for what it's worth

interesting (woot!)

Let the games begin? I just got my first email from Mr. Maxwell Knight, the "background check" email. Wonder if they really try to suss out anything from IP addresses and such, or if they just make you wait a day or so to create the illusion.

Either way, I'm pleased. Being "engaged" makes the whole thing seem less like I'm wasting hours in front of the computer as a desperate attempt to avoid writing et al, and more like I'm involved in a game/experiment/experience.

And now I should probably go to bed. It's so much harder to fall asleep once the sun comes up.

then again

I'm becoming more convinced that Neurocam is, in fact a game. A Melbourne-based, highly immersive ARG, to be precise, that is a departure in nearly every way from previous ARGs. No numbers puzzles. No clues leading to solutions. Absolutely no acknowledgment of PMs, pre-game or otherwise. And, if you're in Melbourne, a hell of a lot of interactivity.

Based in particular on the reading I've done so far on this site (and there's a LOT to go through), NC appears to be a story told in fragments. The goal of the game thus far seems to be piecing together the story from the facts given, and at the same time being astute enough to go off Googling when a particular word or phrase seems noteworthy.

Two questions that linger for me: Could this actually be related to Perplex City? The game in pre-launch (Syzygy days) boasted the tag-line "You play everywhere" and claimed the game would "change everything" about the world of ARGs. If PC and NC aren't related, and NC is an ARG, Adrian's got some stiff competition for the title of The Game Designer Who Really Did Change Everything.

Second: Has NC really been going on for more than a year? In The Age article of 12/18 that seems to have generated all this NC interest (thanks largely to a mention on MeFi), it's noted that Graham Henstock has been involved with NC for "the past year." And some emails on the above link to New Media's Who is Robert Henley site are dated from 2000. But the email dates are easily fakeable, and it seems entirely possible that Henstock is "in game." (There's also speculation that the author of the article, Marc Moncrief, is a plant. Can't find the blog mention of this right now. Grrr. Sorry.) Another possibility is that the past year has been a pre-game game for Melbournians like Henstock and Tript, who, as I suggested before, may have been brought progressively further and further behind the curtain. It just seems odd that The Age would do this piece now. There's no truly compelling reason except for the reappearance of the billboards.

Anyhow. I've been "playing" -- beginning to piece together the fragments of narrative on the WIRH site. There's a boatload to digest, and I've only just begun. More later.

Oh yeah, and one more thing: Why am I the only person digging into all this? Even the unfiction crew is sitting on its collective ass, waiting for official NC emails. Guys, there's a TON of stuff out there. Go grok it. (Same to all these supposed newbie operatives who have started blogs. How can you be so interested yet so passive? Makes me wonder if they're all plants being used to convey dribs and drabs of info. Cuz that's where I'm getting all my leads.)

one more before bed

A few examples of obvious (too obvious?) references in the NC world to things esoteric:

Both Iocus Severus and Robert Henley have signed off on at least one occasion with the phrase "Love or what you will." The phrase is from Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited; the character Sebastian Flyte signs a letter with the phrase.

So? Well, there seems to be at least a passing connection between Waugh and Crowley.

More:

Fiat Nox.  Elemental Quadrants (under NEW HERMETICS GROUNDING AND CENTERING). The Star Ruby. The Middle Pillar. The Mass of the Phoenix.

Incidentally, the Henley-to-Nox memo summarized on Graham's site, which contains all of the above esoteric references, also mentions that "[t]he SAPPHIRE unit has demonstrated a particular vulnerability to Fabry crises and is being returned to Eng. for Alpha Galactosidase sluicing."

He adds:  I recommend caution in the mobilization of this unit.

Fabry crisis refer to episodes of intense pain suffered by those with Fabry disease. Fabry disease is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme alpha galactosidase.

Not sure what (if anything) that has to do with the hermetic connection, but it's kind of creepy that they seem to be referring to humans as "units." Does the phrase "sapphire unit" imply that all mention of sapphires and rubies can be construed to mean humans?

or

As has also been a suspicion kicking around in my brain for the past two days, NC could be a very hip, intensely clever recruitment strategy for an esoteric order along the lines of the Masons or the Golden Dawn. I know membership in the Masons has been flagging in past years. What better way to generate new interest than to get back to the roots of "hidden knowledge" upon which these orders were founded?

Which also relates to my earlier pondering about Tript and Graham. Namely: I believe they (and others) started out as blind initiates, in the same way that those of us who are just now sending off emails to NC are starting. And I believe they have since risen in the ranks of this mysterious organization. But most importantly, I believe even they are in the dark about much of what lurks above them. This theory works even if NC is a game, or an experiment.

Then again, they could know everything. Or nothing. They just seem awfully lax about researching the boatloads of clues that are thrown at them.

culled from archavida's source code

This string of numbers was commented out at the very end of the source:

1104288685

I'm sure it's a code/clue of some sort, though there's some grumbling that it may not be relevant. Of course, if NC is a game then this could be reverse psychology, and if NC is a social experiment then "unauthorized" participation is still a valid part of the experience. Albeit a potentially boring dead end, if Archavida is just a bunch of kids fucking around, with no plans to continue their self-created role in this mystery.

Also of note/interest in the source:

meta name="description" content="archavida global operations portal"
meta name="keywords" content="archavida, operatives, global, operations, time, neurocam"
meta name="Generator" content="Mambo - Copyright 2000 - 2004 Miro International Pty Ltd.  All rights reserved."

I'm off to post this stuff on unfiction, see if they want to play with it. Especially those numbers. I hate numbers.

what is neurocam?

I have no idea. Let's just get that out of the way first. I'm not even "playing" yet, if you consider NC to be some kind of game, and if contact from NC operatives constitutes official engagement. I'm just poking around right now.

I did send letters of interest to both NC and Archavida, yesterday and today respectively, so we'll see if anything comes of that. I'm not in Australia or the UK (the Archavida contact email was a yahoo.uk account), and I'm not sure if I believe the assertion in this email that NC has "thousands of employees operating in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, The United States Of America, Nigeria, Nairobi, Japan, Netherlands, Germany and Britain." But I guess we'll see.

On to matters of larger scope. You'll notice that email was posted at unfiction, an ARG forum. The posters over there are (mostly) treating NC as an ARG that's either in pre-launch or is just getting started. There's some speculation it may even be tied in to the much-anticipated Project Syzygy/Perplex City.

I'm not so sure NC is an ARG, at least in the traditional sense, and I definitely don't think it's tied to PC. NC and its antecedents have been going on for too long, and the whole project has a different feel to it than NC. Specifically, PC has already introduced fantastical elements such as an alternate dimension and a magical cube, and before the game launched the PMs were quite open about the fact that a game was afoot. NC, on the other hand, is so "in-game" that nobody seems able to crack this nut. Are long-time player-operatives like Graham and Tript complicit in some way? Ie, in ARG terms, have they been brought (at least partially) behind the curtain?

And this is what I'm walking toward: NC may be a game, and it may be art, but I don't think either of those things are its goal or its exclusive definition. I think a bunch of people started something, and with some amount of design (or not) they're following it to a conclusion. Whatever that might be. I don't think it's a planned conclusion; I don't think there's a goal or a giant, purposeful puzzle to solve. I think Neurocam is a social experiment.

I also, unfortunately, think it's something that was started in Melbourne by a group of Melbourne artists who don't necessarily have the resources to make this experiment more "immersive" beyond the borders of their own city. Which is too bad. It would be interesting to participate. And I mean really participate.

every journey

I wasn't going to create a blog dedicated exclusively to my interest in Neurocam just yet. But I need a place to put my thoughts and keep things organized -- and that's what blogs do best, aight? So here I am. More thoughts, at greater length, very soon.