Perplex City Side

Silver Leitmarks

Silently Broken — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:08:23 +0000

On the 18th June, 100 lucky Perplex City players received this e-mail in their inboxes:

Hello,

Season 1 of perplex city has come and gone. What a season it was!

100 limited edition silver leitmarks have been awarded to players who
had the top 100 score on the leader board at the end of season 1.

Pat yourself on the back – you are one of those top 100 players!!

As the information we have on the system may be old and out dated, I ask
for you to email me your postal address in the below format so I can get
your hard earned shiny silver leitmark in your hands without further delay.

/Name
Address line 1
Address line 2
Town
Country, Postcode/

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Best wishes and congratulations!

Ben @ Perplex City Customer Care.

I was one of the lucky players, and immediately replied with my address. Twelve days later, my post was thrown at me, with a suspicious looking white padded envelope with a box shape inside. Ripping it open I found a purple and silver box inside. From the symbol on the top I knew immediately what it was, and opened it to find a shiny silver leitmark. You can see the photos of the box and the leitmark here.

In the twelve days since the players that were lucky enough to receive the silver leitmark were announced, there has been a lot of discussion and controversy as to how the leitmarks were awarded. It seems that despite what we were told, the silver leitmarks were only awarded to the top 100 players on the leaderboard, and not to those that have worked hard within the community. This left many players disappointed, myself included as I knew many players that I would have liked to have been awarded a silver leitmark. I was also disappointed with the way it was handled, but can only come to the conclusion that it was just to tie up the rest of the loose endings in the Perplex City saga.

The full discussion on the silver leitmarks can be found here, which also shows pictures of my leitmark!

Congratulations to all those awarded them!

Indefinite Hiatus for Perplex City Stories

Silently Broken — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:52:05 +0000

There was some pretty sad news posted on Perplex City Stories and various blogs today, to let us know that Perplex City Stories, the ARG side of Perplex City, has been postponed indefinitely. Sadly, the story team behind the ARG side at Mind Candy have been “let go”, and as far as we know, there is not anything happening in the near future with Perplex City.

All that we have been able to gather is that there is a new project instead, and that we have to wait and see if the link with Perplex City will be re-enabled, and whether Violet needs us for any further mysteries. Further information can be found on Perplexorum, here. Violet, Kurt and Scarlett have said their goodbyes also, and you can read those here. They are rather long, but worth the read.

I myself would like to say thanks to the guys at Mind Candy for keeping us fabulously entertained for the last 3 years with Season 1, and recently, the Frozen Indigo Angel part of the ARG. It’s been a brilliant time, and I really hope that it is not over just yet. Mind Candy have worked incredibly hard, and I know that this must be just as hard on them as it is to the players, having been a part of it from the beginning, and putting so much into it, and I, as well as many other players, are incredibly grateful to all of the Mind Candy staff for the amount they have done as well as the huge amounts of time, love and energy they have put into this ARG over the time it has played out.

The community has been amazing, so close knit and friendly, and incredibly welcoming. There have been a huge number of “fan-sites” created, and I hope these sites stay running for a while yet, as they are as much an integral part of Perplex City as the official sites themselves. I’m sorry to see it end, but I hope the community sticks around, as many friendships have been forged, and I’d like to see the community continue on, with or without Perplex City.

I will be updating with the second part of the FIA and Big Weekend this weekend, time and information permitting. I will definitely be sticking around for a while yet, as I know there are going to be many questions that need to be answered, as well as the fact I’m not ready to move on just yet!

It’s been a great ride, and hopefully the ride will start back up again in the future.

Frozen Indigo Angel and Big Weekend – Part 2

Silently Broken — Wed, 30 May 2007 12:27:39 +0000

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for the slowness of this part of the write up. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I’ve not been able to write up!

Much thanks to Izzy for giving me the notes from which I have written this up, due to me being unable to get there!

For the second day of the event, it was much faster to get the tickets, there was a much smaller queue. Hawk and his friend managed to get wristbands for the VIP area due to being the first people there, which was important for later on that day! The group got together and as hawk had managed to print off the map that had been generated during the first part of the event, each person was given a printout so that they all knew where the transmitters were going to be.

As they had no news on transmitters or anything needing to be done, they headed to watch Calvin Harris (who apparently was very good, I was told!). During this they received a text message from one of the other players, Chris, saying that another player, Ryan, had found a clue on the back of one of the posters that was used to find the map pieces during the first day. They joined back together as a group and started ripping down any posters they could find, in case of other clues. Unfortunately they found no others.

Not long after that the first twitter message came through from Paul Denchfield, telling them that the first box was in triangle 2. I was texting the twitter messages and updates through to one of the players as I saw them on my laptop as well. All the players on the ground ran to the area where the transmitter would be. Two of the players (macmonkey and kksweety) found a locked box. There was a map sellotaped to the bottom which read “FIA WC” and directed them to the portaloos by the entrance. They all started checking inside the portaloos for any posters (due to Izzy finding a poster in one the day before). As it turned out, the combination code that they were looking for was hidden on a whole string of the posters sellotaped together, which was in a bin! Once they had found the code, a player (cpawley) opened the lock and found that in the box there was a battery, a series of wires, and some plastic casing. Paul Denchfield had a penknife and used that to cut the red wire. By this time, quite a large crowd has been attracted, and it can be see in this video.

Around half an hour after this, there was another twitter text from Paul Denchfield, telling them where transmitter number 2 was, in triangle number 5. All the players on the ground run towards it (apparently through the mud and the crowds!). The box had been found by some of the players already by the time that Izzy had arrived, and she thinks that Chris had found it. This time the box was around some trees. The map directed them to a hug area, about half the site, with the clue telling them that they had to look 8 feet up. This time the combination code was found by another player, Katie (Katharos Drakkina). Apparently, yet again, they attracted quite a large crowd, including a streaker! They followed the same pattern as with the last box, they opened it and cut the red wire. This meant that two had been destroyed, with only two to go!

Another half hour later, another twitter message was received, this time the transmitter was in triangle one and proved a lot harder to find due to it being near the bar which was very busy. The box was hidden in a bag this time and was eventually found by a player, Muffin. This is where the combination that Ryan had found on the back of the poster came into play, as the clue that was referred to was “FIA poster”, and as they had the combination already they opened the box easily and cut the red wire. After this the ground players mentioned to Paul Denchfield about the possible problems incurring with the fourth transmitter being backstage, and Paul said that he would see what he could do.

As Izzy had to leave to go home at this point, the rest of this write up is from notes by two other players, sjbuknewc and Chris.

Another half an hour later, the final twitter message came through to tell the ground players to meet Paul by the entrance to backstage. As everyone arrived, they saw Paul Denchfield talking to Adrian Hon, and then he disappeared to try and get them in backstage to search for the transmitter. A few minutes later Paul Denchfield burst through the hedge, in a fight with ‘V’, a member of the 3P. ‘V’ had the box, but dropped it. Hawk used his pass, and dashed in to collect the box quickly just as ‘V’ punched Paul who fell to the ground, and ‘V’ ran off. Paul got up and grabbed his camera and glasses before joining people in solving the last clue. This time the map showed three different locations and the players on the ground had to find the 3 parts of the combination. Apparently they had taken the tougher chain from Mind Candy from box three, so they had to improvise and this chain was breakable and the players were able to break into the box without needing the combination (cheats ). This time, Paul did not have his penknife with him and so one of the players, Chris, ended up cutting the wire from the “Angel’s Head Massage” tent, which was very apt.

The day was saved, and no brain washed people! If you would like to see Paul fighting ‘V’, then you can see that here.

Thanks to those that helped me put the pieces of the excitement together for this write up, it sounds like everyone had a fabulous time, if tiring, with all the running they had to do. Photos of the transmitters can be found on my flickr, thanks to Muffin who MMS’ed them to me! Despite being ill I still had a brilliant time from my bed, just joining in the general hyperness on IRC and texting the players on the ground to keep them updated. I’m sad to now realise that this was the last Perplex City related event, but pleased to have been lucky enough to have had the chance to be involved.

A brilliant podcast done by Perplexorum can be found here, in which they interview Paul Denchfield and talk about the goings on during and in the run up to the event. Keep your eyes open for a new CubeCast which is on its way!

Frozen Indigo Angel and Big Weekend – Part 1

Silently Broken — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:55:34 +0000

As most of you know, this weekend was the Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Preston, and it was tied to the Frozen Indigo Angel ARG. It lasted all weekend, with the ARG events on both the Saturday and the Sunday.

For the Saturday we all had to be up bright and early, to be able to arrive at Preston for the gate opening at 11:30. Due to being competition winners, we skipped the normal queue and waited in the competition winners’ queue. We managed to get in a little after 12, where we milled around and waited for a few others to join us! I was logged onto IRC, where people were linking me to images of what we were supposed to be looking for.

We saw the first poster of the day on the side of a bin that was being carted off, which was close to being missed, but Izzy and Ben (I think) ran after it screaming “STOP!”, which dissolved us all into laughter. After that, we started spotting the other posters constantly. I was running around, following the others who were taking pictures of the posters to email to Paul, just telling those on IRC the posters that we were spotting, so they could create a wiki page holding all the poster information. We needed the four letter word, the shape, the shading of the shape, the colour of the shape, and the number inside the shape. We spent around 4 hours searching for all the posters we could. Each poster belonged to a set, and once the set was finished, it created a map piece. Those online were checking for complete sets, getting the map pieces, and merging the map pieces together to create a map for us to use. This was then linked to me, so I could download it onto my phone for us to check as necessary. I felt useful for once!

We got all but one of the map pieces fairly quickly, and manged to corner Paul Denchfield, to show him the map and the progress so far. Absolutely mental and hyper guy, but absolutely awesome. He took a quick look at the map on my phone, and then ran off to get a camera, which he kind of aimed at various people (me included!), and then we all charged around, trying to look for the transmitters. We assumed that the lighting rigs were a possible, and so Paul examined these thoroughly before deciding that they weren’t. We were then taken over to a car near the outdoor stage, where he asked for the roofbox to be opened, while he examined that. There were a lot of cardboard boxes in it, but nothing of interest. The bonnet was then opened, and a box was found, which we thought was possibly a transmitter, and then Paul went off to try to find out if it was! Unfortunately it wasn’t.

One of the people online (Morbus, I’ve just been told!), noticed that the dots connected to make triangles, which we then took the centre point of, and deduced the transmitters would be around that place. Unfortunately it was around this point that my phone battery decided to be low, and so we had to hurriedly sketch a rough idea of the triangles and the map for use to search for the transmitters, and I told IRCers to text me important information! We searched for the transmitters for a while, before finding out that the transmitters wouldn’t be placed until the Sunday! As we were transmitter searching, we came across a new poster which Izzy found in a Portaloo! Sadly, it wasn’t one of the posters we needed for the final map piece.

At this point, we gave up on the FIA side of the Big Weekend, and decided to enjoy the music until we went home, before returning the next day to “smash up” the transmitters and save the crowd! We spotted Adrian Hon during the evening, and had a chat to him, which was nice! I also managed to procure myself two Big Weekend t-shirts, as a souvenir of the event!

Sadly, due to illness and being excruciatingly tired, I was unable to go to the second part, on the Sunday, and am extremely disappointed that I was unable to be involved in the taking apart of transmitters!

The Sunday activities will be written in Part 2 of the Big Weekend write ups, so keep an eye on this page! I have taken a few pictures, which you can find on my flickr (as always). There are also many pictures on the Big Weekend website, as well as video’s and blog entries on Paul Denchfield’s blog and his twitter.

A fantastic day was had, and despite the cold and the mud (even though it was sunny!), I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and think that the event was fabulously done. It was so exciting, and we really had to work as a team to complete it. I didn’t realise how much I missed the events until this one!

Big Weekend – Drama and Ticket Pick Ups

Silently Broken — Thu, 17 May 2007 10:16:50 +0000

As you are all aware, there has been big updates to the Season 2 ARG for Perplex City lately. I have updated Perplex City Side to explain some of the new updates, but due to being insanely busy with university, I have been a little behind, and I apologise for this!

The big news is the merge with the BBC! Apparently Perplex City has become involved with the Big Weekend (the weekend of 19th/20th May), and the 3P are going to launch an attack on the Big Weekend audience during it. We have the task to prevent this. We have managed to find a website where the 3P are launching puzzles for various 3P agents to win tickets to the Big Weekend. We enter these, and so far have managed to secure a great deal of tickets between us.

The only catch is that we need to be able to go to the pick up point to get these tickets. So far the pick up points have been in Liverpool and Bolton. I was lucky enough to get the chance to go to pick up tickets from Bolton, which was on the 16th May. We were all given our own passcodes, and told a place to meet the guy. We had a half an hour window, and had to pick up the tickets between 7pm and 7:30pm, or we didn’t get the tickets!

I arrived at Bolton around 6:30, and met Mindez at the station. We walked to the meeting point together (in the pouring rain…), and waited for said “shifty guy” to turn up. He turned up at 7pm on the dot, and Mindez went over first. Several other people turned up. The only one I remember was Muffin. (I have a terrible memory!). When it was my turn, I walked up the steps and went up to the shifty guy.

We were directed not to initiate conversation. Just give him the passcodes, take the tickets, listen to any instructions, and then go. However, I had to be different, and needed to pick up two envelopes. The guy was really nice to me. I really appreciated that, as I was struggling to hear him, and managed to understand enough to get what I needed! We get to skip the queue on Saturday, and queue up with the competition winners, which makes me feel special! He also said that “you may be needed on Saturday”, which sounded ominous.

I then wandered back down the steps, and decided to try and take a picture of the “shifty guy”. But, I’m not good at sneekily taking pictures, so it was fairly obvious I was taking a picture of him, and he stepped forward as I took the picture XD (maybe he wanted to allow me to take a picture). Even then it didn’t come out very well at all, sadly.

I then headed back home (via a 2 hour delay at manchester!).

A very exciting evening, and I’m looking forward to finding out what happens on Saturday in Preston.

For those that are able to attend on Saturday, I will see you there (we need to organise a meet up time!), and those that are unable to go on Saturday, I will be updating when I have free time (probably the Sunday), and I will be taking pictures, as I promised.

Welcome to Season 2!

The taster goes live

Silently Broken — Fri, 04 May 2007 18:13:37 +0000

Well, it went live today as expected! There is a new, extremely shiny Perplex City Sentinel up, containing lots of interesting information, as well as some rather shiny login stuffs! The Violet Underground site also went live, along with a new little puzzle to solve and some background. It’s rather pretty, and nicely set out. I won’t go into details of the new puzzle as you can all see for yourselves!

There has also been a post on the dev blog by the lovely Jo Carter, which outlines a rather shiny new site called Wayback. I urge you to take a look at this as it holds all the information about Season 1 that we thought we’d lose! As they stated, other ARGs tend to overwrite their old sites, and I’m glad that Perplex City decided against this, as I love reading back through the old stuff and remembering the ‘good old days’

I’d also like to thank Mind Candy, seeing the transcripts for the videos made my day, as I could read that after watching the video instead of having to bug someone to transcribe for me! I’m glad to see this, as I did feel a bit left out with others sometimes.

All in all, I think today has been rather a success, as this taster seems to have intrigued the players once more, and I’m now even more excited about June! Roll on the Season 2 ARG! Well worth the wait it seems.

Keep your eyes open

Silently Broken — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:45:11 +0000

Adrian Hon posted on The Perplexorum a couple of days ago to say that there will be a preview of the Season 2 ARG of Perplex City coming out soon! He also mentioned this on the Mind Candy Blog!

ARGNet have also reported that a preview episode of Perplex City is likely to be announced on Friday 4th May. Hopefully this will keep players intrigued, and I’m looking forward to finding out what this sneak preview is! The full ARGN article is here.

Roll on Friday!

Oh no, it’s June?!

Silently Broken — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:12:17 +0000

Been a day for news today. Another new blog sprang up, bearing the news of the ARG side of the game being postponed until June! Bit of a blow for us all, especially those waiting for the ARG part only, but the later date seems to be for good reason. Extensive testing will be taking place on the whole of the ARG part, so hopefully the problems that happened with the card release shall not rear their ugly heads again!

On a brighter note, the hints about the new sites and the writing for the ARG sound rather exciting, and I’m intrigued as to how it’ll turn out! Here’s to hoping there’ll be something to keep us occupied inbetween now and June!

All that excitement made me forget the new blog! Here it is: Perplex City Stories blog.

New website!

Silently Broken — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 12:21:40 +0000

So, over the weekend I finally got myself into gear and started on the project I need to do for uni. It’s a huge task that I have to do, but I’ve made a good start and have a live website! It’s nowhere near finished as you will see from most of the links just.. not working >.<

Over the next 2ish weeks I hope to complete the website (and then move onto the huge report I have to write about it).

Any help with content is much appreciated, I’m useless with databases and have no idea where to start with the stories so far! Technically there is no story for Season 2 yet, so that’s simple enough! The write ups will be moving, however this website will remain firmly here and will be updated along with the website, as I’m planning to use this to update the write ups page on the website, so no need to worry!

Anyway, you may want the link! The *new* Perplex City Side.

Enjoy

Fansite Appearance

Silently Broken — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 12:10:31 +0000

I received an email from Perplex City today, thanking me for pointing out the broken fansite links and saying that they had fixed them. I had emailed them about The Perplex City Side as well, a while back, and received a lovely reply back. In this email today they stated that my site would be added in the future. I popped onto the website to look, and to my amazement my site had been added!

Made my day. I even printscreened it, being the sad person I am.

Season 2 Launch – Part 2

Silently Broken — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 10:30:53 +0000

As expected, Season 2 launched on March 2nd 2007. A little later than expected, as it was around 6pm-ish GMT, but they were smoothing bugs out.

However, I was shocked at the impatience displayed by the players, and the general anger towards Mind Candy. I feel that people forgot that all of the Mind Candies have put a huge amount of work into the new site, and I would like to remind people that it has only been up around 2 weeks, it is a very large site as well as very new, and there are bound to be bugs.

The whole launch problems were made a lot worse by the constant refreshing, and it actually broke their server. But players were not to be daunted and continued to refresh, thus putting the server under more strain, and preventing it from coming back up. I was extremely disappointed by the lack of awareness shown, as this is an intelligent community!

I really hope something like this will not happen in the future, and I hope that all involved will learn from this.

Thank you to Mind Candy for all the hard work last night, extremely appreciated, and I’m looking forward to solving cards and the ARG part of Season 2 starting.

Happy solving everyone, and remember, if the site is down, take a breather and leave it alone for 15/30mins. It does us all the world of good. I think I shall now go and solve some of my Season 2’s!

Season 2 Launch!

Silently Broken — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 11:14:07 +0000

So yesterday saw the arrival of boxes and packs of Season 2 Perplex City cards to a lot of players, myself included. I am sure a lot of enthusiastic opening then took place! From what I can gather, the distribution has been pretty damn good this time round, kudos to Mind Candy there! You are guaranteed something similar to this in a box of 36 packs:

4 silver
14 black (1 complete set, 4 spare)
24 purple (2 complete sets, 4 spare)
24 blue (2 complete sets, 4 spare)
24 green (2 complete sets, 4 spare)
38 yellow (3 complete sets, 8 spare)
45 orange (3 complete sets, 9 spare)
43 red (3 complete sets, 7 spare)

The general consensus is that they are generally following that order, sometimes only 3 silvers though. The packs and the boxes are extremely pretty, pictures are up (or soon to be up) on my flickr, so take a peek if you’ve not had the chance to see. And there will be no spoilers as to cards on my flickr for those concerned.

There was a pretty excitable bunch waiting for the card solves to be allowed. We reckoned about 5 or 6ish GMT it would open, but alas, it was not to be. I assume Mind Candy had a couple of errors with card solve forms and needed today to work at it, which is understandable, and also more fair on those that were unable to gain access to cards until today, so everyone is happy there!

While we were waiting, it was noticed that http://www.perplexcitystories.com was updated with a video to watch, which kept us occupied for a while. There was also a look back at Season 1 which was posted up, along with pictures and a competition, here! This was great to look through, there were some lovely pictures to see.

So, the official time that Mind Candy have given us for Season 2 card solving now is:

March 2nd 17:00 GMT

Happy solving guys, and enjoy the start of the new Season. I look forward to the new ARG starting! Watch this space for more updates on the official Season 2 launch of the card solving aspect.

End of Season 1/Cube Finding Partay!

Silently Broken — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:15:06 +0000

So yesterday was the much awaited PARTAY! We all gathered outside the Gherkin at around 6pm, and as usual Mind Candy were fashionably late to “get the party started”. We were told to form an orderly queue by the door, and the lovely Jey took our names, Sequoya was handing out tickets to say welcome to the party and also granting us a free drink, and Hannah was giving out the goodie bags.

The goodie bags were full of well.. GOODIES!

Three Season 2 cards, these were random and varied from person to person. I was amused because I got cards #001,#002,#003 ^_^.
A shiny little badge that said “found the cube, saved the world”, which pinned to my bag immediately.
A letter from Sente, which has been written up here
Two “keys”, which were interesting, they seem to have a sort of bar code on them, and much spec was had as to why we need these in Season 2!
A business card from Violet with a new website: http://www.violetunderground.com and an email violet@violetunderground.com. As far as I’m aware, these aren’t set up yet, and won’t be until ~~March 1st~~ April 1st, when the ARG side of the game starts back up.

Apparently, during the night different people took shifts on the door, and eventually they gave up and decided to PARTAY!

Once I had been let in, and mingled with friends, and met new players, I decided to take a little look round. Our two friendly DJs, idlemichael and Coxtin, were in their corner with music playing… very loudly, might I add. Dotted around the party were various cupcakes with cows, and 3P symbols and Cube pictures, rather yummy cakes too. One of the most amusing parts of the night was the bowl of Ceretin drugs which Adrian and Andrea went to great lengths to get hold of

There were also two very yummy looking cheesecakes available for people to snatch bits off. I didn’t manage to grab any, but I did help to place it on the table! From what I have been told, the cheesecakes were a hit and everyone loved them!

There was a table with the “Cube finding” tools laid out on it. This consisted of a shovel, a metal detector (which apparently was stolen at the end of the night!), a map and various other bits necessary to find the Cube.

The Cube itself was at the end of the room in a showcase. I took two pictures of it. Next to the Cube on another table was a suitcase of Lecks. I’m not entirely sure how many Lecks were in the suitcase, but I can confirm that by the end of the night, it was considerably less

At around 8:30, the music was quietened and a short halt was called to the partying for Adrian Hon to give a speech. He talked about how far Perplex City has come from it supposed to be a 9month game, and turning into.. well a lot longer! He thanked each of the Mind Candy employees for all their hard work in making it the success that it has been, and thanked us (I think, I was having trouble hearing). He then went on to tell the story of how he got the Ceretin. [tiag]Apparently they are just M&M’s[/tiag] and he went onto the website, and put in what he wanted on them and how many he wanted. Now, due to legal reasons (obviously), you cannot have copyrighted stuff on the m&m’s, or indeed swear words.. and the M&M guys rang up Andrea, I think he said, to say that unfortunately they would have to call a halt to the order, because Ceretin is a copyright of a company called Cognivia (apparently they google searched!!). Andrea then had to explain to them that it’s part of their company, i.e. the Perplex City game. She also had to explain to them that Perplex City was an ARG, but of course, they didn’t know what an ARG was, so she had to explain that as well! Eventually they let them have the order, but it brought a good chuckle in the speech! He then ended the speech with a quick S2 spoiler… The card that Violet gave us (in the goodie bags) is because with her reputation for being clever and problem solving, she has become a PI! Apparently there was a short video to introduce Season 2, but sadly the projector was broken. They shall be posting the video up on the web soon (next week?) however.

That left us speculating a little, and the music started back up and fun was had! Sadly, people started leaving us at 10pm, and slowly The Sterling started to empty.

At some point during the party, I don’t remember exact times, Amadeus managed to steal the Cube! I think (if I have my sources correct) he handed himself in to Adrian, and the Cube was put away safely to prevent further mishap. Sadly I was wrong, and the 3P didn’t steal the Cube, just a rather drunk player!

Throughout the night, at the bar there were forms you could fill in with answers to questions, and then you handed that in to the DJ’s table. At around 10:30ish, these forms had all been folded up, and placed in a bowl (an overflowing one I might add), and silence was called for Hannah to pick out 4 winners from the bowl (which Jey was holding). The winners were:

ManleyM
Gigabyte
Skeleton
and another person whose username/name I don’t remember!

These guys won a poster, an S1 pack (with a guaranteed Gold Card), an S2 pack (lucky!), stickers, and some badges.

Someone entered the competition multiple times, and NEARLY won all four times, much to Hannah’s annoyance. Alas, I forgot to enter (doh!).

After the prize giving, we went back to partying. By this time everyone was pretty much smashed, and much dancing and fun was had until the early hours of the morning, although poor Jey was left chasing people who were trying to steal the posters of the S2 cards that were placed on the staircase!

Sadly no silver leitmark winners were announced, it has been assumed that to save complaints, people that have been awarded silver leitmarks will randomly receive them in the post, which I think is nice (apparently, the actual reason was that drunk people would lose them!). I have heard from my sources that the official list of people will be announced soon.

Many photos can be found, the best selection of which are on Sledge’s flickr, which is in my links. There is also a flickr pool with all the photos in! And of course, there are a couple of pictures on my own flickr.

Many thanks to Mind Candy for a fantastic night, and to both the DJs for entertaining us with music throughout the night until early hours of the morning. It was great to see everyone again, and meet new players, and I look forward to seeing everyone in the near future.

As with any write up, if I have missed anything out, or got any information wrong, just let me know in a comment or an email!

Applied IRC chats part 2: Mind Candy Interviewed!

Silently Broken — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 23:00:37 +0000

Tonight at 7pm was the second of the Applied IRC Q & A chats, this time with Mind Candy!

The layout of the chats was the same as for the Rand0m interview yesterday, only it was a lot more crowded, as there were 7 Mind Candies talking! The Mind Candy people that dropped in were: Adrian, Andrea, Ben, David, Hannah, Jey and Naomi, along with ex Mind Candy’er, Mike.

As with the write up last night, this one has also been placed behind a more tag, due to the even LARGER length that this one ended up due the the tendency to waffle or go off topic every so often! Please click to continue reading!

To make it easier for the folks that aren’t too clued up on the Mind Candy folks, the chat started with a quick intro by each:

Welcome to the second in our series of Q&A chats marking the close of Season 1, tonight we’re talking with some of the Mind Candy Staff.
We’re going to start with a short intro by each of them to let you know who they are, what they do, and their favourite sort of pancake topping
Working alpha-ma-betically, we’ll start with Adrian
SO that’s all we have time for tonight folks, bye!
you’ve been a fantastic audience
*snigger*
* duckie threatens Adrian with kick-ban…
Hi, I’m the Director of Play at Mind Candy
Which at the beginning on Season 1 meant doing everything from cards to stuffing envelopes to the story
But now I concentrate on the ARG
Pancakes: maple syrup or chocolate
Ah, a sweet tooth! Andrea?
I’m the Ad Hoc Polymath, which was my job title from when I might be called on to do.. well… anything from placing ads and designing cards to writing Futures…
I’ve written for the Sentinel and Anna, some Scarlett and the odd Violet, plus other things as they came up
Pancakes: Today I think jam.
Raspberry!
Fruity! Ben?
Well, I’m the ‘Senior Developer’ here at MC towers. Java stuff mostly, but often some other sundry tech as needed.
Oh, and Lyle’s Golden Syrup for me.
Fillings all round! David?
I’m a writer/hired assassin. i’ve worked in radio and made short films, so i’ve also been producing a lot of the audio and video stuff (with jey as the multimedia tech wizard who makes it all work. but now i’m encroaching on his intro). my first big piece of work here was the Death of Monica, and i’ve had a reputation as the Grim Character Reaper here ever since.
Pancakes: black cherry sauce and ice cream, a la Little Chef.
How very 80s, Hannah?
We’ll skip hannah for now. Jey?
We’re just trying to drag this out so we won’t get around to S2
Sorry about Hannah, we have no excuse.
Ah, like we did with S1?
Burn!
stop it, you two
Less chance of you having to dodge questions this way
ANYWAY. Hey there, I’m the ARG developer on PXC, which includes working on everything interactive from live events to Flash games with an aside of audio, video, writing and whatever else is needed at the time.
Pancakes: KISS. Lemon and sugar all the way.
Ah, a purist.
The Mind Candy Village Bicycle!
Hi am Hannah i have a background in general design and have been working for Mindcandy for over a year via a bad tv show that was never shown
corriander and black pepper
ooh, unusual. Naomi?
Hey, I’m the Lead Writer which means, yes, I write about lead. Or on lead. Or with lead. Or possibly, while holding a lead. A long long time ago I planned out the whole story (hah!), including wacky concepts such as ‘maybe… Scarlett could get kidnapped.’ I write Violet and Scarlett, and Babel, and sundry other things. I am the handwriting of Violet. As a Jew, I scorn your pagan pancakes, but as a glutton I say: lemon juice and suga
r. The old classics are the best. Although, sometimes I dally with… Marmite. Don’t look at me like that! I’m a human being, just like you!

And with the introductions finished, we moved onto the questions. Ollie started by asking a question from tanner.

Ok, now we should probably try and get some questions answered. We’ll start with a look back at season 1.
Tanner asks: “why there was a number missing (2 i believe) from the fibonacci series on the first syzygy page and wtf was the postcard number?”
So, when do you guys set us some puzzles and tell us we have to help you find your way through a maze?
Hmm, I can’t remember the fibonacci series thing
The postcard number, you solved it
Well, the postcard number was, of course, the key to the whole mystery.
Probably just a mistake to be honest
Mistake? Adrian means side-quest.
Next
Please
* Yembles doesn’t recall us solving the postcard number
yessir
Mindez asks: “What was the london Morse Code message that we missed supposed to say?”
there was a message, but…
erm...
you didn’t get it, so we decided to rework the story around it.
it will remain a meeestery
Next please
I sense a lot of mysteries remaining tonight!
sledge asks: “How prepared where you, story wise, for when the cube was found? Did you worry that you would have a situation of having all these great story lines planned out for the future and then have someone stumble upon the cube whilst, for example, Scarlett was in Anjsbourg? Did you have to write up alternate endings depending upon when the cube was found or did you just have a set ending and knew you could adapt what you had to any given situat
Yeah, that was something we worried about
It was pretty much our nightmare scenario.
Cold sweats lying in bed at night worrying
our jobs depended on it not happening
We weren’t particularly concerned about people finding it, say, a year ago
A couple of us died from worrying about it.
The team used to be a lot bigger.
But the timing was pretty crucial
remember des? he was great. now, dead.
Des couldn’t take the heat.
Poor Des. Bless his soul.
Aah Des.
i didn't like him anyway
I’m not sure I want to synchronise a deep treasure hunt and a story in that way again
Des made the best pumpkin muffins.
We did have some contingency plans though
On a similar note, hawk asks: “Question for MC in general: were there any specific moments where you were screaming at us to just hurry up and find it already? can you tell us the most obvious thing we missed?
Do you think his widow will ever forgive us?
All the time!
Rudon.
That’s all I have to say.
Yeah, there was that one
Rudon?
you mean RUDON!
But you know, puzzles are subjective things
Yeah, I don’t think we were waiting for you to find the *cube* so much, but there were some puzzles where we were… surprised it took you so long.
There was also the Library of Babel
What seemed obvious to us was at times incredibly baffling to you. It’s a hard thing to judge.
I remember about halfway through there was a real issue with ’spoonfeeding’ and I think people stopped trying to solve puzzles so much
the libraryofbabel page was up for months before it was found
Babel was waiting there since… February?
:O
Since the beginning of wave 4
It was there for a long time.
So basically, you were expecting us to be less stupid?
Or even wave 3
Yeah, basically.
What makes it even more painful is that we can see every stage of your working, and so when people get close to the answer and then veer away, it’s frustrating
So many times it’s happened
Yeah, there were a few times where someone would suggest a correct idea, then someone else would shout them down.
Which time was the most painful?
There was also the day Monica died and you very nearly didn’t save Sylvia
but you also get things quicker than we expect, so it balances out.
The issue of community puzzle solving is interesting – I think that it can be very fast, but then again, good ideas can be shouted down very quickly
We’d be in the office shouting “noooooooooo” at our screens.
I was *so mad*
Anyways
Next please
ixalon asks: “Did the plot of Season 1 have to change considerably to make up for our incredible inaptitude in cube-finding?”
Not really
You weren’t *that* bad
The main problem was that it was far more difficult to print the cards than we expected
So a 9 month story turned into a 21 month story
We added a lot as we went
There were other business reasons as well
It’s been… an interesting challenge, plotwise.
So yes, the story changed a lot, but not because of you really.
We knew from the start that the finding of the cube was going to be hard to predict
we just hope you didn’t see the stretched bits
Next please
The story wound up being much deeper than we’d initially planned for. I think it came out a lot better
chippy asks: “How do you pronounce Babel? Is it “Bay-bel”? or Babble?”
Bay-bel
Bay-bel
bay-bel here too
Or bagel works fine too.
I say “babble” and the British people say “Bay-bel”
Unanimous!
unless you want to say it in ancient Hebrew
HAH
(this chat is sponsored by Next.)
Next please
in which case you say Bah-Vel
Bookmore asks: “What did it take to convince Satoshi of being the target for a worldwide manhunt ?”
I always get it wrong
The babes
He knew he’d get them
Actually, I don’t know
he’s been swamped
I’ve never met him
a lotta love
the reason you can’t find him is he’s buried under a pile of abbes
Satoshi was surprisingly easy to convince. In fact I’d say he jumped at the chance. Wouldn’t you want to be famous (on the internet [sort of famous, not really])
babes. ahem
Next please
mj asks: “Which moment in Season 1 surprised you the most?”
hmmmmm
Hmmmmmmmm.
(the amount Adrian and Andrea say hmmm often surprises me)
It was a big surprise when they solved the postcard number
A surprise to most of us too, we don’t recall it
The cranes were surprising
That was nice
yes, we were touched
Yeah
<_izzy_> glad you liked them
I remember the meeting where we decided to kill Anna
We enjoyed making them
i still have one on my desk here. look.
But they don’t fly very well.
Anna was always going to die though
the good die young.
Curse that handsome Caine
we hoped it’d have an impact, but we didn’t expect it to be that much
the bad die.
Next please

At this point Izzy took over from Ollie to ask the next set of questions.

<_izzy_> ok then im now taking over as question master
dum dum dum
Actually – for me – ‘Being Hired’
<_izzy_> so staying with the S1 theme.. so i was wondering which character do you enjoy writing for the most?
Well, we all wrote different characters
I wrote Kurt, which I loved doing
I think my writing changed an awful lot over the two years
I wrote a Kurt once. He is fun to write. caine rocked. and still does.
I wrote noone as i can't write
I’m still high off Helena Frye, but honestly Madame Bianca was probably my most favorite.
Writing Violet feels like home to me.
I got to get away with the most
oistin. aaah, oistin.
Oh, Oistin!
<_izzy_> Andrea[MCD] that leads nicely into a duckie question: So how much exactly *did* we miss in the futures?
And I loved writing Babel. And the things Jey did with the words! Beautiful.
If I’d had a boy I would have had to name him Oistin.
i think a few of us tried oistin.
Well, there’s one thing you missed in the futures so I gave up trying…
And Tippy’s great fun to write, even in just the odd email
the podcast gave me a chance to use the Voice of Doom.
For a long time, the Apple-Thief poet and the proverb at the end were of the same nationality
Play on… my children.
But it was hard to do and *nobody ever noticed* so I gave up.
<_izzy_> so its your voice on the podcast then david?
no. that is silas. you will encounter him.
<_izzy_> opps sorry we missed that andrea
Next please
But for the most part, you all really read a bit too much into the futures. Except when we wanted you to, in which case you didn’t notice them *at all*
Oh, the stuff you read into the eel and avocado rolls!
typical.
<_izzy_> chippy asks: “Mind Candy, what things were you expecting to come out of the player community, and what things did the player community suprise you with?”
Oh, the love
We were surprised by almost everything you did.
The wiki, the map, trading, 3D map, incredible stuff
Really incredible
That’s what impresses people the most when I talk about PXC at conferences
We love you guys
We really do feel the love.
We have big love indeed.
well impressed
the book was amazing, but yeah, we kind of made you do that.
You guys do more than we could have imagined.
The dedication and the real emotional involvement
oooh. 13th labour. good work!
Hell, i’m IN the community and i’m amazed at what we do!
And the video stuff
You should be proud
For those people complaining in chat
the amount of time and effort you’ve put into our game is… well it’s been a privilege to write for you
news covereage for billion2one, everything.
Next please
<_izzy_> Morbus asks: “do you plan to release any masterful “answer book” that contains all the details of everything? or would you rather the community build something like that?” – or is this our one chance to ask Qs

No way
That’d take way too long to write
We are going to make a Season 1 Guide
(FleetwoodMike entered here – an ex Mind Candy person)
(hi mike)
(Hi Mike!)
(hey mike!)
(hey MIKE!)
(remember des?)
hi mike
<_izzy_> that answers that one then
But I think that the community and the wiki is the best for a comprehensive ‘answer book’
Oh your wiki is a treasure.
The wiki is just stellar.
Really, it would spoil the fun if we gave you *all* the answers
<_izzy_> mj asks a question a lot of the community wants to know: Those risk pieces – what on earth did /they/ mean?
Yeah…
I’m not going to talk about that one
Maybe later
it’s too painful
Next please
Someday, when he’s grey and full of regrets…
Adrian is crying.
It’s not that bad
Try getting him drunk at the party
<_izzy_> not even if we say pretty please?
Oh God DES........
look what you did
Aww, come on…
It’s basically pretty obscure
It’s been driving us bonkers since the day W4 was launched…
Adrian, it’s going to be OK!
We like obscure.
Good for you then
Solve away!
Excellent
Next?
<_izzy_> ok then
More slippery than a tank full of eels.
<_izzy_> HerringHale asks: “do you notice any difference between UK and US and other nationality players? in terms of what they solve or participate in?”
I think there’s a cultural difference, yes
I’ve said before, I felt that American players were a little more aggressive
our lift engineer in the last live event made a distinction…
he said the americans demanded better service.
It’s hard to generalise though
the english were very polite.
Or persistent
those national sterotypes… hard to escape.
Because, for example, before PXC there weren’t that many UK ARG players
(well done jo)

So they were new to the gnre
Next please
<_izzy_> chippy asks: “Did you, or one of your spies go to Wakerley, or Fineshade, and spy on us? I saw a very suspicious elderly couple using a clearly terrified Scottish Terrier as cover”
Yes.
We all did.
We were there.
Everyone you meet is a spy. Don’t trust *anyone*.
We saw what you did.
we hired a birdwatching hut
So, the answer is no
Didn’t you notice the black helicopters hovering overhead?
It would’ve been too risky
* Rand0m admits to having been very suspicious about a couple of grey squirrels with attitude
They had the cloaking on, didn’t they?
and chippy. you should be ashamed.
No-one went back to the wood after we buried it
<_izzy_> chippy also wants to know if you want to buy his metal detector – one careful owner
We thought we might get followed.
Well, it won’t work ont he Cube, it being made of space age metal and all
:p
By someone dressed as an elderly person with a terrier.
Yes, metallic things are notoriously hard to find with metal detectors…
Next please
(when did the space age start? 1960s, wasn’t it…?)
(although as Random has noted, you didn’t need a metal detector to find it)
<_izzy_> a lot of people including jojojojo and dragonscales are asking what are your favorite cards and why?
Probably the ones we made
Yeah
I liked Elucidate a lot
My favorite is probably Homage in Glass, just because it’s pretty
I love Andrea’s card: Forever Foe
Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow. Because we laughed for days. (or Billion to One, because you’ll never find him, never.)
And because I was proud of it
I still like Shuffled.
He’s dead, isn’t he?
the gold cube card for me, because i’m impressed by shiny things. and aromarama.
207 Huey Tecalli
Mmm, Cow Cow Cow defiitely a favorite, too
Speaking of Shuffled
We’ll see about that…
Primarily because I’m aware of the vast amounts of work that went into that one behind the scenes.
total team effort
We got an email from Bruce Schneier, inventor of the Solitaire Cipher
I quite, in part:
*quote
“My name is Bruce Schneier and I am a security specialist and professional
cryptographer with BT Counterpane. I would like to let you know that your
Perplex City internet game has thoroughly emasculated me and has been quite
successful in causing me some headaches – mostly due to the aforementioned
emasculation. For the past two years I have received literally hundreds of
emails asking me to help solve a word puzzle based on a cryptography
algorithm that I authored.”…
Next please
So we’ve irritated the Forestry Commission *and* a chap called Bruce? Awesome.

And on that note Izzy handed over to Yembles for the next few questions:

<_izzy_> thank you thats it from me, handing over to Yembles for the next set
All in a day’s work, duckie!
chippy asks: “Is herbert still alive, and will he be at the party? Eh?”
Heeerbeeert!
Why don’t you ask about Des?
Herbert.. Herbert… oh Herbert. I remember you well. Occasionally, we get a postcard. Some far off country. Some wonderous adventure.
Who was Des?
No one cares that he gave his life for Perplex City!
Ok. Who is Des? What is Des? Where is Des?
Is Des a sockpuppet?
i don’t like to talk about it
he gave more to you then you will ever know
Nor do I
We’ll have a candle lit for Des at the party.
Next please
idlemichael asks: “What should be the last song of the night on Saturday? (yeah, another DJ question!)”
hip to be square
‘Return to sender’?
Well…
Genius, that man.
Proclaimers was traditional where I come from
not paradise city. you don’t want to know why.
or Under the Sea. Stop speaking, stop it.
Under the sea
Or Mr. Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’
* lhall shall say nothing
Anything we can sing karaoke to, basically.
* Adrian[MCD] just discovered that idlemichael *is* our DJ
Because we are teh awesome at karaoke.
oh lord. there are still living witnesses.
When Gin is involved
not only that
Next please
there’s *footage*
Will there be a karaoke machine at the party?
I’m not sure ‘awesome’ is the right word…
Silence!
You know, there are a few advantages to being on another continent
why doesn’t /kick lhall work?
Yes, Adrian
Don’t hurt me again
NEXT!
[adrian will not get nekkid]
UKver2.0 asks: “Assuming CT and LOB were introduced to speed things up if needed, were there plans to give even more away had the cube hunters not been able to find it when they did? (Also: Shuffled is my favorite card!)”
Yes
I even had an extra clue written
I’m very glad we didn’t have to use it
It was a big arrow.
LOB was always going to be in there somewhere though
It’s a very, very tricky thing
but we weren’t sure whether it’d have to give clues
We didn’t want to turn it into a unskilled race
or would just tell the on-Earth part of the story
In the end I think we got the balance right
The thing was we never knew what was going on behind the scenes. Someone could have solved anything we had put out there and we’d never know.
I think it all worked out beautifully
It’s a good pint
point
Normally we can see your working
But not at the end
When everyone was unaccountably going to Fineshade Wood
You sneeky liars
We did joke that we’d end up have to go round to your houses with shovels, drive you to the location and tell you to dig.
Next please
Paint a little X on the ground with spray paint..
and then you’d try to anagram ’shovels’
i liked the idea of an arrow on google earth
ssh love
Mindez asks: “Any big surprises planned for the partay in just over 333333 seconds time? “
Party?
Big surprises? I don’t know what you mean. WHO HAVE YOU BEEN SPEAKING TO?
Honestly
I told them everything. They offered me eclairs
If it’s Des again, I’ll be soo angry….
http://www.answers.com/surprise&r=67
They’ve been working the Ouija boards…
(you can always trust a man who says ‘honestly…’.)
Next!
..please?
What happened to the Third Power members who appeared on earth during the San Fran event? I think Rand0m is still waiting for a knock on the door…
he should be afraid
we don’t know
we work with the Academy
…very afraid?
Naturally Mind Candy is very concerned about the 3P’s presence on Earth
I’ve taken extra care to lock my doors and windows at night since then.
And are liaising with the Academy about how to proceed
we’re not allied with the Third Power, and can’t be expected to know anything about their evil schemes
Next!
mj asks: “Just to change the footing – would you like to ask the interviewers a question?”
Interesting…
Hold on a second, we’re arguing.
1. what do you want for the last tune of saturday night?
Adrian has Jey in a headlock.
We demand photos.
I’m taking bets
2. you do not talk about Perplex City
Is a dress not enough?!
A dress is too much!
Oh dear.
Hmm
I've had to close my eyes
3. What was *your* favourite bit of the story?
Go!
I see. That good, eh?
I think we’ll make a forum thread for that one, you can read it later
Yeah, good to know you care.
Next!
I’m going to say the Lancewood labs bit
Oh that was such fun to write.
poor jake
I liked the Miranda chase stuff
My favourite blog post was Kurt’s latest, but my favourite part of the story was probably the Miranda chase-and-kill (even if I’ll always have nightmares of booking trains online for the rest of my life…)
<_izzy_> im saying in the mines, o in the mines – its how i properlly discovered the community
I’m going to say the mines. That was good fun.
<_izzy_> *properly
The chill down my spine after listening to the recording of Miranda’s death
David is singing the mines song now.
Seriously.
there is a tune
Seconding the recording
<_izzy_> yays david!
The recording… and the police.
sounds like a goodun for karaoke…
darn this soundless chat room
Drunken bears, flashers.. who could ask for anything more.
I forgot about that site
The police event was hilarious
Except maybe Kurt nekkid
Things are gettin gout of hand here!
Next

And on that note duckie took over for a short bout of questioning:

jojojojo asks: “Jey, how much persuading did you need to dress as a woman?”
A lot
(i liked receda’s revenge 2. but don’t mind me.)
That’s what he usually wears to the office.
They all drawed straws though
Persuading? That was a pull out of a hat. And we did it twice. And I got it both times. Oh god.
Yours was the only name in the hat, Jey.
I knew it!
Teehee!
and it was your hat
the balloons were great
It’s not my fault it *just* *looked* *good*
and you did the drawing yourself, remember?
Next!
ha ha ha ha

Here skenmy dragged the chat back into line, and gave the "chair" to lhall to ask the next few questions:

* skenmy drags the conversation back in line, and welcome lhall as the chair!
Parasol asks: "Will there still be leitmarks awarded for Season 1 points, and are there any new leitmarks for Season 2?"
unconfirmed
Next
Efficient.
*headdesk*
By popular demand…
md1500 asks: “Will there be a new Starter Pack for this season? What about a new card binder? It seems weird to put Season 2 cards in a binder marked with “Lost. The Cube”? Thanks.”
unconfirmed
next
Adrian[MCD]> We won’t have a starter pack any time soon
this is going well!
I’m still singing the mines song.
O John of Harve was burned by heat
In the mines
In the mines
He wore light boots and lost his feet
In the mines
O, in the mines.
if only you could see the dance…
Can we get a performance of that on Saturday night?
Please?
It’s disgusting
YES!!!
a karaoke-style one, perhaps?
Adrian, you’re such a prude.
I second that request
WRONG
How would you have survived in the mines?
I’m the only person in this room with clothes on
Next!
And they’re Hannah’s clothes.
Oh dear…
oo er!
Next! Quick! Please!
Datango asks: “This is MC’s first ARG venture. What is the most significant thing that you have learned?” -
Good question
Two big things for me
Never let Adrian wear Hannah’s clothes.
Firstly, we made the premise (cards + treasure hunt + ARG) too complicated. It was difficult to explain, and difficult to design
how to grind my teeth when stressed
Secondly, it was difficult for people to start playing, especially after the beginning of the game
I’ve learned the power of subconscious and serendipity
No-one’s ever made an ARG this long
I learned how to build a modular story. Which has been a really fascinating process.
the most important phrase in the world is: It’s Like We Did It On Purpose.
Season 2 will incorporate a lot of what we learned
oh *yes*
It’s Like We Did It On Purpose
There are so many things you could swear we couldn’t have done except intentionally, that just… happened exactly perfectly right…
this is our story team motto
I think we worked very well as a team
except jey
You should see what it’s like during live events
Very cool
Online live events, I mean
because of the number of times you’ve found fantastic links that we… yeah… planned *all along* between things that we’ve written
*Real* live events, we just get stressed out
Nothing that a bit of alchymahols can’t cure though
remember how the name Scarlet was spelled out in the personnel page of the Sentinel?
We *did not do this on purpose*
Oh god
(Guy’s going to be at the party)
No, that was an accident
Next!
chippy asks: “for the techies: What new technological developments are you excited about, and how can you see these being used in Perplex City?”
I wrote a bunch of names for the masthead and broke them into departments… and then alphabetised them by last name…
(and, to continue the ILWDIOP theme)
(when I chose the year in PXC)
“ The more Adrian says stuff like that… the more I think that… everything’s going to change… ” – I hear that, but I really think that Season 2 is going to be much more fun to play than Season 1 – for everyone.
About that question
No comment
Well, if we told you that it’d spoil the surprise
Next!
(I really did not know that year 0 corresponded to a year there’d been a syzygy on Earth)
(really)
mj asks: “To Naomi: What are the biggest challenges in writing for an ARG as opposed to more traditional fiction authoring?”
damnit! more food’s just arrived, and they’ve all left me to answer this by myself!
so, um
the biggest challenge is probably the speed
More food?!
and missing out on the food
although andrea gets that too
* Jey[MCD] gets food (finally)
not the amphetamines, you understand, but the fact that there’s rarely time for several drafts
however, I love that. Novels take *blooming ages*, and the speed of working on an ARG is exhilarating.
having instant community response is similarly double-edged
(btw, we don’t read the logs all the time – sometimes I go weeks without looking)
how many words did we reckon we’d banged out?
I love it when you love it, and sometimes you make me cry, basically.
I used to read forums and logs obsessively, but eventually backed off it
I think there are 60,000 words in Kurt
50,000 words in Violet
okay – several novels’ worth in total.
Probably over 100k in Sentinel
etc
(For those of you not up to speed with the astronomical career of the lovely Naomi, you should read her book “Disobedience”.)
Next!
macmonkey asks: “why is a Perplex City tretretretre so different from an extinct Earth tretretretre?”
(I read duckie as Naomi then…)
(But only if you’re interested in Orthodox Jewish lesbians)
And make sure you buy it, don’t go all cheap and get it from a lie-berry
(Hey, any lesbians are good…)
Next!
Hah
Well
I thought that we made up the Tretretretre
Much more adorable. And they smell better.
It wasn’t until RR2 that I got told they were a real animal
I kept trying to *tell* you
Who would’ve thought?
No you didn’t
But our version is *so* much better.
Yes I did.
Less fluffy, anyway.
it looks like an elephant. like so many things do.
Next!
who wouldn’t want a that could ?!
Does it also resemble a lightbulb?
like everything tastes of chicken
Bookmore asks: "Many players have pointed to how UK-centric Perplex City is. There have now been events on both sides of the ocean, but are there plans to export some of your games to other, non-English speaking countries ?"
Only if they learn to speak English
It should be pointed out that Book is our French representative
We’ve been asked to translate PXC into other languages
BTW, great work on the French translations!
Oh yeah. that was awesome
The problem is the quantity of words
And also the fact that many of the puzzles are riddles, rhymes, etc, which can be very tricky to translate
We don’t have any plans in the immediate future to translate it into other languages
Next!
HerringHale asks: “how many people applied for your job vacancies and sent in fab ARG ideas?”
A lot of people have applied
bloody loads
And obviously we’ve hired a number of you guys
well, you say “fab” ideas…
We can’t guarantee they were all that
but some were!
The problem with applying for specifically ARG jobs is that it’s really difficult to get experience beyond starting your own
I have an idea to help this process, but I’m not goign to share it now
Anyways
mj asks: “One of the main differences between Perplex City and more traditional ARGs is that the PMs actually have a role within the game. How do you feel this has been advantageous (or detrimental) to the game?”
Next!
Hmmmm
We intended to be in the game more than we actually were
I think it became a real headache
(in version 0.1 Adrian stole the Cube)
We thought we’d be characters, but it never became useful
Especially with stuff like The Culture Show
thing is, we have no character of our own. none at all.
I have mixed feelings about the concept of TINAG
Do you think you’ll take it as far as Deus City and blur the reality:alt.reality lines more?
No
(a discussion has broken out about this now here)
It’s a clever idea, but you’d need a controlled environment and a very good plan
the girls are eatting
I think it poses some serious problems but we have sort of chosen to be in and out of game when it fits best.
For those of you not in the know, Deus City, another ARG, is using its PMs as characters in their story. It’s come up for a lot of criticism.
I think we evolved into our best possible stance
I think it’s one of those things which suffered because of the length of the game as well.
But it couldn’t work for every game
It works better for a short, very controlled game I think.
Next!
AgentLex asks: “Any plans for more PCAG goodness? I started playing after the first one “
Yes
And that is all.
Next!
It was great fun running it
Awesome.
Don’t hold your breath for too long though
Brilliant
Because that may cause problems.
PCAG was the London Live Event, for those of you who are new or otherwise unaware.
Like it did for Des
it might be one of the challenges though
Oh Des…
Des why did you leave us
des-eased.
* Ben[MCD] wipes away a tear
Des-earted
You liar Ben, you never loved him
Right… who is Des?
Let’s all hold our breaths in memory of him.
* skenmy breathes in
Oh David, how flippant you can be!
duckie , i… i… no.
Next!
<_izzy_> about des: Would you say the character of Jake was based on poor dear Des?”
Will it parellel the olympics and be in Summer next time?
What?
the PCAG
no no, Jake was a soldier, a fighter
<_izzy_> (a question from mindez)
Des, Des was…
des was a lover
yes
Hmm, we don’t have a confirmed date for the PCAG
to some maybe
to all of us
Next!
Summer would be nice – much better weather for running around London
Ollie asks: ” The Receda Trail: What was meant to be at the beach, and how were we meant to find the school of music?”
Dear Gyvann
My goodness
There was a little plastic box filled with business cards
It’s probably still there
it was hidden right at the edge of the flowerbed
Yeah, unless the gardeners found it and threw it out
*stampede begins*
Being a geocache, it was a little hidden
Lovely they were, lovely.
We were very surprised it wasn’t found
I still have a lot of those cards in a drawer in my desk
And those cards had the URL on them?
Yeah, I believe so
Ah, man…it’s great to know that. I’ve always wondered!
I’ve not, you know, *looked* at them in ages
Next!

Here the lovely Flabyo took over to ask questions:

up next for questionage is the fantastic Flabyo!
HerringHale asks: “how many of you took days to solve petals round the rose?”
it took me about 8 hours
I was in a few minutes
Well, because we’re all super intelligent, we’re pretty stumped still.
But I’d seen that kind of puzzle before
I hear that’s how it worked. Of course, the solution database was a good hint.
I think if you know it can be solved quickly, you’ll figure it out quickly
If you’re told it’s tough, you’ll overanalyse it
Next!
Yeah, I was told right away not to overthink it
skemny wants to know about that hint for Shuffled…
No hints
Gosh darn it.
The one I said they said they’d never tell?
No hints for you!
Told you Sken, no chance!
We had to TRY
We will take the secret to our graves
Did Des take it to his?
…ouch
How do you know Des?
If only he had a grave, Duckie….
des didn’t get the honour of a real burial
is Des the cube..?
Next!
Next!
Next!
on the new website, MasterCheese asks: “Seeing the lack of a link to the official forum on the new site, I was wondering if you would still be using it for Season 2 or not?”
Next!
I’m sure we’ll have some sort of community features…
(too slow Andrea)
Sure – there will be a forum
Just, like, not yet.
There are also better discussion features per card as well
It might even be pink.
Next!
Very Web 2.0
Pink?! Ludicrous.
And sprakly!
With ponies!
I heard it was light purple…
dragonscales asks: “Show of hands, who shall be partaying on the 24th?
I
I
I
I
I
J
* Andrea[MCD] weeps bitterly
(it’s K, Andrea)
Next!
Macavity asks: “Will we ever get to talk to Helena Frye?”
What, in person?
I’m sure we’ll see her again
She’s a tough cookie, though.
She might not want to talk to you.
I
you’ll only meet her if you’re on her list. and you don’t want to be on that.
sorry getting wine
macmonkey asks: "I love how Kite Way is on the back of the card "Instagator" I assume there are many more easter egg type clues hidden around?"
ILWDIOP
There are other clues
From the start, we knew that Violet and Kurt did it

So there are all sorts of pointers in the blog posts etc
There are, I think, quite a few things in blogs that you haven’t picked up on yet.
Ah yes
what he said
MC and the K-Dawg in a sekrit pact?
Don’t know about that one
Next!
Jojojojo asks if you have a favourite player quote?
Yes!!1
http://pxcbash.com/
The Kurt is Dead humour always amuses us
That was my first proper PXC experience, that night.
Dear Gyvann, there’s a PXC bash?
i liked the whole escaped bear/bear hunt/stolen bear costume thing in the police event
Fans of limericks, eh?
Oh yes. We have everything.
David has a thing for bears.
We’ve got far too much if you ask me…
* duckie has SEEN some of it…
…No Comment
Next!
josiah asks: “Re season 2, does advertising perplex city stories as an ARG not take away the A and the R and just leave G to some extent?”
We’ve always said in our publicity that PXC is an ARG
Like I said, I think in many cases, TINAG is overrated
but we still aim to surpirse you
I suppose some of that depends on what you’re calling an “ARG” and what you’re not, too
The definition is famously nebulous in the first place
I think an ARG is less about TINAG, and more about the gameplay and the interface
I think making a fun experience is the important bit
Right
And what you’re calling it is secondary
Next!
One from me, I’m afraid: Do you think that the term ‘ARG’ is fixed, or is it up for interpretation.
As in: are there RULES that you need to conform to?
No
If there are rules, I haven’t seen them.
universal no
An ARG is what you want it to be. Or .. something.
There are some things that work well, and a lot of sacred cows
The more and more I think about it, the less I’ve backed away from exclusive definitions
In the same way that much of the internet is still in its infancy.
I don’t even like the term ‘ARG’
And frankly the less I’ve thought they even mattered
grr. arg.
There may one day be framing conventions, as there are for a novel.
Mmmm… Buffy.
Perplex City Musical [Episode]..?
But for now, it’s changing every time someone comes up with something new, clever and interesting to do.
And I know a lot of ARG companies don’t like the term either
But the media has taken hold of it
Next!
mj asks: “What do you feel will be the Next Big Thing in ARGs?”
Well, you know, hopefully Season 2?
Well, we’ve heard about this thing called PXC Stories… it’s shaping up to be pretty good I hear
What else do you expect us to say really?
Original IP
And ARGs that have a much lower barrier to entry
Next!
Macavity wonders if you expect anyone will ever solve Riemann?
you’re a bright lot
Anyone ever?
Wait, you haven’t solved it yet? Jeez.
In the entire course of human history?
Providing we don’t destroy the planet?
Yes.
We’ve got the solution
adrian will give you hints until you do.
Des could’ve explained it
It’ll make a nice reunion when we’re old and grey
Next!
i'd love it!
Mindez asks: "In what ways will season 2 be different from and/or similar to season 1, in terms of the ARG and the cards? Things like.. will they be more seperate, will the cards be a more vital influence on the game, will the ARG become a lot smaller, etc."
The ARG and cards will be more separated
But there’ll still be some links
The ARG isn’t getting any smaller at all
fun and cool links
Bigger if anything, bigger *and* better!
We had some real problems synchronising the release of cards with the story. If we could magically create cards instantly, we’d still have the links… but the lead times are massive

And here duckie took over again for the final set of questioning:

Morbus asks: “how much will s2 overlap, if at all, with s1? will the s2 puzzles reveal secrets you may be unwilling to give up from s1 (ala those Risk pieces)? Will new players need a primer in S1 history to “get” S2?”
lead times are long
We’re very keen to make S2 instantly accessible
I consider the Risk pieces thing just to be a puzzle, not part of the story
But we’re not going to ignore what happened in S1 at all
So that you can start playing without S1 knowledge
But yes, there’ll be more to enjoy if you know about S1
mj asks: “Is it true that the puzzles on the new site are named after sushi?”
I imagine that will be a hard balance to get.
Yes. That is entirely true.
The entire season is named after sushi.
Yay for sushi!
mostly i made them up out of my own head
Or *is* it?!?
gotta love it
David is actually speaking the truth this time
Perplex City Cucumber Roll 2
Don’t listen to Caine!
erm with hints David
He’s a mass-murdering psychopath!
ssshhh!
Now now, we’ve discussed “mass”
And beware his cutting wit!
you know what happens to people wot blab
Mima asks: “Did you panic when Violets seckret page was accessed and there was no phone call?” I think that a lot of us would be interested to know: when you saw the photo of the hole that chippy took, did you *know* it had been found?
*know* is a strong word
I knew it’d been found when Chippy drew that map
It was a very exciting time.
Sorry, Hawk’s photo.
* duckie slaps wrists
Yeah, when we saw the map, we knew.
We didn’t panic too much
i was planning a whole new ‘lost: the cube’ campaign
There was some nail-biting
But the whole time was nail-biting
We felt like we were slightly getting a taste of our own medicine
much refreshing of mailboxes
Waking up in the morning and checkign first thing to see if there was progress, or to see if somebody dug the thing up overnight
Will there be the same sort of a grand prize in S2?
* Rand0m apologises if he was responsible for ulcers
yeah, for a few days there it really was my first thought every morning
There are no plans for a big grand prize
“did they find the Cube yet? did they?”
How long did it take you to phone Rand0m?!
“What if they’re digging *right now*?”
Well, we emailed first
It was a big headline grabber, and it was a good focus for the game, but we want to do different things
That took a day and a half I think
Then a day to phone
Having a big prize constrains game design quite a lot
and costs
And I would like to think that most people play because they enjoy the game and the story, not because of the prize
I think we all agree on that one
You’ve got that right.
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Coxtin asks: “Will season 2 involve a person who can change into a spider?”
Yes
Who told you that?!
how did they find out?
*turns over the sekrit document*
leaks in the company
jey!
It was in a dream he had
And to a more sensible question from Chimera: There was some concern in the community, particularly from those who collect the cards more for the collection’s sake, that the distribution of Wave 4 rare cards left a little to be desired. Have any lessons been learned from this?
yes we have learned things and we are trying never to do it again
Penultimate question then... Bookmore asks: "If you had one piece of advice to give to the community for season 2, what would it bee ?"
Things change, but give them a chance
Check for cobwebs
It’s good to work together, and often it helps a great deal, but you should never be afraid to go it alone and work on something. And after all, you can’t be shouted at for trying!
Something controversial here: We are thinking about having sponsored episodes in Season 2
Do not be alarmed
’sponsored’?
like a sponsored swim
* Yembles is alarmed
* duckie chucks in a ficer
The last thing we want is for this to affect the story negatively
* skenmy silences the alarm
thankyou skenmy
Like a Cathy’s Book deal?
<_izzy_> care to explain further Adrian?
Not quite
We get a *lot* of requests from companies to make standalone ARGs for them
But we prefer to stay on PXC
interesting…
For those of you out of the loop: Cathy’s Book came in for a bit of a bashing over carrying sponsorship ads from a cosmetics company.
However, I think there are some partnerships that can work out very well
advice for S2: we probably didn’t do it on purpose but we’re pleased you thought so anyway
And I think you’ll actually be pleased when you see it
that’s sounds potentially quite exciting
I don’t think we do anything quite like the cosmetics thing
Always remember: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/92/384049930_f1efd362e1_b.jpg
adrian doesn't look good in lippy
There will be no Sublymonal
yeah, there’s not going to be any ‘Violet writes a note using her Chanel Sable eyeliner’
And no cheesy product placement
I dunno, Tippy would be a good spokesperson for nail varnish and nail files…
(i still sob at some of the projects we’ve had to turn away. *sniff*)
Here’s the sneeky not-quite-final question that’s just been buzzed to me: Time-based points? What’s that all about? Have we got the wrong end of the stick?
chanel sable eyeliner?
ah, Studio 60 ref.
To my knowledge there will be no time based points and never have been
This is based on the back of the promo cards saying something that looks suspiciously like "extra points for fast/first solves'
<_izzy_> "The quicker you solve, the more points you earn"?
<_izzy_> (ty Mindez)
i think you guys may have got the wrong end of the stick but i will check over things to confirm, but not in the near future
it says "the sooner you solve. the more you score"
Yeah
We didn’t mean that
* duckie lets Hannah off of the hook
This is in the girlfriend/boyfriend sense.
Hah!
We often say things we don’t mean.
Oh dear…
it’s true.
duckie i love you
We’re a bunch of cads.
Next!
And now the final question…
What question haven’t we asked, and what is the answer?
Hmmmmmmmmm.
You haven’t asked who actually buried the Cube.
Yes! Who did?
And it was me, Adrian and Michael. Well, I watched while they dug.
Or who knew!
You said that you did in an article, Naomi, so nyah
(no one *ever* believes me when I say I was there)
my orginial answer to that, from my application was – Q: ‘Is it true about you and Sanndra Bullock? A: ‘Who have you been talking to?’
<_izzy_> (btw thats a Q from chippy)
What was our favourite part of the game? Personally, nothing can beat Receda’s Revenge, except maybe Receda’s Revenge 2… except maybe Rece… …
:O
RR2 was ace.
ah, coders always love what they coded themselves (I know I always do)
Receda’s Revenge: *so fun to do*
improv writing, in general, has been a joy
Yeah.
(like now)
* Yembles thoroughly enjoyed RR2
Yep
Who knew there *was* such a thing as improv writing?
how funny was it taking the pic's of jey in a dress? VERY!!!!!!
the drawing aspect was brilliant.

And here the questioning was drawn to a close, and the final parts were thank yous to the Mind Candy folks for giving up their precious time to do the interview!

Aaaaaand as the clock strikes 9, that's it from us. Thanks very, very much to MC for taking part tonight, we look forwards to seeing you all at the party on the 24th
“LOL, eh, Lola?” *sigh*
Just. Thank you to all of you.
O M F G.
Thank you everyone!
Brilliant stuff
You were a great audience
And to you. We play it, you write it.
Q: How difficult is it to break a mirror. A: More difficult than you’d imagine …
Thank you for playing.
And thanks to everyone from Mind Candy and the story team
And you were a great “panel”!
* lhall applauds all
see you next season (or saturday)
cheers guys (i have a large glass in hand)
Thank you for watching us play, more like
Thanks very much Mind Candies
Everyone, come to the party! Seriously, and speak to us, we’re friendly!
* _izzy_ joins in the applause – thanks guys
And thank you for your relentless enthusiasm.
Very much appreciated guys
Thanks guys
Oh… and… there’s a couple of answers here already, Naomi… http://perplexorum.com/showthread.php?t=1181
come and say hi. especuially if you’re hot.
(adrian made me say that.)
Damn you!
oh yeah and thanks to the guy who found the cube
* Yembles laughs
Here is to Saturday, drunkedness, o in the mines karaoke and Squeeeing
To saturday!
And hey, if anyone wants to hang out of a celebratory weekend afternoon in NYC, I guess drop me an email
the people in #perplexorum extend an invite, if any of you fancy something more freeform and anarchic
Good night folks, it’s been good.
Night all
night
Night
I will hang around in perplexocrum for a few minutes

And lo, that was the end of the chat. Thanks to all for a fantastic night (I know I said I was bored, but I lied, it was brilliant). Thank you very much to Mind Candy for giving up their time. Thank you to the brilliant ops for asking the questions and interviewing brilliantly, and thank you to the Applied IRC staff for making the chat possible with the QBot and everything!

It was very informative and I had a good giggle while editing and reading through the logs to write this up! I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

Full logs are here, and further information and the topic in which you can answer the Mind Candy question can be found on this forum. Take a look!

Applied IRC chats part 1: Rand0m’s interview

Silently Broken — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:29:38 +0000

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..

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!)”
Hi folks, thanks for having me here.
Aside from the obvious?
well, I think Ixalon is refering to finding the cube!
Mostly card-related, I think, when some of the puzzles fell into place
For instance,
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
Ah yes
Remember when we were all bombarding the police department with phone calls?
And people kept reporting a bear on the loose?
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
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?”
Am looking forward to seeing how the stories side of it works out – that’s interesting
Will it simply end up as fan fiction or will it be the main driver of the ARG side?
Also, I’m looking forward to proof emerging that Tippy is the big BIG villain with Von as her humble sidekick
I’m also finding myself ridiculously excited by having new packs of cards to open – shiny goodness
One thing that worries me:
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
Will they spread the PXC concept too thin? Will it become the Richard & Judy of games? I hope not
And I think not. But we’ll have to see…
Next question?
Next up, themandotcom asks: “What is the first thing you will do with the prize money?”
Ha.
My answer now is not what it was a few days ago.
Now, my answer is dentistry
A wisdom tooth is emerging.
Oh noes!
Oh yesses. Apart from that, me and Beloved Other Half are house buying so a lot will go into that.
Plus, you know, stuff. I hate my phone. My car doesn’t work.
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.
Ah yes, the wonderful thing that is STUFF!
(And yippee!)
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.
Hence, joint decisions.
Sounds like a cue for the next question
I think we’re all winners in a way
HerringHale asks: “are you a celeb now or what? Any show biz invites yet?”
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
Am totally not a celebrity
Even in my own household
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
Still keeping your feet on the ground then?
Haven’t got a lot of choice in that!
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
That’s good to hear
And that person will usually be Chris
Yes, lovely Chris, speak of the devil!

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

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

On the subject of the 3P, _SilentlyBroken asks: “Do you think the Cube will be stolen at the party on the Saturday?
If it is planned that way, no-one’s told me..
ie, no ‘expect the unexpected during the cheque presentation’ hints
Actually, I think it won’t be
Because although we know next to nothing about season two, it looks like it’s going off in a different direction
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?”
I’m dreading it, and no I haven’t
I always hide in kitchens at parties, but I won’t be able to at this one
But I’ll have some family / friends down from Manchester to hide behind
Including my 11-yr-old neice Emily, so everyone who goes to the party make sure they say ‘hi’ to her
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?”
I have my best black taffeta
Mind Candy HQ is very new media, but tucked away in the backstreets of Battersea which makes an odd contrast
They were very careful not to let me anywhere neasr s2 puzzlecards
I saw some web pages on screen, but nothing that wasn’t launched today
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?”
Oh, it’s got to be the Human League
Um
Is anyone in here old enough to remember the Human League?
o/
<_izzy_> idlemichael says he can sort that out for you
I’m not actually old enough, but I do
Still going strong, still touring, really nice people too
* Rand0m is so relieved that someone does
We have an…interesting question next, Coxtin asks: “Is finding the cube better than being the 35th best Lib-Deb blogger?”
You ought to see the blog post I wrote after Iain Dale published that list… scathing ain’t the word for it
I had a big burst of political blogging at the time of the leadership election
Including one particularly brutal post titled “Chris Huhne: Just Say No”
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

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?”
My half-sistery-type person in Manchester, Emily’s mother.
It needed to be someone I could trust to keep quiet if we decided to keep it and not claim the prize
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 “
No, she won’t be
oh, that’s a shame, though probably a relief for her!
Exactly
I’m kinda nervous about meeting you all
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
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?
They have it and i don’t get it back
that’s a shame, would make a lovely paperweight
Whatever happens in the storyline, there’s only one in real life and it cost a grand to make
There is talk of replicas

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

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?”
I have some ideas I want to pitch to MC, but I suspect I’ve left it too late
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 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?”"
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
No, I wasn’t told anything at all about that sort of thing
Big veil of secrecy
care to speculate? Finch has been a topic of much debate on the forum…
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
But that’s really really *really* spec
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?”
Real silver, as far as I know
Certainly all metal
It’s unpolished and dull with no pattern a,d the llittle square in the corner is highly polished
We have one each – 98 left Divinia says staff aren’t getting them…
And she is the keeper of them…
Why did I guess it would be Ollie who asked that one?
<_<
no reason
>_>
* duckie puts Keers back in his box…
you must be quite the hero in Perplex City itself now, themandotcom asks: “Did any In Game characters contact you after finding the cube?”
No, I was quite disappointed by that. I was hoping for Garnet’s phone number
For, you know, man talk. And fishing trips.
Fancied giving him a piece of your mind? Or just after a clue for Shuffled?
* Rand0m looks innocent
But no, nothing from anyone apart from Violet’s note
And that, my friends, is staying in our possession until we die
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?”
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
I get the impression that PXC is a bit more newbie-friendly
This is my first one too, so you’re not alone.
And that I think is a good thing – I suspect a lot more non-ARGers have come in than ARGers
Expand the player-base and all that
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:

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?”
Ha ha ha! Of course
But see earlier answer about being cut down to size…
Benandad want to know if you have many friends who play pxc?
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
I tried to involve people but I actually don’t have a lot of friends to introduce to the game
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
which leads us nicely to what Tornan wanted to know
Go on?
“Who would you say would have been the person, in your opinion, who most deserved to find the cube?? (apart from yourself!!)”
I guess that’s not an easy question
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
I’ll tell you who the unluckiest is, though
Ifurita
I don’t know if anyone knows him?
I think it’s great how the community held together until the end
He’s out in California
Just before the San Francisco event I offered him a 50-50 partnership so we had both sides of the Atlantic covered
He never replied
ouch.
I thought I was being clever, piggybacking on an experienced gamer. We’d worked together on the black summaries
He could have had half the prize money without lifting a finger…
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
Chippy wants to know about your fame in the future, “Have you been approached by any telly / movie houses looking to film your story?”
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.
If there is, though, I want Antonio Banderas to play me
There’s always the fan film
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
How long have you been playing perplexcity? asks benanddad
Since Christmas 05 – I bought the starter pack for beloved Other Half from Firebox
Oh yes, do you have an agent we can call about the film?
First solve I think was Vexillillillogy
Why was that a purple when Ales of the Earth was a blue?
* Flabyo nods in agreement
Duckie wants to know if you ever considered that you might be the person to find it, when you first started playing?
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
hehe. It must be completely surreal
Beloved Other Half loved Masquerade as a child and I saw this as a chance to be involved in a modern version
Going back to the cards…Flabyo would like to know if you have a favourite?
But win? No – that doesn’t happen to the people you ever meet, does it? Surreal is the word for it, alright. Daliesque. <<< joke
Several
Read Between the Lines
Swarms – I remember seeing Skenmy with his copy at ASIB amd thinking “Wow, trafalgar”
Laundered cos, hey, Garnet wih no shirt
* Rand0m thinks
Better ask another question before I list half the set
<_izzy_> re Laundered, planning to use it as blackmail for a shuffled solution then
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?
*thinks carefully*
The Lego catalogue was fun
There’s probably some really intense bit of research I did that I can’t now remember… blast
The work I put into Mother Tongue…
Ye Gods
And all for nothing, I was way off beam
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
Facts and figures and GDPs and TLDs and the CIA World Factbook and all sorts of stuff
Well, I was never given the option officially
But we did our best to disguise our identities for as long as possible in case we decided to pull out
For quite a few reasons
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
And therefore easier to walk away from
Then there was the motivation – taking part, solving the game, not the money
_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..”
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
Oh yes. It would have been awful to leave people in limbo
I was going to take a few photos ad post them
I mean, post them online, not put them in an envelope with a ransom note!
Chippy wants to know if you’d like to buy a metal detector..one careful owner
“We have your Cube, give us £1000 or you’ll never see it again”
Umm…
Chippy, we’ll see what the goal for next season is first
I think a ransom note would be considered ARGjacking, and would probably be frowned upon
Ah what the hell, we’re rewriting the rules in PXC every day
Indeed
Themandotcom has a nice question to close on
What is next for Rand0m?

Hmm. I think right now, cooking for Beloved Other Half who came in while this was going on
Apart from that
Say hi from us..
Still freelance work – web design and web content – this isn’t ‘retire in the sun’ money
Will do mac
I have a short story coming out soon in an anthology of new writing
So I’m excited about that
You’ll have to keep us updated on that
Definitely!
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.

Thanks for joining us this evening, it’s been great chatting to you.
And then there’s season two, where I shall provide a moving target for you all to aim at!
I’ve enjoyed it, thanks for having me
Hah, we’ll paint on on your back
Most of you will be looking over your shoulder I think
Thank you very much Rand0m!
Thanks for joining us!
* Rand0m bows, and hands out individual fruit pies to everyone
Thanks 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
Congratulations again
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!

Perplex City visits Hamleys!

Silently Broken — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 15:14:36 +0000

All this week Perplex City have been able to be found at the Hamleys on Regent Street in London! Much to our appreciation, there were special “Hamley’s” cards, number H01 to H05, as well as various Season 2 promo’s being handed out.

Sadly, due to the fact I had work, I didn’t manage to drag myself down to London until the Saturday, but there were still a great deal of the H01-H05 cards to be found, although only one Season 2 promo left!

If you solved all five Hamley’s cards on the day, you were presented with goodies. If I remember correctly, this was a Version 2 starter pack and two packs of Perplex City cards. I was too lazy to solve mine on the day (wish I had though!).

There were two ’stalls’ so to speak. One had all the special cards, and was the stall you went to after solving all the five Hamley’s cards to collect the goodies from.

The second stall had the Perplex City board game set up on it, with the question cards out. You picked a coloured marble out of the bag, and the lady behind the stall asked you a question from one of the cards that corresponded with that colour. If you got the answer right, you were presented with a pack of Perplex City cards!

I wandered around there for a while, discussed with the ladies on the stalls and chatted to Flabyo, Ollie, giggsey, AgentLex, Xena, and another guy (ferret I think?). We then wandered off to a pub where we discussed the cards, spec, and various other stuff over a drink for a couple of hours, then I excused myself and headed off home.

Fun day out, and the cards are lovely. Snagged a few extras, for friends that begged as they can’t get to London sadly, and looking forward to seeing everyone next week!

Hopefully next week I won’t get stranded in London!

Receda Cube found!

Silently Broken — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:09:09 +0000

After two years of searching we received a tantalising update from the Perplex City Sentinel yesterday, holding breaking news that the Receda Cube had finally been found! It wasn’t until much later, in the evening, that we found out the full details of the finding. The lucky person to find the Cube was Andy Darley (astro_random on the Perplex City leaderboard), known as Rand0m on Unfiction, and a valued member of the community. I always hoped that a member of the community would find the Cube, as we all worked hard towards it!

According to Andy, he never expected to find the Cube (did any of us? I know I didn’t ), and was only in the game for the puzzles and the community, like the majority of us, so it came as a great shock to him when he dug the Cube up! In a spot of dedicated Cube hunting, Andy went to Wakerley Great Wood, Northamptonshire at 4am to search for the Cube! It seems to be that he just pipped a group of Cube hunters, that had been searching all weekend, to the post, as they found a Cube shaped hole and a Perplex City card: “End of the Line” which was a fairly apt card to leave behind!

Two articles have been published about the finding of the Cube, one by the BBC and the other by Gamasutra. The Gamasutra article has a small picture of the cube, if you squint you might be able to make it out. There is a Sentinel article on the recovery of the Cube , and also more information about it all on the Perplex City website. Here is a proper picture of the Cube, apparently drinking champagne, with another article by ARGNet here.

There will be a formal ‘handing over’ ceremony on the 24th February, but we are still waiting on the details for this to be finalised! I look forward to seeing you there! (For those unable to attend this, I will be writing up my account of the event, I promise).

I’d like to offer my congratulations to Andy, and I’d like to thank the whole of Mind Candy for all the hard work they have put into this to make it the success it has been. I’ve been playing over a year now, and it’s been a fantastic (albeit hectic) year! So many thanks to you guys, without you, this would never have taken place!

Onto the next installment of this post, the information we’ve been waiting for… SEASON 2! The Perplex City website officially announced Season 2 is starting on March 1st, where the first wave of cards will be released.

According to the website, we can look forward to a brand new look on February the 14th, with more puzzles for us! Also in the near future there will be “Perplex City Stories”, and apparently a new immersive experience!

All in all, it looks to be an exciting month ahead, with releases, revamps and mucho partying!

See you all for Season Two!
~~(where the 3P will have stolen the Cube back at the party and we have a mad rush to regain it )~~

Ascendancy Point Event – 30th January

Silently Broken — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 22:46:24 +0000

On Tuesday 30th January at 7pm GMT we all gathered in our respective IRC rooms, and waited for the update to the police site ( http://www.perplexcitypolice.com/case_notes.php?cid=PXC978C675§ion=OB ) to arrive with the details of the event with trepidation.

At around 7:10pm someone said “it’s been updated!” and we all rushed to get the link necessary to be able to communicate with the people in Perplex City. The link was in a flash applet, and we could communicate with them but not each other. Our messages didn’t appear to us, just to them. We could only see what they were writing and transmitting to us. There was pictures/audio/text/video. Pictures of the applet can be seen on my flickr.

Each puzzle came up as a little flashing box on the picture of Ascendancy Point to the right of the applet. We had to click each one, where a new window popped up with the puzzle.

The first messages started coming through immediately. We were informed that they were all grouped at the subway, and needed to get the platform cleared quickly. The best way to do this was to overload the ticket barrier, by making them think too many people were on the platform. This was our first challenge. In a Mastermind style puzzle, we had to get as many combinations right as possible to overload the ticket barrier. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374829931/ ). We used the numbers 1 -4 (inclusive), and it told us with a green light if the number was in the correct place, and an orange light if we had a correct number but in the wrong place. When we solved a combination, we had to tell Kurt in the applet to get a new combination to solve it. For instance, one of my combinations was 1322. We solved this fairly rapidly, and they moved on towards Ascendancy Point where Violet and Helena split (to go and lay charges on the power system) from Kurt, Caine (who joined at the last minute, much to everyone’s disgust!) and Fitch (one of Helena’s men).

Kurt and co immediately concentrated on getting the lift hijacked and working to take them to the floor they needed. For this we needed to crack a code on the door. We had to watch a video and watch a guard inputting an 8 digit code in to open the door, and then relay this to Kurt. We managed to crack the code as: 74293816. From here we then had to figure out the amount of time we had to get Kurt and co through the door without the guard seeing. We cracked this at every 30 seconds, so not much time!!

They then came across a door which needed “iris recognition” to open it. Kurt linked us to the employee database ( http://perplexcitypolice.com/PXC300D968/employeeinformation.php ), while Fitch gave us a description of the guard via audio: blue eyes, 5ft7, 170 pounds, 50 years old. We managed to come up with the guy fairly rapidly: Damon Booth. This worked and they got through the doors.

The next thing that Kurt asked us to do was to get the operator to reboot the elevator system. We had to do this by ringing a number and coming up with weird and wonderful problems with the lift in order for the operator to deem it necessary to reboot! The numbers were US: (201) 399 2294 AND UK: 0207 870 1174.

While we were doing this, Kurt gave us another puzzle, to find the longest loop, in order for Kurt to cut the correct cable and prevent the alarms from being set off. The answer to this is shown on my flickr ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374829661/ ) .

We were told to continue calling to get the operator to reboot the lift (apparently he was being an arse!), and to tell Kurt when the lift is being rebooted.

There were a few puzzle doors we had to solve before they could get into the lift. The first door had a large circle on it. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374829984/ ) Apparently the grey parts of the circle needed to be lined up, and this created letters. The solve to this was found to be “Point Zenith”.

The second door had a bunch of letters on it, some were overlapping. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374830013/ ). The object was to find the missing letters. These were found to be “H” and “R”.

The third and final door was a maze. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374830071/ ). We had to find the word that came out of the maze. The word, ironically enough, was “LOCKED”. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374829732/ ).

After this, they came across another iris scanner, which wasn’t in the original plans, and they reckoned it must have been put in, in the last few days. Again we had to turn to the employee database ( http://perplexcitypolice.com/PXC300D968/employeeinformation.php ), and get a good look at the guard using video. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374830173/ ). We gathered that the guard was 20-30, brown hair, moustache with a tiny beard, glasses and caucasian. We managed to come up with the answer that he was “Jasper Cohen”.

Here we managed to get the operator to reboot the lift, thanks to the lovely jojojojo! Unfortunately there were two guards waiting by the lift, and the (stupid/brave? you choose) Caine, went up and picked a fight with both, pretending to be drunk! They beat him pretty badly and dragged him off (ouch), leaving the lift free for them! Violet and co. met up with Kurt and Fitch by the lift after they had set all the charges, and they travelled in the lift for what seemed like about half an hour (with a lot of bickering), but then it was 110 odd floors!

They arrived in a storage (?) bay. They reckoned there was movement in Bay 17, so they tried to gain access through Bay 16. In order to access the service ducts we needed to raise the temperature to about body temperature and keep it constant for around 30 seconds. We had a flash applet of several thermometers with an average temperature thermometer ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374830088/ ). We needed to click and hold on the bulbs at the bottom of each thermometer to raise the temperature to the right amount, however the temperature fell pretty rapidly if you left it, and you couldn’t leave it too long or you failed!

In the end we managed it and the gas canisters were successfully planted by one of Helena’s men (Harrison). We then had 10 minutes, as when they detonated the power went out. There was a one minute window in which they had to enter, where the power was completely dead. Unfortunately all the vents closed and we had to override the locks. There were 11 locks needed to be overridden and we had 7 minutes to do it in. We had to click on a grey square, which then turned red (to show it was active), and fill the entire grid with green. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374830112/ ). We managed to unlock 10 of the 11, which was pretty damn good going!

From here it all turned to audio, and we could hear shouting and shooting going on. At the end of the mayhem we found that Scarlett was in a bad way and looked like she had been tortured, all we could hear (and read at this point) was Violet saying “Lettie, your hands! What have they done”, and other similar sentences. Caine was handcuffed and pretty badly beaten up. They managed to get the 3P people, some got away however. We think Harrison was killed.. and two others, although we are not sure who. Helena was seriously injured. The last we heard from the group was that Scarlett and Helena were being taken to hospital. Scarlett on a stretcher as she was too “woozy” to walk. Kurt kept reassuring Violet that Scarlett would be fine.

Then a message popped up on our screen, we do not know who it was from but it said:

?* Form the layer. Find the era. Follow the Way. Find the Cube.
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/silentlybroken/374829808/ )

All in all it was a very exciting night, and I would say we had the biggest turn out for an online event yet. It was left on a bit of a cliffhanger and we are anxiously awaiting news and hoping that all injured will be ok.

We are hoping that we have all we need to find the Cube. Let’s get cracking folks!

All audio can be found here. Credit to Skenmy, Arkasha and Sledge for working on this!
All pictures can be found on my flickr.

Please let me know if I have made any errors, or missed anything out! Thankies

Perplex City Sentinel – View From Earth and Letter

Silently Broken — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 15:52:48 +0000

I decided to write a View From Earth, because I suddenly had an idea of what to write about and to my surprise, it was published!:

View From Earth: Perplex City Food and Lifestyle

By Sarah Hunt (aka silentlybroken)

In the last two years, we have learnt a lot about Perplex City, but we have never really learnt about the types of food Perplex City eat. It has always been in the back of my mind: “What is their regional food?”. Such as Stoke-on-Trent and neighbouring areas have “Chips and gravy” and Scotland have “haggis” and other such regional foods.

Earth, as a world, seems ridiculously addicted to this so-called “Fast food”, where we go to food chains and order food that is fast to cook and usually fried, such as burgers and chips. This is usually rather greasy and unhealthy food. Eating this stuff is more and more common and accepted as a regular meal. Instead of cooking your own food, why not head out to a McDonalds and pick up a Big Mac meal. It’s cheap, and quick! I hasten to add that I am not in agreement with this at all and am against it, as are many doctors as it is leading to an increase in heart disease and many other related diseases. It also has been linked to an increase in obesity, definitely found in children that eat these fast foods very commonly. It has led me to wonder if Perplexians have similar food chains, and whether they are finding similar problems to those that we on Earth are facing. I know Perplex City is eerily similar to Earth, as it has restaurants and bars, just like we do, but from what I can gather from the research I have done, Perplex City actually doesn’t seem to have these “fast food joints” to use a common term of slang that we on Earth use.

Moving on from this topic, onto another that is greatly debated on Earth. Earth is famous for the “fad diets” that we choose to have control over our eating and our weight. With the increase in the eating of fast food and obesity, more Earth people than ever turn to these fad diets to regain some control and their old figures. They even go as far as to abstain from eating meat, and calling themselves Vegetarians. There are even people that go further along these lines and abstain from eating meat, or dairy products as well. These people are generally known as vegans.

These are the more commonly accepted diets. There are many others, such as low carbohydrate diets and low fat diets. People spend their entire life stressing about their weight, and switching from one diet to another. It can even manifest itself in various mental disorders.

The mental disorders are very little known or talked about. They range from not eating; to eating and then purging your body of the food; to not being able to stop eating. They endanger people’s lives, because of the obsession with food and our bodies that has been caused by “celebritys”.

I cannot help but wonder if Perplexians have similar troubles to us, as Earth and Perplex City are very similar to each other. Are the mental disorders more widely accepted? Is fast food being phased out steadily, along with fad diets? With everything we know about Perplex City, and everything you know about Earth, there are still many things that we can learn from each other every day, both good and bad. It’s healthy to do so, and I believe that learning from other races is important to our everyday growth and expansion, whether we agree with the different views they may have, or not. I feel there is so much more that we can learn from each other, and I hope we can continue to expand each others views.

I also decided that with all the goings on lately, to write a letter into the Sentinel. Wasn’t posted, but I didn’t expect it to be!

Hello,

With the recent lockdown and firewall, I am unaware of whether this will pass through and be allowed to be put on the Sentinel. I wish simply to express that we are all working hard to find the cube, and hope to regain it soon, as we have made several breakthroughs. I sincerely hope that the next time we communicate with you, it is on better terms, and indeed, after the “firewall days”.

Thanks for reading,

Sarah Hunt

I doubted they’d be used, not the best written, but it passed the time and gave me something to do! So I was incredibly surprised (and pleased) to find my VFE was published!

Extreme Puzzling – Extreme Chess entry

Silently Broken — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 12:07:10 +0000

Extreme Puzzling: The World of Extreme Chess

Earlier this week I was lucky enough to catch up with one of the top 10 in the world that takes part the latest craze in this new fad of Extreme Puzzling. This guy is part of one of the top teams in Extreme Chess.

This uses an entire floor as a chessboard, and the team members are the pieces. The fad came about from reading about “Wizard’s Chess” in the Harry Potter: The Philosopher’s Stone book by J.K. Rowling, and it really took off. There are worldwide tournaments and “friendly” meets.

Unfortunately it can be extremely violent, as when an enemy takes a member of the opposing team off the board, it usually involves a squabble as that member is reluctant to be taken off. Many injuries have been sustained, and there have even been competitions and comparing as to who has the worse injuries!

The world renowned (and sex god) Victor Halsall is here with me at the moment to answer some burning questions about this latest craze.

Me: Hi Victor, I’m glad you could join us!
Victor: Hi Sarah, I’m happy to be here.

Me: So, Extreme Chess. How did you get into it?
Victor: Well, I was bored one day on the computer, and just browsing through random websites. Came across Extreme Chess. I’ve always been rather into playing Chess, and this really intrigued me, as it was something that appealed to my wild side! There were contact details on the website itself, listing the Extreme Chess teams in different areas. I rang up and secured a chance to go along and take a look. As they say, the rest is history!

Me: Sounds good! Is it much different than the board game?
Victor: No, it’s actually pretty closely combined. The same rules for the game itself really. The only major differences are the size of the board, and the fact we are the playing pieces! (Victor laughs)

Me: A lot of people have said it is increasingly violent. Have you had any serious/worrying injuries? Does the violence concern you at all?
Victor: I’ve been pretty lucky as far as injuries go. There’s never been any really serious injuries, no deaths or anything like that. My worst injury was a cracked rib really. That was pretty painful! But it does add to the adrenalin rush in the game, adds to the fun a great deal. And really the violence doesn’t worry me at all, because there are medics on standby, and it is watched to ensure it doesn’t get out of hand. No serious injuries have been recorded either.

Me: A lot of people see it as a stupid idea, with the fighting as someone is taken off the board. I know there have been protests and requests that this game is stopped. What is your view on that?
Victor: It’s simple really. If they don’t agree with the game they don’t have to play it do they? (Victor laughs). It’s not a compulsory thing, although I do understand families and friends of the players getting worried.

Me: That leads me nicely into my next question. How do your family feel about your involvement?
Victor: My mum was a bit worried about it at first, but once I sat her down, and showed her how it works she was a bit better. Her nerves were put at ease somewhat when she saw me in a tournament. It does cause a bit of a problem with the love life though! Many girlfriends cannot deal with it at all!

Me: So still single then? (I laugh)
Victor: (Victor laughs and shuffles in his chair) Yes, unfortunately I am still single. (Victor leans forward a bit) I am definitely looking though! (Victor winks).
Me: I’ll keep that in mind!

Me: Changing the subject back to Extreme Chess! Do you always play the same chess piece, or is it different every match?
Victor: Well it depends. I tend to play a Bishop most often, but they like to switch it around a bit, people get awfully bored playing the same pieces constantly! Especially if they are a Pawn.

Me: I can imagine! Do you have to wear costumes for the game?
Victor: Well we tend to wear padding as a precaution really, in case of injuries. We do wear costumes as well, naturally padded out with the shielding for the more sensitive areas, if you get me (Victor winks). The costumes also help with remembering who is what chess piece during the game.

Me: Sounds pretty fun! So when is the next tournament for you?
Victor: Well there isn’t a big tournament until next year really, but we do have a friendly match coming up in November. You can come along if you like! It’s pretty exciting to watch.

Me: I might take you up on that offer! Thanks a lot for coming along and giving us an insight into Extreme Chess Victor, you have definitely opened my eyes to the game, and it sounds a lot less crazy than I thought.
Victor: Always glad to speak to you, Sarah!

I managed to grab a few pictures, as well as a neat t-shirt with the Extreme Chess logo on it!

T-shirt:

Victor

Extreme Chess Game

You can click on the images to view a full sized version of these. I do apologise for the quality of the pictures. The incredible likeness to the playing pieces we see on the board sized game is amazing, you wouldn’t know the difference!

Recedas Revenge 2

Silently Broken — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 08:19:31 +0000

So last night, Wednesday 25th October, was the much awaited Recedas Revenge 2. Everyone was hyped up and looking forward to the event. After my experience with the San Francisco online event, I wasn’t getting my hopes up.

Skenmy created this awesome link between the different servers that were going to be used for chat during the game, as the chat for Recedas Revenge was going to be insanely mad, and very difficult to keep up with. It meant that we could be on the Mind Candy IRC server, Chat-solutions IRC server, or the AppliedIRC server, and still talk to each other. It was really nicely done.

At around 6pm the website was updated with a link to the play webpage. I signed into the interface, and was pretty much dumbfounded with the shinyness. It was very cleverly done. It had a drawing pad at the top, which had an animation for Recedas Revenge 2. There were two rooms at the bottom. One to chat in, and the other was solely for the game itself.

Recedas Revenge 2 rules were as follows:

Only one person could be in control of the game at any one time.
You had to press the “Queue” button at the top if you wish to have a go, controlling the game.
You had to navigate your way using text commands such as “move north” or “take lecks”
You also had to draw where told to.

I think the most surprising moment for us was when a voice suddenly boomed: “Recedas Revenge 2: Coming Soon!” as we were waiting for the game to start. We all were startled, then we started guessing at who was the voice. I was the first to say it was Guy, and apparently I was right!

The actual game didn’t start until 6:40pm, which was 10minutes later than we expected. I was a little concerned about the game, as the chat included in the interface was completely mad, and I was having trouble keeping up. I decided to ignore the game chat, and just read the IRC chats, and read back at the end (if I could be bothered!). There was a live log page for the Game chat and the actual chat, which was bloody marvellous. It live updated every 15seconds.

When the game started we all got excited. A voice boomed: “Welcome to Recedas Revenge 2″ (or words to that effect). The Game chat started instructions. PenH was the first person up to control the game.

The basic set up was we (as a singular person) had been captured by a man called Lord Flaganroth, and he had also captured a princess. We needed to escape our surroundings so that we could release the princess. But it wasn’t going to be easy as we had to collect three things in order to save her:

“The first is the Trophy of Amandier. You can find it at David’s Quays, at the north of the city, in the Amandier Art Tournament.”
“The second are the Ancient Lecks of the Academy, which are held in the Bell Tower.”
“The third and last is a Pelt of a Tretretretre, which you could find in a zoo. Now go with haste! And Gyvann!”

From then the game consisted of finding these objects, with obstacles in our way and challenges to face. And of course, many deaths! We had to solve the challenges to get the three objects needed to free the princess, and then take them back to her.

The details for the game chat are logged on the wikipedia by the lovely Mindez, who actually did the wiki in realtime, copying/pasting/formatting the entire logs onto it as well as having to control the game at one point. You may read them here.

Of course, when she was free, it wasn’t over, as Lord Flaganroth stood in our way, with his evil sock puppet. This led to the grand finale, where our sock puppet fought Lord Flaganroth’s sock puppet. We eventually defeated the sock puppet, through gruelling attacks, only to have Lord Flaganroth take the princess through a portal. Unfortunately the portal also took our sock puppet!

We were left with the following information:

You are alone in the dungeon. Sans pelt, sans trophy, sans leck, sans puppet, sans everything.
Just before the portal closed, you heard a strange whisper through it…
Project Visor report 23 October 2006
Intermittent signal recorded, weak, faint.
Unable to determine location or direction.
Signal lost after 0.278 seconds.
Dispersal pattern suggests target located in arboreal area.
Report ends.
You wend your weary way home from the dungeon, making a mental note to sort out that wardrobe. Possibly with a shotgun.
You don’t know how you can continue to live without your beloved sock puppet.
You are sustained only by the knowledge that one day you will be reunited!
You will have your revenge! Stay tuned for more Receda’s Revenge!

So, look forward to the next installment of Receda’s Revenge. I’ll be there. I hope you will too!

All the images drawn for the Receda’s Revenge 2 game are uploaded onto my Flickr, as I spent my time in the game screenshotting every image (and being donked every few seconds so I didn’t miss an image). I will mention that I missed two images. The very first puzzle, which was basically a similar version of the “Strange Loops” card. Slightly different solve though. I also missed an animation of the “Surprise Attack” in the finale. I didn’t miss any player drawn images however.

As a side note, the small technical faults that occurred were greatly amusing.

I also wish to thank Mind Candy for that brilliant set up. It was the best online event I’ve attended. Brilliantly done, and hilariously enjoyable. I was crying with laughter at more than one point throughout the game. It was brilliant, and I really look forward to the next installment!

Cubefest 2006!

Silently Broken — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 15:47:15 +0000

So.. Cubefest 2006 has been and gone. And was fabulous!

I got up bright and early on Saturday 7th to train my way down to London. Arrived at Charing Cross at 1pm, where a group of us were going to hand out leaflets about Billion To One at Trafalgar Square for a while, before we headed off to Cubefest!

We split into little groups so that we could cover Trafalgar Square as best as we could, and headed off to accost the various passers by with leaflets and cards. I was grouped with the lovely _izzy_. We started handing out leaflets (and by we, I mean _izzy_, I was quite frankly, useless) until one of the officials there came up and started telling _izzy_ off, apparently it is illegal to hand leaflets out there and we had to traipse all the way up the steps to hand them out there! We managed to give a few leaflets out, surprisingly people didn’t want them!

Then _izzy_ and I met mj, and Jo (angelsk), to head to a Pizza Express for lunch, while the rest of the team traipsed off to Leicester Square to see if they had anymore luck there!

We all grouped back together at the Cubefest place, which “coincidentally” had a 333 poster on a billboard right next to it :O !! Coincidence..of course We went in, and got given a piece of posh paper to write our real names and usernames on, so people knew who we were, and a special Perplex City wristband, with a code on for a raffle that was happening later!

I also managed to snaffle a very shiny unofficial Cubefest card, designed by Ixalon. Uber shiny! I also spotted a rather yummy looking cake made especially for Cubefest! You can find the pictures on Dan Hon’s flickr.

There were loads of people there. We milled around for a bit, randomly chatting and greeting each other, with Dan Hon and Sledge taking pictures everywhere! Then Guy gave a short speech, followed by Adrian (I don’t know what about at all, I couldn’t hear!). But I do remember (with Jot’s help just now), that he said that Season 2 would be out in February regardless of whether the cube was found. And that there will be more hints for finding the cube soon in the next few weeks, but they are not spoon feeding us, because after all, it is £100,000! After that Guy came back on stage, waffled on a bit more, and said there would be a “Get to know each other” game, and to get into groups (eek!!).

The game told us to choose 4 items of 8, to do an “interesting interpretation” of. The items were:

Show the effects of taking too much Ceretin
Prepare a presentation for Perplex City on the new game, Earth: The ARG
Demonstrate the Perplex City game of Third Wheel (bonus points for a running commentary)
Re-enact a 3p appearance at a live event on a low budget
Provide conclusive evidence that a member of your team is a 3p agent
Give a seminar on the Art of Seduction in Perplex City
Demonstrate the effects of sleeping in the same room as the cube for over one month
Give a reconstructionist sermon on cubes and the evil of triangles

This is all from Ollie’s memory (someone has a good memory!!!), so he says it’s not perfect, but that’s basically what we had to choose from. There was prizes for the winning team, so we all made a good effort.

The performances were fantastic, really well done, and greatly amusing. Amadeus’ team was the winning team (Amadeus, Flabyo, Ixalon, Bakers_12 and Elfredo), and they snaffled shiny Perplex City goodie bags (which had gold cards in the PXC pack!!!!).

There was also a raffle, and one of Amadeus’ team members won that too! Ended up with two Gold cards IIRC! (lucky git ). There was an extra goodie bag left, so Guy pulled another ticket out of the beer glass (how typical), and Agent Lex won! He also received a Gold card in the PXC pack. I attempted to steal it, but failed miserably! (At least I got a close look at it!)

After that we just milled about and chatted some more. Mind Candy brought along three board games so we could try them out, so various people did. There was also some trading going on. But mainly, lots of drinking, fun, and chatting. At 7pm people started to drift off slowly, some went home, others went for food, or onto somewhere else.

All in all, it was a fantastic time, and I’m extremely glad that I decided to go.

I want to thank Ollie and Mind Candy for organising this, because they went to a huge amount of trouble. And thank Coxtin for finding the bar

Everyone was extremely lovely, I was so pleased to meet people finally. And I look forward to meeting you all again in the near future!

I didn’t take many pictures, but pictures can be found on my Flickr. Take a look. Better pictures are on Dan Hon’s flickr, Sledge’s flickr, Bakers_12’s flickr, Sequoya’s flickr and Kirjava’s flickr which can also be found in my links. Also there are pictures uploaded to a special flickr Cubefest group, which has pictures from all the different Cubefests.

Degree Project – HELP!

Silently Broken — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 16:42:02 +0000

Ok so.. this year for my degree I have to do a project. It needs to be a web database really.. and I’ve been trying to think about a subject to pick for it.

I decided eventually on Perplex City, because it’s something I know a great deal about, and is suitable to do a web databse with..

The first thing I thought of doing was setting out possibles for topics. I decided on three different topics:

Cards – online card database (will explain more later)
Story – following one of the characters (decided this was shit and couldn’t be used as a database)
Out of Game – 13th Labour, Billion 2 One, Shuffled sorta thing. Wasn’t sure how to database that either

So I decided on cards. But the only problem is how to do a database that isn’t taken as a rip off of Bri’s, or of Buzman’s pretty card manager?

I want to have all or most of the below points in the web database, which makes it pretty large, but possible.

Cards

Ok, so I was thinking of this.

Online Database

Use Perplexcity.com updates
Number of people that have solved the respective card; number of attempts; difficulty; rarity; set; colour; card architect; card designer; wave; season; points (set and card); solved or unsolved. I will probably be including the card picture as well, in the correct res of course.
Involve the card symbols (playing cards); map backs, and the other interesting stuffs (like the risk pieces and those random numbers, as well as the letters on the back of the map).

Live Updates

RSS feeds to blogs. I.e.: set up like a wordpress blog, with the different categories (Scarlett, Caine, Violet, Kurt, Perplex City Updates). These would be updated as their respective blogs, or the site was updated.
Manual updates, such as when the sentinel is updated, VFE’s, forum updates (most likely Perplexorum), and of course live events or meets (such as Cubefest and any similar to PCAG etc).

So after sorting out all this, I need to go on and decide which language I’ll be using to design the database. And NO I’M NOT USING MYSQL SOD OFF! . I was thinking of using something like a mix of PHP and java? but being the novice I am, will this work? I’ll safely assume this will be hosted at college for the duration of my course, but if people *really* want me to keep it up on the web, I’ll need hosting (eek money).

So, what do people think, is it too similar to the current Perplex City websites? If so, do you have any other ideas I could possibly try and use instead. Or do you like the idea. I was thinking that it puts all the stuff in one area for people to see. I will be asking Brian and Buzman if they mind me doing this anyway, if people think this is a good idea.

The only worry for me is my time limit. I have to have the following done by the 9th October:

Title Page
Background
Project Proposal (which might I add, is bloody huge and will take me ages!).

Comment with your thoughts!

Bank Holiday Partying – Part 2 (crane drop)

Silently Broken — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:00:26 +0000

Tuesday. Crane dropping day. See, the idea was had that we’d make 333 cranes (origami) in memory of Anna, a perplex city character who was killed not long ago, and then take them to the Mind Candy offices and present them. So Tuesday was that. Mind Candy are in London, so lotsa travelling done by me (and I didn’t get lost a single time *is proud*).

I ended up arriving at the meet place far too early, but, of course a Starbucks was JUST outside. So I had a coffee and passed the time there. I was the first there, but luckily I recognised peoples and cornered them with such comments as “you have CRANES!”. Scared the wits out of the poor people! Due to train strikes, tube delays, and certain people being lazy, NO NAMES MENTIONED! (*cough*Jem*cough*), peoples were later than meant to be, but we all arrived eventually. Lots of hugs, and then we wandered over to Mind Candy, searching for the cube on the way.

We arrived at the Mind Candy offices and set up shop on a picnic table to pack 333 cranes into a massive box decorated like a present, by the lovely Izzy. During which a security guard came over and started telling us off, cue Jem hastening to explain the situation and explain we were expected! The security guard oked it, and went off, we finished counting cranes while Arieh video camera’d the puttin of the cranes in the box and the sealing of the present. He also carried on to record the the delivering too, and the video shall be edited and stuck up on youtube

We then told Jem to carry the box, which was so big he couldn’t see over it, so funny! And went into the offices. The same security rang them up and was like “sit there, they’ll be with you in a sec”. Cue much sitting and waiting. Then Guy came out and did the whole delivery of cranes thing, twas amusing. Lots of photos and talking, then he went to sign out and take us all to the pub! Woo!

Guy got the first round in, and silly me declined a drink cos I was on the spot and got confused Pub’s are not fun for me, loud, and I can’t hear anyone, but then in that pub, noone could hear anyone, the music was too loud apparently. So I wasn’t the only one!

We chattered to Guy for a bit, and then Jey (Wishi – ex PXC player) joined us. Twas cool.. Then Adrian (creator of Perplex City) also joined us for a while, and Guy and Jey removed themselves to a different table *tuts*. Adrian is a really cool guy. And he had Guitar Hero, always a positive! Batgirl and I were plotting to mug him for it. Haha! But he left before we could, so we plotted to pin Guy down and steal his Mind Candy leitmark (OMG *wants*).

Then Jo arrived! Yay! She came and sat with us and chatted to us for ageeeeeees. She’s so lovely! She wants to come to the next meet up too! Yay!

Then sadly, Rach and I had to leave to get trainage back up north, so we said goodbye, and we got lots of hugs. Guy gave me a massive hug, and I forgot to steal the leitmark! NOES! Then he asked who I was, and Jo told him.. cue much embarrassment, because then he apologised in person for the lateness of my Scarlett Code prize.. NOES *blushes and hides* He said something also, along the lines of “Scarlett is a bit shit” *giggles*. That was really amusing.

Then Rach and I went homeeeeee. We were on the same trains for the majority of the way, but I got to my station before Rach got to hers. MUST MEET UP AGAIN RACH! I miss everyone alreadys

All in all, a fantastic weekend was had, especially the London trip. It was great fun, and I met lotsa new people!

Pictures can indeed be found on my Flickr which is linked to on the right hand side of my blog.

Bank Holiday Partying – Part 1

Silently Broken — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:58:38 +0000

Well, this weekend has been full of busy-ness.

On Saturday I pootled off to Stockport for a massive Perplex City based party, all excited like, cos I’d be meeting new peoples, one of which was a Mind Candy employee (company behind Perplex City and all that). She was awesome, so lovely, and she had a good time, which was importants, cos that means Mind Candy employees can come party with us all and not worry about being lynched.

Saturday was lots of drinking (apart from me – teetotal 9 months now), singstar, karaoke, blank white cards, chattering, and lots of fun to be had.

Also lots of pictures taken.

I managed to bag the sofa bed, which was surprisingly comfy actually, apart from my bellybutton bar getting caught and nearly getting ripped out (*winces*).

Sunday was a lot less drinking filled, and more flyin camel (ok ok cranes) related, and Buffy. Lots of Buffy. Hee! That was pretty much fun, although I was surprised at the amount of Buffy I had already watched! There was also Donkey Konga, Smash Bro’s and Golden Axe playage, and card discussion. And Library of Babel discussion, and Animal Crossing playage. And OMG musn’t forget the Pictochat!

Uno was also played, but I was basically in bed by then, so I missed out. Doh!

Monday was more Donkey Konga playage, which was hella amusing, because they were testing out bad claps, and what set the clap sensor off. It ranged from clapping badly on purpose to screaming “BAD” at the sensor to screaming “CLAP” at the sensor.. to which I said “sounds like quack” and started off a bunch of people screaming “QUACK” at it. It was hilarious!

The very lovely Tally gave me a lift home, which was lovely of her, and as soon as I walked in the door, my mum basically said, “you are going to London tomorrow”, to which I squealed and bounced muchly.

San Francisco – An Online Point of View

Silently Broken — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:57:11 +0000

When I first heard about the San Francisco event, my immediate thought was, “oh no, there is no way I can get to the event”, and was rather depressed about the entire thing, but then I found out that I could take part online! So I signed up online, and cleared my calendar for that evening.
The hype about the event started 3 days before the actual event, when one of the members of the IRC, entered the room and told us that all the Perplex City sites were down! From there we learned that the connection between Perplex City and Earth had been broken by the terrible group, the 3P, and we would need to use the event to set a new connection up.
The entire day of August 12th, for those of us in the UK, was filled with apprehension and excitement about what was going to happen in the evening. We knew we had to fix the connection, but we had no idea how, and whether we had the time to fix it! There was a lot of speculation and wonderment about how us online participants would be included.
As it got closer to 7pm, a lot of us noticed the changes on the http://emergency.perplexcity.com website. We were all prepared, or at least thought we were.
There were over 200 people in the chatroom, it was absolutely mental, everyone was speculating and talking over each other even before the event started, and it only got worse.
We found that we had to answer sets of questions. We knew there were a certain number of sets, but we had no idea how many, we just knew that we had to get the emergency.perplexcity.com site visited a lot of times to open up these sets, and then from there it was a mad dash to solve the questions! Many of us posted the site up on a lot of different sites, trying to get our friends to visit so we could get the sets opened! Only the first solves mattered for the questions, but we had no idea which were solved, and which were unsolved, as the site didn’t update to show which had been solved. This caused extra annoyance to those taking part, and a very quick forum topic on http://forums.unfiction.com was set up to show solved/unsolved questions, and in which sets. Later on a wiki entry was also set up for each of the seven sets of questions, and by the end of the event, we only had a list of the unsolved left on the website as it was.
The atmosphere in the chatroom was amazing, it was filled with chatter about the questions, which had been solved, how to work the event, what needed to be done. The ops trying to keep control were working their socks off to keep up, the room was moving that fast. Some of the people in the chatroom retreated to the original Perplex City chatroom, to ask advice on things from the members in there. I was one of the members to try and help those in that room, while solving questions.
The online part of the event lasted 4 and a half hours, and it was 4 and a half hours of absolute chaos and excitement. We were able to keep track of those on the ground in San Francisco, and occasionally they came into the room to ask for help with puzzles! This added to the event greatly.
Both the online and on the ground teams managed to raise 100% with minutes to go before the connection completely died. Then came the panicking. The websites weren’t back up and the emergency.perplexcity.com website had the same background as the other websites! We were all worried that we had failed.. This lasted 5 minutes, but it felt so much longer. Then one person said “THE SENTINEL IS BACK!”, and one by one we saw all the Perplex City sites come back. The chatroom was an uproar, as we congratulated each other, and generally celebrated. Then it turned back into the mad rush, when we discovered a video sent to us from Sente!
Everyone rushed to download the video. I, being more laid back, read the transcript of the video that was posted on the emergency.perplexcity.com website. When I reached the bottom, there were recordings of the threatening messages that the on the ground people had received from the 3P via their phones! We listened to them, and the speculation went through the roof, talking about the different things that were likely to happen, what was going on..
Days later, we still feel the after affects of the event, the chaos, the madness. But none of us would have missed it. It was a brilliant evening, and the video from Sente ended the entire night on a high. There is nothing quite like saving a link between two very distant worlds, to ensure that we can still communicate. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!