Metacortechs ARG / Project MU
List of questions for the upcoming PM-chat V1.09
General
1.
[BriEnigma] How did the project get
started?
2.
[BriEnigma] How much money went into this?
We can kind of calculate the prices of the stock photos, hosting, and
voicemail--but what about the other things: the outbound calls, Wongmo's phone
line, or whatever else?
3.
[Wishi] Did you have any funding for it? Did you begin
to run out of the money you'd set aside and that's why some of the sites never
appeared and there seemed to be quite an abrupt end?
4.
[King Mob] How did you
develop the idea of taking ARG's to the next level, into the realm of reality?
The CD's, the Halloween telephone call, etc.
5.
[King Mob] I'd still like to
know how you decided which cities to put the CDs in, and where, and which
game-players to phone, etc. And was that guy at the Cyberia Internet cafe that
Trip visited in on the whole thing?
6.
[King Mob] What was the timeline of
events, within the game? In terms of when Avery disappeared, when the Nekodas
were captured, etc.
7.
[King Mob] Was this just
inspired by the Matrix, or was it also set within the Matrix? If set within the
Matrix, at what point was it occuring in relation to the Matrix trilogy?
8.
[Karl H] WHY DID THE GAME END? Did any team solve it?
Was it planned to end on a certain date?
9.
[Moatie] Can there be a source, one big zip file of all
the images, text, and HTML, swf, media etc... made up.
10. [Omnie] For that matter,
was there anything else we were supposed to get that we totally missed?
11.
[Omnie] *ahem* http://www.metadex.net/revolutions ????
12. [Xtrava] There are huge
amounts of things that aren’t explained, maybe on purpose...?
13. [Karl H] Can I get my own Metadex?
Please...?!
14. [Medemia] Was there a
Cyberpunk website somewhere?
15. [Medemia] Schuffhausen
wasn't on your website list. Was that impromptu?
16. [Karl H] What's
metacore.bit from the Project MU credits?
17. [Cyfre] This ARG, while
great and amazing, seems to have ended abruptly and without any real
conclusion. Was the "climax" what we all experienced, or is this just
a chapter in what could easily be an ARG to be experienced in instalments?
18. [Niobexrev] Have you looked at the
T-shirt thread? Like was it okay for us to make T-shirts based on this game?
19. [Omnie] I
wonder...are you guys going to post a plot outline? Because we really haven't
figured it all out yet.
20. [Niobexrev] What
did you guys think of Revolutions? (give us a review)
21. [Catherwood] Will there be a bloopers
reel?
22. [Colin] Can we still find how
lifeandcasulaty fits in?
23. [Catherwood] Is Project MU pronounced
"moo" or "mew"?
24. [Sh1ft] What was the most amusing 404
error from Apache's error_log?
25. [ChainedLightning] Where can we get a hi-res copy
of the last .bh picture without the writing on it?
26. [Wix] What was the motivation
behind this project? Was it backed by any financial organization, or just a
hobby?
27. [Bagsbee] Will there be a sequel? (I
fear for your safety if the answer is not "YES")
28. [Bagsbee] Was there a lot of brute
forcing going on?
29. [Bagsbee] Did anyone actually
try/succeed in hacking any of the sites?
30. [Bagsbee] Are there any legal issues
faced by having a tie-in with a certain movie which shall remain nameless?
31. [Burnin] What about the spelling of
Metacortex/Metacortechs. Why
there are two?
PM’ing this game
32. [BriEnigma] As the ARG
unfolded, did you have to keep in close contact with one another? With various
forums? With IRC? (Any cool anecdotes?)
33. [BriEnigma] How much did you
deviate from your original plans/scripts/whatever for the sake of
interactivity? For example: Trip's CD pickup, Beth's log referring to the
unexpected snow/slush in the
34. [BriEnigma] Will we get a
chance to peek at your story/plot/character notes? Were they as messy and
convoluted as this: http://metacortex.netninja.com/my_notes/thoughtmap.png?
35. [ThirdRenaissance] Will you be doing
another ARG? Perhaps suggest the idea to the WB?
36. [Moatie] Who did the voice
of Wongmo/Dr. Shuffhausen on those phone calls?
37. [FlanInTheFace] Did you get frustrated when
people who called thought it wasn't in-game?
38. [Anthrax101] At what points
did we do something totally unexpected that caught you by surprise, and how did
it change the story?
39. [Moatie] What were your
feelings when the sites were looked up by reversed WHOIS, and we knew about
them prematurely?
40. [Karl H] It would be nice
if you could make a history over the progression of the game, i.e. what team solved
which puzzle first and so on...
41. [Moatie] Was the Beth on
AIM the same person or multiple people? What kind of setup did you guys use?
How many simultaneous chats were there?
42. [Flynn] was the Beth on
AIM/YM a bot or a real person?
43. [Omnie] Who wrote Dina?
YOU ROCK! Seriously, go write a book. Please?
44. [Colin] How many hours do
you think it took to prepare this?
45. [Colin] How did you
choose when to update, when players found something, or was it pre-planned? Why
so late at night (US time)?
46. [Colin] How many unique
hits did everything get (well not everything just the most hit and the least
hit)?
47. [Colin] What puzzle did
we solve quicker than you thought, and which was slower?
48. [ChainedLightning] Have you had any contact
with Warner Brothers or the Wachowski brothers, and, if so... what was said?
49. [Yanka] Who wrote
brutus3.mic?
50. [Yanka] Were you VERY
frustrated when we couldn't figure out how theyaremissing = Averies = Emersons
= Nekodas?
51. [Wishi] Are you all interested
in the paranormal too?
52.
[Trip] Are they just a bunch of friends
playing together, or was there a point? What about Karetao?
53. [Bagsbee] Are you guys Karetao or
associated with it?
54. [Omnie] I hope you guys didn't get too
annoyed about the Karetao leak thing...
55. [Catherwood] Are we [unFiction] the
biggest group of players? Were there competeing forums?
56. [Trip] Which one of you was the main
writer?
57. [Omnie] Did you guys enjoy our...um,
what's the word...artistic tributes?
58. [Catherwood] Did
the players ever find any plot hole or inconsistancy you had to plug up?
59. [Wishi] Were you up as many hours of
the day as us? ;)
60. [Lolo_vast] Who created the oct 31 voice mail?
61. [TheGuru19] How the hell did you accomplish
the 1,000 phone calls on Halloween?
62. [Lolo_vast] Do you feel a pretty
significant sense of accomplishment?
63. [Xnbomb] To what degree did you guys
keep an eye on us?
64. [FlanInTheFace] Were there any IRC spies on
#matrix?
65. [Giskard] After the thing with the
Aquapolis FTP site went wrong, you switched to website locations. Was that
planned, or was that a deviation from the orignial plan for security’s sake
(i.e. were all other locations also planned to be FTP?)
66. [Bagsbee] Other than the FTP/HTTP snafu,
were there ay other major blunders on your part?
67. [Bagsbee] Who did Wongmo's Mailbag?
68. [Bagsbee] Were you as amazed as I was
by the dedication of certain players to the game? For example, BrianEnigma's
repository at NetNinja (claps loudly)?
69. [Anthrax101] Were any of you in any way
related to Lokinz (the player that found MLO’s password)?
Characters / Storyline
70. [BriEnigma] If Avery was
garbage-collected, what's up with the Dimitri photos? Was that the
"new" Avery?
71. [BriEnigma] What music did Scratch use?
72. [BriEnigma] What were Kat's
dealings with Agent Jones? Was she supposed to be a not-so-likable "good
guy" or a "bad guy?"
73. [ThirdRenaissance] Did you make an
employee page for Thomas Anderson? If so, what is the login/password?
74. [Critter42] Was there any
meaning to Random's "quotes" and what tool was used to generate them?
75. [Monki] So, now that Beth
has some free time, do you think I can get her number? I haven't been to
76. [Flavin] What were the
hacker aliases/extensions? (Did we get them correct?)
77. [Insomniac] What were all
those damn AIM conversations with Beth about!?!?
78. [Anthrax101] How did you pick
the hackers names? What were the ones we missed?
79. [Moatie] From your
perspective, who were the bad guys and the good guys: Marcus Ormond,
Kathterine, Wongmo?
80. [Moatie] Was Phillip
intended to be the academic ideologue?
81. [Moatie] Did Beth have a
"relationship" with Avery or Phillip?
82. [Omnie] Did Avery actually
die? If he did, what was with those pics of him crawling around and randomly
walking around barbed wires?
83. [Omnie] What was with
Dina's dream, the one that sounded like the "real" world?
84. [Omnie] Why didn't anyone
get unplugged?
85. [Omnie] Monitors =
Agents?
86. [Omnie] Did Kat do
something to Laika?
87. [Omnie] Oh, and
Dimitri...who was he? Whose side was he on?
88. [Omnie] Why did Dina have
to DIE?!?!?
89. [Omnie] Explain the whole
90. [Omnie] Err, what exactly
was the fate of the Collector?
91. [Omnie] Why didn't Beth
wake up when she understood that the world wasn't real?
92. [Omnie] Why did AQN's relocation
seem like a glitch? Was he doing anything sinister to Dina?
93. [Omnie] Who was Leak/.bh?
94. [Omnie] What exactly did
Jesse find out, and what did it have to do with Metacortex? If the answer to
that last bit is "nothing", then why the cover up? What was
Metacortex doing that was so evil? Safesys?
95. [Omnie] Who was Todd
Rogan? (Scratch?)
96. [Omnie] Who was the girl
in the pic with Jesse? (
97. [Omnie] What was Random
smoking, and where would I get some?
98. [Omnie] Was there
something we were supposed to get from him that we didn't?
99. [ChainedLightning] Why was MLO away
from the office so much?
100. [Medemia] Since Katgirl
gave the info about Beth to the agents, is Beth truly safe?
101. [Flavin] What about
102. [Colin] Did Revolutions
affect the way the game ended or change anything at all?
103. [Yanka] Who was the
British investor?
104. [Yanka] What would have
screwed up Avery's flash?
105. [Yanka] Latin text?? Why
4 anomalies?
106. [Yanka] Mr. Rhineheart -
was he supposed to be in Redland's db?
107. [Yanka] Did Scratch leave with the gang? Why didn't he ever post in
to-night?
108. [Yanka] Why did the
animosity between Scratch and Caesar start?
109. [Yanka] Did you intentionally
borrow last names from the shorts on the official site (Drummond, Avery)?
110. [Yanka] How/why did Kat
die?
111. [Yanka] Was Leak supposed
to be AI? Or did he/she turn into one after the theory was proposed here? Why
wasn't he/she "able" in to-night?
112. [Yanka] Was
Wongmo/Kane/etc. supposed to live in
113. [Yanka] What were
projects Labyrinth, Gorgon, and Daedalus supposed to be about?
114. [Xnbomb] Near the end when all
the websites went down, right around the time when I imagined Beth's friend
would have been doing his magic for the hackers with the version space, was
this your way of creating for us a superwhomp in terms of the media by which
this game is communicated?
115. [Xnbomb] What did Marcus
Ormond know about Avery's disappearance? Was he genuinely looking for him as it
appeared, or was he in on his disappearance (or even a cover-up of his
disappearance to allow a smooth transition of power to maintain stock value)?
116. [ChainedLightning] Did ya'll mean to
make sheismissing.info look so much like a young Carrie-Anne Moss?
117. [Catherwood] Why
118. [Flavin] What
was beth's middle name?
119. [Giskard] And what about MLO’s?
120. [Omnie] What was up with
Stone Jeffreys? What was his purpose?
121.
[Omnie] Could you explain Kat's story arc?
Who was she working for? Did she actually do anything to Beth's mom?
122. [Omnie] Why did GC malfunction? What
was the problem there?
123. [Omnie] Jesse's post about his epilepsy
- when did that happen? His time with the Emersons, or
earlier? (That was a great piece of writing, btw)
124.
[Omnie] What was the deal with MLO's request
to be transferred to
125. [FlanInTheFace] Was naming one of the hackers
Statik a tribute to Statik who found the Metacortechs website?
126.
[Wix] Why the brevity of the storyline?
The plot seemed a good base, seemingly with a bunch of possible offshoots. Why not take it further/deeper?
127. [Bagsbee] Was there more planned for
the Phillip/AQN arc? I still don't get how it tied in the main plot?
128. [Worker] What does life look like for
Phillip and the other characters (MLO, SafeSys, ...)?
129. [Omnie] What was Robert Emerson's
relation to Ryan?
130. [Omnie] Why did the Emersons get
reprogrammed if the Averys were killed?
131. [Omnie] I don't know if it's just me,
but I really don't understand exactly what the GC did. In the pictures (if
those pictures are of the Averys), it looks like Agents were after them. Where
does the GC come into this? He freed up their memories after they died?
The Aquapolis
132. [BriEnigma] What was up with
The Aquapolis/SafeSys?
133. [Critter42] Where did you
film the Aquapolis cams (especially the drowned guy)?
134. [Yanka] What was on
135. [Yanka] Wth were the
webcam updates supposed to represent?
136. [Yanka] Please explain
the breach codes in the logs
137. [Yanka] Why was the beta
module breached in the first incident? Was it not a flood?
138. [Yanka] Was there a
missing level in the Aquapolis?
139. [Xnbomb] I imagine that
the Aquapolis is some particular PM's baby. It is really very cool . Kudos! I love it as a concept ... but if I was ever
going to go inside it, I'd bring scuba gear :-). I built some pretty detailed
spatial datafiles of the Aquapolis that allows the creation of decent 3D
renders of it, and the datasets I've built also represents it in a sort of
object structure. With a little work, it is capable of being a very cool and
realistic looking sort of SafeSys interface (i.e. it can easily show the
Aquapolis from any perspective, and can change any object any color you'd like
to signify it's condition...). If you'd ever like to do any more with it, I'd
be happy to contribute some of the material I've designed. I'd love to chat
with the PM who designed the Aquapolis about it ... I'm sure Yanka would too.
Little Boxes
140. [BriEnigma] What really *WAS*
the pattern to the paranormal events?
141. [Flavin/BJC] If xnbomb and
Moriar had come up with good arguments for some other place, would we be
hearing from Beth about that place instead?
142. [Xnbomb] To the extent
that is possible, please describe how you decided to place the paranormal
events in space and time. I think we ended up with a pretty good idea of both
the spatial and temporal extents of the pattern, but I'm curious about what the
method used was, and just how precisely it described locations and times of
occurrence. If the idea that you took a cue from our speculations as to where
subsequent events were to occur is in fact the case... I think I will...
explode! BTW, I'm a geographer by trade, so this kind of question is my
obsession, both professionally and recreationally.
143. [Yanka] Archive #58 (c.
attachments) - was there even an attachment?
144. [Yanka] What was
"‘attar say rye in’" in Archive 56?
Paranormal Journal
145. [Moatie] Seems like a ton
of effort went into the Paranormal research Journal
Site. Was there more of a story line planned? Are there clues there that we
missed?
Underscore Hosting
146. [RicarDog] Was there a valid
login for USH Members page?
Wongmo
147. [Alan Eising] Will the winners of the wongmo contest recieve
their price? (I really want my t-shirt :)
148. [King Mob] What purpose did Wongmo/AQN's character serve?
149. [Joebrent] Did you guys have as much fun
writing Wongmo stuff as we did reading it?
150. [CriminallySane] I still think that Wongmo's
center was supposed to spell out 'Wanker.' Lil
easter egg in there, mebbe?
The Nekodas
151. [Colin] Was ../autumnal.html there all the time? Did it frustrate
you that we didn't find it?
152. [Yanka] Did we miss any
of Dina's pages?
153. [Omnie] What did we miss in our
interpretations of Dina's hidden writings?
Paintover
154. [Bagsbee] Was
the background for Paintover stock? If not, who did it (very creepy and
"Ring"-like)?
Puzzles
155. [Peter Magenheimer] What was so special about
dina.thenekodas.com?
156. [King Mob] Why did you make Oct. 1 so @*&)%$£ complex?
157. [Critter42] Where were the
screwed-up subway LED signs filmed?
158. [Flavin] Did we solve the
carelessly.qm2 correctly?
159. [Moatie] What was the
relevance of Boston Parking Garage 8-23?
160. [Moatie] Was tuxmp_ from
#matrix one of the PM's, or some other player who had figured out MLO’s
password?
161. [Anthrax101] Explain the october 1st picture.
162. [Moatie] Do you have a
transcript of that phone call on Oct 31
163. [Karl H] Please translate
the Greek text on SafeSys page at Project Mu site
164. [Omnie] Explain the
Dimitri files - from who, given to who?
165. [Omnie] Were the pics of
the Agent encounter on the CD really from the Avery takeover?
166. [Omnie] What was "the
2nd event" that Ormond refers to in his heismissing notes? For that
matter, what's the first event?
167. [Omnie] What's the
significance of the "no trespassing" pic on the CD? Kat?
168. [Cyfre] Were there any backward
messages on the Halloween call we all received?
169. [Yanka] Code strings in
flash and screensaver - did they mean anything?
170. [Yanka] Was there a
puzzle in carelessly.doc (also)?
171. [Yanka] What was
"extension granted" in MLO's files about?
172. [Yanka] Were the binary
filenames translated correctly?
173. [Yanka] Was there
anything in "help.me"?
174. [Yanka] The scrambled
letters in Avery's flash and Metacortex on Halloween - did that mean anything?
175. [Yanka] How were we
supposed to interpret the phonecall?
176. [Sh1ft] Did we miss any
steganographic files? (If not, why weren't there more?)
177. [Xnbomb] How did the idea
to use Betamaze for a puzzle come up? Did you think we'd solve it by finding it
on the web or through substitution? In your wildest dreams, did you think the
result of your using it as a puzzle result in a huge spike in interest in
betamaze and betamaze generating and decoding technology? Have you had any
contact with Terrana Cliff (inventor of Betamaze)? I have and she's a little
amazed by all this.
178. [Yeahyeah] Okay,
so what was the deal with the Betamaze? Were the misspellings on purpose?
179. [Yeahyeah] The
general who what where why and how would be nice too… (such
as how did you know of betamaze, was it hand drawn, were corrections made to
even up parts, etc.)
180. [Xnbomb] Were's Caesar's
paintover.net images designed to thwart the detection of their messages by
algorithmic analysis (i.e. to keep an AI or person using a computer from easily
ascertaining their meaning)?
181. [Xnbomb] Re: October 1 image:
what is that red thing the girl is looking at? I ... must ... know
182. [Xnbomb] What is the font
used for the 'Always to have lessons to learn!' text? Is the metagraphology
article in PNJ any kind of hint at all? It seems awfully pertinent to an unidentifiable
font!
183. [Yanka] The wallpaper
background - what was that?
184. [Yanka] Where was the
Santa Monica CD?
185. [Yanka] What generated
Random's "borsch-poo"?
186. [Giskard] What’s up with
the CascadeVortex picture? Was it intentionally fake-looking?
187. [Catherwood] No unsolved puzzles for us to
track down? No easter eggs hiding anywhere?
188. [Catherwood] Did i miss an explanation of
whether that overlay [on Oct.1 pic] was indeed a skeleton?
189. [Omnie] MLO's notes on sheismissing -
why does she have no credit history? Why the receipt from
190. [Omnie] MLO's notes on heismissing -
"She wanted contact info // long distance bills" Who is she?
191.
[Omnie] The subway morse
code message - that wasn't in Dina's dream. How did that happen? Was someone
sending her a message? Is
there a plot-related explanation for this?
192. [Worker] Were there any puzzles that
took hours/days/weeks to create, and we solved in minutes?
193. [Worker] Were there any puzzles that
took minutes to create, and we solved in hours/days/weeks/never?
194. [Worker] Why didn't you tell us to
stop looking at the October 1 picture?!
195. [Fubarz] In Beth’s travel around the
world with Collector, was there any pattern or were they just points picked at
random?
196. [FlanInTheFace] Did you get the idea for the
197.
[Wix] What was the target audience of this
ARG? What was the knowledge background targeted? It appears that your puzzles
were rather shallow, when they certainly could have been more complex. Kudos to the tapestry maker, though.
198. [Wix] Did you ever think of deeper
puzzles? Did you contemplate taking pieces of one solved puzzle and another
"unrelated" puzzle, and combining them for yet another clue?
199. [Bagsbee] What were the missing
composers for BALLADSOFFROGS? I don't think we ever positively identified 1,5 and 10.
200. [Bagsbee] Were there ever any logins
for Metacortechs?
201. [Bagsbee] Is there some reason, other
than sheer sadism, that you didn't/couldn't direct us away from 10/1 Paintover
pic?
202. [Bagsbee] Was there anything to the
binary filenames at Paintover ("FIND THEM")? Or was that just more
"finding shapes in the clouds"?
203. [ChainedLightning] The missing letters on the
employee directory for Avery - surely ya'll weren't pointing to a football game
between Miame and
204. [Trip] Was there anything I should
have done at Cyberia Chicago that I didn't do? (Was there questions I could
have asked, or information I could have gotten, had I said other things?) If I
had left a note with my e-mail address at Cyberia Chicago, would Dina have
e-mailed me?
205. [Trip] Where the leaves in the Indy
book in game, or a funny coincidence?
206. [Trip] How many calls did Dr.
Shauffhausen get, and how did we do getting information from him? It took us a
little while to realize it was in game!
207. [Omnie] What was with all the
pictures of music on Dina's hidden pages?
208. [Omnie] What were we supposed to get
from the sketch of Jesse, "I'm holding on" and the butterfly on the
door?
209. [Omnie] Dina's "The
Picture" - no connection with Oct. 1st at all then? Were you aware of how similar it was?
210. [Wix] Did you plan to send that [Halloween]
phonecall to begin with? Or was it something you had to do to point us towards
the noble/roman thing?
Off-topic
1.
[Joebrent] Ozy, I linked to that 80's quiz from
your journal, and missed out on getting 100% because I misspelled
"Jessie's Girl" (I spelled it 'Jesse', so it's clearly your fault).
I'm trying to have the Supreme Court order a recount,
will you be available to testify?
2.
[BriEnigma] When can people in cities near the
various PMs take them out for a congratulatory drink? It sounds like a