Vanishing Point (alternate reality game)

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Vanishing Point was an alternate reality game, and a promotional event for Windows Vista hosted by Microsoft in which contestants solved puzzles and entered a sweepstakes for some prizes given out by Microsoft and other game sponsors, such as AMD and Dell. The grand prize, a trip to see the Earth from space, was won by the contestant William Temple. [1] [2]

The game generated discussions over some of the Internet forums such as Neowin forums, [3] and media coverages (See below), a fan-based wiki was also set up to discuss the game.[4]

Contents

[edit] Discovery of the game

There were several places players were made aware of the game. The first was a link at IE blog, which was a picture of a box with jumbled up message, and the tag line "Most of you won't figure this out."

A similar picture was posted by a user named 'lokivanishes' on the Neowin forum, with the text "More to come...but not delivered like this. Keep your eyes on the post". The post has been removed, but was reported at Neowin main page. [5]

Further to this message, key bloggers began receiving items from Microsoft by mail.[6] Items include a puzzle box package with a video clip, 256 MB USB Key,[7] a laptop pre-loaded with Windows Vista, and a Windows Vista-based Media Center PC. Each item included a code that led to different pages of the website before the official start of the game play.[5]

There are even evidences shown that hints of the game appeared in the Microsoft CES 2007 Keynote by Bill Gates.[8]

[edit] Loki

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Loki, a fictitious female character, was the leading character behind the course of game play. Little is known about the character, but clues about the character have emerged throughout the course of game play. She featured in all videos to the contestants, hinting them about the puzzles or what to do next, and stating that "the faster the contestants solving the puzzles, the nearer she is reaching her ultimate 'vanishing point'".

In the first video, she stated that her job is to "find the smartest people on the planet and reward them with astonishing prizes, including a trip into space to see the ultimate vista, and being immortalized on a computer chip around the world." And has revealed herself as "Enigma[9] Director" of Microsoft when sending packages of puzzle boxes to bloggers. Information have been summarized by users of the Neowin forum.[10]

The goal of the game was to find the "Real" identity of Loki, and it was later revealed that Loki was actually four person and that "L.O.K.I." was just an acronym.[citation needed]

[edit] Live Events

Throughout the course of the game, there were several different live events, featuring videos at certain locations, which gave clues to puzzles that must be solved, and the corresponding puzzle boxes of the week were unlocked after the respective events.

[edit] Week 1

The first public event was held at the fountains at Bellagio Hotel, Las Vegas on the January 8, 2007, the time for CES 2007.[11] The game officially started after the event.

[edit] Week 2

There were several real world events planned for the second week of the game play, the locations include, Pan Pacific Regional Park in Los Angeles, Lummus Park and Public Beach in Miami, and Margaret T. Hance Park - East End in Phoenix at January 13, together eith North Steyne Park in Sydney at January 14, and Barton Square Mall in Austin. However, the Austin event was cancelled due to unstable weather.[12][13]

[edit] Week 3

Some real world events were held, places include Sir Stamford Raffle Statue at the Victoria Theatre in Singapore, West Side of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Trafalgar Square in London, Outside the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and Palace Of Fine Arts Lagoon in San Francisco.[14]

[edit] Week 4

The last real world event was held at Gas Works Park in Seattle, followed with a special 3-hour "VIP Party" after, at an undisclosed venue, and the invitation was extended only to people over 18 who attended the event at 6pm.[citation needed]

[edit] Game play

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Registered users were required to solve a total of 48 puzzles and earn points based on hints given in real world events, videos and different pages over the game play website (http://vanishingpointgame.com/) each week for a period of four weeks starting from January 8, 2007 to January 30, 2007 - the launch day of Windows Vista.

The puzzles were locked in four puzzle boxes with different titles as "Time passes...", "Magic happens...", "Memories fade..." and "People disappear..." respectively, each week unlocking one, a total of 12 puzzles and 4 puzzles for each level as "easy", "medium" and "hard", together with a special puzzle named officially as the "Meta Puzzle" where players had to collect plates which appeared in some of the puzzles. Participants would need to watch videos, webpages, and even the puzzle itself for hints to solve the meta puzzle, and a different prize was awarded compared to the original prizes. [15]

[edit] Points

The game used a point earning system for contestants to enter the sweepstakes, where they could earn points at different points of the game play process. Each point earned was treated as one entry to the sweepstakes, for prizes. The main purpose of the game was to let contestants solve puzzles. Upon solving a puzzle, different values of points would be earned according to the level of the puzzle; 10 points for Easy-level puzzles, 20 points for Medium, 20 points, and 50 points for Hard. For each week, a maximum of 320 points could be earned for solving puzzles. In addition, contestants were each awarded with 20 points upon registering, and gained another 10 points for each referrals, up to a maximum of 20 referrals. This let the players get a maximum of 1500 points in total at the end of the game play. [16]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vanishing Point Trip-to-Space Winner Announced
  2. ^ GeekZone report
  3. ^ Vanishing Point discussion sub-forum
  4. ^ http://vanishingpoingwiki.com/wiki/Main_Page
  5. ^ a b Neowin Forum discussion on the subject
  6. ^ Australian IT report
  7. ^ GeekZone report
  8. ^ GeekZone report
  9. ^ Wikionary entry on "Enigma"
  10. ^ Neowin forum thread on "Loki"
  11. ^ Week 1 event report
  12. ^ A+E interactive entry
  13. ^ Photos taken during the events (Week 2)
  14. ^ Photos taken during the events (Week 3)
  15. ^ I Started Something entry
  16. ^ Official FAQ

[edit] External links

Official
Media
Other discussions
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