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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Perplex City » PXC: Project Syzygy Pre-Game
[PUZZLE] [SOLVED] Dinah's print-out
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RobPal
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Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 68
Location: Norwich, UK

 		Spec
With all these postcards, emails and other physical evidence we are accruing, has anyone thought to run them under ultra violet light to look for any hidden messages?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:10 pm
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spaceXplorer
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Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 178
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 		So would it be fair to assume that the names on the PCA logo are that of all of the previous Masters? (I say previous, as 'Kiteway' is absent)
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:26 pm
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Mornington
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Joined: 11 Mar 2003
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 		Sente's ARG: spec?
maxim wrote:
Well, I think you could say they are using those techniques to pass the info to us.


They are using those techniques to LEAK information to us in a PURPOSEFULY obscured way that seems FUN to us. Including using clues etc, while recurssively letting us know that they are doing that. This makes perfect sense if we consider that they live in place called "perplexcity" and puzzles may be a way of communicating or polite behavior. They have often talked about conciously altering information, not to hide from us, but to amuse/puzzle us. They might be testing us, but this may actually be either their way of "doing business" or their observation of OUR way of doing business.

What I'm saying, is that they are creating a game for us. An ARG basically and they are doing it on purpose and OPENLY. Their motives for not being more direct are the only thing in question and since they are being upfront about it, the goal is not really obfuscation.

From their last set of emails they don't seem to think it's weird that they are purposefully setting up clues for us and trying to keep us interested. They even use ARG terminology like "behind the curtain" etc. This CAN'T be coincidence. I don't think the Beast and ilovebees were this meta or "self aware" of the game that was being played (except in certain places like the hackers in The Beast).

The name Perplexcity is not mere whimsy, but seems to be appropriately named.

Now maybe when they feel they have our attention, things might get more "serious" but ... who knows? Just some spec.

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:44 pm
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maxim
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Joined: 18 Feb 2005
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 		It's an interesting thought... adds a new 'dimension' to the whole thing, you might say. I think the way PPC.com has been made (a photo of a letter, other images, etc...) adds to the idea that it is purposefully stylised and not as other games have had imitation hacked sites, etc.

On the other hand, I think it is plausible that (thinking in-game now) Sente has decided to use this approach ensure that only dedicated followers get the full story and hence side with him, therefore increasing his chances of retrieving his precious cube. Imagine if he had instead had an advert stating the location of the cube immediately. He couldn't have expected it to be returned then, could he? So instead, he is building up a team of searchers, who will grow loyal to him and to trust him. After all, it is he that is providing the information to us.

I guess it's a matter of time until we find out how the game will work.
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 2:52 pm
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thebruce
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Joined: 16 Aug 2004
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 		Re: Sente's ARG: spec?
Mornington wrote:
What I'm saying, is that they are creating a game for us. An ARG basically and they are doing it on purpose and OPENLY. Their motives for not being more direct are the only thing in question and since they are being upfront about it, the goal is not really obfuscation.

From their last set of emails they don't seem to think it's weird that they are purposefully setting up clues for us and trying to keep us interested. They even use ARG terminology like "behind the curtain" etc. This CAN'T be coincidence.


I'm still not confident the phrase in the video is "the other side of the curtain" - it still sounds more like 'curve' (one syllable) to me, which fits with the multiple world idea.
And at this point, given the info we have, it appears as though they are making a kind of 'ARG' in their own terms for us, but we still have no motive (or lack thereof) for their actions; just that they are providing us mysteries and puzzles. The question still remains - why?

IMO, nothing here yet has been OOG, meta, or 'behind the curtain'... everything can still be explained in an in-game fashion.
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:05 pm
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WolverineFan
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Joined: 30 Dec 2004
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 		Yet another formatting
I know this is the 5th or 6th post of the reformatted text, but it took me 20 minutes so I'm posting anyway Very Happy


Spoiler (Rollover to View):

As far as we can now tell The Academy was founded in around five seven three BC. Certainly it can be shown to exist by the year five seven one BC when we learn from the journal of Degabus of Malme that an groupe of scholars have late taken residence in the city:

Purposeing here to study both the antient and the modern mysteries, they have for a year or more taken rooms with Mrs Feon of Kingdom street who complains mightily of the noxious stink emanating from their alchymical experimentations, but I hear they have in mind to remove to the cellars late of Mr Beston, brewer, so recently passed away.

Academy scholars will naturally be familiar with the Beston rooms. These are unlikely to be the original cellars once occupied by that scholarly fellowship, but do seem to be in roughly the right location.

Later the same year, Degabus notes a behaviour pattern that might be familiar to the more junior members of the academy:

Today the scholares of Beston cellars may rightly be called the natural inheritors of those brewing rooms. For I observed this night in Thilke market as I returned home after dining with Mr Shaarten, a supposed scholar whom I identified by his cap, drunken and reeling in the street.

I made as to pass by him swiftly, but he being jovial in his cups, called out:

"Hi sir, would you pass by a scholar without raising your arm?"

Quoth I: "I see no scholar here sir, unless it be a scholar of the sweetened sleep."

Quoth he: "Sir, think you that viti culture is no subject for study?"

Quoth I: "Sir, I do not call your pursuit study. For the more you study in this fashion, the duller your mind becomes. I think I may consider myself the match in wit for any scholar, called by some academicians."

Despite the continuing disapproval of the townsfolk, The Academy remained. It grew in size, taking on additional rooms in the area of those original Beston cellars and offering a tuition service to the sons and daughters of wealthy townsfolk as a way of funding its continuing research.

No scholars of note were yet resident in The Academy although Varkin writes that she passed through on her way north and comments that she enjoyed an excellent dinner:

"Though the tables of this Academy be fine indeed, the discourse of its scholars is finer yet."

The Academy's first significant expansion came in four five two BC with a gift from Naskent Taversen. Taversen, one of the city's wealthiest and most influential landowners had been fascinated by the studies of The Academy. He had sent his only daughter Aetiant to be educated by the scholars, and is known to have observed some of Macelvoy's early experiments with static electricity.

Aetiant Taversen became a scholar at The Academy and apparently negotiated with her father the substantial gift he gave the institution in his last years.

Taversen gifted his house along with various surrounding pieces of property to The Academy in perpetuity. With this bequest, The Academy was able to shore up its financial situation, which until then had been uncertain at best.

The patronage of Naskent Taversen also brought The Academy to the attention of many other wealthy and important people across the country. When in four four three BC, Aetiant Taversen was elected by the other fellows of The Academy to become its first master, she was able to preside over an unprecedented period of growth and success, in which for the first time The Academy was able to select its pupils.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:16 pm
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WhiteGulls
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Joined: 08 Aug 2004
Posts: 331
Location: Portland

 		Re: Sente's ARG: spec?
thebruce wrote:
Mornington wrote:
What I'm saying, is that they are creating a game for us. An ARG basically and they are doing it on purpose and OPENLY. Their motives for not being more direct are the only thing in question and since they are being upfront about it, the goal is not really obfuscation.

From their last set of emails they don't seem to think it's weird that they are purposefully setting up clues for us and trying to keep us interested. They even use ARG terminology like "behind the curtain" etc. This CAN'T be coincidence.


I'm still not confident the phrase in the video is "the other side of the curtain" - it still sounds more like 'curve' (one syllable) to me, which fits with the multiple world idea.
And at this point, given the info we have, it appears as though they are making a kind of 'ARG' in their own terms for us, but we still have no motive (or lack thereof) for their actions; just that they are providing us mysteries and puzzles. The question still remains - why?

IMO, nothing here yet has been OOG, meta, or 'behind the curtain'... everything can still be explained in an in-game fashion.


Okay, think of it this way. They're from another... place. Behind the curve, curtain, whatever. But from what we've gathered, they've known about us for a while. We just havn't known about them. They look like us, or at least have recruited some of us (Dinah), so they can, obviously, blend in. The problem is this: An object of massive importance (think the Declaration of Independence for the US) has been stolen from under their noses. They know it's been brought over here, or at least they think it has been. They want to launch a full scale man-hunt for the theifs. But... something's stopping them. They launch a man-hunt, they'll be revealing themselfs to the entire world. They can't do that. Or, maybe, their transportation device would make it really hard to do that. So, they have to recruit us to do their dirty work for them. They feel they can trust us to a point, as seen by the IRL meeting with Dinah. So I think that's motive enough for them to be creating this "ARG" as they go. They don't have time to stop and think. They need to be working - and working FAST. They WANT this cube back, and they're just starting to train us to help get it back. Trouble is, they're having to figure out HOW to train us. So, we have the video - trying to get info to us. The emails. That they're ready for our help. All of that fun stuff. Motive, indeed.
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:18 pm
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thebruce
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Joined: 16 Aug 2004
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 		ok, I phrased that wrong. I didn't mean there was no motive, I was just emphasizing the point that I don't see anything yet that appears to point to them bending any known arg rules, or something like that. I know the motivation for them being mysterious and covert, and everything you said above, and I'm totally on board with that. Very good summary of PPC to date, BTW Smile

Just trying to show how everything is still totally ARGish, and there hasn't been any cross from the ARG-world to the real-world (if that makes sense). Everything can be explain in-game.

Maybe I don't have a point, I dunno Smile it just came up because 'behind the curtain' was referenced to support the idea that they may somehow be doing something in-character, knowing how we like to play ARGs (thus crossing the line from in-game to meta)

did I make sense this time? Wink
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:25 pm
Last edited by thebruce on Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:27 pm; edited 1 time in total
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<PSH>
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Joined: 28 Aug 2004
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 		If that is the case and i think it is, it is interesting to note that they need opratives with strong cryptographic skills (see first Dinah Emails). This of course implies that we will be reciving "classified" possably even "need-to-know" or for NATO countries out side the US "cosmic" knowledge that must be keep same, but from whom?

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:25 pm
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Listacorta
Boot

Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 17

 		georgraphic tie-in
maxim wrote:
growfybruce wrote:
Full document reads:

Interesting that this sounds almost oog, but the use of the name Sente indicates that this clearly is in-game, and therefore the academy's team are in a London office ("One of the guys from the office..."), and it also suggests that the team are planning their information giving as they go, not in advance as we may have first guessed.

To me, this presents a whole new 'human' side to the previously shady Sente, who seems to be directing a team not unlike our own in his efforts to pass information on to us. It also suggests that whilst they are 'here', they cannot themselves retrieve the cube. Reasons for this?



If this is the case, we have reason to believe that they didn't start out in London, but started in Melbourne, and travelled to London via Singapore...

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 3:50 pm
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Mornington
Boot


Joined: 11 Mar 2003
Posts: 58

 		Re: Sente's ARG: spec?
asute_falcon wrote:
thebruce wrote:
Mornington wrote:
What I'm saying, is that they are creating a game for us. An ARG basically and they are doing it on purpose and OPENLY. Their motives for not being more direct are the only thing in question and since they are being upfront about it, the goal is not really obfuscation.

From their last set of emails they don't seem to think it's weird that they are purposefully setting up clues for us and trying to keep us interested. They even use ARG terminology like "behind the curtain" etc. This CAN'T be coincidence.


I'm still not confident the phrase in the video is "the other side of the curtain" - it still sounds more like 'curve' (one syllable) to me, which fits with the multiple world idea.
And at this point, given the info we have, it appears as though they are making a kind of 'ARG' in their own terms for us, but we still have no motive (or lack thereof) for their actions; just that they are providing us mysteries and puzzles. The question still remains - why?

IMO, nothing here yet has been OOG, meta, or 'behind the curtain'... everything can still be explained in an in-game fashion.


Okay, think of it this way. They're from another... place. Behind the curve, curtain, whatever. But from what we've gathered, they've known about us for a while. We just havn't known about them. They look like us, or at least have recruited some of us (Dinah), so they can, obviously, blend in. The problem is this: An object of massive importance (think the Declaration of Independence for the US) has been stolen from under their noses. They know it's been brought over here, or at least they think it has been. They want to launch a full scale man-hunt for the theifs. But... something's stopping them. They launch a man-hunt, they'll be revealing themselfs to the entire world. They can't do that. Or, maybe, their transportation device would make it really hard to do that. So, they have to recruit us to do their dirty work for them. They feel they can trust us to a point, as seen by the IRL meeting with Dinah. So I think that's motive enough for them to be creating this "ARG" as they go. They don't have time to stop and think. They need to be working - and working FAST. They WANT this cube back, and they're just starting to train us to help get it back. Trouble is, they're having to figure out HOW to train us. So, we have the video - trying to get info to us. The emails. That they're ready for our help. All of that fun stuff. Motive, indeed.


In the emails, they make it clear that they are sending us a fragment ON PURPOSE. That they want to do something "nice" for the people who show up. That they want to use a webcam so people can "be involved". So they are simultaneously trying to include us and make us "happy", and yet they are giving us purposefully encrypted messages, and text fragments!

Like I said, maybe they ARE testing us etc, or for some reason think that because we can solve puzzles we'll help them or won't keep their cube if we find it or something. It's just odd that they are so OPEN about how... cryptic they are being! Whether it's for the purposes of testing us or it's just the kind of people we're dealing with, they are creating a little ARG for us to solve. But maybe just until we pass some kind of threshold and the search for the cube begins in earnest.

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:02 pm
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<PSH>
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Joined: 28 Aug 2004
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 		Like i was saying above they need good crypto right now they have no way of giving us info that can't be intersepted. that means they have to esstablish a channel of communication and since that channel is one way right not public/private key systems are out... so the only thing left is strong cryto... maybe they'll give us an RSA encrypted clue next Wink *cough* (waves to PM's if they're reading this) it's a pretty simple cipher... they obviously need to start small and work up they don't want to (ingame or out) just through an RC4 or AES encrpted clue out to find out noone can use it...

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:13 pm
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AnthraX101
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Joined: 18 Mar 2003
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<PSH> wrote:
maybe they'll give us an RSA encrypted clue next Wink *cough* (waves to PM's if they're reading this) it's a pretty simple cipher...


RSA is a pretty simple cipher?

How about you and me make some money? Wink

AnthraX101
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:34 pm
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Mikeyj
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Joined: 18 Oct 2004
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 		Can I just say well done everyone...I missed everything as at work.

Mad

First real puzzle...but despite lots of info, how much of it is useful? My great grandmother was brought up to be thrifty and after roasting a chicken and getting the bulk of the meat off she used a needle to pick the rest off the bones and then kept the bones too. This is kind of what we have been doing, and it still all feels like exposition despite todays escapades...roll on the guardian!

[edit] sounds really bitter...not meant that way at all!! Very Happy Except for the bit about work.
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 6:37 pm
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<PSH>
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Joined: 28 Aug 2004
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AnthraX101 wrote:
<PSH> wrote:
maybe they'll give us an RSA encrypted clue next Wink *cough* (waves to PM's if they're reading this) it's a pretty simple cipher...


RSA is a pretty simple cipher?

How about you and me make some money? Wink

AnthraX101


Yeah... umm i was thing numbers in the length of maybe 20 digits... not numbers like (2^13,466,917)-1 (highest prime i know of) . Some thing that would exceed a 64bit int is size so custom factoring software had to be written found but not some thing on that scale... Embarassed i'll be more specific next time...

PostPosted: Sat Mar 19, 2005 7:01 pm
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