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jamesi

International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies

**Posted:** Tue Jan 02, 2007 11:59 pm

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colin

It was also picked up on SlashDot, which has lots of talk on it.

**Posted:** Wed Jan 03, 2007 12:41 am

catherwood

yeah, i first heard of it on Clickable Culture which links to the reBang analysis.

Poking around the site on my own, I found occasional misspellings and at least one HTML link tag error, which had me thinking it wasn't a professional webmaster in charge. The form which asks for membership fees has an image of the PayPal logo, but it acts as the form's own submit button to itself, not the PayPal site -- I wasn't going to test it to see if it eventually redirects.

I also found a page with a commented-out line of code in the source which gives the URL to a hidden image -- which has the watermark of iStockPhoto. If indeed the one blogger was contacted by the owner of this enterprise, the fact that it came from a Hotmail account is surely another red flag.

Scam or ARG? Well, as a blog comment said, the skills we use to investigate one apply just as well to the other.

**Posted:** Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:52 am

Ammnontet · Boot Joined: 25 Dec 2006 Posts: 29

Seems like an ARG. My opinion is reinforced by this quote from the 'Domain Names' part of their site, specifically the part about the Executive Director.

**Posted:** Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:51 pm

Cross_

Grant applications will be available starting Feb. 2007, but their mailing list already accepts registrations.

**Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 5:42 pm

October

Binary code in the image to the right on the pre-reg postponed page?
http://www.iavrt.org/org-news-post.html
http://www.iavrt.org/images/org-news-r.jpg

**Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:05 pm

WolfHawk

I hope they don't seriously expect players to pony up that kind of cash!!!

**Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:37 pm

Cross_

Looks like this as text :
01010110
01101011001
010101110101
010101010011
101001010101
010101010100
100100101010
010101001101
10101010101

**Posted:** Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:03 pm

Rekidk

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catherwood

**Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:40 am

Rekidk

Has anyone tried contacting the e-mails yet? Honestly, a quick e-mail would probably confirm whether or not this was an ARG.

---

Currently, my limited experience is telling me it's not, mainly because of the page that offers to become a partner for ghastly amounts of money--it just doesn't really fit, IMO.

However, I'm a newb, so I'm probably wrong.

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Pixiestix

For the person who mentioned the PMs expecting money from the players - I doubt it... If anything the "become a partner for ghastly amounts of money" is probably what makes it seem more probable as an ARG - it gives the players no chance to become a partner. This is probably a pre-game period to pull in an audience. Once they get their "partners" then things will start moving. {I have a feeling if this is an arg and anyone is crazy enough to give them money, they would find some way to not accept it}

{I know most of my examples go back to urban hunt, but that is where i gained most of my experience so here goes...}

Example - person finds open casting call for a reality tv show, goes to website for info on the open casting and finds there is no way for them to become actual cast, but rather they will be useful someplace else. Maintains the audience, without giving them any REAL chance to do what is supposedly needed{cast}.

I am not saying i fully feel this is an arg - just might be worth watching for a bit...

**Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 4:16 pm

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Lovek · Unfettered Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 434

The terms of service list MANY rules regarding "Visitor content" in their bulletin boards, chatrooms, and billboards (?! No, really. A quote: "Any Visitor Content provided by you to IAVRT on its billboards... shall become the property of IAVRT").

So I'd imagine there's much more to come.

Just gotta be an ARG, right?

**Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 7:06 pm

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Rekidk

Hm, I hadn't considered that. Maybe you're right. I think we definitely need to keep a close eye on this sucker as we head into February.

Edit:

I submitted my email in the mailing list, so we'll know when something happens.

http://www.iavrt.org/privacypolicy.html - Note that it went into effect February 2006, but the website was only registered a few months ago. They're trying to make themselves seem older than they are. I'm not sure if this supports the argument that they're a scam or that they're an ARG.

Also, their links are major scientific organizations. Hm...

Edit 2:

Got a confirmation email from the mailing list thing.

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Cross_

Couple more factoids:

IAVRT formerly IABIT (International Association of Brain Interface Technologies.) http://www.iabit.org/

Their address is a postbox.

And an interesting message from their ISP http://www.staysanecommunications.com/

cNet interview with IAVRT people :
http://news.com.com/Virtual+reality+to+get+its+own+network/2100-1033_3-6146339.html

And some more good stuff http://blog.rebang.com/?p=1138

**Posted:** Wed Jan 10, 2007 8:55 pm