CourtTV is sponsoring what looks to be a fairly entertaining campaign, “CourtTV’s 8-Day Mystery Challenge,” in conjunction with Applebees and Suzuki. Starting at the trailhead site savemyhusband.com, players will be attempting to track down Andrew Goodis, chief scientist at AKARM Pharmaceuticals, a drug company on the verge of developing a cure for the common cold. The game is intended to be an eight day alternate reality game with a $25,000 cash prize to be shared by all players who successfully complete the game, which is accomplished by discovering who kidnapped Andrew and where he is being held. Clues will be given to registered players through video, email and text on the main site as well as a series of others.
The game is scheduled to start on Monday, June 4th and run until June 12th. However, ambitious players posting at the Unfiction forums have already discovered unsecured online assets — specifically, all videos intended for day-to-day posting on the Save My Husband web site. We don’t want to spoil things for those who wish to take part in the experience, and it seems that the game designers have corrected the situation, as the workaround to gain access to the videos no longer works.
With subject matter involving kidnapping, the game’s stealth launch has caught some people off guard. One blog post has an interesting debate about the appropriateness of how the game has been launched, particularly in the way it has been advertised on third-party sites.
All issues aside, there is still the matter of the $25,000 shared grand prize. To claim their share of the prize, players will still need to solve each day’s puzzle, although registration is open up until the final day of the contest, which is only open to US residents.
Click here for the discussion at UnFiction (be wary of spoilers).
meow wolf
subtext game
simulacra
light in the mist
dinn
welcome home
Interesting that in addition to removing the videos, they’ve added a pretty big disclaimer to the beginning of the plea-for-help video. I’m pretty amazed at all the people who were so appalled at this, as it seems pretty tame to me.
Ah well, consider the demographic, I guess, who aren’t used to ARGs. Too bad they felt it necessary to dumb it all down to cater to those who didn’t notice all the other disclaimers. But lesson learned. Don’t make people feel conned. 🙂
Yeah. I think anyone who actually thought the TV ads and web banners were REAL is a little nuts.
It was clear from the start that it was fake, even before they added more disclaimers. But I think these advertisements are dreadful. Most of the people who watch Court TV are not into ARG (and perhaps don’t even know what it is), and in any event, these ads mock and make a joke out of a devastating real event that happens to thousands of families every year.
Very poor judgment by Suzuki and Applebee’s, I think. Not everyone will agree with me, I know, but why take a chance of participating in a promo that makes fun of people with missing loved ones?
Of course, YMMV.
“War of the Worlds” anyone? 😀
Lets get started
i figured it out..its real easy im ahead of ppl who are still on the day it says to be on im 1 step ahead…its really easy
~kathie~
I cant seem to figue out the second puzzle never was any good at that type of puzzle if anyone out there can explain the concept of that type of puzzle please post dont want you to tell me the answer i want to figure it out . Just need help getting started with learning how to do this type of puzzle
Day 2 has me stumped any kind of hint would be great, just can’t figure it otu, have racked what little brain I have
I knew the game was a fraud. But come on, people who don’t know this is fraud need to get there head examined.
[email protected]
Kathie or others who wanna some help. Send me a e-mail on [email protected] if you wanna get some clues. I dont live in USA so i cant participate but I love stuff like this 🙂
//Annie
See this website, it will give all the answers and more.
Visit this website, it will give all the answers so far and more!…
http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19285
if any one can help me with the second puzzle cuz i can not figue it out. Get me at [email protected] tanks for the healp.
Stop asking for hints!!! and stop cheating! if you cant get it oh well youre ruining it for those of us WHO ARE figuring it out on our own.
a-b c d e f g h i j k l m
z y x w v u t s r q p o n
stay stand for eac other. a stands for z. and z stands fo a and so on.
for second puzzel
How are you guys doing on the mystery contests?
no worries they redid all the clues puzzles and websites on the 6th of june so the folks that thought they solved it early are lost. no idea why anyone needs spoilers the puzzles are a joke a 4 yr old can get them.. i think thelongest i took on any one was 3 min and that was to watch a vid.. and seriously get a life court tv is not making fun of anyone its only a game and be real what did you expect from court tv a game about dogs??? not everything is a attempt to make fun of others unless thats how you like to look at life.. if so thats very sad!!!
I have no idea what an ARG is. Yes, the website fooled me. I saw a web ad, the one where it was just the woman with a “Please help me save my husband!” banner. There were no markings to indicate that it was false, so I followed the link. I intended to look at the picture, ’cause maybe I’ve seen him. You never know. I check out the missing kids posters in Wal-Mart too. I thought that the woman was acting kind of funny in the video (this was pre-disclaimer), but I shrugged and scrolled down to the ‘kidnapping’ video. At this point, I had yet to see anything that would have told me this was less than real. The kidnapping video gave it away. I knew that it couldn’t be real. By this time, I had wasted a good 10 minutes!! I understand, it is only a game. Fine. I was feeling bad for the woman though, hoping that she found her husband (and that she hadn’t chopped him up and stuck him in the freezer. Boy, was she a really bad actor). I just wish that they had advertised it better. I was worried for her and it was just a game.
okay i think i might know who did it but i cant figure out the address i came up with cherry street can anyone help ?
It has been very irratating for me to know that players like myself are being ripped off because of cheaters and those sites that aid them. I have known of those sites since day 3 and, having the integrity, avoided useing any of them. It is only today that I acknowledge their existance. And should I (and the others who played the game honestly and fairly), only receive a smaller portion of what we would otherwise have earned because of these cheaters, at the very least I will do so knowing in my conscience that gave my best to the game without the benefits of a “cheat sheet”. We may never know WHO YOU ARE, but YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT YOU ARE. A CHEATER THAT CAN’T BE TRUSTED AND A LIER IF YOU DENY IT.
The rules of the contest did not forbid anyone from discussion or working together to solve the puzzles or the mystery. There was no cheating. The site(s) take advantage of collective intelligence and enjoy Alternate Reality Games.
In this day & age, it cannot be expected by any online gaming such as this one, that people would NOT discuss the puzzles and answers in public forums. Even CourtTV has a forum.
What was unexpected, though, was the ability of experienced online mystery solvers (like unFiction denizens) to find online content before it was suppose to be available – because the PMs of this game had very little or no experience with online ARGs. Guess they learned a little lesson. I hope that ARGNet reporters (or the podcast) will be able to get ahold of the PMs for an interview about what happened on their side of the curtain. That would be a very interesting story.
‘squeek’
Maybe it is Curry or Kerry Street?
can anyone help with the final day 8 answer part two,the address sounds like it is being said cherry street,i replayed the clip and maxed the volume on my computer speakers,but the straat name just isn’t clear enough,also is the street address all that is needed to answer correctly the second part of the final day 8 two part question,if not,can anyone help,my brain is smokin’ from all this for 8 days…thanks if you can help out….i need sleep and have to key in my final answers correctly before i give in for the night,so i do not miss the 6am deadline.thanks again.
Can anyone give me a clue to find the addreww on Cherry Street? I have tryed everything I can think of. Thank you.