syst3m, We Hardly Knew Ye

Often, when we report on a game that has started and completed within a two week time period, it’s not great news — it usually indicates some sort of meltdown or premature departure from the Alternate Reality Gaming landscape. Today is different, though, as we learned that syst3m, a game that launched a scant eight days ago, wrapped up earlier today. While we didn’t have a chance to experience the game play first hand, we did see the end-game video, and were thoroughly impressed with the production values. Regardless of whether or not this is a grassroots campaign, as has been speculated at the unfiction forums, the game creators seem to have done their homework in creating a fun gaming experience.

Here’s what we can tell you: The game launched innocently enough through emails sent out by a group calling themselves the Tarot Terrorists. From there, the game introduced GLOBAL (self-described as “the ONLY telecommunications, Networking and media solution in the world”) and many, many puzzles of varying difficulty. By solving the puzzles and interacting with characters in the story, players were able to maneuver through to today’s ending. We’re not going to spoil it for you, as it appears that all of the original content is still unchanged and available for viewing, so “replaying” the game is an option for those who want to know more.

Where does this all lead? According to the META information page , this is part of a larger ARG called Arcana. As well, the end of the end-game video list another web address that doesn’t reveal too much… yet. We’ll definitely be watching this site for future updates, and will do our best to report on developments as they happen — seeing as how leaving this story alone for a mere eight days turned this article from an introductory news piece to an end-game report.