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[VonMuda]

[META] Charlie Tan's Story

[CharlieTan]

Hi VonMuda,

All of the PM's do exist, but none of us are using our real names. MTSM, Marlene, and (originally) CharlieTan were all written by different people. The writer who was CharlieTan is finished with his work on this project, so now CharlieTan and MTSM are the same writer (me). Marlene is still on board as well.

The initial story and characters of Peter, Mike, and Natalie were created by a talented writer named Andy Carrigan from Weiden+Kennedy NY. He also wrote the three "perspectives" commercials you see on television, and had brought in Dr. Crypton to create a puzzle for the story. At a fairly late stage in the process (a few weeks before the commercials were shot), W+K brought us in to develop the story and execute it. By "us" I mean Haxan, GMD Studios, and Chelsea Pictures. While this was the first "puzzle" we've done, we have created quite a few online narratives, together as a team as well as individually, including Beta-7 for Sega, The Blair Witch Project (the original site, movie, tv special, etc., Freakylinks, and this controversial one as well. Peter, Mike, and Natalie's journals were written by Orlando-based writer Dr. M.C. Johnson. All the Steinitz sites, as well as (the original) Charlie Tan, and our favorite Norman Dead Norman were written by another Orlando-based writer, Jim Gunshanan. That's my voice as NDN on the voice mail, though -- my name is Mike Monello and I played MTSM and directed the project. My partner Gregg Hale also played a big part in developing the story. Brian Clark is the main man at GMD Studios and he played Marlene. And we could never forget Darren Himebrook, one of Norman's many nephews, who helped him with his eBay auctions and also produced this thing with me.

Thanks for asking, VonMuda. I'm happy to answer any questions that are outside the story here, as long as the Mods are cool with it. I ask that on the SteinitzPuzzlers Forums, however, we keep things in character and not repeat this information there. Thanks!

[VonMuda]

Not a problem.

[VonMuda]

Also, I know that you've seen all of the turmoil that the Leeds site has created. I'm not asking you to disclose if this is the actual solution, but you must understand, the Leeds site seems pretty weak when compared to other puzzles by Mr. Hoffman. How much involvement did Paul Hoffman play in the Project? Was he there from the beginning? Was he forced to conform to a certain amount of parameters and restrictions? Was his role in the story (in real life) as large as it was in the story (script)?

[CharlieTan]

I know that Paul worked with Andy on the puzzle, but I believe Paul basically had complete freedom to do as he wanted. If anything, the narrative was the thing that was too restricted, as it was the last thing to be done when in reality it should have been first.

The ending of the puzzle (and I'm not saying it is the Leeds site), is as Paul created it.

As for the Leeds turmoil and some of the other puzzling controversies, it has been fascinating, hasn't it?

Being able to see IP addresses tells me a great deal -- like when trusted community members create multiple aliases to post red herring solutions and throw people off the hunt. We knew people would play the game that way from the beginning and we decided to not interfere since we felt posting red herring solutions was a valid strategy to finding the urns. The one exception -- if they claimed to be a PM or involved in the campaign, then we exposed the lie.

The community aspect, and how you navigate that community is as important to the game as actually solving the clues, otherwise it's no different than offline treasure hunts (like Paul's book TREASURE), which can be worked on alone.

[VonMuda]

Thanks for the info Charlie.

I bet you do get to see a lot of stuff that the rest of us don't. And i bet that that makes the game look a lot different to you.

Like a lot of other people, I have regressed in my activity in the game. I feel like, and i'm sure a lot of others do as well, that the Leeds site deflated my balloon. It was like everything else, from there on out, was for nought. It's very difficult to disprove the rlebron blog. Everything is circumstantial, since there's really nothing concrete to pull from.

[bruttium]

Hey 'Charlie'. Good to see you outside that other forum for a change.

First of all, given that the contest isn't over at the time of this posting, you certainly don't have to comment on any of this. But that won't stop me from asking questions. I appreciate the info given so far.

Anyway, I was wondering about the Steinitz Press site. It used to say that pre-ordering would begin November 24 (I think). Then that date passed, and the site changed to say that pre-ordering would begin "soon".

Was there a plan to have something take place on November 24th? Did something fall through? Will there ever be any sort of book by Hoffman?

I'm just curious, that's all. I can wait until January for all the answers. It's just interesting to me to have some idea of what was going on during the production of all this.

It would be cool if there was some sort of wrap-up in January. It would be nice to have closure to the blogs and the rest of the backstory. And it would be nice to have a breakdown of the puzzles (and the red herrings!), as presented by the PMs. Something that, say, lists a puzzle, the initial expectations by the PMs, how it was approached by the puzzlers, and how it was resolved--if at all. That would help put to rest things like the "Get a clue or two!" message on the Steinitz Press site. (Sure, the chess puzzle piece is one clue...Did we ever find a second clue on that page?)

Anyway, thanks again for wasting lots of my time.

No, really, I mean that sincerely.

Happy holidays!

[Varin]

[enaxor]

[CharlieTan]

[VonMuda]

If you do, will you let us knkow it's you?

Wink at us, secret handshake, or something like that.

[CharlieTan]

[bruttium]

Looking forward to more sleepless nights...

[CharlieTan]

Re: Looking forward to more sleepless nights...

[FLmutant]

Finally get to peek out