April 2005

Mind Candy
No Publisher

"Perplex City is an ARG (Alternate Reality Game). What is an ARG?

"It is the latest form of computer gaming...the next step in the evolution of Adventure games...It is what Adventure games have been all along...ARGs are the first significant attempt to bring the fantasy world inside of the computer outside into the real world...An ARG exists out here and the computer is used only as infrastructure to bring the players together.

"What distinguishes a game of this sort is that it might be real...The other thing to distinguish an ARG is that it can only be played once in real-time (Reality does not repeat. Neither does it have a Save Game feature). So it needs to be played with as many people as possible. This allows for puzzles which are much too difficult for any individual, but are perfectly solvable for the Hive Mind.

"Perplex City is a civilization and technology slightly more advanced than ours which exists on another planet. They have the ability to tap into our communications system, but not to travel here...The culture of Perplex City is fascinated by (obsessed with?) puzzles. They use them everywhere and are considered high art.

"Early last year their most prized artifact, The Receda Cube, was stolen from the Academy Museum. The thieves somehow managed to transport the Cube to Earth and hide it somewhere. Their motives are as mysterious as their identities...Since the Perplex City authorities don't know how to travel out here to look for the Cube, they have decided to open the lines of communication and enlist our help in locating it.

"Perplex City is actually two games; a treasure hunt and a detective mystery. You can play either one or the other or both. There is no interdependency between them. The one costs money to play, but offers a cash prize to the winner. The other is completely free.

"The place to start is right here. Just follow the links to 'The Story So Far.'

"An excellent independent description of the game can be found here (with lots of good links)...Here are a couple of free cards to try out...A complete catalog of everything known about the cards can be found here...And finally, if you would like to learn more about ARGs, check out the Wikipedia article.

"The people behind Perplex City spent two and a half years working on it. There are currently over 26,000 registered players playing it...This is my first experience with ARGs, so I cannot say how innovative Perplex City is. But as a game critic I can tell you that the effort is spot on. It has been done right.

"I am giving Perplex City an “A”, not because it deserves a place on your shelf – it won't be around five years from now – but because you need to be playing it. NOW!"

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A

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