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

It is the latest form of computer gaming.

The is the next step in the evolution of Adventure games.

It is what Adventure games have been all along.

Ever since Crowther and
Woods allowed us to type, “go west” and
the computer responded, “You are in front of a small building
– a well house for a small spring.” people have been attempting
to create alternate realities in their computers. But up until now
there has been a very strict separation between the world inside
the computer and the world outside.

ARGs are the first significant
attempt to bring the fantasy world inside of the computer outside
into the real world. Oh, some games
have dipped their toes into reality. Missing Since January required
the player to surf the web for research and clues and it sent emails
from “partners” at appropriate times. These were nice
touches, but the game itself was still firmly attached to the computer’s
graphics card and sound chip.

An ARG exists out here and the computer is used only as infrastructure
to bring the players together.

But isn’t that just an RPG like Dungeons
and Dragons?

No. There is no role playing in an ARG. An RPG requires that you
pretend that you are someone or something else (at least I hope you
are only pretending to be a level 20 dwarf…) and then to pretend
that you are somewhere off in a fantasy world. An ARG requires that
you be you. It takes place right where you are right now. And just
like reality, it will follow you where ever you go.

And no, it is not a Star Trek convention (or, even worse, Furry)
where socially dysfunctional people dress up in weird costumes and
pretend to be something they are not in a world which isn’t as mean.
Again, you are you. ARG players may get together off line as well
as on line to discuss how the game is going, but it is no different
than getting together with any other friend to discuss how the softball
game went yesterday. The intent is not to create fantasy, but an
alternate reality.

So, just what is an ARG? Well, let me create a simple one right
off the top of my head…

-) You get an email (a real email. This is not a computer game.)
from someone named Joe. Joe says that a mutual friend gave him your
email address and said that you might be able to help him. You see,
Joe works in a large pet store and somehow their expensive tropical
fish have been vanishing. The owners would hate to confront any of
the employees without any evidence. After all, the fish could just
be eating each other. But he includes a URL to the pet store’s web
site and asks you to check it out.

-) You check out the web site. It’s a nice store. You notice that
it does have a security system and a web cam pointed at the ferret
cage.

-) You send an email back to Joe asking about the security system
and suggesting that web cam be turned to look at the fish tanks.

-) Joe emails back and confirms that the alarms have been set, but
did not go off. So if it is a thief, then they have the key and know
how to disable the system. Joe also takes your suggestion and secretly
re-aims the web cam.

-) A couple of days pass and Joe sends you another email with an
attachment. The web cam picked up something, but only a shadow and
fish were missing the next day. You notice something distinct about
the shadow and ask Joe if there is anyone who works at the store
who wears a mullet.

-) Joe responds that he doesn’t know, but here is the URL to the
employees page.

And on it goes.

What distinguishes a game of this sort is that it might be real.
If Joe and the Pet Store really existed, would things have happened
any differently?

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.
Think you would have come up with the idea to use the web cam as
a security camera? Well, if you didn’t, someone else surely would
have and the game would have moved on. Of course, the game should
be quite long so that new people can join in at any time.

Perplex City is an ARG.

The Beginning

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. At least
they didn’t think they had…

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.

Two Games in One

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 Treasure Hunt

The Perplexians need our help, but they aren’t too sure about our
ability to solve puzzles or our IQs in general. So they decided to
send us everything they knew about the case in the form of Puzzle
Cards. These Cards would not only provide insight into the Perplexian
mind, but would also help exercise our lazy brains There are a total
of 256 cards and they are being released in four waves. The last
wave is due to be released in June of 2006.

Each card has at least one puzzle on it. Many cards have additional
clues or parts of puzzles which must be combined with other cards.
Some cards have URLs on them. You are expected to search them. Some
cards have phone numbers. You are expected to call them. The layering
can get quite deep.

Each card has a silver scratch-off area which hides its unique ID
number. Once you solve the main puzzle of the card, you can log on
to the Perplex City web site with your free account and enter your
solution. Once the system acknowledges that you have the correct
answer and that no one else has used that card, it will credit you
with the number of points indicated on the card. A Leader Board is
kept on line so you can see your standing at any time.

Some cards have “easy” puzzles
and are quite common. Other cards are more difficult and are relatively
rare. The cards
are sold in packs of six for $5 US. They can be purchased on line
or through several different chains of stores. There is also a card
trading forum where players can buy and trade cards with each other.
If you were to buy four packs of cards, you would have about the
same number of puzzles or more than you would get from a $20 adventure
game. So the cost is quite reasonable.

Once you have solved all of the puzzles on all of the cards, you
will have all the clues you need to find the Cube. The Cube really
does exist somewhere and the first person to find it will win a prize
of $200,000 US or the equivalent in their local currency.

But right now, that seems like a long way off. Everyone is still
quite open about the solutions to the cards and acting together as
a team. Mostly, they are seen as a way of supporting the game and
a source of good karma.

The Detective Mystery.

This is where the Alternate Reality Game kicks in. The Perplexians
have opened the lines of communication and we now have access to
their Internet. We can read their weekly newspaper, The Sentinel,
on its web site. We can read about the Academy on its site as well.
There are personal web sites. There are blogs. There is email. And
things are changing and updating constantly.

It is here that the community comes together to try and solve the
mystery of who stole the Cube, why and how. Much has been learned
so far, but there is even more to go.

This is how the game started:

Around April of 2005, an article was posted in The Sentinel which
told of their lead investigative reporter having fallen into a mysterious
coma. He had been investigating the Cube robbery when he just collapsed.
He did come out of the come for a while, but instead of spending
his remaining time with his wife, he spent it maniacally working
on his computer. He then lapsed back into the coma and died three
hours later.

The Reporter’s last effort appeared to have been a program of some
sort, but nobody knew what it was for. So the family posted it on
their home web site as part of their tribute to the reporter. Upon
reading this, thousands of players downloaded the program and found…
that it didn’t run under Microsoft Windows.

Eventually, someone in the community found that the program would
run on an Apple Powerbook. But all it did was display a large checkerboard
pattern with a marble on it. No amount of typing or mousing would
do anything. Until someone picked up their Powerbook and tipped it.
And the marble rolled downhill.

It turns out that Apple Powerbooks have built in accelerometers
which are used to sense if the device is falling so that the hard
drive can park its heads and prevent damage to the disk. The reporter
had used this feature to sense how the Powerbook was being tipped
and then to cause the marble to roll that way. Freaky if you aren’t
expecting it.

The next thing which was
noticed was that there were invisible walls all over the surface.
The checkerboard was actually a maze which
you had to guide the marble through by tilting your Powerbook. Soon
players all over the planet were trying to find Powerbooks to borrow.
They found that once you got the marble through the maze, you were
rewarded with a short phrase (like “I have dreamed a dream.”).
And another maze.

Once all the mazes were complete, the phrases became a paragraph
which sort of implied that the reporter was speaking with someone
who might be dangerous. No kidding. But that was it. Nothing else
came out of the program.

You and I might have given up there, but when there are thousands
of people worrying at the same puzzle something is going to give.
One person noticed that on each maze there was a small area which
the marble would never get into. So they stacked the mazes into a
block and found that the walled off areas formed a perfect number
three. Hmmm, can’t be coincidence.

Then someone else finally figured out that each of the phrases were
actually the names of hidden files on the reporter’s web page. You
could actually point your browser to ihavedreamedadream.htm and it
would display something. What these files displayed were the archives
of email conversations the reporter had had with a mysterious person
known as The Adviser.

The Adviser claimed that she was one of a team of five people who
stole the cube. Most of the email was worthless, but with thousands
of people combing through it something was sure to be discovered.
There were tiny clues which allowed people to identify the apartment
building she lived it. And then to identify which floor. Then a back
door was discovered to the security system which showed the thermal
traces of people as they moved around the building. The emails were
searched again for clues of when The Adviser was in ans out of her
room and these were carefully compared to the thermal traces until
the very room could be identified.

And so it goes. At the time of this writing, two of the conspirators
have been identified, and both of them are dead. A promising candidate
for the organization behind the theft has been proposed, but little
else has been found so far. But even this far, the full account of
what has happened makes a great read.

The bottom line is that there is still lots of game to play and
lots for the new player to contribute. There are websites to search,
emails to be written and phone numbers to call. And sometimes there
are live people on the other side.

Blue and Red Pills

You probably have noticed
by now that I have not included any screen shots. The question
I keep asking myself is, “Screen shots
of what?” This game is free and takes place on the Internet,
not within your computer. So for all of the effort of clicking on
the screen capture of a web page, you might as well just go there.

So rather than screen shots, here are some links to go to where
you can jump right into the game. Think of it as taking the Red Pill.

The place to start is
right here. Just follow the links to “The
Story So Far.” http://www.perplexcity.com

An excellent independent description of the game can be found here
(with lots of good links) http://www.fneh.net/guy/arg/pxcity.htm

Here are a couple of free cards to try out. http://www.perplexcity.com/promo/1/index.qbuild

A complete catalog of everything known about the cards can be found
here. http://www.perplexcitycardcatalog.com/

And finally, if you would like to learn more about ARGs, check out
the Wikipedia article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternate_reality_game

And in Conclusion

The people behind Perplex
City spent two and a half years working
on it. There are currently over 26,000 registered players playing
it. There are puzzles for the individual via the cards and there
are puzzles for the Hive Mind via the on-line real-time experience.

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!

Final Grade: A
(find out more about our
grading system)

System Requirements:

• Huh? If you can read
  this article, then your computer can play this game. So get moving!
  There is a Cube to be found.