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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[Trailhead?] Mich Mussdassein
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Daeld
Unfettered


Joined: 02 May 2009
Posts: 308
Location: Australia

 		I just got the Twitter and FB requests. At first I thought it was related to I'm sorry (Es tut mir leid... Wink) and there were many apologies in the twitter account. But I went to the I'm sorry thread, which seems to be over!

So, then Mich Mussdassein is friends with Uno, so I thought, that it would be part of halluci9. Why not include it in the halluci9 forum?

PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:18 pm
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diszaster
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Joined: 15 May 2009
Posts: 405
booba wrote:
Came in via a follow on Twitter.
Thanks disza, for distilling it down Smile

Joe the Timelord wrote:
Quote:
What encryption was the Bible verse under? I tried ROT to no avail, which means I'm short a cipher... or at least ten.


Looks like disza used atbash

http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/atbash.php


Heh, actually disza used a substitution thingie.
http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/frequencypuzzle.htm

but thanks for the atbash link. <3

Oh, and on the hallucinine thing: it's an educated guess based on look and feel, direct question, lack of common discourse/images/etc. Mich wasn't friends w/ Uno til later, and he was contacting the usual suspects, not just ppl involved in hallucinine. But, like I said, educated -guess-.

PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:52 pm
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vinelandidiot13
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Joined: 02 Jul 2009
Posts: 7

 		over already?

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:49 am
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drinkingmercury
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Joined: 13 Sep 2009
Posts: 63

 		that was quick
good job dizza!

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:51 am
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diszaster
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Joined: 15 May 2009
Posts: 405

 		Wow, thank you. I didn't know it would end so quickly, and I hope the PM is encouraged to expand upon this in the future.

Unless there's another ghost lurking around somewhere, and we don't know it....

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:53 am
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Keltalas21
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Joined: 01 Sep 2009
Posts: 41

 		look here
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:GY5Xbwkr-hEJ:victoriancriminology.blogspot.com/2009/08/man-shoots-himself-on-public-street.html+Leichter+genealogy+dale+oakland&cd=1&hl=es&ct=clnk

is all about that paul

and it's all over this little arg

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 12:54 am
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Caseys_Mom
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Joined: 21 Jan 2009
Posts: 553

 		You guys did a really great job on that one!
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Missing Hallucinine and waiting on Rachel.
Lurking around in Super8 --> wiki

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 1:47 am
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Mlitsonata
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Posts: 110

 		CONGRATULATIONS!!!
I BIG!!!!! Congrats to disza for solving this game! Smile WTG!!!

Also congrats to "Keltalas Kel" for solving the game independently, and "John Stover" for finding many of the answers along the way. Many others also played and found a lot of the clues - you all worked together on this one and it payed off Smile.

I was the PM for Mich Mussdassein. I was introduced to ARGs last week and fell in love immediately. I wanted to know how the games worked and decided to create my own mini-game as a trial run.

There were a couple of things that I had noticed about most ARGs. First, many of them had great characters, but the interaction with them seemed somewhat limited in many games - so I wanted to try something that was entirely social. I also noticed that most games took place in the future or in some crazy alternate universe. Those games are cool and all - but I love history and wanted this game to be based in the past.

As a historian and genealogist, I took the history of my own family into consideration for the plot and primary character - Paul Ferdinand Leichter, aka Mich Mussdassein - as well as the sub-character, my great-uncle Jackson Leighter. It was also interesting, as a personal experience, to put myself into the shoes of my 3rd great-grandfather.

But here I just wanted to just keep a quick account, for the record, of the plot of the game and how it went - since there were so many posts on different parts of the forum - this will help people understand what was going on if the look at it later.

Part One - Mich Mussdassein - Estutmirleid

A profile is created on Facebook and Twitter for a person named Mich Mussdassein. "Mich" is German for Me or Myself, "Mussdassein" or "MuB das sein?" is German for "Must it be?" E-mails were also sent by this person to various people (all ARGnet users who had given their e-mails out for this purpose). The e-mail address was "Estutmirleid@live.com". "Estutmirleid" or "Es tut mir leid" is German for "I'm sorry."

Players were directed to a Facebook profile for Mich, which included a photo of a young man and two other photos - A turn of the century aerial view of a burned city and the interior of a hospital ward, also turn of the century. These photos were posted in an album called "Erinnerung" - which is German for "Memories".

Through conversations with the character and questions asked about the picture, the players had to discover that "Mich" was a ghost who needed help to cross over to the other side. Two more photos were then added - a 1924 Model T truck, which he was in when he shot himself, and a WWI military issued pistol, which he used to shoot himself.

Part Two - Who, What, When, Where and Why

In this part of the game the players had to discover, again through conversation with Mich, the "who, what, when, where and why" of Mich's death.

Who: The killer and victim was Paul Leichter, a 55 year old contractor from San Francisco and Oakland. The first name could be discovered from the picture, which was named "PaulCloseUp". This was actually a mistake, I hadn't intended them for them to find the first name this way - but it worked out. The last was discovered through the identity of his son - Jackson Leighter - whose is mentioned in many places on the internet due to his connection to friends Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles.

What: The official cause of death was pneumonia. But this was a bit more difficult to get to. The players had to first learn the circumstances behind the death. Paul had committed suicide by shooting, but survived the shot. While recovery in the Presidio hospital, he contracted a virus and developed pneumonia, from which he died. The answer was found through clues describing the symptoms - hard of breathing and a heavy pain in the chest as if drowning.

When: Paul passed away on February 15, 1927. This was also difficult. Through various questions the players learned that Paul must have died sometime after the 1924 truck was made, and before the Great Depression of Oct 1929, as Paul didn't know about it. The players then asked for Paul remembered any headlines in the newspaper that could help them. Luckily, I had a copy of the newspaper from the day and was able to find a marriage between Sidney Landfield and an actress who married Feb 8. Thankfully, John Strover managed to find the wedding information.

Where: There were several clues to the hospital and San Francisco including a picture of the Mission Dolores, memories of the Bay and wharf and several descriptions of the city burning - the 1906 earthquake and fire. Through these clues the players determined that Paul passed away at the Presidio military hospital in San Francisco.

Why: Money was the motive. This was the most difficult part, for me as a descendant of the actual man. The Oakland Tribune had published his suicide note the day he shot himself - and because of this I knew the reasons behind the act. Through the conversation "Paul" described the day of the shooting, that he had returned from the bank were he had been denied a loan to finish the construction of a building. He had lost everything and had been living in the attic of the unfinished building and felt that he had no where to turn.

Once of these questions were answered - Paul was able to remember his life. Which leads us to the final Part of the game.

Part Three: The Note

Paul now knew what needed to be done in order to pass on. He needed someone to find his note - his suicide note - in which the asked his family for forgiveness and explained the reasons behind his act. He explained that the note had been taken from his jacket pocket and given to the newspaper. The family, who refused to read the articles about the death, were never given the opportunity to read it.

Hints were given that the article had been published in the local newspaper - in Oakland - which was the Oakland Tribune. Geo-coordinates had been given for the Oakland Public Library where the newspaper archives were kept. It was intended for someone to search the archives for the Oakland Tribune on Feb 9, 1927 for the published note. BUT, the winner managed to find a copy of the note that I had put on a blog several months ago and had overlooked. I had deleted the blog from Blogspot to make the game more difficult - but Facebook had managed to keep a copy which I wasn't expecting.

With the note - the players then had to discover Paul's only living descendant who was described as a family historian and actor. Through questions they also learned that his (my) name was Dale. I had intended that, by searching the names Jackson Leighter and Paul Leichter, that they would eventually find my several posts on various genealogical websites asking for additional information about Jack and the Leichter family. Due to the unexpected blog, this turned out to be easier as my name and e-mail were posted right on it Razz.

I will be leaving Paul's Facebook profile up, at least for a while, as a record of the conversations - some of which have been posted here by the players.

Thank you all for playing Smile I hope my next one will be much bigger and more interesting.

- Dale Sheldon

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:03 am
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Mlitsonata
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Joined: 11 Sep 2009
Posts: 110

 		True story
Keltalas21 wrote:
look here
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:GY5Xbwkr-hEJ:victoriancriminology.blogspot.com/2009/08/man-shoots-himself-on-public-street.html+Leichter+genealogy+dale+oakland&cd=1&hl=es&ct=clnk

is all about that paul

and it's all over this little arg


I also had a lot of surprises writing this ARG. To make sure I had my facts straight, I did some extra research and discovered other family secrets which I considered adding to the game, but decided against it. But maybe there will be a part 2 mini-game for these as our winner suggested Smile.

I also learned that there had been an earthquake on the very day that Paul had passed away!! I had no idea, and since I don't know what time he passed, I don't know if he felt it or not. For the game, Paul didn't feel it - one of many fictional aspects that I had to make up to fill in the blanks.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 2:08 am
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Nighthawk
I Have 100 Cats and Smell of Wee


Joined: 14 Jul 2007
Posts: 4751
Location: Miami, Florida, USA, Earth

 		I'm confused. This game is over... on page TWO?
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"Omne ignotum pro magnifico"

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:00 am
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lifegospel
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Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 715
Location: Calgary, Alberta

 		Well, that was a nice mini-ARG, got me warmed up, which is a good thing, just got followed by someone on twitter, I'll go make a new trailhead.

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:23 am
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Joe the Timelord
Boot


Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Posts: 48
Location: Earth

 		Wow, that was fun. Good job, dis. Very Happy

EDIT: And, Miltsonata, that was an awesome story. Smile
_________________
"A world without communism or capitalism... that is the world I wanted to see.... But reality continued to betray me." --The Boss

Currently Playing: Within Hubris

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:12 am
Last edited by Joe the Timelord on Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:21 am; edited 1 time in total
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Daeld
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Joined: 02 May 2009
Posts: 308
Location: Australia

 		Very nicely done Mlitsonata! Very Happy

(Does this get the price for fastest ARG?) Wink

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:14 am
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diszaster
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Joined: 15 May 2009
Posts: 405

 		I thought this was a great game: really interesting and in-depth without being overly ambitious. I happen to be a real fan of history, so I got sucked in pretty easily.

For future reference, this is where I got the newspaper article: http://www.newspaperarchive.com. I didn't actually use the cached blogs until it came down to finding you. Not sure why I ignored the blogs until that, but that's why I didn't immediately know where to send the note.

Some things I was expecting: I was all ready for a dead drop near Paul's gravesite, or something like that (or, at least ready to beg my friends to go look). A list of uhmm... residents at the Presidio cemetery are available online. I was also completely confused at first about the German thing, but it makes perfect sense now.

That was really nicely done and entertaining, Mlitsonata. Good job!

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:42 am
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osofine
Boot


Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 24

 		Very cool Mlitsonata! Wow, you only learned about ARG's a week before creating your own? Way to jump in!! I love the whole idea of historically-based ARG - as well as combining all of the genealogy sites that are online into an ARG! I can understand why it was so short - hopefully you will one day try for a longer one (though single-handedly pulling off an ARG always seems like a huge task to me! Now that you have joined the community, perhaps you will find other PM's to work with - this is certainly a nice little piece to have on your "resume"!).

Congrats, Disza! Very well played!! It's almost as if you got your own private ARG - of course it's to your credit that you solved it yourself without help! You have a great eye for detail and puzzles, and I loved you're conversations with the "ghost"!

I'm sorry that I did not investigate that add to my Twitter sooner (I had too much other stuff going on - I didn't even open the email informing me about the add to my Twitter until this morning, and it's already over! LOL!). Still, it was fun to read the FB and Twitter stuff, and then come here and read the wrap-up. Very informative, as well! (I don't think either of you need my appreciation, but I didn't want to ignore this!) Very cool! Very Happy

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 11:19 am
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