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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: Questions/Meta
Press: Perplex City
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Fi
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Joined: 13 Apr 2004
Posts: 444
Location: London

 		 Press: Perplex City
An article in The Saturday Times on 27th November 2004.

Gives some general background on ARGs, mainly I Love Bees, and has the first public (not online) mention of Perplex City.

Click here to read.

Please don't reply in this thread - we will be trying to keep it as a reference point for all press that the game receives.

Thanks! Fi

PostPosted: Sun Nov 28, 2004 4:22 pm
Last edited by Fi on Tue Jan 18, 2005 9:44 am; edited 1 time in total
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newzgrl
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Joined: 21 Nov 2004
Posts: 55
Location: Cincinnati

 		google news alert
I have signed up for a google news alert that will find references to perplex city. I'll post anything relevant that turns up. Very Happy

PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2004 6:24 pm
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Fi
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Location: London

 		Yeah - Google alerts rock Smile I set one up for Perplex City and Project Syzygy months ago, and every few days I get another little nugget of gold*cough*info. Mainly blog entries at the moment though.
Fi
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 1:26 pm
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newzgrl
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 		great minds google alike... Wink

PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 11:32 pm
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Wishi-san
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 		As digital amnesia pointed out in #uf, this little bit about Syzygy has appeared in Mixmag (in the UK)

Original link and attached also.
mixmag_syzygy.jpg
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mixmag_syzygy.jpg
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PostPosted: Thu Jan 06, 2005 3:56 pm
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nitefoll
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Joined: 20 Oct 2004
Posts: 161
Location: Edinburgh, UK

 		Hmm, a cash prize eh?

I wondered who stumped up the cash. That usually requires excellent marketing or product placement.

Perhaps Syzygy IS viral marketing for something after all?!

PostPosted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 4:25 pm
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InspJJ
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Joined: 26 Oct 2004
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Location: Sheffield, England

 		Yo Nitefoll;

check out the 'what's the hook?' thread from some time ago - sensible suggestions still lacking......
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 5:52 pm
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Fi
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Joined: 13 Apr 2004
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Location: London

 		A friend who works in media/marketing/entertainment recently came across this article which was published by a company which provides data on emerging trends to large brands ("Cool Hunters"). It mentions Syzygy, as well as other games. I must confess I've sat on it a few days (busy busy busy!), but here it is, ready for your delectation:

Quote:
Your Brand as an Alternate Universe

If the Holy Grail for video game companies is to create a role playing gaming experience so engaging that its fictitious world becomes indistinguishable from the gamer's reality, then it may be time to call off the search. After years of perfecting the genre, Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) are redefining the leading edge of gaming; a radical genre that, if experts are to be believed, has the potential to revolutionise the entertainment industry.

ARGs are games played simultaneously by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of gamers around the world, working both with and against each other to solve puzzles and progress through the games' elaborate and multi-faceted plots. In the quest to bring an ever more real experience to participants, gamers provide contact details (address, phone number and email address) to ARG companies, so that they can be contacted where ever and whenever to be given clues, instructions and new pieces of the game's story. Clues, red herrings and parts of the story are also hidden across TV programmes, brand communications, web message boards, and websites (both legitimate, such as brand and company sites, as well as many which are specially made by the game writers or "puppet masters"). As new technology permits, companies are even using GPS, so that the real time locations of players can be tracked, permitting them to interact with each other. The net result is a gaming experience as real as real life, yet more fantastic than a Hollywood movie.

ARGs are not new, but their increasingly sophisticated and seamless game play, and their recent swell in popularity has meant that there is currently much excitement about what ARGs may hold for the future of branding and advertising. Whilst still on the leading edge, it is predicted that these types of games will begin to draw vast numbers of new loyal gamers as a proliferation of gaming companies add new and varied "reality experiences" to their offerings, giving gamers access to different levels of immersion to fit each individual's desires for gaming commitment and intensity. The word on the grapevine is that a few forward thinking brands are currently in negotiation with gaming companies to embed their brands in up and coming games. Whilst shrouded in secrecy, the much hyped game "Project Syzygy" (www.projectsyzygy.com), due for launch next year, has seen heavy investment from some very prominent figures from the advertising and media industries. Like console games before them, ARGs represent a relatively untapped area, a veritable parallel universe in which you brand (or its alter ego) can exist. More importantly, it is a universe in which your brand may be integral in solving parts of the overall game – requiring clue hungry gamers to actively seek out your offering and engage with your packaging, communication and product on an unprecedented level.

Aside from embedding your brand in up and coming games, companies can learn a lot from ARGs. As we mention in D_Code 5, (section 3.6 Covert Branding and the Power of Suggestion), limiting access to your brand, using suggestive ads or intriguing clues (in much the same way that ARG companies lay a trail of clues for players to solve) can build excitement around your product – create a buzz that often surpasses the "talk value" of more conventional communications. Stella Artois has created excitement through "confusion" and intrigue in their recent campaign, "He Walks Among Us." The campaign is a cross platform initiative that employs a series of ambiguous ads depicting images of Satan doing business deals, and equally ambiguous website URLs (scrawled across otherwise blank magazine pages) that lead consumers to a mini alternative reality environment stemming from the website www.hewalksamongus.com. In this environment, consumers can sign up to sell their souls to a fictional company (in line with the brand's "reassuringly expensive" positioning) and report sightings of Satan in return for access to hidden parts of a series of unbranded Stella websites. By adding an "alternate universe" dimension to their ad campaign, Stella has created a community of "in the know" consumers who actively seek out, and now feel ownership of, the beer brand's mysterious alter ego.


Please don't reply in this thread - it is to be kept for posting metions/articles about Syzygy, not for discussion of them.

Cheers Smile

PostPosted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 8:16 am
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Seej
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Joined: 30 Nov 2004
Posts: 614

 		Mentioned loads elsewhere (so if you mods think I'm trouting let me know and I'll delete), but here's the text of the first ad from the Feb 17th issue of USA Today:
Quote:
Perlplexcity.com

LOST. The Cube. Reward Offered. not only an object of great significance to the city but also a technological wonder www.perplexcity.com


[Edit - I wouldn't bother to post these here, just post them as updates as normal. Cheers! Fi]

PostPosted: Thu Feb 17, 2005 7:43 pm
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newzgrl
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Joined: 21 Nov 2004
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Location: Cincinnati

 		PPC in the Australian AGE
Here's a new article in the Age from Australia about ARG's that mentions PPC. (thanks to google alerts) Ya gotta register (gag) but it's an interesting read. I don't think there are any clues there tho...

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2005/02/24/1109180026375.html
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PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 10:49 am
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InspJJ
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 		So guys, shake the curtain a little, any spec?
Quote:
Whilst shrouded in secrecy, the much hyped game “Project Syzygy” (www.projectsyzygy.com), due for launch next year, has seen heavy investment from some very prominent figures from the advertising and media industries.
Post it here or in META What's the Hook - my money is still on Nike....

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 26, 2005 8:31 pm
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EclecticMunk
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Location: South Africa

 		This just turned up on C|Net News (28-02-2005) ...

Nothing we haven't seen before, but rather arbitrarily placed and with no new accompanying story or article.

Edit: Shortened URL - Wishi-san
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:21 am
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step
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 		the article is linked just below the image

CNet News

Edit: Shortened URL - Wishi-san
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 9:26 am
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bill
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Joined: 25 Sep 2002
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 		This one talks about behind the curtain stuff, so I'm spoilering it to avert temptation for you buggers with little willpower Razz

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
http://localglobe.blogspot.com/2005/02/saul-klein-bio-now-based-in-london_14.html

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PostPosted: Mon Feb 28, 2005 1:48 pm
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da5id
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 		check out this on one cnet's news.com.com.com.com


Edit: Embedded URL. -SpaceBass
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 5:40 am
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