OurColony
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ourcolony is a Search Opera type Alternate Reality Game and a viral marketing campaign for the marketing of a successor to the Microsoft Xbox. The game asks players to form colonies and earn points by completing various tasks. This use of an ARG is similar to I Love Bees, which was a viral marketing campaign for the Xbox game Halo 2 and another recent ARG for the Xbox 360 game Halo 3.
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[edit] A brief history
On 14 March 2005 emails were sent to members of the ARG community, from someone named Gamem8ker, with a link to an image. On the main page of the site were instructions to submit 36 images, as well as a strange series of letter combinations. It was explained that "when the right 36 pictures are sent to me, the real game begins." The letter combinations turned out to be the codes of international airports.
OurColony hit a larger gamer audience 6 April after an article was published on GameSpot. This caused major headaches as servers became overloaded and the error message "The colony is quickly growing. Please be patient." became common. With this influx of users came rumors of hacking, cheating and spies.
Initially OurColony's general forums were setup to allow any user to delete any post or thread, making it almost impossible for people to have steady and meaningful communications. This led many players to create forums outside the official site where communication could continue without disruption. The site's general and colony forums were eventually removed.
The game progressed from the first stage, chaos to the second and final stage, truth; gameplay between the two stages was identical.
The end of OurColony came with the release of a video showing J. Allard of Microsoft showing off the Xbox 360 console. At the end of the video, all participating colonies were listed on a final scroll in the credits, with top-scoring colonies first. The site is not owned by Microsoft any longer.
[edit] Scoring and game play
While there was no official objective, players were encouraged to create teams, or colonies, and gain points. According to the website, the game was run by Gamem8ker who posted challenges and awarded points for accomplishing goals. A colony could not begin to play the game until it had at least 5 members. Originally points could be gained through solving puzzles, called challenges and by submitting photographs of the ourcolony symbol in real world places, similar to these; however, the photograph submission link was eventually removed from the site. Players were also encouraged to make the game "their own" by submitting challenges, and bonus points would be earned if a submitted challenge was used. Colonies also gained bonus points for being the first colony to answer a challenge and for each nation that was represented by colony members.
Official rules of the game
- Grow your colony and work together
- Answer right and answer first
- This is global, get people around the world in your colony
- Make it your game
- Show our symbol and share
[edit] Challenges and solutions
On March 15, 2005 the first challenge was given to the colonies to solve; each day thereafter a new challenge was published and the previous challenge removed. OurColony does not archive the challenges or publish the solutions.
- Finish the game, see my bikini. All in 2 hours
- Answer: Samus Aran
- Reasoning: In Metroid for NES if a player finished the game in under 2 hours they were rewarded with an ending showing Samus Aran in a bikini. Later games in the Metroid series also do this.
- Joshua's launch code
- Answer: CPE 1704 TKS
- Reasoning: In the movie WarGames Joshua is the name of the computerized missile defense system and CPE1704TKS was the launch code that Joshua cracked.
- Look out football, here we come . . . number one.
- Answer: Houston Oilers
- Reasoning: "Look out football, here we come, Houston Oilers number one" is the Houston Oilers fight song.
- Pictures, letters.... what can it all mean?
- LAST " " 0761537082
- Answer: just imagine the future
- Translates to: The last quote in the book Opening the Xbox : Inside Microsoft's Plan to Unleash an Entertainment Revolution by Dean Takahashi (ISBN #0761537082) The requested quote, and solution to this challenge is, "just imagine the future".
- 20000 CMWKTRW. Who?
- Answer: Trelawney
- Reasoning: CMWKTRW is an acronym meaning "20,000 Cornish Men Will Know The Reason Why." This comes from the Cornish song "Trelawney's Army" The solution to this challenge is "Trelawney". One should note however that Cornish men should be Cornishmen, similar to Englishmen, as this is how the song is generally written; the acronym should have been "CWKTRW." However, this exact puzzle had been used on another site in the correct "CWKTRW" format so the challenge was altered to keep players from discovering the answer.
- Your memory is lost, your aura is high, your life within an inch, you have one weapon left to finish off the enemy what is it? If you read closely you should know the answer
- Answer: Finisher
- Reasoning: There is a game called Phantom Dust, in which you have lost your memory, have an Aura, and when you are low on health, you can use your finisher.
- Up for anything as she marches to the beat of 11 drummers. No that's superficial.
- Answer: Angelina Jolie
- Reasoning: "The Superficial Loves Angelina Jolie" is the title of a blog entry posted on March 11 from seanbonner, which is commenting on a report on Angelina Jolie's sexual exploits from the site The Superficial.
- Circle Banner Image
- This may have been a challenge posted by mistake as it was only listed for about an hour and a half.
- Here sweet margie sits. At this distance it sees the rich, the poor and everything in between.
- Stella's peddler. Imagine if he had one of these
- Answer: Joe Decuir
- Reasoning: This challenge was a picture challenge, with different colonies having different puzzle pieces, when put together they formed this image with the text on top of it. Stella was the in-house name for the Atari VCS while it was in development. Named after a bicycle owned by Atari CEO, Joe Decuir.
- It is "The End" when Alpha, Delta and Omega are destroyed.
- Answer: Missile Command
- Reasoning: Alpha, Delta, and Omega are the names of the bases in the game Missile Command from where you attack the incoming missiles. Once they're destroyed, the game ends (thus, the end).
- XYXXXY
- Answer: Izuna Drop
- Reasoning: XYXXXY is the code to do the move Izuna Drop in the Xbox game Ninja Gaiden.
- In 79, two rods can save the family.
- Answer: Robotron
- Reasoning: 2005 (the current year) + 79 = 2084. Robotron: 2084 is a 1982 arcade game in which the mission is to save the last human family. The two rods refer to the dual joysticks on the arcade machine.
- 112798.jpg
- Answer: Reset Reality
- Reasoning: This challenge was a picture challenge. Blank lines on the image formed a barcode that, when decoded, revealed a phone number. When called, an answering machine would play back the message "Reset Reality, message #512".
- Challenge
- Answer: 96877353
- Reasoning: This was a picture challenge with many, many red herrings. Part of the Microsoft E³ Xbox 360 briefing invitation. fits over the word puzzle in this challenge to reveal the phrase "call yourself". The solution is the word "yourself" translated into the correlating numbers on a phone pad.
- Reward
- Addendum: This challenge and the previous have links to Microsoft's E³ invitation site. The decipher image used to solve this challenge and the phrase "Hit reset on your reality."
- I am in 6 places where you talk.
- Answer: round circle
- Reasoning: Six images were discovered in threads named "i am where you talk." on the following five forums: 1_TeamXbox, 2_Unfiction 3_IGN: Xbox forum 4_Xbox-scene and 5_Xbox.com, and picture_6 at the gamem8ker's MySpace profile page. The letters sCt in picture 6 pointed to the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was an owner of the White Hart. Picture number 5, the werewolf motif, and the 10^3 + 10^3 or 1000 + 1000, or KK in ASCII in picture 1, point to the poem Kubla Khan. The poppies in picture 3 confirmed S.C.T.'s connection as he was addicted to opium and wrote Kubla Khan while using the drug. Picture 2 contains latitude and longitude coordinates in close proximity to Area 51, while picture 4 shows 4+3 in it. Words 4 and 3 from line 51 of the poem Kubla Khan are "round circle".
- Reward
- Listen To me
- Answer #1: our colony
- Reasoning: Initially, several colonies found success with "our colony" and were rewarded with this picture. However, shortly afterwards "our colony" stopped working as and answer and the website was updated with a message "you deserved a bonus. now can you answer the challenge?" and the answer box was reset.
- Answer #2: check the clock
- Reasoning: This mp3 was tagged as encoded by "iTunes v2.0.4" and the suggestion of an "alley" by the audio pointed players to Podcast Alley where they found a podcast by gamem8ker. Each mp3 file had morse code appended to the end of the message which said "check our colony clock first," which led to the answer.
- Reward
- Your Next Challenge
- Answer: push the button
- Reasoning: Each cone in the graph corresponded to letters which spelled out "tentodynolocroutarek8memag," which reversed to gamem8keratourcolonydotnet, or gamem8ker@ourcolony.net. Players who sent an email to this address got the return answer "nottubehthsup," which reversed to pushthebutton.
- Reward
- Challenge
- Answer: wireless
- Reasoning: The link is an autostereogram image that spells out "wireless" in the stone area. Probably hinting at the new wi-fi features or wireless controllers of the Xbox 360.
- Reward
- Challenge
- Answer: Planet X
- Reasoning: Each dot in the challenge imageexists on its own concentric circle, creating a solar system with ten planets. For a long time, astronomers believed that there was a tenth planet in our solar system beyond Pluto, which they referred to as 'Planet X'. The circles also reinforce the expected name, Xbox 360, for the next generation console.
- Reward
- Challenge
- Answer: 03.10.2000
- Reasoning: The four sets of numbers, 2013, 60000, 0.00015, and -2007 represent the result of completing a mathematical equation using the numbers 3, 10 and 2000. For example 3+10+2000 = 2013, while 3-10-2000=-2007. March 10, 2000 was the date Microsoft announced the Xbox.
- Reward This reward image may show examples of customizable faceplates supposedly available for the xbox 360.
- He'll see you at noon.
- Answer: Human energy
- Reasoning: On May 10, 2005 at noon, at the Chicago Navy Pier an OurColony member (Luke Pickard) went to Navy Pier where mysterious person came out of the blue, stood on stage and shouted on "the answer is human energy." Everyone not participating was very confused due to the fact that he interrupted a performing group of musicians. Luke tried to speak with the mysterious figure but could not get a response. The person eventually left out of a nearby exit, Luke did not follow.
- Reward This reward shows an image of the game Perfect Dark Zero that is an Xbox 360 launch title.
- What is the unlock code? Start from the beginning
- Reward This five-minute video features interviews with Xbox 360 team members about hardware and software features.
- [1] alternative link WMV - 45MB
- This video contained small patterns of dots in the bottom left hand corner at various points. Combining these created a grid puzzle, which when deciphered, revealed "OURCOLONYWILLRETURN".
[edit] External links
[edit] Official
- ourcolony.net Official site, no longer works
- The rules of the game The official rules for ourcolony.net
- Challenge submission Where players can submit their own challenges
- gamem8ker blog Gamem8ker's blog at blogspot.com.
[edit] Press coverage
- GameSpot article This GameSpot article goes into great detail in showing the links between ourcolony.net and the Xbox 2. The article also discusses other ARGs and the links between Ourcolony.net and Haunted Apiary.
- http://www.argn.com/ The Alternate Reality Game Network has an April 7 news post about the website.
- GameSpot article about MTV spot This GameSpot article confirms that the countdown timer on the ourcolony.net webpage is counting down to the evening of May 12, when Microsoft will give US gamers their first look at the next-generation Xbox on MTV.
- Possible Xbox 360 Joystick The site reports on two images from ourcolony.net that show a possible Xbox 360 joystick. Image 1 Image 2
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