Keers back in his box…
<Flabyo> you must be quite the hero in Perplex City itself now, themandotcom asks: “Did any In Game characters contact you after finding the cube?”
<Rand0m> No, I was quite disappointed by that. I was hoping for Garnet’s phone number
<Rand0m> For, you know, man talk. And fishing trips.
<Flabyo> Fancied giving him a piece of your mind? Or just after a clue for Shuffled?
* Rand0m looks innocent
<Rand0m> But no, nothing from anyone apart from Violet’s note
<Rand0m> And that, my friends, is staying in our possession until we die
<Flabyo> a few people are interested in your ARG time outside of PXC, scribe asks: “Are you following any other ARGs, or has PXC absorbed your life totally now?”
<Rand0m> Well, I’d never played one before and I haven’t really tried any others. I feel a bit of an interloper in that respect
<Rand0m> I get the impression that PXC is a bit more newbie-friendly
<Flabyo> This is my first one too, so you’re not alone.
<Rand0m> And that I think is a good thing - I suspect a lot more non-ARGers have come in than ARGers
<Rand0m> Expand the player-base and all that
<Rand0m> Maybe we can go onto the harder stuff later…

Macmonkey was next to take over with the questions, and the last op to ask the questions given to the QBot:

<macmonkey> Dragonscales grinned when he asked “Me being quite the fanboy when it comes to successful people… would you sign my End Of The Line at the party? Pleeeeeease?”
<Rand0m> Ha ha ha! Of course
<Rand0m> But see earlier answer about being cut down to size…
<macmonkey> Benandad want to know if you have many friends who play pxc?
<Rand0m> Seriously, I’m pleased and proud that we won, and if people want to celebrate that then the attention-whore in me likes that too, but we’re all equal again in season 2 and there’s about a dozen other poeple who could have been siting where I am now
<Rand0m> I tried to involve people but I actually don’t have a lot of friends to introduce to the game
<Rand0m> I’m a fairly insular person - don’t go to pubs or hang out with people - so I’m not part of some huge group of friends all playing
<macmonkey> which leads us nicely to what Tornan wanted to know
<Rand0m> Go on?
<macmonkey> “Who would you say would have been the person, in your opinion, who most deserved to find the cube?? (apart from yourself!!)”
<macmonkey> I guess that’s not an easy question
<Rand0m> Ixalon, for planning to leave the gold card, or Chippy for identifying the Jurassic strata and for being the next person (with Hawk) to arrive on the spot
<Rand0m> I’ll tell you who the unluckiest is, though
<Rand0m> Ifurita
<Rand0m> I don’t know if anyone knows him?
<macmonkey> I think it’s great how the community held together until the end
<Rand0m> He’s out in California
<Rand0m> Just before the San Francisco event I offered him a 50-50 partnership so we had both sides of the Atlantic covered
<Rand0m> He never replied
<macmonkey> ouch.
<Rand0m> I thought I was being clever, piggybacking on an experienced gamer. We’d worked together on the black summaries
<Rand0m> He could have had half the prize money without lifting a finger…
<Rand0m> And yes, I agree with what you said about the community holding together. I’ve had some lovely messages from the people who came closest, and they mean a lot to me
<macmonkey> Chippy wants to know about your fame in the future, “Have you been approached by any telly / movie houses looking to film your story?”
<Rand0m> lol, not likely. As far as I’m aware it didn’t even make any of the newspapers (apart from one local one in Northants) so I can’t see there being a film.
<Rand0m> If there is, though, I want Antonio Banderas to play me
<macmonkey> There’s always the fan film
<Rand0m> OMG what a frightening thought
* Rand0m wonders whether the silence is because someone’s making one and I’ve just put my foot in it
* Flabyo consoles mac in the corner
<macmonkey> How long have you been playing perplexcity? asks benanddad
<Rand0m> Since Christmas 05 - I bought the starter pack for beloved Other Half from Firebox
<macmonkey> Oh yes, do you have an agent we can call about the film?
<Rand0m> First solve I think was Vexillillillogy
<Rand0m> Why was that a purple when Ales of the Earth was a blue?
* Flabyo nods in agreement
<macmonkey> Duckie wants to know if you ever considered that you might be the person to find it, when you first started playing?
<Rand0m> Crikey no! I still have moments hwn I stop in my tracks and remember the card packs and the posters saying LOST and about the reward, and think gosh, that turned out to be about me
<macmonkey> hehe. It must be completely surreal
<Rand0m> Beloved Other Half loved Masquerade as a child and I saw this as a chance to be involved in a modern version
<macmonkey> Going back to the cards…Flabyo would like to know if you have a favourite?
<Rand0m> But win? No - that doesn’t happen to the people you ever meet, does it? Surreal is the word for it, alright. Daliesque. <<< joke
<Rand0m> Several
<Rand0m> Read Between the Lines
<Rand0m> Swarms - I remember seeing Skenmy with his copy at ASIB amd thinking “Wow, trafalgar”
<Rand0m> Laundered cos, hey, Garnet wih no shirt
* Rand0m thinks
<Rand0m> Better ask another question before I list half the set
<_izzy_> re Laundered, planning to use it as blackmail for a shuffled solution then
<macmonkey> I guess the great thing about Perplex City is that you learn a great deal along the way. Bookmore asks what the most interesting thing you’ve learnt has been?
<Rand0m> *thinks carefully*
<Rand0m> The Lego catalogue was fun
<Rand0m> There’s probably some really intense bit of research I did that I can’t now remember… blast
<Rand0m> The work I put into Mother Tongue…
<Rand0m> Ye Gods
<Rand0m> And all for nothing, I was way off beam
<macmonkey> You said in your write up on the Unfiction boards that you considered not handing the cube in at one stage. Duckie would like to know if anyone’s asked you if you would have preferred to keep the cube and turned down the money
<Rand0m> Facts and figures and GDPs and TLDs and the CIA World Factbook and all sorts of stuff
<Rand0m> Well, I was never given the option officially
<Rand0m> But we did our best to disguise our identities for as long as possible in case we decided to pull out
<Rand0m> For quite a few reasons
<Rand0m> One is, we’re housebuying at the moment, we’re already talking about spending large sums of money, the prize in that context seemed a bit less big
<Rand0m> And therefore easier to walk away from
<Rand0m> Then there was the motivation - taking part, solving the game, not the money
<macmonkey> _SilentlyBroken has a good point… “if you had decided to keep it, how would you have let Mind Candy know that it had been found, or indeed the players searching for it..”
<Rand0m> And the privacy. Without a cast iron guarantee of anonymity for Beloved Other Half (which we got, and have since retreaed from a bit) the Cube was going in a left luggage locker at Victoria and the key was going int the post to Mind Candy
<Rand0m> Oh yes. It would have been awful to leave people in limbo
<Rand0m> I was going to take a few photos ad post them
<Rand0m> I mean, post them online, not put them in an envelope with a ransom note!
<macmonkey> Chippy wants to know if you’d like to buy a metal detector..one careful owner
<Rand0m> “We have your Cube, give us £1000 or you’ll never see it again”
<Rand0m> Umm…
<Rand0m> Chippy, we’ll see what the goal for next season is first
<macmonkey> I think a ransom note would be considered ARGjacking, and would probably be frowned upon
<Rand0m> Ah what the hell, we’re rewriting the rules in PXC every day
<macmonkey> Indeed
<macmonkey> Themandotcom has a nice question to close on
<macmonkey> What is next for Rand0m?
<macmonkey>
<Rand0m> Hmm. I think right now, cooking for Beloved Other Half who came in while this was going on
<Rand0m> Apart from that
<macmonkey> Say hi from us..
<Rand0m> Still freelance work - web design and web content - this isn’t ‘retire in the sun’ money
<Rand0m> Will do mac
<Rand0m> I have a short story coming out soon in an anthology of new writing
<Rand0m> So I’m excited about that
<macmonkey> You’ll have to keep us updated on that
<duckie> Definitely!
<Rand0m> And if anyone wants to buy a bathroom, I’m trying to get www.mybathroomfinder.com off the ground, to be followed by others if it works

Here the interview was drawn to a close, and ended by extra comments, and thanks to Rand0m for giving up his time to listen and answer the questions.

<duckie> Thanks for joining us this evening, it’s been great chatting to you.
<Rand0m> And then there’s season two, where I shall provide a moving target for you all to aim at!
<Rand0m> I’ve enjoyed it, thanks for having me
<duckie> Hah, we’ll paint on on your back
<Rand0m> Most of you will be looking over your shoulder I think
<jojojojo> Thank you very much Rand0m!
<skenmy> Thanks for joining us!
* Rand0m bows, and hands out individual fruit pies to everyone
<macmonkey> Thanks Rand0m
<Rand0m> ^^^ In joke for anyone who used to frequent the buffyuk.org chatroom several years ago….
<_izzy_> thank you has been a very informative hour and a half, and thanks everyone for their questions
<giggsey> Congratulations again
<Rand0m> Night all

These are my own logs, taken from the chat as it happened. I have edited name changes/op changes/kicks etc out of the logs, and I have also edited grammar/spelling where I spotted errors. Certain parts of the logs have been omitted (as they were not relevant to the chat), as this was very log as it was. Full logs of the chat can be found here

I’d like to offer personal thanks to Rand0m for giving up his time for the chat, I thoroughly enjoyed reading, and also my congratulations! A very deserving winner.

Applied IRC are hosting another chat tomorrow night with Mind Candy. Again at 7pm in #pxo-chat on irc.appliedirc.com! Information can be found on http://perplexorum.com and I hope to see you there!

Thanks to all the ops and the Applied IRC staff for giving up their time to help with the chat, and also to the Applied IRC staff for allowing the use of Applied IRC. I look forward to tomorrow!

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