If you're here then you probably picked up one of the Perplex City cards that I've been leaving around the place for people to find. Did you manage to solve it?
The easiest way to explain all this is to try to answer the questions you're probably asking:
- What is Perplex City and why leave puzzle cards lying around?
Firstly, Perplex City is a game. A massive, immersive alternate reality game (ARG). People all over the world are playing this game on the internet, and in the real world. You've already had your first taste of this by trying the puzzle card you found and following the link I stuck to it (incidentally, you should be able to remove that orange label without it damaging the card). I have some spare puzzle cards so I've been leaving them around to get more people involved in the game.
- How do you play?
All sorts of different ways - on websites, via email, via phone calls, via snail mail, by going out and finding clues in the real world, and maybe even by meeting characters from the game. The puzzle cards are just a tiny part of it.
- What's it all about?
Perplex City is a place that has just recently learned to communicate with Earth. Currently we don't know if it's on another planet, in a parallel universe, or (my personal favourite) at some point in our future. What we do know, however, is that they've lost something called the Receda Cube. This is an object of immense social, religious and scientific value to them, and it was stolen and somehow transported to Earth. Now they need our help to find it again, and they're prepared to pay; £100,000 sterling or the equivalent in various other currencies. Yes, if you find The Cube you get 100 grand!
- So what can you do?
Help them find The Cube! We don't know how this will work yet, but we're told that solving all the puzzle cards will help us find it. There will soon be a leader board up at PerplexCity.com where you'll be able to enter your answer to your card - see the points score in the top right corner. That number under the scratch-off silvery stuff is unique so you can be sure that even if other people have solved the same puzzle, you'll still get the credit for it.
- How can you get up to speed?
This game is being played by a large community of players of which I am a tiny part, and we're all eager to help other people join in (hence this page). To that end, there's a ton of resources to give you the low-down on everything that's happened so far:
- The Wiki. This is basically a player-maintained thoroughly cross-linked encyclopedia of everything about the game. I suggest you start on the Perplex City 101 page (which I've been helping to maintain) as this will give you a brief overview of the storyline so far.
- The tranZed Primer. A timeline, listing everything that's happened in the game since launch (there's also information on the pre-game there).
- The forums at unfiction (otherwise known as The Brown Boards, for reasons which will become rapidly apparent). Everyone who's playing hangs out there so if you have a question this is the place to ask. There's a lot of posts on there and no-one expects you to read them all (that's what the links above are for) - a good place to start is the General/Updates board which is where any updates get posted. Leave a message on the introductions thread to let everyone know you're playing. Everyone's pretty friendly over there, though please do make sure you use the search to make sure you don't post topics that have already been covered. Send me a personal message if you need any pointers or if you're having trouble with anyone, OK?
- The major in-game websites are; PerplexCity.com - the main game website; The Perplex City Sentinel - Perplex City's own online newspaper; The Scarlett Kite - Scarlett Kiteway, Sente's youngest daughter, keeps a blog here; Quirky Acuity - Violet Kiteway, Sente's oldest daughter, has her blog here; The Path of Least Time - Kurt McAllister, a puzzle scribe from The Academy (who may have written the card you found), also keeps a blog. There are others as well (told you this was a big game) but I'll leave you to find them yourself.
- What are you waiting for?
Go on, get started! And if you could email me at seej@cjtonline.net to let me know you're playing and where you found the card that'd be cool. Enjoy, and feel free to ask me any questions you have about the game.
Lastly, if all this doesn't really sound like your kind of thing then please go back out there with the card and leave it somewhere (inside a popular book like The Da Vinci Code in a library or bookshop, on a table on a train, in a cafe, pub or bar, etc.) where someone else who may be more interested could find it. Cheers.
