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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Urban Hunt » Urban Hunt: Interaction
[EMAIL] To ActionSquad
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dishboy
Unfettered


Joined: 02 Sep 2003
Posts: 399
Location: Atlanta

 		[EMAIL] To ActionSquad
Before you say it: yes, we know (or suspect) AS is out-of-game...

Anyways, me and owler were talking on #uh and she had suggested we could perhaps get ActionSquad's opinion on what we're seeing regarding CMH.

For Tien_Le's benefit, here's the summary. Basically asked these 4 questions:

1. Do they have any other pictures of CMH not on their site?
2. Do they recognize any of the pics from Charles' site?
3. Do they have any advice on gaining access to parts of CMH?
4. Would they be interested in joining us for another urban exploration trip, if we decided that we needed to do something more comprehensive?


Full text follows...

Quote:

Hello there,

My name is Shaun and I stumbled across your site (which is very
englightening, by the way) through my participation in something known
as an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). These are not easy to explain, but
the general idea is that a group of people uncover a story/plot which is
usually revealed incrementally via a series of websites, with pieces
being revealed over time as puzzles/challenges are completed by
players. A better description of what ARG is can be found here:

http://www.unfiction.com/history/

Anyways, on to the purpose of this email. A prominent focus of the plot
for our game is the Cambridge Mental Hospital. Several of the websites
which are part of our game are devoted to the hospital in one way or
another, combining real information from the hospital's history with
fictional information which has been generated to fuel the game
storyline. One thing we as players are doing is collecting as much
information as possible about the hospital - this is how we stumbled
across your site and your exploits there. We were just curious about a
few things:

1. You list some pictures on your site - is there any chance that you
have other pictures which are not directly listed there, which we might
be able to see in one form or another?

2. There are supposed "pictures" of the hospital listed at this site:

http://www.cambridgementalhospital.com/pictures.html
http://www.cambridgementalhospital.com/pictures2.html

(note: this is a "fake" site, and is part of the game - though much of
the information on the site may be true, it was created purely as part
of this game)

From what you saw when you visited, do any of these pictures look
familiar or legitimate? As you may know, many of the hospital's
buildings have been torn down since your visit. It's quite possible
that these pictures here are fakes, taken from other sites, but said to
be from the hospital just to make this game website seem more "real".
We were just curious if anything caught your eye.

3. It is possible that one of our tasks as part of this game will be to
gain access to one/more of the buildings, or the tunnel system, as you
have already done. We are not yet sure if it will come to this, but we
must leave it as an avenue to consider - these games have been known to
be pretty interactive. Anyways, we were wondering - do you have any
tips or suggestions about how to go about it, from what you've learned?

4. Any chance that any of your squad might be interested in a return
trip if we decided we were going to do some more serious urban
exploration? I've only made one trip so far, and it was reconnaissance,
essentially - during the day, just scoping out the scene. But I just
thought you might be interested to know if we plan to pull off a similar
trip.


OK, I think that's it for now - sorry to send you such a hefty email!
Thanks for any help you can provide...


-- Shaun

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-- dishboy

PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:44 am
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phammond
Boot

Joined: 31 Jul 2004
Posts: 14
Location: Germany

 		Doesn't that email kind of spoil it? I mean, come on, you aren't supposed to go "Oh, this is a game, let's think of it like it's a game" you're supposed to think of it as if it isn't, when contacting people for info/clues.

It's too late, if you've already sent, but that's my opinion on that.
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P. Hammond

PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:51 am
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dishboy
Unfettered


Joined: 02 Sep 2003
Posts: 399
Location: Atlanta
phammond wrote:
Doesn't that email kind of spoil it? I mean, come on, you aren't supposed to go "Oh, this is a game, let's think of it like it's a game" you're supposed to think of it as if it isn't, when contacting people for info/clues.

It's too late, if you've already sent, but that's my opinion on that.



I chose to go that route for two reasons:

1. According to our conclusions, AS is out-of-game, which means I'm going to converse with them out-of-game. If they were in-game, of course it would be an immersed conversation. Kind of like if my neighbor had information about the hospital - I wouldn't go over to him and pretend that he was some character, I would just say "hey, I'm playing this game, and since you know about CMH, could you tell me xyz?"

2. I asked some very bizarre questions. I felt the best way to maximize the chance that we might actually get a response would be to explain the situation. I think if I just posed as some guy wanting to know all this stuff it might come across as much more off-the-wall...
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 2:56 am
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phammond
Boot

Joined: 31 Jul 2004
Posts: 14
Location: Germany

 		Well, that's the name of the "game" though, isn't it? That it isn't a game. It's your decision, don't get me wrong, but the whole idea is to ignore the fact it's not real and treat it like it is. Otherwise you're denying the immersion, which is the entire point of it all.
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P. Hammond

PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:11 am
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RobMagus
Unfettered


Joined: 17 Jul 2004
Posts: 469
Location: Vancouver, BC

 		I'm not sure that immersion is the point of it all...

but this is a discussion for a meta thread.
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Of course! That's the only possible explanation!

PostPosted: Wed Aug 04, 2004 3:27 am
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spaceboy
Unfettered


Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 475
Location: Cambridge Mental Hospital

 		Well, I've more or less confirmed that AS is out of game. I sent this email.
> Hello. I was browsing your site recently when I
> stumbled across your
> account of exploring the steam tunnels beneath
> Cambridge Mental Hospital. I
> was just wondering if you had heard anything about
> the rumors of a reality
> show called Dread House being filmed there.
> Supposedly most of the people
> involved either died or disappeared during filming.
> Please reply.
>
> sean

And got this in reply
Quote:
Never heard of it ... ?

Sounds interesting though.

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The stars never feel anger
Blah, blah, blah, the end.

PostPosted: Fri Aug 06, 2004 6:21 pm
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