ARG: The Carer-New

Saw II

Lewis the Second@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 15:33:59 +0000

Is this ARG in someway promoting the Saw II movie?

[PM CHAT] Questions for tonight's chat.

JebJoya@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 22:50:26 +0000

I won't be around for the chat tonight I'm afraid, so if someone wouldn't mind asking the following questions on my behalf?

1/ Why so many ancillary characters that didn't appear to have much to say? Wilson, Ascott and most puzzlingly Abhu had either tiny snippets of useless information, or were unwilling to give out other things. For instance although appearing to want to help, Abhu declined to tell me the location of the HQ :)

2/ You going to do another ARG? Do you play them, and what made you do one?

3/ Did you find the PMing of this to be enjoyable and fun? What was the best bit for you?

4/ Did you originally intend it to be a game that could be won/drawn or lost, or did that just flow a bit? Personally I quite like the design that allows for people not solving the push of puzzles and as a result, losing!

5/ Oh, and if we had called #1 on time, would he have stopped it? :)

The End - Post mortem..

chippy@forums.unfiction.com — Sun, 31 Jul 2005 20:21:31 +0000

http://www.thecarer.0nyx.com/

It's over.. Somewhat of an anticlimax for me, now I'm gonna ask the Denbys exactly what the hell the solution to building.jpg was :) Chat on the 2nd of August? Why the delay?

[ARCHIVING] In the name of posterity...

kholdstare@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 23:22:46 +0000

Can all the people who sent and received emails to the carer characters forward them onto thecarerarchive@gmail.com , i'd like to archive everything with this ARG, including the emails :)

[INTERACTIONS] The Grand Unified Interaction Thread

shambles@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 17:03:53 +0000

EDIT: Merged into single topic. Added "Whoops" thread. --Phaedra

To he, who cares
for the flock of seven,
to what honor, do they earn
the discerning eye of the Balance?

By nations, by skin?
By actions, by kin?

By what terms, would they be free?
..and to those that don't learn,
would their spirits be first to free?

While caring.. remember:
Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged

Reponse:

Whilst I admire the beautiful poems you are sending me, I suggest that
your time could be spent elsewhere.

All the best,
-the carer

Ah well - thought an indirect ask was nice .. still, it's the first response from 'the carer' to me :) (woot). Obviously, not a fan of indirect questions ;)

So who's going to be emailing 'the carer' as #13? (j/k!)

[PM CHAT] Pre-chat chat...

Nik_Doof@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 12:32:00 +0000

Lewis Denby (one of the PMs) appeared on IRC last night. I wasn't there, but logged it and thought I'd share... Sorry for the lack of formatting, can't be bothered :) It's also marginally edited to remove some non-topic comments.

[23:15:25] * Lewis[TheCarer] has joined #carer
[23:15:40] Evenin'
[23:15:56] :O
[23:16:15] Evening indeed
[23:16:16] Shocked, eh?
[23:16:18] Damn you! :P
[23:16:24] Shocked. Nah.
[23:16:25] Very
[23:16:28] %)
[23:16:35]
[23:16:42] Just thought I'd pop in and say ta for playing and suchlike.
[23:16:44] I was working and I get back to this!
[23:16:52] haha
[23:17:15] So, was there a way to save people?
[23:17:31] * Beano waits for tuesday for the answer
[23:17:35] :(
[23:17:37] Heh.
[23:17:40] There were four endings
[23:17:42] No thank you for the ARG
[23:17:45] :P
[23:17:51] :D a joy
[23:18:13] It was fun
[23:18:26] it was
[23:18:36] Glad you enjoyed it. The ending went ever-so-slightly tits up, I guess. But yeah.
[23:18:43] Any ARG I can actually solve something in gets my thumbs up
[23:18:51] hehe
[23:18:55] Anyone check the binary on Iain's site?
[23:19:18] I did
[23:19:24] yup, it's posted on the forums too
[23:19:29] Ah
[23:19:34] Not checked in a little while.
[23:19:41] Feel the need to apologise about that too
[23:19:44] Shame on you
[23:19:48] all will be explained in the official chat though i guess :p
[23:19:54] But put it this way...
[23:20:11] "Wait a minute... the test puzzle's still there... you didn't send that out on the disks did you?"
[23:20:13] "... fuck."
[23:20:15] etc.
[23:21:50] so was there someting on the denby site?
[23:23:39] There actually, genuinely was going to be. Then you kinda got to the end of the story and we realised there wouldn't
be much point.
[23:23:56] oh, :P
[23:24:00] here we were stying stegs on the pictures on it :P
[23:24:00] So we stuck that in-joke thing up there, explaining how we made a ballsup.
[23:24:06] That was hilarious.
[23:24:44] That's Iain's genuine website, for the genuine company he owns
[23:25:00] those illustrations are actual examples of his work, and everyone's there trying to decrypt them :D
[23:25:04] how about the call he got at the start? :P
[23:25:23] We were kicking ourselves over that. If we'd have thought about people calling, I'd have scripted it.
[23:25:25] heh
[23:25:34] And had him mumble something about how JRG used to be there but moved or something.
[23:25:52] For the record, this is the first game we've done, so we're rather chuffed. Heh.
[23:27:34] It was good. You should feel chuffed :)
[23:27:45] As you should be - you had a massive following
[23:29:56] Yeah, it was awesome. One thing that I still wonder about though... we sent ten mailshot trailheads out
[23:30:03] only Nik_Doof actually took it up
[23:30:08] wonder what happened to the others...
[23:30:16] Did you know who you were sending them to?
[23:31:18] Maybe some random people are this minute calling the olice :P
[23:31:23] ^police
[23:31:41] OMG!
[23:32:03] :p
[23:32:08] I think the once existed trailhead would sort out anyones head out on that notion :)
[23:32:24] Iain says hi, by the way :p
[23:32:39] We whoised a load of key players' websites
[23:32:40] - an out somewhere in that phrase :)
[23:32:43] and got home addresses from that
[23:32:59] plus, sent a couple of leading games mags
[23:33:48] And the mags didn't follow it up?
[23:33:50] pffft
[23:34:09] Probs 'cause they are all trying to make their own ARG's ;)
[23:34:13] * Paulzilla has the feeling that the mags may well get a bunch of trailheads
[23:34:19] haha
[23:34:26] Especially after the PCG article
[23:34:29] You know it's true!
[23:34:38] hah Beano
[23:34:44] Paulzilla: they followed up Conspiracy of B though
[23:34:46] well, Walker did.
[23:35:41] Cool
[23:35:47] ey well.
[23:39:23] Well, I'd best be off.
[23:39:38] Laters!
[23:39:41] Leaving for my first festival of the summer on Thurs, hence PM chat next week.
[23:39:46] Come back soon ;)
[23:39:49] hehe
[23:39:57] see you later guys, it's been an honour.
[23:40:00] Leeds?
[23:40:03] Reading?
[23:40:06] Nah, Cambridge.
[23:40:09] Leeds is next month.
[23:40:10] Ah
[23:40:11] Am there as well
[23:40:12] AH
[23:40:26] An honour here too! B-Bye!
[23:40:29] See yas
[23:40:31] * Lewis[TheCarer] has quit IRC (Quit: http://unfiction.com/chat/)

Who should live and who should die?

flutesalad@forums.unfiction.com — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 00:42:50 +0000

The Balance has decided to saddle us with the godlike responsibility of deciding who lives and who dies.

As horrendous as it may seem, we need a body count.

But we're not mindless murderers. We've decided to give you the choice.

You can keep Amanda Pranciskis alive. All you have to do is give us the command.

We take Amanda. Or we take the other five hostages.

I know you've developed quite an attachment to the lovely Ms. Pranciskis. So I'm aware you may need some time to make this decision.

It's 13:40pm GMT. You have 48 hours. Email the Balance with your decision on Tuesday. Thank you.

There have been several suggestions to date, most frequently that five lives are worth more than one.

However, I believe -- and others have also suggested -- that the PMs gave us two days for a reason, i.e. that there may be a third option in which we can save all six lives.

Please vote here.

[PUZZLE] Third Alternative

flutesalad@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 23:58:41 +0000

The Balance has given us the choice of who dies: Amanda vs. the other five hostages.

However, we've been given a rather substantial amount of time to decide this, leading to the possibility that there may be a way to save them all.

Ideas?

[SITE] The Balance Intranet

Phaedra@forums.unfiction.com — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 03:57:54 +0000

http://thebalance.0nyx.com/private001.htm

Clicking on the link brings up a password prompt. Somehow jumped past the prompt and found this

http://thebalance.0nyx.com/intranet0594600095htg99752bulletins.htm

[SOLVED?][PUZZLE] Building.jpg

Kjartan@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 05:19:38 +0000

discussion of Building.jpg

Current situation

mistermole@forums.unfiction.com — Fri, 22 Jul 2005 14:10:22 +0000

Right, this is stagnating a little now isn't it? I thought I'd write up where we are and what we know... 8 points of attack for anyone willing to take up one or more of them. If you've any comments on any of these, I suggest taking them into a new thread to discuss it?

1/ JRG Marketing

They or we received the following message (in quadruplicate) via a mysterious letter sent to the MD.

"There is somebody else involved. You have communicated with him. He knows more than you would ever have expected"

2/ The Balance

A high ranking member is dispondant with the situation and the leadership. Who that person is could be revealed by a clue hidden on http://thebalance.0nyx.com

3/ Ben Abhu

Despite some questioning he's not saying much. But he had a run in with the balance last year and knows a bit about their high ranks, especially the identity of #2 (whom he impersonated). He's not replying to emails at the moment, maybe he's dead?

4/ Ian Denby

His website is being used by the balance to keep information. We're assuming this means http://www.idenby.co.uk , but not found anything. However, a number of the jpgs come up as possible steggs..

5/ Graeme Wilson (gwilson1954@hotmail.com)

He may have seen something. All we can tell that he saw was that Farbank manor was being used by the balance to hide the kidnapped people originally.

6/ Michel Dubois

He's likely to update the Intranet http://thebalance.0nyx.com/private001.htm to call in #2 and #3 to discuss the future of the balance.

7/ Roger Derwent

Is dead.

8/ Building.jpg

Only possible clue is "Counting".. No idea... If I were the guy sending us these clues, I'd find a better bunch of solvers to work with ;)

[SOLVED][PUZZLE] Happiness.txt

JoeOE18@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 20:41:27 +0000

Disscusion and solving of Happiness.txt

For all the people reading this, I must urge you to take a closer look. There is a hidden answer in this paragraph that will lead you to more knowledge. With knowledge comes happiness and peace of mind, and you can continue on your search, perhaps singing a little, or whistling your favourite tune...

when you say this out loud, it has a certain rhythm, but im a bit tone deaf

[INTERACTIONS?] The Old House

Russell@forums.unfiction.com — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 00:20:54 +0000

I emailed the carer about the house and he told me this

My, my, I am very impressed with you. I think you're one of my favourites.

Keep an eye out. I shall be more specific about the location of this
building in time.

All the best,
-the carer

[SOLVED/PUZZLE] split.jpg - Dr Tween

JoeOE18@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 21:37:07 +0000

split.jpg - Dr Tween

from the packages forum

split.jpg:

http://www.thebalance.0nyx.com/2883t.htm

another puzzle :)

this leads us to the tween.gif Dr Tween image
-------
theres not many dr. tweens on google.
maybe because its in quotes, it means its one of those words that sounds like something else?

[INFO] Packages

chippy@forums.unfiction.com — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 13:23:15 +0000

Well, they said you'd get your packages today.

C'mon folks, all of us guys abroad are dying to hear what you got.

Soon as you get 'em, post and give scans if you'd be so kind.