unforum

[catherwood]

I'm just now catching up and discovering this site. I am told by people in IRC that there is a way to get past the home page and into a "forums" where these other URLs are being posted. I have not gotten that far yet -- i'm told that you can enter the word 'porter' in the newsletter box rather than an email address -- but I would caution you to be skeptical of things posted to a forum, whether or not the site itself is ingame.

the EMRI.perception link mentioned above has been a fan-made site since December, and has always been treated as OutOfGame. If a fan posted that to a forum (or a blog comment), that doesn't make it in-game.

Now, give me some more time to catch up. This could be fun, if it weren't so much work at the end of a long day!

(returned to add) OK, i am now told that those are not real forums, you cannot post to them. So, why would they have a record of a secret forum, which uses this other website? I feel I'm being jerked around, whether by Verizon or ABC or fans. This will take some time to absorb.

[ziot]

If it is ingame, the characters are playing those links as 'found through google', e.g. out of game.

It is kind of dumb that they would link a bunch of sites that are meaningless.

[theShaggy]

They're blurring the lines. They're saying "Where is the reality?" They're acknowledging the presence of LOST, they're acknowledging the real world, and now giving us a reason why Verizon would be involved with Hanso.

Isn't that the point of an ARG? They're using real-world things into their game to make it seem as if it's actually existing.

Cather, check out the site. We're being given other characters who are involved in Verizon (or some other company) which is being subjugated by Hanso. Since they're communicating over a forum over the web, they put up the Yellow Dog front site so that they aren't immediately caught.

My thought it that one of them is possibly Persephone herself.

[danteIL]

Okay after reading through the ROT stuff, here is my quick off-the-cuff assessment. While I appreciate catherwood's caution, above, I am leaning toward accepting this as a legit in-game site.

A short synopsis: you go to www.retrieversoftruth.com, enter "porter" into the email box (I don't know whether you need to enter your email first; that's what fake/useless email accounts are for), and are taken to a secret mirror site of ROT with the header "subjugated by Hanso".

My impression is that this is Verizon's way of becoming 'in-game' -- in the guise of a secret cabal of Verizon employees who somehow find out that Verizon is working with Hanso on some secret and shady projects. These employees set up a hidden message board, led by "DSLerator" who seems to be the one most fearful/wary of Hanso. In fact, 'DSL' could be the opposing hacker we've spec'ed about. Anyway, they talk about passwords and stuff and throw in a couple of useless links to OOG sites -- just like we do on this board. I think the emri link is just meant to be taken as "huh, look at this weird thing," not as a major clue and certainly not as a reason to discount this entire site altogether.

I agree that it would be nice to see for ourselves the actual Hanso commercial that led to ROT in the first place (youtube tomorrow, anyone?) but for now I'm willing to go with it, if only because it adds a new layer to this ARG.

[kaiedee]

[matt_the_pale]

My thoughts, speculations.

In game speculation:

[catherwood]

Alright, I will apologize for venting my frustrations. Remember, sometimes I can be a calm, detached, wise moderator; and other times I am a frantic, frazzled player. When I approach these discoveries as a player, my personal comfort zone ends where the line gets blurry between game and reality. I like knowing where the boundaries are, mainly so I don't waste my time on fake sites. If the good guys make it hard to distinguish their stuff, it makes more work for me to play along -- and I'm just that lazy.

Allow me to quote from tonight's blog entry by Speaker on his official ABC soapbox:

[Rydergirl]

I believe that our Verizon friends know more about Persephone than we do, although I do not think they are the source of the "We know who you are" stuff that we have recently seen.

In the second thread of on the forum off the ROT site one of the poster writes

I believe there is a Japanese mouse in this building. The kind that's been through the maze so many times, it lost track of its original purpose. And now instead of working of the greater good of humanity, the experiment has turned on itself and the Laws of Nature have been torn to shreds...

It has long been speculated that the lady in the intro is Persephone, and that same woman appears on the lycgy site. So Perhaps she is this mouse who has gone astray.

I think we will find in the next few weeks that although Hanso et. al. are bad and will stay bad, it will be hard to understand who is "good." I do not think we can trust any of our sources- nor can we write them off. This includes Persephone, the other phantom hacker, DJ Dan, and the ROT. (I think the jury is still out on Speaker, I find his information dubious at best.)

Stephanie

[Strings]

[Gus Raja]

[Gus Raja]

[Gus Raja]

[tmerch]

Did everyone take note of the post on the 1st (bottom) topic that reads:

[Gus Raja]

Check out the other pictures on the main page...



Notice the yellow rays surrounding the image of the lab. As you may recall, one of the techniques we tried to tweak the hole2 image was to do something that turned it into a central image (like an elephant trunk) surrounded by rays. Is there a way to reverse that process on this image.

On the next image...



What's the gray stuff on the dog's face? And why is the background in graytones?

[matt_the_pale]