I love these things, they're great ways of telling stories...even though they can sometimes be rather far fetched - I guess that's half the fun.

For the people that don't know an ARG (alternate reality game) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions. Wikipedia

The low down with Reebok latest marketing campaign is thus. Lewis Hamilton - Jet setting motor car driver - has decided to put this new discovered talent for stealing/rescuing famous paintings to fairly good use (think the Thomas Crown Affair). He has decided that paintings he sees on his travels around the world would be better off in Museums, rather than in wealthy business men's bathrooms. I can see the logic in that...I think.

So where do you come in? I will let Lewis introduce you to his team and explain the rest:

Since that first job, the operation has got a lot more sophisticated. I’m what you might call the ‘front man’ but it’s a real team effort now. Anna, she arranges everything. Joe trains my body and mind. Lenny, he’s - well, Lenny doesn’t do much but he has his uses.

And then there’s you. That’s right - the world is just too big for the four of us to sort out. I’ve had too many close calls. We need help. We need you - seeing what we can’t see, hearing what we can’t hear. The vital last member of the team.

The best place to start if you want to get involved would be here: www.secretlewis.com/.


Also - as normal with these things - the guys over at the unfiction forums (the ARG specialists) are following the events, although it will probably contain spoilers.

Over the last 4 days, Blizzard (the guys that make World Of Warcraft) have created their very own little internet shit storm, or ARG as they are officially called.

Their company website has been covered by this rather mysterious splash screen.



And each day, for the last for days. They have updated the page with a new image.







However, some rather intrepid geeks have hacked the CSS of the page, and discovered a group of images that (apparently will be forth coming) have a rather familiar numbering system.

That's right

4, 8, 15, 23, 16, 42

They get everywhere don't they!

There are 2 days left until blizzard's big announcement, which will of course be completely unrelated to Lost. So don’t expect a World Of LostCraft.

For anyone that is bothered, the announcement is blatantly for a new Diablo game. Look at the eyes in the current splash screen if you need proof.

So, the final word was solved a bit slower then the first 3. I guess they tried to make it a bit harder as it seems to be the final clue and video.

The last video turned out to be quite cool. It’s a mash up between Afterworld, and the SubNet. You see bits of Russell, which I guess if from the show. As well as shots of Maia, the ones we have been seeing for that last 4 weeks.

Any week’s word was REVELATION, and here are some screen grabs from the resulting video.








At the end of the video you get automatically forwarded here:


www.channel4.com/afterworld



where you can watch the first 4 episodes.

I have only watched the first 10 on YouTube as you can’t see anymore. So I guess they will be showing the whole thing on C4. It’s a bit of a bold move for C4. Maybe a bit too bold as they are showing this “animation” at 2 o'clock on a Saturday morning; I guess I will just record it on my freeview box.

If TV isn’t your thing it looks like you can watch it on the site as well which is pretty cool.

Fair play to C4, they have taken a risk with this one. I hope it pays off for them because I’ m a fan of SCI FI and from what I have been reading, reaction to this one has been pretty good so I think I’m going to give this one my time.

The CommNet is finally open and we now have access to two satellite images. One of them covers London Bridge, while the other is of Big Ben (Westminster). Apparently the people behind the subnet have hidden letters in the images.

An E has been found in the back window of an abandoned car in the Westminster image. However this is where there search has run dry.

I was looking at the Unfiction thread on the ARG and I came across a screenshot that made me chuckle.

You guys must be loosing your touch.



Last time I checked, London Bridge didn't have a Gigantic "L" on the top of it.

Scratch one up for Tom!

After a week of sifting through the videos, blog and the SearchNet entries. Last weeks Keyword was found to be Purgatory.



Once entered in to the SearchNet you are treated to the usual dream-like video-scape.









On a side note the rather industrus "Steph" from the Unfiction forums has created a Google Map of Maia's journey across London.

You can download Google here.

And the download her excellent work from here.

On a side not, I was going through daily motion and someone has uploaded a Maia video. Which made me chuckle to myself.

Well it looks like the mystery might have been solved!

One of the blog entries struck a cord with one the guys over at the (yup you guessed it) Unfiction forums.

"When the Crash happened, there were thousands of people around me and then - gone. Disappeared complerely. Clothes, jewellery, everything. They just vanished.

Except me. Was I standing in the right place? Protected somehow? Am I different? Or was it just a miracle?"

Apparently this is a very similar to a happening that occurs in a show called Afterworld.

Stolen from Wikipedia

"Afterworld premiered in the United States on the YouTube and Bud.tv on February 28, 2007 with the production website being launched in May, 2007. The series quickly built a loyal fanbase but did not really take off until August, 2007 when it was 're-released' on MySpace. In conjunction with that release the series was also released in Australia on the Sci Fi Channel and also as a mobile pod-cast."

"After travelling to New York City on a business trip, Russell Shoemaker wakes to find all electronic technology dead and more than 99% of the human race missing"

So it sounds like there are a lot of ties in with what's happening to Maia, but from the US perspective. This could mean that there maybe could be a UK version of the show on its way - the website does say "Europe - Coming soon".

I managed to watch the first 10 episodes here on Youtube. The others seem to blocked to the UK.

Afterworld on Youtube

It's not bad. At first I thought it looked a bit shoddy but the story got me hooked. I started finding that watching the episodes was strangely relaxing. Strange but annoying true...problem is that I can't get anymore of it.

Anyway, we have either got this one solved or Afterworld just got a load of free advertising.

I'm starting to think that this could just be a bit of random entertainment. Not actually promoting anything, except maybe a design companies skill and imagination. Its either that or Afterworld, lol.

I love the web, where else can you get free entertainment.

PS.

Credit goes to the ever vigilant Leyton Stone, who has found some additional clues:

"I'm leaning toward it being a "real life" version of a little thing that's recently come to my attention called "Afterworld" if you go to www.afterworld.tv (Doesn't work in the UK unless you use a proxy btw) it uses CGI to tell the story of a guy called Russell Shoemaker... He heads to NY for a meeting w/ some big "IBM" guys, whilst there something happens he calls "The Fall" which causes 99% of the "population" to disappear and absolutely nothing [A.C] electrical to work.

In Maia's blog she talks about going to NY for a meeting w/ some "IBM Honchos" and in her LATEST Video she wonders about New York, whether it's the same and also wonders about "Russell"..."

In a bizarre twist to this ARG, you can now gain access to Maia’s mobile phone. Some clues were left in this fax document you can access through the SearchNet...



Well, that was a pretty obvious clue. When you text the word “vapour echo” to 82252 you get sent this mobile website address:

http://maiasturn.mobi/vapour
(I think it only works on a mobile phone)

This takes you to what seems to be a mock up of Maia’s mobile phone (complete with interface), and now with a little help from the Unfiction forum’s further investigations I can bring you some photos off it.



(My phone is from the early 90’s so unfortunately I can’t see the site myself.)

These were actually on her Facebook Account, so I guess we can confirm that the two are officially part of the game. Anyway the first picture has 11-19 scribbled a wall. So naturally you enter it in to the SearchNet and you get a new video. It’s incredibly Surreal, as with the videos found in this manner. She’s in what looks to be Oxford Circus, in a crowd of shoppers that get keep on decreasing in number, until she’s on her own.

The jury is still out on what all this is promoting. I’m learning more towards some kind of TV program and I’m going to hazard a guess that its SCI-FI related…ha ha.

As its starting to go cross platform it’s becoming less and less likely that this is a small time player.

I guess it isn’t Lost then, I might as well follow it to then end anyway.

Let me first tell you about last week first.


Well, we had another video and some more blog posts last week. They seem to be uploading a new piece of everyday, except on the weekends where they seem to. That could mean that it is a 9 to 5 company that is probably doing this.



The site seems to be counting down. The files in the public net have extensions that seem to point to this theory. Also the content of the videos and the blog post also seem to be confirming this.




Hidden in what they are calling the search net are loads and loads of flash movies and PDF files and images. It seems that hidden in these documents are letters which when combined together (hangman style) makes a word. There seems to be a never ending supply of these, which could be added weekly...or daily...or even hourly.





Anyway when you type the hangman-like word in to the SearchNet you gain access to a really crazy video:









It’s a mixture of CGI, film footage and photography. This leads to think that this could be supporting a computer game rather then Lost. It’s very UK centric so it would have to be UK based game. It reminds me a lot of 28 days later, but without the Zombies. It seems something has happened to Great Britain to make it no so great anymore. So maybe is some kind of point and click adventure game. However Sam and Max is the only game that is having any success in that genre at the moment so it’s bit unlikely.

There is one clue. Some of the file extensions have “SE9A” in them. Could this be a new Sega game? Doubt it; they aren’t that inventive (let’s hope Uk Resistance didn’t here me say that).

Finally I’ve finally worked out what the % bar in the top right hand corner is. When it reaches 0 you basically get chucked off the site. You must only get a certain amount of time on the site, which is both cool and a bit fucking annoying. I’m leaning more towards the cool at the moment.



If you want to follow the progress then check out this thread on this ARG forum, they all seem to know what they are on about:

The Unfiction Forum

And this is where I get most of this post from.

Well the counter got down to 0 on Monday, the world didn't end. No references to Lost have been made and it seems we have an new ARG on our hands.

The counter now points here:

www.emergencysubnet.com

As soon as you click the URL you get this creepy video of a girl, talking about how everything has gone wrong and how she misses her mother; super crazy stuff. The next screen you see is this:



It seems to be some kind of back-up system for when the Internet goes down. It's looks pretty British, probably because the web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee...a British guy. I don't think anyone has asked if this is his handy work yet. I'm probably way off here like normal.

The site is split in to 3 sections. There is the CommNet which you can't access. The PublicNet where you can find the video you watched at the beginning and what seems to be blog posts, probably made by that rather creepy lady.

The last section is called the SearchNet, where you can do exactly that. Some people have been entering lots of different words and coming up with some crazy things:




This blog has been keeping up with the Drama, so I recommend making a visit as she is doing a great job logging all the stuff that happens.

www.grace-monday.vox.com

The strangest thing about this site is that people in the US can't see the site. I'm not sure if this is part of the ARG. I have a feeling it could be, as there seems to be lots of clues pointing to the theory that the US has made some kind of aggressive move on the UK. This has annoyed all the Americans that were hoping to look at the site. If it is an ARG to support some kind of Film or TV program it must be a UK based show, why block off half the world if it isn't. Unless you are at war with half the world. Maybe its the second coming of the British Empire!!! GOD SAVE OUR...etc

I totally missed the new Lost ARG. You know the one about finding flight 815. But I came across this thread on one of my strolls around the web (well lost forums).
Random Lost Forum

Basically there's a banner on this random site, which has a countdown timer in it. When you mouse over it, a video appears with a rather upset girl who reaches to switch off the camera. The words Maia Sturn, Subspot and DPS-4 039 appear too. Apparently DPS-4 039 is some place in Alaska...hmmm and its to do electromagnetism...hmmmmmmmmmmm

(By the way every time I go hmmmmmmm, I'm stroking my beard)

Heres a link to the banner

Here are some pictures if you can't be bothered to click the link (you're pretty lazy if you can't).








Pretty freaky.

I Googled Maia Sturn and it seems like this guy has found all this too, so I'm not the first...dam. He thinks its a viral marketing campaign, which of course it blatently is.

Random Blog post

Oh, and she's got a Facebook page...lol

Someone seems to be putting hints about what's coming in different places, like the video with the time travelling rabbit on YouTube that I keep linking to, that ARG and now this. The girl in the banner looks a lot like Alex, the people in the blog think it's Rousseau but I'm sure that it isn't.

Anyway, apparently the banner linked to Maiasturn.com, and on the 29th Feb there's was this random blog post. Which talks about this Maia catching a plane....hmmm plane, sounds familiar doesn't it.

Could Maia be new character they are planting on the island? Have they decided to add bit more background to her before just plonking her on the island. Maybe another plane crashes?

Anyway make up your own mind, I've got better things to do.


EDIT:

Look I put the countdown on the page...

Thats the way I roll!