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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: MetaCortechs » MetaCortechs: General/Updates
[META] The Metacortechs ARG
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niobexrev
Unfettered


Joined: 06 Oct 2003
Posts: 428
Location: trapped in my bedroom vortex

 		Alright why do people think it's below the Wachowskis to be involved in something like this? Seriously. Give me one good reason and I'll keep my mouth shut.

There isn't a good reason.

Igpajo wrote:
The makers of this game haven't used any images from the film, they really make no direct reference to the film short of the names mentioned above.


Okay let me stop you right there.

When the Metacortex site first came out, the picture on the main page was a picture of the building from the movie. Of course now that is changed, one of the things that changed this weekend. So either 1.) the WB was threatening to sue these ameteur pimple popping Puppet masters that have nothing to do with the WB or 2.) the WB has everything to do with it, and it's just all part of the show.

But we're forgetting one they haven't gotten rid of. The opening flash intro. The end of the intro just before you enter the site, the music is from "Beyond" (an Animatrix short). You might want to argue this, but I think it's quite clear. In fact I know it is.

That's my beef.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 3:56 pm
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dias
Greenhorn

Joined: 13 Oct 2003
Posts: 4
Location: Denmark
Igpajo wrote:
Are the creators of this ARG making money off it? I don't think so and that may be another reason WB isn't all over this. There's no profit being made.


Exactly, there is no profit. But tons of money and time are beeing put into the game. As mentioned somewhere else, the registration of over 10 .com, .net and .info domains costs some money. As does the hosting. The pages themselves have been desgined pretty well, some time being spent there as well.

Who would use at least 200 $ on registrations, plus loads of time making websites, complete with databases and flash animations? Not some unemployed matrix fan...
There are no ads anywhere, so either these people are insane, or else they don't need the money.

Just my take on things Wink

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:12 pm
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Igpajo
Boot

Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 17
niobexrev wrote:
Alright why do people think it's below the Wachowskis to be involved in something like this? Seriously. Give me one good reason and I'll keep my mouth shut.

There isn't a good reason.

I haven't heard anyone say they think it's "below" them. Quite the opposite, this is exactly what we would expect from them, which is why so many people still believe it is Official. I actually expect WB to make some announcement soon. I'd be surprised if they don't. Their mailboxes and voicemail must be full of messages from fans asking about this. They'll confirm it privately, but the just haven't done so publically yet. I think that will come in time.

niobexrev wrote:
Okay let me stop you right there.

When the Metacortex site first came out, the picture on the main page was a picture of the building from the movie. Of course now that is changed, one of the things that changed this weekend. So either 1.) the WB was threatening to sue these ameteur pimple popping Puppet masters that have nothing to do with the WB or 2.) the WB has everything to do with it, and it's just all part of the show.
I've only just seen the picture that's on there now, which to me just looks very similar to the MetaCortex building, but it isn't from the movie.

niobexrev wrote:
But we're forgetting one they haven't gotten rid of. The opening flash intro. The end of the intro just before you enter the site, the music is from "Beyond" (an Animatrix short). You might want to argue this, but I think it's quite clear. In fact I know it is.

That's my beef.
I hadn't heard that before now. I'd heard it mentioned but didn't think that music was same, but I've never really listened to it all the way through. But now that I have you're right, there is a couple seconds of that in there. But only a couple seconds. Isn't there some rule when it comes to sampling that you can use a certain amount before you have to get permission?

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:16 pm
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Omnie
Entrenched


Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 772
dias wrote:
Igpajo wrote:
Are the creators of this ARG making money off it? I don't think so and that may be another reason WB isn't all over this. There's no profit being made.


Exactly, there is no profit. But tons of money and time are beeing put into the game. As mentioned somewhere else, the registration of over 10 .com, .net and .info domains costs some money. As does the hosting. The pages themselves have been desgined pretty well, some time being spent there as well.

Who would use at least 200 $ on registrations, plus loads of time making websites, complete with databases and flash animations? Not some unemployed matrix fan...
There are no ads anywhere, so either these people are insane, or else they don't need the money.

Just my take on things Wink


Er, you have to take into consideration that this has been done before. A group of fans made the ARG Lockjaw a while back...that kinda kills that type of argument. They probably enjoy it so much that it's worth the money...I dunno, I was just reading about this, I'm sure someone here will correct me if I got any of that wrong...did any external organization fund Lockjaw, or was it just the fan PMs pooling their available money?

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:18 pm
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Igpajo
Boot

Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 17
dias wrote:
There are no ads anywhere, so either these people are insane, or else they don't need the money.

There are a few logos at the bottom and the side of the UnderScoreHosting.com webpages from Microsoft, Linux, MySQL and PHP. Don't know if that's enough product placement for them to get paid. I really don't know how the money is earned to make these ARG's. But didn't the *cough* group do something else like this once out of pocket...the LockJaw game?

EDIT -- You know better then that! Smile -- AnthraX101

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:21 pm
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dias
Greenhorn

Joined: 13 Oct 2003
Posts: 4
Location: Denmark
Igpajo wrote:
dias wrote:
There are no ads anywhere, so either these people are insane, or else they don't need the money.

There are a few logos at the bottom and the side of the UnderScoreHosting.com webpages from Microsoft, Linux, MySQL and PHP. Don't know if that's enough product placement for them to get paid. I really don't know how the money is earned to make these ARG's. But didn't the Karetao group do something else like this once out of pocket...the LockJaw game?


Well, first of all, afaik Linux, MySQL and PHP are all free, so probably not much money to be made there.

I guess if there was an official "This is the matrix ARG" homepage, there would be ads on it. Unless, of course, it was entirely promotional, in which case the PR guys prolly wouldn't mind spending a few thousand dollars on this. (Which is nothing compared to the millions they've spent already)

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:30 pm
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Chinghis
Veteran


Joined: 02 Oct 2003
Posts: 135
Location: Somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert

 		The biggest thing, to me, that argues for it being official is that it does add to the hype, both for the movie, and for the game, in a pretty cost-effective way. You reach exactly the target audience you want - technologically literate folks with some time (and most likely, disposable income) on their hands. You contribute to the genre in a cutting-edge fashion - this would be, what, the second or third successful use of an ARG to promote a movie, correct?

I don't know, I'm going back and forth, now, on what's up with this.
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:34 pm
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FrankenPaula
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Joined: 25 Sep 2002
Posts: 15
dias wrote:

Who would use at least 200 $ on registrations, plus loads of time making websites, complete with databases and flash animations? Not some unemployed matrix fan...
There are no ads anywhere, so either these people are insane, or else they don't need the money.

Just my take on things Wink


Actually there have been games like this before that involved no corporate sponsorship and where the PMs just paid for the game out of their own pocket (sometimes with a little help from donations from players or merchandise sold through cafe press). The creators of this game created Lockjaw which had no corporate sponsors. Aside from that game, there was also Change Agents, Chasing the Wish, the currently ongoing Acheron, and probably a few more I'm forgetting. It's not that unusual for fans of this genre to get together and decide to make a game of their own.

And the figure of $100,000 that somebody else mentioned is way off. I think past games like this have been done for around $3,000-$8,000. You don't need to pay for actors, you can just use friends and family members of the PMs and the PMs themselves. Writing the content and creating the websites doesn't cost anything either, except for the cost of any photos they might buy (like Beth's photo).

Is it possible that this game has official sponsorship or at least permission from the WB? Yes. Is it possible to put on a game like this without it? Also yes. We just can't know for certain at this point.

Paula

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:36 pm
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Guest
Guest


 		If Spielberg used this to promote AI, why not the Wachowsky ? Matrix is a much more complex world. Of course, they would hire the best professionals available, so it is quite probable that one of the best ARG groups would be contracted.

And you know how the bros. attempts to create wonderful new concepts from previous great concepts. They are good at this.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 4:59 pm
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Fardreamer
Boot

Joined: 13 Oct 2003
Posts: 15
Location: The Massassi Temple

 		Well, I saw it mentioned that the suspected creators are a company called K... Interactive Media (I forgot the name, sorry). If it's really a business and not just a small group of fans of the genre, then I simply can't find the financial incentive in creating such a game, unless it's to serve as promotional content for another product; i.e., either it has ads on it, or it's an ad in itself. Otherwise, there's no way a small unsponsored business is going to profit from this.

Which leaves us with two possibilities: it's official, or it's made by a group of well-off ARG/Matrix fans that have the money, the technical knowledge, and the time to keep something like this up (or just more money to hire a couple of freelance web programmers). I don't know enough about this K... company to comment on whether it's a licensed business or just a fan group, but I find it unlikely that such a quality, costly-yet-non-commercial product could be put up without sponsors.

That said, I agree that it is most likely not official - there's been a lot of effort to avoid copyright infringement, which doesn't make sense if it's officially backed.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 5:45 pm
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Azathoth666
Unfettered

Joined: 09 Oct 2003
Posts: 321
Location: OZ-tralia

 		Heeeeey... FrankenPaula... Metacortex Merch!

Now THERE's a great idea Very Happy

As soon as someone gets around to it, sign me up for a Metacortex Golf Shirt, a couple of signed Paintover prints and a Wongmo Mug.

Oh, and an "I survived the Cascade Vortex" dishcloth.

Laughing Laughing

And we can't forget the phone numbers, fax numbers and answering service: they probably cost more than the domain registration...

[EDIT] Spelling... go easy on me, I haven't even finished my morning coffee yet...
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We grow old because we stop playing.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 6:53 pm
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Igpajo
Boot

Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 17
Fardreamer wrote:
That said, I agree that it is most likely not official - there's been a lot of effort to avoid copyright infringement, which doesn't make sense if it's officially backed.

Exactly! I would expect if it were more official that it'd much more in your face with the Matrix parallels.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:20 pm
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ecwilder
Guest
Chinghis wrote:
The biggest thing, to me, that argues for it being official is that it does add to the hype, both for the movie, and for the game, in a pretty cost-effective way. You reach exactly the target audience you want - technologically literate folks with some time (and most likely, disposable income) on their hands. You contribute to the genre in a cutting-edge fashion - this would be, what, the second or third successful use of an ARG to promote a movie, correct?

I don't know, I'm going back and forth, now, on what's up with this.



i agree...

Fardreamer: if your so st that none of it is really matrix related then why play? its just a stupid pointless internet game right?
how unintelligent must one be to ignore these obvious clues? the company is called Metacortechs for christs sake, w/ pictures strait outta the movies......
and do you have any idea how much one television commercial costs in prime time viewing? im gonna go out on a limb here w/ a guess of 'much more money than this ARG costs X 4'.

IMHO. Very Happy

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 8:35 pm
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Igpajo
Boot

Joined: 14 Oct 2003
Posts: 17
ecwilder wrote:
the company is called Metacortechs for christs sake, w/ pictures strait outta the movies......

What pictures are straight out of the movies? The only time in The Matrix that the exterior of the MetaCortex building is shown is this shot here.
{You'll have to cut and paste the following URL into the browser as the owner of this site has protected her images from linking.
http://www.zionmainframe.net/main/matrix/images/stills/0129.jpg

I have not seen that picture anywhere in the game at all. Everyone is using it on their own game summary pages but I've never seen it in the game.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:12 pm
Last edited by Igpajo on Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:15 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Solstice
Guest


 		Is it the WBs? Here's the answer.
In the first movie we see Metacortex and Metacortechs. Two different spellings. Probably for just this reason. The WB's are part of releasing the Matrix online game. If they're going that far the ARG is one of two things: A setup for the online game, or the playing out of the Matrix recycling/ the birth of AI (see my other post). If all this doesn't have anything to do with the Matrix officially then whoever is doing it is a tool. Also, no one has solved it ALL yet. I they say they have they don't have to give it away but they can still prove it by telling us something we don't already know. I seriously doubt anyone who claims they have "got it" could do even that.

PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2003 9:13 pm
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