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[thebruce]

DigitalPulse field reports

[madopal]

[FlyingMonkey]

Here's a re-post of my account of the Portland "experience."

Ahoy mates. Here's the lowdown on the Portland drop.

A group of us, including myself, Euchre, ouroboros and Trigger all met *very* early this morning in downtown Portland to prepare for the site launch. Once that happened and it was clear that we would be likely spending our day waiting for an afternoon delivery, we all converged on Backspace Cafe. There, we met up with sporkbot, Kid Atomic, nerves_end and a few others whose board names I can't remember.

For the next several hours, we regaled each other with tales of ARG's past and ingested copious amounts of caffeine. Oh, and we perfected the ritualistic pressing of the F5 key.

At 1pm, we decided that it was best to split up our group (that totaled at least 9 by this point), lest we keep all of our eggs in the proverbial basket. Euchre led a pilgrimage to Pioneer Courthouse Square and took with him a few others. I stayed behind with Kid Atomic, sporkbot and a great guy whose name I can't remember. Between our two groups, we had the majority of downtown Portland canvassed. Plus, we had another contact who was going to be on hand to stake out Portland State University area, so we were confident that we'd be able to get to the drop location in record time.

Then, 2pm came and we were proven wrong.

The drop location was NOT in downtown Portland. Instead, it was located across the river on the SE side. That's almost 15 minutes in traffic, and that's including the "bending" of more than a few traffic laws.

However, once I saw the drop address, I realized that it was a mere block and a half away from my office. That's right kids. Had I actually GONE INTO WORK, I would have been able to walk across the street and claim the prize. Oh fate, you fickle mistress.

As it happened, my boss WAS in the office and DID walk across the street. He nabbed the sticker and we were able to call in and claim the package by the time we arrived (in a record 13 minutes). Several more joined us and we all celebrated our victory.

So, yeah... that's the short version. I was actually the driver as sporkbot was calling in the drop code. So, you can say that our success was very much a team effort. Thanks to spork, Euchre and everyone else who joined us in this day of conquest. I don't have a complete list of board names, but I'm sure they will post in this thread.

Oh, and the voice on the other end of the phone asked for everyone's FlynnLives.com ID's. Not certain what that means, but hopefully we'll all be rewarded somehow for our efforts. The package itself will be divided up among the team, so everyone will get a bit of swag.

[elziard]

Philly experience.

having won Zero Hour and speaking with the "operative" i had a feeling we'd be returning to West Philly again for the DigitalPulse quest.
i coordinated with two other unfiction members SkekTek and Slightlychilled the possible locations and city-wide coverage. SkekTek got the drop and we worked together to solve the overlay of the book page with the instructions page.
the Dumont delivery girl returned to get SkekTek's signature.
since we were early (phase 3 of DigitalPulse), only small trickles of info were communicated on what to do with the materials before we headed out into the field (bruce, your photos helped).
once we got the drop call from the homebase, we met up with Slightlychilled and some others before heading over to the operative meet up at the Green Line Cafe. the Zero Hour meet up and drop were in less that 5 block radius of the DigitalPulse drop and meet up.

what i did like about the city-specific events were the real-world questing. i was excited to share the experience with other members in DigitalPulse as opposed to being the only member for Zero Hour.

i would've appreciated some more complexity/interactivity than what went down. specifically, broader range and cooperation with other FL members. with that said, what was presented in pieces/swag was very professional and fun to participate in.

[FSURobbie]

Atlanta Report:

I headed to Atlanta around 7 AM yesterday morning (it's about a 2.5 hour drive from where I live so I needed a head start) and got into the city right around 10. After milling about a bit I set up shop at the Varsity (Free wifi FTW!) and began tracking everything. The Varsity is pretty centrally located and I hoped it would put me close enough to have a shot at the package regardless of where it ended up. My hope was that ATL would go live at noon like it did with Zero Hour, but it didn't so I sat and waited.

When 1 PM hit and Atlanta went live I was already in the car with my Tron-loving Mom who wanted to tag along for the fun of it. I was driving and she was working the laptop so once we had the coordinates I took off like a rocket. All the while other ATL folks were texting me trying to help out, which was really awesome. Anyways, after some crazy driving we made it to the location and came to a complete stop in the middle of the street as my mom bailed to look for the sticker while I tried to find parking (always fun in ATL, especially at mid-day).

After a few near-wrecks I got parked and caught up to my mom who was on the phone with FL. As we were getting directions about the Dumont package Pyromedic and Wil9000 arrived. Seriously, if I had been by myself Pyro would have won the package hands down, that guy was fast because he was actually further away and was right on our heels.

Anyways, package arrived and Pyro and Wil worked on cracking the code while we headed to the second location. Once we got there Pyro and Wil solved the puzzle and I entered the code for Node 9. The gentleman from FL shook our hands and handed out the swag. The whole time the patrons at the coffee shop we were in were looking at us like we were crazy...it was awesome! Anyways, I kept the FL pin but gave Pyro and Wil the shirts along with some extra swag I had that I brought to share and we parted ways agreeing to meet up at the screening.

I had a great time and really can't thank Pyro and Wil enough for their help with the puzzle. I was trying to keep up with the operative on the phone so if I had been doing both (working the phone and puzzle cracking) it probably would have taken me forever...I was pretty frazzled at that point.

The ATL folks were all awesome and I had a great time yesterday, thanks so much to everyone, even those of you who could only provide online/text help (I'm looking at you Tsuyoi, BassZero, Lildivaaa and Takushi Reyna!).

Pictures:
My Pics: | Flynn Lives Pics

[eblkheart]

Denver here. This is a repost of mine from the other thread, but with something added at the end that I found interesting and frustrating, but could be bad for future ARG's. Anyways...here we go:)

Greets all...

Okay, here how it went down earlier today. First off I am stunned that I got this. Wowzers.

So I get to my usual scouting location, but finding out it wasn't for 1pm. Damn them. I wait. Drove around Lodo and came back to my scouting location and waited for my coords. I had my GPS ready...Coords come in from the net. Wait... what the hell? I'm already HERE? I get a phone call.. told me what the pic was. I look at the lamp post that she is describing... there it was. Claimed in less than 60 seconds... no kidding. Here's the map of where I was and where I was parked at:



And the friendly Dumont Shipping Company Employee:



After getting the package and the employee posing I got in my car and got another phone call. It was FL. At that time he told me to walk to this one place. Unfortunately, I'm partially disabled. I told him I would drive to the location and that threw him into a loop, but once I got there (a coffee shop), I had another fellow UFer with me (Slam). I get there, see a guy in a Flynn Lives TShirt with a laptop, I plop the package down and said HI

I hand him my phone per instructions and he nodded and gave me the phone back which the guy on the guy phone told me to open the book up and get the stuff out of it. After all of that, my partner and I proceeded to figure out the 7 digit code. After a minute or two the guy on the other end asked me what pages I had... I told him, but once I got done, my partner told me to try this one part of the page. I line it up and type it in. First try... It worked NICE. The guy on the phone tells me that what ever the FL rep gives me is mine to keep and we hang up. He hands me a FL pin and a FL Tshirt that I automatically gave to my partner since it was his idea that solve the puzzle.

After small chit chat, we were done waiting for the other cities to finish up

Btw, our pics were taken for 42 Entertainment... that should be interesting to see if that shows up on the website!

Addendum:

When I was told to go to a certain place after picking up the package, the guy on the phone said it where is was, telling me its right there. He gave me several descriptions. I still didn't see it. Last night, I looked on google maps and did street view. I saw then that the person who I was talking to was a looking at a google maps image of the location. The OLD location of the said coffee shop. The descriptions he gave me matched the old location perfectly, but no dice. The business had moved. Thankfully there was a person that overheard me pointed to the direction of the other location and I was able to head to the newer location which was on the other side of the street, somewhat hidden away. I think that 42 Entertainment needs to scout it out locations a bit better so there's no confusion, like there was yesterday in which I wasted 5 minutes. Just something that needs to be brought up since 42 entertainment does read this site... a lot

However, I did have fun yesterday. And that's what counted.

[Broklynite]

New York here. I don't know if you really wanna hear it.

[thebruce]

It's up to you, but I'd like to get some accounts of the events for each city, as I said good and bad (but clean!)
Links to reports are fine too

[IllusionOfLife]

I wasn't the winner, but I was close, so I'll go ahead and give my account of the SLC drop:

I'm currently attending Snow College in Ephraim (about two hours south of Salt Lake) and when I saw that Salt Lake was going to be one of the cities I had to decide whether I wanted to make the drive for this or not. So after an internal dilemma that lasted a minute or two, I decided I was too much of a nerd to pass this up so I drove two hours up to Salt Lake to join in the hunt.

I camped out at the Salt Lake City Library waiting for the website to update with the coordinates for the SLC drop, and during that time Command-R became more of a nervous twitch than anything else, and at about 1 PM the location was finally posted: roughly 3 blocks away from where I was. So I packed up my computer and booked it, unfortunately in the wrong direction at first, so after a quick turn around I was headed the right direction.

I made it to the location about a minute behind a pair of other guys (it was close enough that I probably could have been first had I not gotten my directions wrong). They called the number on the sticker and a guy from Dumont shipping showed up to deliver a package.

After about a minute, Flynn Lives called the guy back and asked for the user names of both myself and derez1989, who showed up shortly after me, then asked us to meet another representative in a nearby coffee shop. There the guy who got there first was given the Flynn Lives T-shirt, the pin, and allowed to enter a code from the book into the website to unlock part of the next puzzle.

I'm a little bit disappointed that I missed getting there first, but it was still a fun time, and I'm glad I went. I'm glad I made the trip up North, it was fun, and I'm very curious about them asking for our usernames. Consolation prize, maybe?

Here's some pictures from the event:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=47988&id=100000470523764

[Broklynite]

New York was...well, we had problems long before the day. For such a large city, almost nobody was able to schedule to meet up. Even aside from us having jobs/classes, we simply did not have the numbers. Then there were issues in finding a placing, identifying one another, etc.

We settled on the Cosi (a coffee shop, kinda like Starbucks, but nicer) at Union Square, right across from the Forbidden Planet. Corner of 13th street and...university place? Broadway? Whatever. Seemed like a good spot.

I arrived first, followed by Toadman, and a little later by Samkate. Samkate had brought a netbook, where we all peered over. Literally 11 seconds before 11:00, JohnVision showed up. We sat, gaped at the coordinated, and Stevedk called me. He began to look up the coordinates while we all packed up. John had come on a bike, and decided to go ahead so that he could scout the spot out. Unfortunately, our first address found was in the wrong direction (7 east 14th street), and we had no way of contacting him. By the time the rest of us left and began to walk, Steve had found the right address (6th ave and 12th street).

It was perhaps a ten minute walk. Steve had foudn that it was a phone booth in front of a food emporium. When we were across the street, there were two huge delivery trucks in front, which blocked the front of the entire building. We crossed, turned the corner, and would you believe it, every single one of us walked right past the phone booth without seeing it? Phone booths in New York are rarely right on the corner, so we weren't looking for it. And the delivery trucks blocked our view so we didn't see it. I saw the guy with the camera (I'm an idiot of course- it was the empty phone booth) and asked him if he was from Flynn Lives. He smiled and said "Maybe." We kept walking for another moment. We realized what had happened and turned around. We started back, only to have some d.....ude on a bike scoot right in front of us and grab the phone and dial the number.

So, we all felt really stupid for what happened, but were all excited and congradulated the guy. We were all really happy and waiting to see what happened next. Meanwhile, the guy with the camera keeps trying to get reactions shots out of the d....ude, who only kept giving everyone a blank, wide-eyed stare. When asked who he was on the forums, he responded "Yea, I'm on the forums." We asked what the instructions were, and were told that a package was being delivered.

Dumont shipping. That was funny. He opened it up and looked at the Flynn book, as if he had never seen a book before in his life. Think of the monkeys at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Anyway, he got a phone call, seemed to be from Flynn Lives, hopped on his bike and rode away, without saying a word. So far as we knew, the game would continue, there were more parts, more puzzles, more steps, and we had been told nothing.

I'm sorry if I sound angry or bitter. I don't give a damn about the prize. I have pins and t-shirts. I don't care about the guy obviously not being a member of the forum- the game is open to everyone. What upset me, and everyone else, was being shut out of what happened, or even of what might have happened.

More stunned than upset, we made our way back to the Cosi where we had all met, for lack of anything better to do. While the happened, I understand that something of a wildfire rage began to rush through the boards. We sat and drank coffee and watched the netbook for more news. As the day progressed, What0080 arrived, as well as the girlfriend of some board member who couldn't make it. After a while the d...ude and his friend arrived, offered to let us look at the pin and book, then left. One by one others left too. Around 4:30, stevedk arrived, followed about an hour later by johnvision.

By this point, the original 3 of us, toadman, samkate and I were all a touch punchy, I think. We had been pretty much sitting in the coffee shop for about 8 hours by the end of the evening. At least I have to reccomend this for the future- the staff there were very nice, and never once the whole day did they even insinuate one word that we were not welcome to stay as long as we wished. So, thanks go out to the lovely, professional staff at Cosi.

The five of us shared a pizza as we waited counting the minutes. Finally came the puzzle, the pulse. When it finally came up, samkate's netbook was so slow, the tunnel video (which I had just been making jokes before we saw it that we would get dragging behind the TARDIS through a wormhole) took a good solid 5 minutes or so to run through.

I laughed my ass off at the video. SOmething I was good for, for once. Others had had all these resources. But I am an old, old hand at Mastermind, and recognized it instantly. I love the game, and we were only slowed by how taxing the site was on the netbook's resources. Nonetheless, within a couple minutes, we were through. Then onto the beeper puzzle, calling the number, etc.

It was...not the big cathartic insane release I had expected after a year of work. But it was all over. I met a bunch of nice people that I'd like to hang out with again, and some people I would rather not so much.

If anyone who was in New York want's to comment, or thinks I left anything significant out, please let me know, or say so- I tried to condense this a touch.

[stevedk]

NY

[stevedk]

ny

[Broklynite]

Re: ny

[stevedk]

ny

[stinji]

Im in LA.
I finished up work at 7:30 then found a coffee house to wait at in Torrance (where I was working at).
Saw the first to cities come up and since it wasnt LA and after talking with a buddy Eolith, I decided to drive closer to LA. I knew there were guys from LAflynnlives on the other side of the city and in downtown. So I parked it in a parking lot near USC. After the next two cities were announced we figured they were going from east to west and the LA was going to be in the last four cities. So I went home, picked up my daughter, then headed back to the same spot. Where i waited. When the La location was announced, it was only 10 miles from where I was. I took off and was making great time. My friend Eolith was tweeting updates. I was about 1.5 miles away when I got stuck in traffic because of an accident. I sat there in traffic. and sat, and sat and sat. Then the announcement came through that it had gotten picked up. I heard that they were taking down log ins and I tried to get there, but when I arrived the FL people were gone. UGH.. so close. I tried sooo hard. It was fun. And I have to give Eolith huge kudos for keeping me updated on the progress, as my laptop battery died halfway through.

If 42E is reading this my FL name is darthstinji and I would be eternally grateful if you added my name to your list, should it count for anything!