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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » GAME: Vanishing Point
[PUZZLE] Loki's Meta Puzzle Emails
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rowan
Unfictologist

Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 1966

 		[PUZZLE] Loki's Meta Puzzle Emails
While Freshness is writing up the last solve which saves me from being really snarky, I'll write up the last thing that we found last night.

I guess in the video (which I haven't had time to watch), a bit of text flashes up at the end. edit: I guess I misunderstood a bit.

When you solve all of the puzzles, you get a new video to watch. At the end of this video, some text flashes at the end. This bit of text says 'on the run' which leads us to this page: http://vanishingpointgame.com/on_the_run/

On the page it says this:
Quote:
Good, you're paying attention.

You've found something that very few others will…

This page is not part of the challenge to give away a trip into space….it's something different.

When I was hired to build the Vanishing Point, I realized it was an opportunity to build something personal that I've been trying to find a way to build for many years now, and that if players were smart enough to get through the puzzle suites, they might also be smart enough to help me with this.

So let's see if you can help. In return, I have one amazing bonus prize to give away.

If you are the first person in the world to help me find my own vanishing point, I will print your name on the actual casing of every AMD Athlon 64 FX computer chip manufactured between now and March 31, 2007.

When the time is right, I'll ask you a question. For now, follow this trail to get the word it leads to.


Contact me.


If you email lokiSPLATvanishingpointgame.com, you get an email back that says "Wait until the countdown reaches zero." So I'm not sure if that means for next week, or what particular countdown she's referring to.

edit: Split out all of the posts regarding the emails
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 2:46 am
Last edited by rowan on Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:09 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Sylvia
I Have No Life

Joined: 21 Apr 2006
Posts: 2062
rowan wrote:
If you email lokiSPLATvanishingpointgame.com, you get an email back that says "Wait until the countdown reaches zero." So I'm not sure if that means for next week, or what particular countdown she's referring to.


I just finished up and this is the reply that i got

Quote:
Life is a mix of work and play. You’ve found play…

~L


I left the strange characters but i think it is just says "You've found play."

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 3:48 am
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xmythx
Veteran

Joined: 04 Nov 2004
Posts: 102

 		it's good to be back home in ARGland. had tons of time tonight helping with the solves. can't wait for the next puzzle box.

also, i got "Life is a mix of work and play. You've found play...

~L"

no funky characters.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 4:10 am
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rose
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		Great work everyone.

Does anyone think we can find something meaningful about the META puzzle from the twelve answers we have? Many of them didn't seem to directly answer the actual question posed by the puzzle.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 7:57 am
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Ehsan
Entrenched

Joined: 09 May 2003
Posts: 992
rowan wrote:
If you email lokiSPLATvanishingpointgame.com, you get an email back that says "Wait until the countdown reaches zero." So I'm not sure if that means for next week, or what particular countdown she's referring to.


That response was quickly updated to: "Life is a mix of work and play. You've found play..."

Assuming play is vanishingpointgame.com, then work is microsoft.com

We found lokiSPLATvanishingpointgame.com, so shooting off an email to lokiSPLATmicrosoft.com gets you the next step:

Quote:
Hmmm. Not quite what I had in mind. Try harder - then listen closely.

~L


At least I think that's how it works... what does try harder mean though, another domain? Listen to what closely? We were following the instructions from on_the_run. Maybe listen to the video?

P.S. If you received other autoresponders, I'm pretty certain they are a mistake and out of game. Ignore them for now--we are looking into it.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:38 am
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SuperRob
Boot

Joined: 28 Dec 2006
Posts: 69
Location: Seattle, WA

 		I think it's pretty clear that the Meta Puzzle is the only ARG part of the game. The rest is just a sweepstakes, really. The Meta Puzzle is where the race is.

As for this first set of clues, the "getting warmer" message when you mail Loki at Microsoft suggests that you have the right place, but not necessarily the right e-mail address.

Loki gives clues as to who she really is in the congratulatory video. Hardly anyone at Microsoft has a "nickname" as an e-mail alias. Do we have enough clues to puzzle out what her real name is, then apply standard Microsoft naming conventions to find her e-mail address?

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 11:55 am
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990
Ehsan wrote:
We found lokiSPLATvanishingpointgame.com, so shooting off an email to lokiSPLATmicrosoft.com gets you the next step:

Quote:
Hmmm. Not quite what I had in mind. Try harder - then listen closely.

~L


At least I think that's how it works... what does try harder mean though, another domain? Listen to what closely? We were following the instructions from on_the_run. Maybe listen to the video?


In the video she says:
Quote:
I graduated with a quaduple major: Physics, Stage Arts, History, and Folklore. All in only two years, but my grades weren't that outstanding. I got a lot of calls from recruiters, but only once noticed that my GPA was exactly 3.1416. That's harder to arrange than you might think.


So that's one possible use of the hint to Try harder. So are we assuming that she was recruited by Microsoft? Could she be working somewhere else?

P.S. I've tried "harder@microsoft" and "harder@vanishingpointgame" and "pi@ms" & "pi@vpg" with no luck so far.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:27 pm
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ABPositive
Boot

Joined: 13 Dec 2006
Posts: 35

 		I tried loki with 42entertainment to see if she's a 42 person IG, but no avail. Even tried loki with their PR firm, heh.

anyone else?

edit: lokiSPLATamd.com is a no go as well.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:21 pm
Last edited by ABPositive on Tue Jan 09, 2007 1:49 pm; edited 1 time in total
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rowan
Unfictologist

Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 1966

 		So, to sum up what has been happening all day.

1. Last night, we tried lokiSPLATvanishingpointgame.com. We got a message saying*
Quote:
"Wait until the countdown reaches zero."


2. Sometime later, this auto-response changed. It now said:
Quote:
"Life is a mix of work and play. You've found play..."


3. We then decided to look for her work email and found lokiSPLATmicrosoft.com to be a valid email. When using this address, we received 3 emails back.

Two are from Loki. One will have the subject 'Getting Warmer'. The other will have the subject 'Out of office: <whatever>'. They both say:
Quote:
"Hmmm. Not quite what I had in mind. Try harder - then listen closely."


The third is from a gentleman at Microsoft by the name of Aaron that includes an Out of Office message saying he's at CES. So far, there has been no contact directly with Aaron. There still isnt a general consensus if this is in-game or just a mistake, so for now, I'm erring on the side of caution and not reprinting the entire email.


* - Emails have had the signatures removed to prevent people from accidently copying and pasting too much into chat.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:28 pm
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blackfeathers
Decorated

Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 268

 		five
5 clue
danteIL wrote:
Ehsan wrote:
We found lokiSPLATvanishingpointgame.com, so shooting off an email to lokiSPLATmicrosoft.com gets you the next step:

Quote:
Hmmm. Not quite what I had in mind. Try harder - then listen closely.

~L


At least I think that's how it works... what does try harder mean though, another domain? Listen to what closely? We were following the instructions from on_the_run. Maybe listen to the video?


In the video she says:
Quote:
I graduated with a quaduple major: Physics, Stage Arts, History, and Folklore. All in only two years, but my grades weren't that outstanding. I got a lot of calls from recruiters, but only once noticed that my GPA was exactly 3.1416. That's harder to arrange than you might think.


So that's one possible use of the hint to Try harder. So are we assuming that she was recruited by Microsoft? Could she be working somewhere else?

P.S. I've tried "harder@microsoft" and "harder@vanishingpointgame" and "pi@ms" & "pi@vpg" with no luck so far.



I mentioned this in chat but thought it be worth posting:

Physics, Stage, Arts, History, and Folklore. These are 5 majors, not 4. pi to 5 decimal places, the pre-game sound file 1234.mp3 next number is 5. rmailer5 in the email response, v-lokiSPLATmiscrosoft.com. Other themes at 5. It's a hint that 5 is our clue somehow. (edited to fix some typos)

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:41 pm
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rowan
Unfictologist

Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 1966

 		Re: five
5 clue
blackfeathers wrote:
Physics, Stage, Arts, History, and Folklore. These are 5 majors, not 4.
Then why wouldn't she say 'quintuple major'? Loki doesn't seem to be the type of person to use the wrong word, even if she was trying to fool us. She could have easily have said 'I graduated with multiple majors' if she wanted to see if we picked up on 'Stage Arts' vs 'Stage, Arts'.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 6:48 pm
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nobody
Greenhorn

Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 7

 		It's worth noting that nothing happens when emailing v-lokiSPLATmicrosoft.com. If the address were invalid we'd get a "Delivery Status Notification (Failure)". Perhaps a specific message has to be sent?

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:05 pm
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990

 		Re: five
5 clue
blackfeathers wrote:
Physics, Stage, Arts, History, and Folklore. These are 5 majors, not 4. pi to 5 decimal places, the pre-game sound file 1234.mp3 next number is 5. rmailer5 in the email response, v-lokiSPLATmiscrosoft.com. Other themes at 5. It's a hint that 5 is our clue somehow. (edited to fix some typos)


There is something called The Law of Fives, which states (I'm paraphrasing) that if you look hard enough *everything* comes in fives.

And she definitely says "quadruple" major, so although I could see making a case for 1) Physics, 2) Stage, 3) Art[s] History, and 4) Folklore... I can't see how one would get 1) Physics, 2) Stage, 3) Arts, 4) History, and 5) Folklore.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:10 pm
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nobody
Greenhorn

Joined: 09 Jan 2007
Posts: 7

 		Re: five
5 clue
blackfeathers wrote:

I mentioned this in chat but thought it be worth posting:

Physics, Stage, Arts, History, and Folklore. These are 5 majors, not 4. pi to 5 decimal places, the pre-game sound file 1234.mp3 next number is 5. rmailer5 in the email response, v-lokiSPLATmiscrosoft.com. Other themes at 5. It's a hint that 5 is our clue somehow. (edited to fix some typos)


Physics, Stage Arts, History, Folklore = 4
She's too smart to say it's a quadruple major and then list 5.

Also, I found an inconsistency... in the video she says 3.1416, but on the old Biography page (Google cache) it says 3.1415. Don't know if it's important.

PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:14 pm
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miss_seph
Unfettered


Joined: 05 Aug 2004
Posts: 395
Location: New Zealand

 		As yet another attempt to contact Loki, I've added the VanishingPoint gamertag (because in the first video she says "they can always search for the vanishing point tag...) to my xbox live friends list, and I didn't get anything to say they don't exist. They haven't played any games. Still waiting on friend acceptance. I only have a silver account so can't message until I get home to my 360, does anyone else feel like messaging that gamertag?
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:49 pm
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