pxc_video.jpgAs announced last Thursday at PerplexCity.com, Mind Candy and You Tube of, well, you know, Earth, as well as the Perplex City Academy and the Open Design Agency of Perplex City, are beginning a video contest to promote Perplex City, as well as the game with its namesake. This marks the first time an Alternate Reality Game will incorporate user-generated video into the realm of the game, and has inspired many of the PXC player base to pick up their cameras and start shooting.

According to the Perplex City official contest page, videos will be accepted for a four week period which started April 27th. The video submissions should illustrate “the Joys of Perplex City” — whether that means the city itself, or the game, is likely intentionally unclear. As well, videos must be 30-90 seconds long and family-friendly, and everything contained in the video must be either entirely original, or free from copyright restriction (read: Creative Commons). Beyond that, apparently, the sky is the limit.


The prizes are not entirely outlined as of yet, but the official contest page does cite that the first prize winner will win an “archive set of Wave 1, 2 and 3 cards plus “framed goodies”. Also, runners up will receive Perplex City points (of a value as of yet undetermined). Entries will be judged from May 25th Through June 8th, and winners will be decided by highest video views, so entries made by May 25th should have a better chance of winning, but entries will be accepted until The 8th itself.

So the stakes are high, and the creative gates are swung wide. Personally, I’m very excited to see what will come of this event. Regardless of the results, it definitely shows the creative minds at work within the Perplex City machine, as well as an interesting new, original promotional tool for ARG in general. Here’s looking at you, Cube.