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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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!

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:

<Ollie> 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.
<Ollie> 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
<Ollie> Working alpha-ma-betically, we’ll start with Adrian
<Adrian[MCD]> SO that’s all we have time for tonight folks, bye!
<Naomi[MCD]> you’ve been a fantastic audience
<jojojojo> *snigger*
* duckie threatens Adrian with kick-ban…
<Adrian[MCD]> Hi, I’m the Director of Play at Mind Candy
<Adrian[MCD]> Which at the beginning on Season 1 meant doing everything from cards to stuffing envelopes to the story
<Adrian[MCD]> But now I concentrate on the ARG
<Adrian[MCD]> Pancakes: maple syrup or chocolate
<Ollie> Ah, a sweet tooth! Andrea?
<Andrea[MCD]> 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…
<Andrea[MCD]> I’ve written for the Sentinel and Anna, some Scarlett and the odd Violet, plus other things as they came up
<Andrea[MCD]> Pancakes: Today I think jam.
<Andrea[MCD]> Raspberry!
<Ollie> Fruity! Ben?
<Ben[MCD]> Well, I’m the ‘Senior Developer’ here at MC towers. Java stuff mostly, but often some other sundry tech as needed.
<Ben[MCD]> Oh, and Lyle’s Golden Syrup for me.
<Ollie> Fillings all round! David?
<David[MCD]> 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.
<David[MCD]> Pancakes: black cherry sauce and ice cream, a la Little Chef.
<Ollie> How very 80s, Hannah?
<Ollie> We’ll skip hannah for now. Jey?
<Adrian[MCD]> We’re just trying to drag this out so we won’t get around to S2
<Jey[MCD]> Sorry about Hannah, we have no excuse.
<Naomi[MCD]> Ah, like we did with S1?
<Adrian[MCD]> Burn!
<David[MCD]> stop it, you two
<Ollie> Less chance of you having to dodge questions this way
<Jey[MCD]> 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.
<Jey[MCD]> Pancakes: KISS. Lemon and sugar all the way.
<duckie> Ah, a purist.
<skenmy> The Mind Candy Village Bicycle!
<Hannah[MCD}> 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
<Hannah[MCD}> corriander and black pepper
<Ollie> ooh, unusual. Naomi?
<Naomi[MCD]> 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
<Naomi[MCD]> 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.

<Ollie> Ok, now we should probably try and get some questions answered. We’ll start with a look back at season 1.
<Ollie> 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?”
<Naomi[MCD]> So, when do you guys set us some puzzles and tell us we have to help you find your way through a maze?
<Adrian[MCD]> Hmm, I can’t remember the fibonacci series thing
<Andrea[MCD]> The postcard number, you solved it
<Naomi[MCD]> Well, the postcard number was, of course, the key to the whole mystery.
<Adrian[MCD]> Probably just a mistake to be honest
<Jey[MCD]> Mistake? Adrian means side-quest.
<Adrian[MCD]> Next
<Adrian[MCD]> Please
* Yembles doesn’t recall us solving the postcard number
<Ollie> yessir
<Ollie> Mindez asks: “What was the london Morse Code message that we missed supposed to say?”
<David[MCD]> there was a message, but…
<Hannah[MCD}> erm...
<David[MCD]> you didn’t get it, so we decided to rework the story around it.
<David[MCD]> it will remain a meeestery
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<skenmy> I sense a lot of mysteries remaining tonight!
<Ollie> 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
<Adrian[MCD]> Yeah, that was something we worried about
<Naomi[MCD]> It was pretty much our nightmare scenario.
<Andrea[MCD]> Cold sweats lying in bed at night worrying
<David[MCD]> our jobs depended on it not happening
<Adrian[MCD]> We weren’t particularly concerned about people finding it, say, a year ago
<Naomi[MCD]> A couple of us died from worrying about it.
<Naomi[MCD]> The team used to be a lot bigger.
<Adrian[MCD]> But the timing was pretty crucial
<David[MCD]> remember des? he was great. now, dead.
<Naomi[MCD]> Des couldn’t take the heat.
<Jey[MCD]> Poor Des. Bless his soul.
<Ben[MCD]> Aah Des.
<Hannah[MCD}> i didn't like him anyway
<Adrian[MCD]> I’m not sure I want to synchronise a deep treasure hunt and a story in that way again
<Andrea[MCD]> Des made the best pumpkin muffins.
<Adrian[MCD]> We did have some contingency plans though
<Ollie> 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?
<Naomi[MCD]> Do you think his widow will ever forgive us?
<Adrian[MCD]> All the time!
<Andrea[MCD]> Rudon.
<Andrea[MCD]> That’s all I have to say.
<Adrian[MCD]> Yeah, there was that one
<duckie> Rudon?
<David[MCD]> you mean RUDON!
<Adrian[MCD]> But you know, puzzles are subjective things
<Naomi[MCD]> 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.
<Andrea[MCD]> There was also the Library of Babel
<Jey[MCD]> What seemed obvious to us was at times incredibly baffling to you. It’s a hard thing to judge.
<Adrian[MCD]> I remember about halfway through there was a real issue with ’spoonfeeding’ and I think people stopped trying to solve puzzles so much
<David[MCD]> the libraryofbabel page was up for months before it was found
<Andrea[MCD]> Babel was waiting there since… February?
<jojojojo> :O
<Adrian[MCD]> Since the beginning of wave 4
<Naomi[MCD]> It was there for a long time.
<duckie> So basically, you were expecting us to be less stupid?
<Adrian[MCD]> Or even wave 3
<Naomi[MCD]> Yeah, basically.
<Adrian[MCD]> 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
<Andrea[MCD]> So many times it’s happened
<Naomi[MCD]> Yeah, there were a few times where someone would suggest a correct idea, then someone else would shout them down.
<Yembles> Which time was the most painful?
<Andrea[MCD]> There was also the day Monica died and you very nearly didn’t save Sylvia
<David[MCD]> but you also get things quicker than we expect, so it balances out.
<Adrian[MCD]> 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
<Naomi[MCD]> We’d be in the office shouting “noooooooooo” at our screens.
<Andrea[MCD]> I was *so mad*
<Adrian[MCD]> Anyways
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Ollie> ixalon asks: “Did the plot of Season 1 have to change considerably to make up for our incredible inaptitude in cube-finding?”
<Adrian[MCD]> Not really
<Jey[MCD]> You weren’t *that* bad
<Adrian[MCD]> The main problem was that it was far more difficult to print the cards than we expected
<Adrian[MCD]> So a 9 month story turned into a 21 month story
<Andrea[MCD]> We added a lot as we went
<Adrian[MCD]> There were other business reasons as well
<Naomi[MCD]> It’s been… an interesting challenge, plotwise.
<Naomi[MCD]> So yes, the story changed a lot, but not because of you really.
<Adrian[MCD]> We knew from the start that the finding of the cube was going to be hard to predict
<David[MCD]> we just hope you didn’t see the stretched bits
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Andrea[MCD]> The story wound up being much deeper than we’d initially planned for. I think it came out a lot better
<Ollie> chippy asks: “How do you pronounce Babel? Is it “Bay-bel”? or Babble?”
<Adrian[MCD]> Bay-bel
<Naomi[MCD]> Bay-bel
<David[MCD]> bay-bel here too
<Jey[MCD]> Or bagel works fine too.
<Andrea[MCD]> I say “babble” and the British people say “Bay-bel”
<Adrian[MCD]> Unanimous!
<Naomi[MCD]> unless you want to say it in ancient Hebrew
<Andrea[MCD]> HAH
<David[MCD]> (this chat is sponsored by Next.)
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Naomi[MCD]> in which case you say Bah-Vel
<Ollie> Bookmore asks: “What did it take to convince Satoshi of being the target for a worldwide manhunt ?”
<Hannah[MCD}> I always get it wrong
<Adrian[MCD]> The babes
<Adrian[MCD]> He knew he’d get them
<Adrian[MCD]> Actually, I don’t know
<David[MCD]> he’s been swamped
<Adrian[MCD]> I’ve never met him
<Hannah[MCD}> a lotta love
<David[MCD]> the reason you can’t find him is he’s buried under a pile of abbes
<Jey[MCD]> 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])
<David[MCD]> babes. ahem
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Ollie> mj asks: “Which moment in Season 1 surprised you the most?”
<Adrian[MCD]> hmmmmm
<Andrea[MCD]> Hmmmmmmmm.
<Naomi[MCD]> (the amount Adrian and Andrea say hmmm often surprises me)
<Andrea[MCD]> It was a big surprise when they solved the postcard number
<duckie> A surprise to most of us too, we don’t recall it
<Adrian[MCD]> The cranes were surprising
<Adrian[MCD]> That was nice
<Naomi[MCD]> yes, we were touched
<Andrea[MCD]> Yeah
<_izzy_> glad you liked them
<Naomi[MCD]> I remember the meeting where we decided to kill Anna
<Yembles> We enjoyed making them
<David[MCD]> i still have one on my desk here. look.
<Jey[MCD]> But they don’t fly very well.
<Adrian[MCD]> Anna was always going to die though
<David[MCD]> the good die young.
<Adrian[MCD]> Curse that handsome Caine
<Naomi[MCD]> we hoped it’d have an impact, but we didn’t expect it to be that much
<David[MCD]> the bad die.
<Adrian[MCD]> 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
<Hannah[MCD}> dum dum dum
<Ben[MCD]> 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?
<Adrian[MCD]> Well, we all wrote different characters
<Adrian[MCD]> I wrote Kurt, which I loved doing
<Adrian[MCD]> I think my writing changed an awful lot over the two years
<Naomi[MCD]> I wrote a Kurt once. He is fun to write.<David[MCD]> caine rocked. and still does.
<Hannah[MCD}> I wrote noone as i can't write
<Andrea[MCD]> I’m still high off Helena Frye, but honestly Madame Bianca was probably my most favorite.
<Naomi[MCD]> Writing Violet feels like home to me.
<Andrea[MCD]> I got to get away with the most
<David[MCD]> oistin. aaah, oistin.
<Andrea[MCD]> Oh, Oistin!
<_izzy_> Andrea[MCD] that leads nicely into a duckie question: So how much exactly *did* we miss in the futures?
<Naomi[MCD]> And I loved writing Babel. And the things Jey did with the words! Beautiful.
<Andrea[MCD]> If I’d had a boy I would have had to name him Oistin.
<David[MCD]> i think a few of us tried oistin.
<Andrea[MCD]> Well, there’s one thing you missed in the futures so I gave up trying…
<Naomi[MCD]> And Tippy’s great fun to write, even in just the odd email
<David[MCD]> the podcast gave me a chance to use the Voice of Doom.
<Andrea[MCD]> For a long time, the Apple-Thief poet and the proverb at the end were of the same nationality
<Jey[MCD]> Play on… my children.
<Andrea[MCD]> But it was hard to do and *nobody ever noticed* so I gave up.
<_izzy_> so its your voice on the podcast then david?
<David[MCD]> no. that is silas. you will encounter him.
<_izzy_> opps sorry we missed that andrea
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Andrea[MCD]> 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*
<Naomi[MCD]> Oh, the stuff you read into the eel and avocado rolls!
<Yembles> 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?”
<Andrea[MCD]> Oh, the love
<Naomi[MCD]> We were surprised by almost everything you did.
<Adrian[MCD]> The wiki, the map, trading, 3D map, incredible stuff
<Adrian[MCD]> Really incredible
<Adrian[MCD]> That’s what impresses people the most when I talk about PXC at conferences
<Andrea[MCD]> We love you guys
<Naomi[MCD]> We really do feel the love.
<jojojojo> We have big love indeed.
<Hannah[MCD}> well impressed
<David[MCD]> the book was amazing, but yeah, we kind of made you do that.
<Jey[MCD]> You guys do more than we could have imagined.
<Andrea[MCD]> The dedication and the real emotional involvement
<David[MCD]> oooh. 13th labour. good work!
<skenmy> Hell, i’m IN the community and i’m amazed at what we do!
<Adrian[MCD]> And the video stuff
<Andrea[MCD]> You should be proud
<Adrian[MCD]> For those people complaining in chat
<Naomi[MCD]> the amount of time and effort you’ve put into our game is… well it’s been a privilege to write for you
<David[MCD]> news covereage for billion2one, everything.
<Adrian[MCD]> 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
<Jey[MCD]> </love>
<Adrian[MCD]> No way
<Adrian[MCD]> That’d take way too long to write
<Adrian[MCD]> We are going to make a Season 1 Guide
(FleetwoodMike entered here - an ex Mind Candy person)
<David[MCD]> (hi mike)
<Adrian[MCD]> (Hi Mike!)
<Naomi[MCD]> (hey mike!)
<Jey[MCD]> (hey MIKE!)
<David[MCD]> (remember des?)
<Hannah[MCD}> hi mike
<_izzy_> that answers that one then
<Adrian[MCD]> But I think that the community and the wiki is the best for a comprehensive ‘answer book’
<Naomi[MCD]> Oh your wiki is a treasure.
<Andrea[MCD]> The wiki is just stellar.
<Jey[MCD]> 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?
<Adrian[MCD]> Yeah…
<Adrian[MCD]> I’m not going to talk about that one
<Adrian[MCD]> Maybe later
<David[MCD]> it’s too painful
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Andrea[MCD]> Someday, when he’s grey and full of regrets…
<Jey[MCD]> Adrian is crying.
<Adrian[MCD]> It’s not that bad
<Naomi[MCD]> Try getting him drunk at the party
<_izzy_> not even if we say pretty please?
<Hannah[MCD}> Oh God DES........
<David[MCD]> look what you did
<duckie> Aww, come on…
<Adrian[MCD]> It’s basically pretty obscure
<duckie> It’s been driving us bonkers since the day W4 was launched…
<Naomi[MCD]> Adrian, it’s going to be OK!
<Yembles> We like obscure.
<Adrian[MCD]> Good for you then
<Jey[MCD]> Solve away!
<Naomi[MCD]> Excellent
<Naomi[MCD]> Next?
<_izzy_> ok then
<duckie> 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?”
<Adrian[MCD]> I think there’s a cultural difference, yes
<Andrea[MCD]> I’ve said before, I felt that American players were a little more aggressive
<David[MCD]> our lift engineer in the last live event made a distinction…
<David[MCD]> he said the americans demanded better service.
<Adrian[MCD]> It’s hard to generalise though
<David[MCD]> the english were very polite.
<jojojojo> Or persistent
<David[MCD]> those national sterotypes… hard to escape.
<Adrian[MCD]> Because, for example, before PXC there weren’t that many UK ARG players
<David[MCD]> (well done jo)
<jojojojo>
<Adrian[MCD]> So they were new to the gnre
<Adrian[MCD]> 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”
<Jey[MCD]> Yes.
<Naomi[MCD]> We all did.
<Naomi[MCD]> We were there.
<Jey[MCD]> Everyone you meet is a spy. Don’t trust *anyone*.
<Naomi[MCD]> We saw what you did.
<David[MCD]> we hired a birdwatching hut
<Adrian[MCD]> So, the answer is no
<Andrea[MCD]> Didn’t you notice the black helicopters hovering overhead?
<Adrian[MCD]> It would’ve been too risky
* Rand0m admits to having been very suspicious about a couple of grey squirrels with attitude
<Ollie> They had the cloaking on, didn’t they?
<David[MCD]> and chippy. you should be ashamed.
<Adrian[MCD]> 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
<Naomi[MCD]> We thought we might get followed.
<Adrian[MCD]> Well, it won’t work ont he Cube, it being made of space age metal and all
<Adrian[MCD]> :p
<Naomi[MCD]> By someone dressed as an elderly person with a terrier.
<Jey[MCD]> Yes, metallic things are notoriously hard to find with metal detectors…
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<David[MCD]> (when did the space age start? 1960s, wasn’t it…?)
<Adrian[MCD]> (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?
<Adrian[MCD]> Probably the ones we made
<Andrea[MCD]> Yeah
<Adrian[MCD]> I liked Elucidate a lot
<Andrea[MCD]> My favorite is probably Homage in Glass, just because it’s pretty
<Naomi[MCD]> I love Andrea’s card: Forever Foe
<Jey[MCD]> Cow Cow Cow Cow Cow. Because we laughed for days. (or Billion to One, because you’ll never find him, never.)
<Andrea[MCD]> And because I was proud of it
<Naomi[MCD]> I still like Shuffled.
<Ollie> He’s dead, isn’t he?
<David[MCD]> the gold cube card for me, because i’m impressed by shiny things. and aromarama.
<Hannah[MCD}> 207 Huey Tecalli
<Andrea[MCD]> Mmm, Cow Cow Cow defiitely a favorite, too
<Adrian[MCD]> Speaking of Shuffled
<lhall> We’ll see about that…
<Naomi[MCD]> Primarily because I’m aware of the vast amounts of work that went into that one behind the scenes.
<Hannah[MCD}> total team effort
<Adrian[MCD]> We got an email from Bruce Schneier, inventor of the Solitaire Cipher
<Adrian[MCD]> I quite, in part:
<Jey[MCD]> *quote
<Adrian[MCD]> “My name is Bruce Schneier and I am a security specialist and professional
<Adrian[MCD]> cryptographer with BT Counterpane. I would like to let you know that your
<Adrian[MCD]> Perplex City internet game has thoroughly emasculated me and has been quite
<Adrian[MCD]> successful in causing me some headaches - mostly due to the aforementioned
<Adrian[MCD]> emasculation. For the past two years I have received literally hundreds of
<Adrian[MCD]> emails asking me to help solve a word puzzle based on a cryptography
<Adrian[MCD]> algorithm that I authored.”…
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<duckie> 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
<Andrea[MCD]> All in a day’s work, duckie!
<Yembles> chippy asks: “Is herbert still alive, and will he be at the party? Eh?”
<duckie> Heeerbeeert!
<Naomi[MCD]> Why don’t you ask about Des?
<Jey[MCD]> Herbert.. Herbert… oh Herbert. I remember you well. Occasionally, we get a postcard. Some far off country. Some wonderous adventure.
<jojojojo> Who was Des?
<Naomi[MCD]> No one cares that he gave his life for Perplex City!
<duckie> Ok. Who is Des? What is Des? Where is Des?
<Yembles> Is Des a sockpuppet?
<David[MCD]> i don’t like to talk about it
<Hannah[MCD}> he gave more to you then you will ever know
<Naomi[MCD]> Nor do I
<Andrea[MCD]> We’ll have a candle lit for Des at the party.
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Yembles> idlemichael asks: “What should be the last song of the night on Saturday? (yeah, another DJ question!)”
<David[MCD]> hip to be square
<Ben[MCD]> ‘Return to sender’?
<Adrian[MCD]> Well…
<skenmy> Genius, that man.
<Adrian[MCD]> Proclaimers was traditional where I come from
<David[MCD]> not paradise city. you don’t want to know why.
<Jey[MCD]> or Under the Sea. Stop speaking, stop it.
<Hannah[MCD}> Under the sea
<Adrian[MCD]> Or Mr. Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’
* lhall shall say nothing
<Naomi[MCD]> Anything we can sing karaoke to, basically.
* Adrian[MCD] just discovered that idlemichael *is* our DJ
<Jey[MCD]> Because we are teh awesome at karaoke.
<David[MCD]> oh lord. there are still living witnesses.
<Ben[MCD]> When Gin is involved
<Naomi[MCD]> not only that
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Naomi[MCD]> there’s *footage*
<Yembles> Will there be a karaoke machine at the party?
<lhall> I’m not sure ‘awesome’ is the right word…
<Adrian[MCD]> Silence!
<Andrea[MCD]> You know, there are a few advantages to being on another continent
<Jey[MCD]> why doesn’t /kick lhall work?
<Naomi[MCD]> Yes, Adrian
<Naomi[MCD]> Don’t hurt me again
<Jey[MCD]> NEXT!
<David[MCD]> [adrian will not get nekkid]
<Yembles> 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!)”
<Adrian[MCD]> Yes
<Adrian[MCD]> I even had an extra clue written
<Adrian[MCD]> I’m very glad we didn’t have to use it
<Jey[MCD]> It was a big arrow.
<Naomi[MCD]> LOB was always going to be in there somewhere though
<Adrian[MCD]> It’s a very, very tricky thing
<Naomi[MCD]> but we weren’t sure whether it’d have to give clues
<Adrian[MCD]> We didn’t want to turn it into a unskilled race
<Naomi[MCD]> or would just tell the on-Earth part of the story
<Adrian[MCD]> In the end I think we got the balance right
<Jey[MCD]> 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.
<Andrea[MCD]> I think it all worked out beautifully
<Adrian[MCD]> It’s a good pint
<Adrian[MCD]> point
<Adrian[MCD]> Normally we can see your working
<Adrian[MCD]> But not at the end
<Adrian[MCD]> When everyone was unaccountably going to Fineshade Wood
<Adrian[MCD]> You sneeky liars
<Naomi[MCD]> 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.
<Adrian[MCD]> Next please
<Andrea[MCD]> Paint a little X on the ground with spray paint..
<Naomi[MCD]> and then you’d try to anagram ’shovels’
<Hannah[MCD}> i liked the idea of an arrow on google earth
<David[MCD]> ssh love
<Yembles> Mindez asks: “Any big surprises planned for the partay in just over 333333 seconds time? :D”
<Hannah[MCD}> Party?
<Jey[MCD]> Big surprises? I don’t know what you mean. WHO HAVE YOU BEEN SPEAKING TO?
<Adrian[MCD]> Honestly
<Rand0m> I told them everything. They offered me eclairs
<Jey[MCD]> If it’s Des again, I’ll be soo angry….
<Adrian[MCD]> http://www.answers.com/surprise&r=67
<Andrea[MCD]> They’ve been working the Ouija boards…
<David[MCD]> (you can always trust a man who says ‘honestly…’.)
<Jey[MCD]> Next!
<Jey[MCD]> ..please?
<Yembles> 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…
<David[MCD]> he should be afraid
<Naomi[MCD]> we don’t know
<Naomi[MCD]> we work with the Academy
<skenmy> …very afraid?
<Adrian[MCD]> Naturally Mind Candy is very concerned about the 3P’s presence on Earth
<Andrea[MCD]> I’ve taken extra care to lock my doors and windows at night since then.
<Adrian[MCD]> And are liaising with the Academy about how to proceed
<Naomi[MCD]> we’re not allied with the Third Power, and can’t be expected to know anything about their evil schemes
<Adrian[MCD]> Next!
<Yembles> mj asks: “Just to change the footing - would you like to ask the interviewers a question?”
<jojojojo> Interesting…
<Jey[MCD]> Hold on a second, we’re arguing.
<David[MCD]> 1. what do you want for the last tune of saturday night?
<Naomi[MCD]> Adrian has Jey in a headlock.
<skenmy> We demand photos.
<Ben[MCD]> I’m taking bets
<Adrian[MCD]> 2. you do not talk about Perplex City
<Jey[MCD]> Is a dress not enough?!
<Ollie> A dress is too much!
<lhall> Oh dear.
<Adrian[MCD]> Hmm
<Hannah[MCD}> I've had to close my eyes
<Naomi[MCD]> 3. What was *your* favourite bit of the story?
<Jey[MCD]> Go!
<Naomi[MCD]> I see. That good, eh?
<duckie> I think we’ll make a forum thread for that one, you can read it later
<Jey[MCD]> Yeah, good to know you care.
<Jey[MCD]> Next!
<Flabyo> I’m going to say the Lancewood labs bit
<Naomi[MCD]> Oh that was such fun to write.
<David[MCD]> poor jake
<macmonkey> I liked the Miranda chase stuff
<Yembles> 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
<skenmy> I’m going to say the mines. That was good fun.
<_izzy_> *properly
<jojojojo> The chill down my spine after listening to the recording of Miranda’s death
<Naomi[MCD]> David is singing the mines song now.
<Naomi[MCD]> Seriously.
<David[MCD]> there is a tune
<lhall> Seconding the recording
<_izzy_> yays david!
<duckie> The recording… and the police.
<jojojojo> sounds like a goodun for karaoke…
<David[MCD]> darn this soundless chat room
<duckie> Drunken bears, flashers.. who could ask for anything more.
<Adrian[MCD]> I forgot about that site
<lhall> The police event was hilarious
<duckie> Except maybe Kurt nekkid
<Adrian[MCD]> Things are gettin gout of hand here!
<Adrian[MCD]> Next

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

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