Archive for August, 2007
Just a quick note to let readers know that it’s possible to qualify for the Ultimate Search for Bourne iPhone contest without getting enough sightings. The official rules let you enter with a postcard but it must be postmarked by tomorrow, Saturday, 4 Auguist 2007.
Here’s the relevant passage:
Entrant(s) who obtain surveillance points that fall in the range from twenty-five (25) to thirty-two (32) points online during the Sweepstakes Period will automatically receive one (1) entry (“Sightings Internet Entry”) into the Sightings Sweepstakes. To enter the Sightings Sweepstakes by mail without Game play, legibly hand-print your first and last name, complete home address (including street address, city, state/province and zip code/postal code), date of birth, telephone number (including area code), email address and the surveillance code name “Sighting Mission” on a postcard (no larger than 6” x 8”) and mail, with proper postage affixed to: The Ultimate Search for Bourne with Google, P.O. Box 10301, Burbank, CA 91510 (“Sightings Mail Entry”). Each Sightings Mail Entry submitted will receive thirty-two (32) surveillance points (the maximum number of points obtainable by Game play) equaling one (1) Entry into the Sightings Sweepstakes. Online Entries for each Daily Sweepstakes and Grand Prize Drawing must be received by 11:59:50 p.m. EDT during that day’s date; Sightings Internet Entries must be received by 11:59:59 p.m. EDT on August 3, 2007; and Sightings Mail Entries must be postmarked by August 4, 2007 and received by August 10, 2007 (collectively “Entries”).
To everyone: good luck!
August 3rd, 2007
The final day of the Ultimate Search for Bourne is here, and here’s a complete spoiler for the last challenge.
And today’s challenge starts out quite differently. All we have is a link to http://www.readteston.com/ (note that the web site title is “ReadTeStOn”; I don’t know why). The screen is filled with an odd video, only the numbers 1 and 4 flashing oddly on the left. I tried typing them (after clicking on the screen in general), but that did nothing
Mouse over these numbers, and they’ll resolve into the number 5 (4+1?). Click the 5, and you get the familiar log-in screen for your instant messenger, with agent handle landypamela already filled in.
Solving this requires knowledge of The Bourne Supremacy. If you click on the ? at the top right of the dialog, you get a hint reading: “Which set of files was Pamela Landy looking for in Berlin when she found Bourne’s fingerprint?” The answer is the “Neski files.”
So type Neski in as the passphrase and hit Submit, and you’ll be rewarded with a “bonus video” from the same fellow who’s been offering congratulations all along.
The main reward is a fairly extended clip, apparently from the new Bourne Ultimatum movie. He says, “I know this wasn’t easy.” I can’t say I agree. Today’s challenge was a slight bit of a challenge, yes, but I would have liked them to be this hard from the beginning, with much harder ones as the game progressed. I guess that wouldn’t make for a generally accessible promotion, though.
The clip is entertaining, though. It does make me somewhat more interested in seeing the film. So in the end, I guess the promotion has done its job . . . with me at least.
I’ll be posting a wrap-up sometime soon, but I’d invite anyone to share their own final thoughts in the comments on this post. Looking forward to hearing how everyone did and what everyone thought!
Edit: I should mention that, as commenter Z points out, the main game’s UI seems to be finished. It gives you the link to the ReadTeStOn site, but does nothing else. No chance to place more cameras; no nothing. I wouldn’t have minded a congratulations message, let alone a chance to up my sightings score for an iPhone contest entry, but I guess that’s not to be.
August 3rd, 2007
Not mine, of course! I’m in the beta but under the NDA. Michael Zenke at MMOGNation, is permitted to post his impressions (something about an exception for the press right now).
And he nails it. There’s only one area he doesn’t cover that I think deserves some discussion, but I’ll save that for when the NDA is lifted for me. In the mean time, if you’re interested, read what he has to say and you’ll know all you need to know.
August 2nd, 2007
Here’s a fun tool for tabletop roleplaying games and MMORPG players who actually want to do some roleplaying over Ventrilo and Teamspeak. Pulp Gamer is offering a dialect-training CDs. In the past, I’ve looked longingly at the advanced—and expensive—dialect training courses and coaches Hollywood stars use, but I’ve never been able to justify the expense.
Along comes Pulp Gamer, offering two CDs that cover various British English dialects. The first covers “Cockney and the Queen’s English,” which is just what I need for my surly gnome rogue in World of Warcraft. The second tackles “Irish and Scottish.”
Will these CDs help me attain true verisimilitude? I rather doubt it. The sample, for instance, sounds very good but not perfect.
But hey, I don’t want to spend years mastering a throwaway dialect for my upcoming Victorian countryside survival horror campaign. Instead, I want to sound good enough that I can voice several different characters convincingly enough that my players can distinguish them. If I can coax even a few smiles—or widened eyes—the $13.95 I blow on each CD will be well worth it.
While you’re ordering yours, you might want to subscribe to Pulp Gamer’s very good paper game podcast, too. It’s their main product, really, and well worth your time.
August 2nd, 2007
I stumbled on an interesting campaign setting in a blog dedicated to gaming in the Philippines. The author, pointyman2000, has three posts (here, here, and here) about an anime-inspired weird west setting.
I’m giving this quick shout out for two reasons. First, the setting is a nifty blend of magic, space opera, and the Western genre with rich anime styling. Pointyman2000 gives enough description of his thoughts that I can really start to imagine running some players through an adventure on one The Fronteir.
Second, I think it’s a great example of how to put together a sketch of a tabletop roleplaying game setting description. It covers the setting at the right level of detail to inspire creative game masters, then offers details on a suggested system (he suggests Hero
, but I’ll probably do it with my old favorite, GURPS
), along with character creation guidelines and a set of delightful villains.
All around, a well done presentation of a promising campaign world. I may just have to add it to my ever-expanding list of campaigns I want to run.
August 2nd, 2007
Here’s a complete spoiler of the answer to the day fourteen puzzle in the Ultimate Search for Bourne.
Our briefing tells us Bourne is lying in the video we captured yesterday and recommends getting in touch with Mustapha Nayet, the video expert, through the instant messenger for ideas on how to deal with lies in audio samples.
It’s been a while, so if you don’t remember, you need to use agent handle Mouslelion and passphrase Vive le maroc in the instant messenger to get in touch with Mustapha. When you do, he’ll tell you: “You’ve got the tools. Search for yourself. These keywords may help: Bourne lie detection Treadstone.”
The trick is to enter the phrase bourne lie detection treadstone into Google Image Search (images.google.com). When you do, you’ll see a picture stored at the Dater Notes site called “How to spot a lie.” (The French “mensonge détection” is there, too, with a miraculously identical coffee mug stain. Spoils suspension of disbelief, but I have to admit I’m impressed that Google Image Search found a relevant non-English version based on the English text entered into the search box. It didn’t find a German version, though. I suspect there’s one out there.)
For once, we don’t have to enter the image into the Decryption tool (which doesn’t work at all for some readers). Instead, we have to follow the final advice from the sheet: “Digital studio analysis can expose a marked increase in transients and visual distortion of the waveform due to stress and the constriction of the larynx under duress. Though the lie may pass aural cues of detection, often the best liars can’t escape waveform analysis.”. The video we found yesterday is in the Media section under Videos and is called “Waveform Video.” I had to click the Video button about three times to get it to show up.
Since Jason Bourne helpfully included a visual waveform readout of his spoken message, all we have to do is watch for those phrases in which the waveform becomes agitated and distorted, as illustrated on the “How to spot a lie” sheet. This happens with the phrase: Stay here.
The answer to today’s puzzle is to type Stay here. in the message transmitter and hit Submit.
Since neither of my camera’s caught a shot of Bourne yesterday, including the one that did catch a sighting the day before that, I’m back to just random guessing. Anyone have a better idea for camera placement?
(Edited to correct a minor error in the answer. Thanks, O Great Commenters!)
August 2nd, 2007
Here’s the complete spoiler for the day 13 challenge in the Ultimate Search for Bourne game.
Our briefing tells us that amoung our video files is a “very public” apparent trailer that contains an instant message handle, straight from Jason Bourne. We’ll use this in the transmitter to get the answer to today’s puzzle. This video showed up as “Altered Trailer” on my wife’s machine and started playing automatically, but I was completely unable to get it to display on mine. More evidence that the UI is irritatingly buggy, as some commenters have observed. (Note: I was able to get the video to play on my own machine about five minutes later.)
The video has many promotional titles that, together, read, “His identity erased. His loved one murdered. His past stolen. On August 3rd, Bourne comes home. The Bourne Ultimatum.” Slightly harder to see (I used the pause button to catch them exactly) are JoanneBrous (an anagram of “Jason Bourne) and the familiar TREADSTONE ALL LIES. Key these in to the Instant Messenger as the agent handle and passphrase, and you’ll get a link to a YouTube video (here) with an audio message from Bourne: “This is Jason Bourne. Listen. Stay here. Do exactly what I say. And you’ll get further instructions.”
That’s all well and good, but don’t be distracted. As with the other days’ puzzles, the answer is very simple. It’s the URL itself that we have to put in the Message Transmitter to solve the challenge.
Click “Submit Answer” under the daily briefing and paste the URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq0iKP8c3D0 in as your answer. Transmit it, and you’re done.
It’s possible there’s a clue to camera placement in today’s video, but I didn’t recognize any of the shots of the Big Apple, even when the clip had someone saying “within 1000 yards of this building,” which sounded promising. So I went with proximity, and put the nearest camera at 5 West 37th Street. I don’t know if there’s anything exciting or spyish in that building, a high-rise office building, but it’s right next to Madison Square Park, yesterday’s solution and the place where my first New York City camera caught a sighting of Bourne.
August 1st, 2007
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