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 webslinky: alternate worlds
This week, avoiding reality. In Cornwall the other week I spotted a distant tower at the end of a field, possibly ancient and certainly mysterious. A wizard probably lives in that tower, I declared, and if it's all the same to you I'd rather not know otherwise. Although I would settle for a tramp living there instead.But I know I'm not alone in fantasising about a hidden reality masked beneath our own. The popularity of books like The Da Vinci Code and TV series, Lost, where a hatch-shaped plot device hides beneath every rock, attests to that. It's only a matter of time before an impressionable Lost fan is going to fall down a manhole on the trail of a “mysterious noisy fog”. Those sorts are better off sticking to the web, where the stay-at-home adventurer can visit established Webslinky favourite, Entrances2Hell. It's still going strong (well, it's still there), in a lo-fi kind of way, and is a great way to explore a surreal skew on reality without actually having to go anywhere. Similarly, fans of Lost who can't get on a plane and visit the fictional island are given ample opportunity to explore its universe via a bewildering array of websites (as well as tie-ins across other media), collectively known as the Lost Experience. For the Lost enthusiast with time to kill it looks like great fun, but the ultimate worry must be that even its creators don't know what it all means, and the whole thing could culminate in a terrible X-Files-style disappointment. But if you want real financial reward from your alternate-reality adventuring, Perplexcity is the game for you, with a £100,000 reward for the person who finds an object buried somewhere in the real world. Using a range of techniques, Perplexcity draws players in through seemingly innocuous puzzle cards, later merging fictional online and physical worlds with astonishing attention to detail. The game has been designed to encourage collaboration – you'll never do it alone – so a dedicated community has sprung up, expanding the universe as they explore, reading red herrings into the real world. They should have a look under that Cornish tower, as it's just the kind of place I'd hide my treasure - if I hadn't spent it all on puzzle cards.
David Thair
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related info
 useful linkswikipedia: lost experience www.thelostexperience.com www.perplexcity.com
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see also
 abandoned places webslinky alternate reality gaming gamesprevious web columns  webslinky #096pokey the penguin  webslinky #095snakes on a plane  webslinky #094blogspots  webslinky #089stickers  webslinky #092internet archives  webslinkyarchive
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