Back in January, I had an article printed on mental_floss that dealt with ARGs (Alternate Reality Games).

During my research I signed up for a few different games in the hopes that something might come of them before my article was due.  Not much did happen (these things take time to develop), so I went ahead with the article and sort of forgot about the games I’d signed up for.  I’d occasionally get an email from some company I’d never heard of and wonder if that was part of the ARG, but I’d normally delete the email.

Then, last night, I received an email from “DecepTech” saying that the new website was up and that I’d have to login if I wanted access to the site.  I vaguely remembered signing up for the DecepTech game, so I headed over to the site and tried using my various internet logins to try to access the site.  No dice.  I didn’t delete the email, but I planned to later.

Today, at about 2:30, Andrea called me at the office and said I had received a strange package in the mail.  The return address was from:

Human Resources

100 Hippo Vista

Armonk, NY 10504

Inside this box were the following items:

In case you can’t quite make it out, there are two green and white pom-pons; a photo-copied flyer announcing that a young woman is missing:

And a postcard announcing a screening of the 1995 film, Hackers at a place called “Orange Bowl-A-Rama” in Florida.

The postcard had more information on the back:

Of course I have no idea who “Gilbert Caszinski” is, but for some reason I was getting his mail.

I was immediately hooked.

I started by looking up Gilbert Caszinski.  Here’s a close-up of his name and address:

The last name is an  unusual spelling, so if anything of value was going to come up on Google, I think it would have easily enough.  However, I couldn’t find a thing on Gil the man.  But his address led to an interesting discovery: There is no Apt B at 9400 Universal Boulevard, because that address is the street address for the north entrance of the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.

So next I concentrated on “Orange Bowl-A-Rama”.

Once again, there is no Orange Bowl-A-Rama in Lake Buena Vista, FL.  However, there is a 1050 Century Dr – it’s the address for the Disney World resort called “Pop Century” – and the phone number is real as well – it takes you to the Disney resort reservations line.  I know this because I called it and asked if there was a bowling alley on-site.  There is not (despite the giant bowling pins that dot the entire resort).

So with these clues coming up dead ends, I turned my attention to the other side of the card, the announcement for a screening of Hackers at the bowling alley that doesn’t exist.

The first thing I noticed was that there is no date for this screening – only a time of 9:00PM.  Suspiciously, 9:00PM was the last time Jennifer Summers was last seen.  Could she have been at the screening?  Or did she work at the Bowl-O-Rama, the “employer” mentioned on the flyer?

I did  some looking around for Jennifer Summers and came up with a few potential hits, but they were not the same person – until I checked Facebook and saw the same blonde-haired face staring back at me.

I tried to add her as a Friend and am still awaiting confirmation from her.  But while there I decided to look through her other friends and discovered something interesting: one person’s name is Gibson Case.  Gibson’s profile picture was not the typical 18-year old jock that a girl Jennifer’s age might be friends with.  Gibson’s photo was of Fisher Stevens, the actor who played the lead villain from the film…you guessed it…Hackers.  I looked at his Friends  list and found he only had one: Jennifer Summers.  So I immediately tried to add him to my Friends list and am still awaiting confirmation.

Aside from the Fisher Stevens  connection (which is similar, but not quite the same as the “Rainbow Connection”), the name “Gibson Case” jumped out at me as well.  William Gibson wrote the seminal cyberpunk novel “Nueromancer”, a book worshipped by computer geeks the world over, but especially hackers, because the main character is a super-hacker named…wait for it…Case.

So clearly this is someone I need to find online and learn a little more about.  Perhaps he can lead me to Jennifer before any harm comes to the poor girl.

And so that has been my first night playing an Alternate Reality Game (ARG).  I still have a little digging to do, but so far it’s a lot of fun and has really gotten me intrigued as to where things are headed.

So ride along as I unravel what I can with assistance from ARG-enthusiasts at various message boards and blogs as we search for Jennifer Summers.  And if you want to get involved, I’d love to have a little company down this winding road of  mystery and intrigue!

Posted under ALL, Deep Thoughts, Personal News