Numb3rs on Alternate Reality Games: Amita ARGs, and Extreme Deaddrops

The Writer’s Guild of America may be on strike, but you’ll need to wait a few more weeks for hordes of drama-starved television addicts to flock to alternate reality games for succor. While you wait, tune in to CBS tonight at 10pm EST for Numb3rs. Tonight’s episode of the hit series, entitled Primacy, will feature alternate reality gaming. According to SpoilerFix.com:

When a man that worked for the Department of Justice dies from falling off a roof, the team follows a trail to an online game called Primacy, which has an “Alternate Reality” (or real life) side as well. They question a 67-year-old female game player about being up on the same roof. They also question a leather-wearing biker and an Asian business woman. Amita and Larry help with the investigation and Amita is threatened because of her involvement with the game.

The drama revolving around mathematician Charles Epps (David Krumholtz) and his FBI agent brother Don (Rob Morrow) often features techniques familiar to followers of alternate reality games such as cipher decryption and steganography. Be sure to check out Wolfram on Numb3rs after the show for a closer look at the math used in the episode.

If you checked ARGNet too late to catch Primacy (or just want to see it again) and you have a US IP address, go to the Numb3rs homepage for the full episode.

DISCLAIMER: Televised impressions of “alternate reality game” might not mesh with your own.