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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: General » Old News & Rumors
[ARG?] Mantel Global Industries (Related to Haze)
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Xin
Boot


Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 55
Location: Bama

[ARG?] Mantel Global Industries (Related to Haze)
Mysterious company website for new PS3/PC game Haze

I really hope no one has posted about this yet, and if they have, just go ahead and close this.

Anyway, I found this site today: http://www.mantelglobalindustries.com/

It is linked from the main Haze website ([url]Hazegame.com[/url]), and is found in the lower corner, similar to how the Heroes ARG website was found. There is a video from the CEO of the company on the website as well as a load of information about Mantel, very similar to the Hanso Foundation back from The Lost Experience. Certain descriptions have random words underlined that most likely lead somewhere new, such as HERE, where world and places are underlined.

There are also several links that are inaccessible as of now giving only a "Restricted Area Authorized Personnel Only" sign, like here: http://www.mantelglobalindustries.com/us/products.html.

I believe the site was revealed in late April or early May, so if it has already been looked at, then I'm sorry for the post, but I couldn't find any other topics with search. Hope this turns out to be an ARG. Smile

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 1:45 pm
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Perko
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Joined: 16 May 2003
Posts: 103
Location: Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

Interesting. There is also a link to a /UK version of the Mantel website from the Wikipedia Haze page. I think it's identical to the /US version. The video game seems fairly upscale and shipping end of the year, so timing to promote is about right.

The Mantel site is *very* reminiscent of Hanso. I went over it for quite some time, without really paying attention to the text, and couldn't find any obvious signs of interactivity (e.g. logins, links, pleas for help, indications of corporate improprieties / conspiracies, etc.). There is a mailing address link under Citizenship -> Human Rights for submitting proposals for world-changing projects:
MantelHelpForChange.submissionSPLATmantelglobalnet.com

So I guess we could try spamming that to see if anything turns up.
(EDIT: E-mail bounced, http://www.mantelglobalnet.com doesn't exist.)

Other than that, the underlined words are pretty suspicious in that they're out of place, and appear only in the "activities" section. I made a list of them, which doesn't reveal anything blatantly obvious to me:

industry, passenger, laboratory, plane, better, most, electronic, division, latest, needs, means, agents, remote, as, specially, on, life, ever, world, places. 20 words. The first letters could be important, the letter distribution seems pretty natural, perhaps an anagram?

FWIW, I've noticed several a fair number of spelling errors on the site, but I think they're honest mistakes, not any sort of info.

Other than that, several sub-pages are protected with a message "RESTRICTED AREA AUHORIZED PERSONNAL ONLY". Yes, two typos in that graphic's text alone!

Seems like a lot of effort to go to for an unnecessary page to help promote what is after all a shooter, i.e. not considered a very cerebral genre. So there could be something to it. On the other hand, it's a bit sloppy, and the videos are pretty cheesy, so it doesn't exactly scream "polish" either.
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Perko

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:00 pm
Last edited by Perko on Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:02 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Xin
Boot


Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 55
Location: Bama

I've noticed the spelling mistakes as well, and some seem too obvious to be accidents, while some seem unimportant. The video is rather cheesy, but you can't tell me that the video in TLE were any less cheesy Smile I was going to email them as well, and at least try and get some response, but as you've noted, that email doesn't work. Trying MantelHelpForChange.submissionSPLATmantelglobalindustries.com may work though.

EDIT: This email doesn't work either.

After going through basically everything on the site, it screams viral campaign and possibly ARG, but it has been around for a month already with no visible updates. I'm going to try to dig into everything on the site, as there may be a login (like Hanso) to access the other pages. I don't see why they'd go to any trouble if they were just going to let the site sit there.

Oh well, off to see what Adjutant Reflex is doing until I can figure something else out on this Very Happy .

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:35 pm
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JohnnyCon7
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Joined: 30 Oct 2006
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Location: Boston, MA

Since noone mentioned it, if you look in the source you get a META description, and keywords.

Quote:
META name="description" content="The year 2025, life is sweet for the private army of Mantel Global Industries - dominant on the battlefield thanks to the company providing them with the best armour, the best vehicles, the best weapons, and the best medical support. On top of all that, they've got Nectar - a nutrition supplement that allows soldiers to push their bodies to the limit. Or so they think…"

META name="keywords" content="Haze, Mantel, Global, Industries, david, bloomfield, game, fps, corporation, high tech, nectar, combat enhancer, manipulation, power, Xbox 360, X360, Ps3, PC, international, 2007, September, money, finance, avionics, health, Free Radical Design, MTL network, military, arms, global systems, financial solutions, peace, solar energy, transparency, integrity, responsibility, profitability, fight, weapons, equipments, wall street, stock exchange, vehicles, rebels, south America, Merino, skincoat, promised, hand, morgan, duvall, jake, carpenter, drugs, weapon, jungle, copper plant, jeep, lie, traitor, redemption, squads, abilities, map, level, francis peshy, Adrian teare"


There's some interesting keywords, including"2007, September" which, I think, is the planned release date.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:42 pm
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catherwood-offline
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the website's domain reg'stry says it is owned by UbiSoft Entertainment headquartered in France.

the IP address for the website is hosted on a server block in Montreal, Canada, owned by ubisoft entertainment.

it's official, whatever it is for.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:47 pm
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Xin
Boot


Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 55
Location: Bama

JohnnyCon7 wrote:
Since noone mentioned it, if you look in the source you get a META description, and keywords.

Quote:
META name="description" content="The year 2025, life is sweet for the private army of Mantel Global Industries - dominant on the battlefield thanks to the company providing them with the best armour, the best vehicles, the best weapons, and the best medical support. On top of all that, they've got Nectar - a nutrition supplement that allows soldiers to push their bodies to the limit. Or so they think…"

META name="keywords" content="Haze, Mantel, Global, Industries, david, bloomfield, game, fps, corporation, high tech, nectar, combat enhancer, manipulation, power, Xbox 360, X360, Ps3, PC, international, 2007, September, money, finance, avionics, health, Free Radical Design, MTL network, military, arms, global systems, financial solutions, peace, solar energy, transparency, integrity, responsibility, profitability, fight, weapons, equipments, wall street, stock exchange, vehicles, rebels, south America, Merino, skincoat, promised, hand, morgan, duvall, jake, carpenter, drugs, weapon, jungle, copper plant, jeep, lie, traitor, redemption, squads, abilities, map, level, francis peshy, Adrian teare"


There's some interesting keywords, including"2007, September" which, I think, is the planned release date.


Yep, the developers are saying "End of 2007" in the new vidoc's on IGN.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 6:50 pm
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Perko
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Joined: 16 May 2003
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Location: Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA

The site was spotted & reported on as early as April 19th by Kotaku, a gaming news website:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/mantel-global-industries/another-ubi-guerilla-site-pops-up-253841.php

Given that it's nearly two months later it would seem there's nothing much there to be found. It's still possible it'll get updated & "go live" at a later date, of course. But for now I'd most likely say "nothing to see here, move along"
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Perko

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:25 pm
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Xin
Boot


Joined: 24 Apr 2007
Posts: 55
Location: Bama

Perko wrote:
The site was spotted & reported on as early as April 19th by Kotaku, a gaming news website:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/mantel-global-industries/another-ubi-guerilla-site-pops-up-253841.php

Given that it's nearly two months later it would seem there's nothing much there to be found. It's still possible it'll get updated & "go live" at a later date, of course. But for now I'd most likely say "nothing to see here, move along"


I'll agree with you...for now. But I say keep checking occasionally to see if anything significant happens, because Haze could have a very interesting story.

PostPosted: Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:50 pm
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Typhyn
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Apparently emails have been sent out asking people if they's like to join the mantel military... http://www.mantelglobalindustries.com/uk/jobappli.html...

PostPosted: Wed Aug 01, 2007 9:31 am
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