So, the
Flynn Lives ARG (Alternate Reality Game) "endgame" happened today. I'm a big enough nerd that I actually used a sick-day to participate (a pal said I was suffering from "H1Encom Virus", LOL). To put in perspective: I called in sick w/TRON flu to hover over a laptop & cellphone, and play pretend-cyber-thriller. Seriously, I was like
Garcia on Criminal Minds, only hairier.
The gist of the game was very similar to the
Zero Hour / Pit Cell game that I did last February. New sites showing
Kevin Flynn's groundbreaking books appeared just after Thanksgiving, which led to a
puzzle that unlocked a retro flyer for Kevin Flynn's 1989 "book tour" with a countdown timer set to run out this morning. Once it ran out, it revealed the
Digital Pulse puzzle -- sixteen cities around the US, revealed two at a time from 8am-3pm. As each city was revealed, corresponding
GPS coordinates and photo clues for each city appeared as well (click
each of the cities to see).
Meanwhile, the fans at
Unforum (an "un-fiction" ARG fan group),
on Facebook, and
on Twitter all banded together to get "operatives" into the field when cities became available. I was actually acting as "oracle" behind the computer and on a mobile phone, helping people find the "drops" that had be left for them. Each "drop" had two points -- the GPS coordinates led to a TRON sticker innocently placed on a street pole, with a phone number and numeric code on it. Whoever got to the drops first would call the number, and recite the code to the live operator on the phone. The operator would then direct them to a delivery man (from
Dumont Shipping -- for fans of the original film) who would give them a package. Each package had one of Kevin Flynn's books (hollowed out like a book safe), and some torn pages from a TRON arcade manual; whoever found the drop got to keep this swag, as well as a Flynn Lives t-shirt and badge for their efforts. I made it to the LA drop, but not in time to get the swag -- you can scroll through all the photos from the various cities over at
Flynn Lives' Flickr stream. At each drop location, a Flynn Lives operative would meet up with the players and help them sort solve a puzzle encoded within the package's contents, revealing a numeric code for each city location.
After all sixteen cities entered their codes, another puzzle called
Circuit Pulse waiting, that allowed everyone playing along on the internet to participate in as well. It was a "mastermind"-style puzzle that used your computer and your mobile phone (and even if you haven't done any other Flynn Lives puzzles or ARGs,
you can try it out yourself). Completing that puzzle unlocked the ARG's "finale" -- a dizzying barrage of sights, sounds and fractured dreams from the edge of nowhere, culled together from the mythology of Kevin Flynn and The Grid (spoiler alert --
click here if you want to cut to the chase and see the whiz-bang web finale).
This hacked "pulse" created by the Flynn Lives players eventually bounces back from The Grid as the electronic page that Kevin Flynn sends to Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner's character), kicking off the events of TRON: LEGACY. It was an ingenious way to tie the global, collaborative efforts of the ARG to an important story point from the film. But even apart from the film's story, this whole ARG really did create an oddly compelling "story" of its own: a global group of mostly strangers, nerding out and working together for the past two years towards some unknown cause, and in the end all of our passion and effort ties into the movie's story in a very interesting, resonant, satisfying way. Sure, in many ways it's just promotional, like the new-millennial version of "
Drink More Ovaltine" -- but it offered up a lot of really great swag, events, and unexpected perks for fans. And as a fan, I can honestly say at the end that I really enjoyed myself quite a bit -- I did a lot of really crazy, fun things, and met a lot of really crazy, fun people along the way.
A
free screening on Monday night was also made available to Flynn Lives players in the sixteen cities from the game -- oddly enough, I'll be skipping it, because I already have plans. Thankfully, I have tickets for opening night a few days later, so I'll look forward to exploring The Grid myself then. All in all, this was a very cool way to tell a story, and I'm really glad I participated in it. However, one thing remains: my drop phone from last February never rang... so there may be more yet to come...
(You can also go back in time and see all of my TRON/ARG-related blog posts from the past two years; all entries in reverse chron order.)![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
