Category: Rumors (Page 1 of 18)

It’s Been Here the Whole Time: The Boy Who Cried “Dropout ARG”

August 15, 2025 / Michael Andersen

A highly degraded version of Sam Reich, showing where he’s from in this third loop of s6’s “Deja Vu”

I think Dropout’s hit game show Game Changer is celebrating the end of its seventh season with an alternate reality game. Admittedly, when fans of the show posted to the streaming network’s subreddit, the show’s host Sam Reich clearly and repeatedly denied the claims, writing “NOTHING TO SEE HERE” and “THIS IS NOTHING, LOOK AWAY”. These denials were reinforced by the show’s co-executive producer Paul Robalino, who went even further with his statement:

There was nothing hidden at the end of the last episode. There’s no ARG. There are no QR codes. There is no secret to unlock. What is everyone talking about
Paul Robalino, on Twitter

Admittedly, I was convinced there was a Game Changer ARG two years ago, when the team teased there might be more to the season after the “final episode” of season 5. And then I did it all over again last year, when a particularly glitchy episode released during season 6.

But please, ignore my spotty personal track record for this and the team’s explicit and suspiciously specific denials: this time, I think Game Changer really is running an alternate reality game that gives its players a peek behind the fictional-curtain of the show, to help unlock the “real” ending for the season. But before going over that, I should probably own up to past missteps.

The poster for Dropout’s Game Changer: season 5, a season that did not have an ARG

Third Time’s the Charm? The Last Two Times We Suspected a Game Changer ARG
Admittedly, the Dropout fandom doesn’t have the best track record of finding ARGs in episodes of Game Changer. The first time we missed the mark was after the season 5 episode Escape the Greenroom. The episode introduced viewers to Samuel Dalton, Sam Reich’s great-grandfather and occultist. During the episode, Dalton kidnapped and replaced the real Sam Reich, subjecting the episode’s guests to a custom escape room designed by Stash House‘s Tommy Honton.

At the time, this episode was thought to be the ninth and final episode of the season. But immediately after it aired, Sam Reich posted a cryptic message to the Discord, hinting that there might be more to come.

In retrospect, the solution to this was relatively straightforward: zoom into the series’ key, and Sam Reich had an extra “13” up his sleeve, hinting that the show would have not just one surprise episode, but four: a multi-part Battle Royale homage to the Survivor franchise that served as the true end of the season. That didn’t stop fans (myself included) from deconstructing every tidbit of occult lore shown as part of the escape room, suspecting we hadn’t seen the last of Samuel Dalton, time travelling magician and occultist.

The “13” (episodes) Sam actually had up his sleeve, versus Dalton lore from the ARG-that-wasn’t

The next year, suspicions of an alternate reality game started to really percolate after the season’s sixth episode, Deja Vu. The episode centered around contestants reliving the episode on a time loop, with the episode’s footage glitching out more and more after every loop – a theme familiar to fans of Ranboo’s Generation Loss ARG from the prior year. Ranboo would make their own Game Changer debut through a series of guest appearances culminating in the season finale.

This theme was also familiar to Game Changer fans still looking for Samuel Dalton to make an ARGish return. Was the time loop happening because Reich’s time travelling great-grandfather returned to torment a new batch of contestants in a neverending loop? The episode’s frequent glitches and nearly impossible challenges did task contestants with exploring external websites, like the FixItMan78 YouTube channel which provided helpful instructions on how to repair the ElectroBobbleWobble QZ.

Voice actor and YouTuber SungWon Cho (also known as ProZD) as FixItMan78, screaming into a gizmo

So, fans started poring through Deja Vu to interpret the glitches, and even started skimming through past episodes to see if there was a pattern in Sam Reich’s introductions that might reveal whether he’d been secretly replaced by his identical great-grandfather. Multiple promising leads emerged, but nothing that manifested into anything definitive.

A very prominent poster for the Mysterious Samuel Dalton, during “Beat the Buzzer”

The next episode, Beat the Buzzer (which brought back Tommy Honton as a consultant) only fanned the flames of speculation by subjecting the show’s contestants to a number of challenges to earn the right to press dozens of buzzers hidden throughout the studio: this time, famed magician and time traveler Samuel Dalton even made a cameo on an advertisement for his show, next to a literal callback puzzle that challenged contestants to order a buzzer from a fake pizza company.

After the episode aired, some of those games (like Crack the CAPTCHA) were even made playable on Dropout’s site. But ultimately, in season 6 there wasn’t even a card up Sam’s sleeve – sometimes, a time loop episode is just a time loop episode.

Return of the Duck Cult: A Doors of Divergence ARG?

June 30, 2025 / Michael Andersen

The Paradox Bar: Doors of Divergence’s in-universe lobby (that also doubles as a functioning bar)

On my first visit to the Paradox Bar I received a free drink ticket from myself, welcoming me back to the timeless venue. A handful of colorful characters slipped out of time, and found themselves at an old bar from the 1950’s. As another version of me explained in a letter, “it’s kind of a watering hole for those of us trying to repair reality – a place to meet, talk about our efforts, and compare notes while we try to find the right set of choices that will fix this rift once and for all.”

A free drink ticket, from myself – not your typical pub experience

The Paradox Bar acts as in-universe lobby for a trilogy of escape rooms collectively referred to as The Paradox Cycle, although players often referred to the games by the company’s name: Doors of Divergence. The rooms had a relatively short run in New York City: the game’s first chapter, Heresy 1897 opened in June 2022. This was quickly followed by the release of its second chapter, Madness 1917, in September. Just over a year later, Doors of Divergence closed its doors with an in-universe farewell party in October 2023.

During those 16 months, I took seven trips through the rifts at the Paradox Bar, because the team designed an experience that meant every single visit was a completely different one, leading me through different puzzles and even rooms, despite nominally playing the same game multiple times. Luckily, an online alternate reality game seems to be implying that Doors of Divergence has found a new home, giving me an excuse to talk about what remains my favorite escape room due to the depth of its experience and the vaguely terrifying scope of its ambition.

Into the Rift: Beyond Choose Your Own Adventure
The Doors of Divergence experience starts at the Paradox Bar, where a welcoming bartender introduces teams to the space between times they have fallen into, and introduces a few of the colorful characters who have fallen into the rift with them. One might come across an engineer, an astronaut, or even a scout leader milling about the bar. Idle conversation might even trigger a special request for the pending journey through time: bring back a couple of gears to help fix a clock, perhaps.

My first night, the Paradox Bar even had some special programming planned, and the surprisingly spacious room’s stage was used for a variety show, complete with aerialist performance. Once it’s your group’s time to proceed into the rift, a member of the staff would pull you and your group to the side, and introduce the mission. But instead of dryly reading off a list of rules and regulations, players would be encouraged to pull a series of tarot cards, offering divinations of events to come (and the corresponding rules to help navigate those situations).

As players’ first interaction with the Rift, Heresy 1897 leads players into the past as they enter Edmond Cavanaugh’s study, where they encounter the game’s Proctor. Teams are challenged with a question that determines which of two completely different escape rooms to play, within that space.

One of the puzzles from Heresy 1897, that is only seen by half the teams navigating the escape room

That means that Heresy 1897 is technically two completely different escape rooms, that just so happens to occupy the same space. There’s an entire room of Heresy that is unique to that initial binary choice, and there’s nothing about the in-game experience that would even hint at that secret. Teams are also presented with a moral quandary at the end of every room, meaning Heresy 1897 has four different endings, even if teams complete the room.

To help players track these choices, post-game debriefs include handing out a series of cards to commemorate key decisions and actions from the escape room. Entering those codes into an online portal tracks your progress and choices through the game – not just for those key moments at the beginning and end of the experience, but for some of the smaller choices, rewarding players who push the edges of the experience. Did you get sticky fingers at an opportune time, or linger for a moment longer than you should have?

Madness 1917 is where you start to really see the impact of those choices, with at least four different narrative and puzzle experiences: every escape room team enters an insane asylum during the Great War, but the reason for being there is changed, and interactions with the sequel experience’s two actors starts taking a much more theatrical turn, although it is still an escape room experience at its core.

SCXR Academy: A New ARG Fashion Line?

May 3, 2025 / Michael Andersen

Teaser images from the Office of Admissions at SCXR Academy

SCXR (pronounced “Scar”) is a new fashion brand. Its first line of products are slated to release at the end of May, and in the brand’s announcement video its creator Sugar (also known as Angelina Zhang) described its vision by explaining: “I have a hard time explaining what my dream style is. But if I had to choose a word, it’d be fictional.” And while that comment was intended to reference the brand’s aesthetic inspirations like the fashion featured in Bratz, Monster High, and My Little Pony, the “fictional” inspiration seems to go beyond that, moving into alternate reality gaming territory.

The SCXR website is currently fairly minimal, with retail features grayed out. However, registering for updates triggers an in-universe email from SCXR Academy’s Dean of Admissions Lilith Aranea welcoming new students to the academy with the somewhat ominous welcome message, “we can’t wait to see you on campus…The Academy is always watching“.

SCXR’s main character Scarlet, potentially providing a sneak peek at some of the featured fashion

In the project’s launch video, Zhang explains that the SCXR line takes place within the fictional world of SCXR Academy, and centers around Scarlet as the protagonist in a story that should appeal to fans of stories that touch on coming-of-age stories, dystopic thrillers, and mystery / ARG narratives.

While Zhang is still a University of Toronto student, she also built a massive presence as a Canadian online influencer, with almost 6 million followers on Douyin and TikTok alone. Her content leans towards musical covers with a healthy dose of fashion and cosplay thrown into the mix, although she was also one of the more vocal figures explaining Chinese social media platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu (“RedNote”) to US audiences worried about a potential TikTok ban.

In an interview with Gary Guo that touched on the project in January, Zhang explains, “it’s kind of a unique clothing concept because I have a lot of reoccurring character personas in my videos. I have a red haired girl, I have a black haired girl, and they’re very different. And my clothing brand is going to be something similar to using these characters to reflect their styles, versus using me as Sugar to reflect their styles…it’s going to be a virtual influencer brand.”

And it doesn’t seem like that earlier reference to ARGs is hyperbolic: this virtual influencer brand looks like it has some secrets to uncover.

I Think There Might Be an Official Phantom of the Opera ARG

April 24, 2025 / Michael Andersen

The unassuming building that will soon serve as home for Masquerade NYC

If you took a trip out to the corner of 57th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan today, you’d probably walk past without looking twice. The former home of Lee’s Art Shop still bears its prior signage despite closing down in 2016, and the windows are papered over with old newspapers. But on the off chance you did stop to peer at the articles obscuring the view through the building’s large glass windows, you might notice that a couple of those newspapers aren’t just old, they’re practically ancient – dating back to Paris in the 1880s.

This starts to make sense once you realize that Lee’s Art Shop is in the process of transforming into the Paris Opera House, to play host to the upcoming immersive production of Phantom of the Opera, Masquerade NYC. And enough curious events are happening, that I’m beginning to suspect they’re running an alternate reality game to welcome the show into the world.

Act I: Letters from the Opera Ghost
Rumors have been circulating across Broadway for the past few months that Phantom of the Opera would be returning to New York City in the form of an immersive show of some sort. But last year, those rumors started solidifying into something real when Broadway World flagged the casting notice for “UNTITLED IMMERSIVE MUSICAL ATTRACTION”, posted by POTO LLC.

Those rumors further solidified when ardent fans tracked down documents filed with New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Committee outlining the team’s plans to respect the building’s 130 year history as they transform it into a 140 year old Parisian theater. And starting in late 2024 a minimalist version of the MasqueradeNYC.com website went live, asking devoted fans to register for updates – what their Instagram account would later take to referring to as “submitting to the Ledger”.

An early version of the now-red signup page at MasqueradeNYC.com

In March, people who signed up for the list received an email from the Opera Ghost containing a red letter, and a link to the MasqueradeNYC Instagram account reading:

Fondest Greetings.

You submitted your name to my ledger, and for that you shall be among the first to glimpse the strange new world beyond the mirror.

Though the veil is drawn,
the stage is being set
and the Masquerade will soon begin.
Your Host

A month later, fan and Phantom-inspired romance author Jessica Mason received a physical letter from the Opera Ghost in the mail. She had previously made a TikTok video about the virtual letter, but its physical counterpart was significantly more personal. It wasn’t written to a generic Phantom fan. It was written with her in mind.

Dearest Jessica,

Your keen attention to my Masquerade has not gone unnoticed. The devotion you pour into your tales of the Opera Ghost makes you no stranger to the shadows – and soon, you will be able to step into them yourself.

A Masquerade awaits – when the moment comes, be prepared to cross the veil from fiction into reality. Until then, let your pen wander freely.

Your obedient servant,
O.G.

Over the next few days, a host of these deeply personalized letters from the Phantom started going out to other Phantom, Broadway, and immersive theater fans.

The SFX makeup artist @Ash.Paints.Faces received a note saying, “I have seen your artistry – how you wield paint like a mask, transforming faces into visions both haunting and divine. Such talent does not go unnoticed, least of all by one who knows the power of a well-crafted illusion.” Museum of Broadway brand ambassador Malcolm Hollis’ letter reads, “a theater aficionado like you knows the magic isn’t just in the spotlight – it’s in the shadows too. How eager you seem to be to unveil the details of my Masquerade. Where would be the fun in that?” Letter after letter from the Opera Ghost, wooing individual patrons with flattery and kind words. Like he knows them. Like he sees them. Like he hears them.

Project KURI: Interdimensional Doors in Your Neighborhood?

April 8, 2024 / Michael Andersen

Interdimensional Doors found in Salt Lake City UT, Phoenix AZ, and Charlotte NC.

Starting on March 27th, a series of “Interdimensional Doors” were erected in cities across North America. No two doors looked exactly the same: a door installed near Salt Lake City Utah’s Gallivan Center featured the kind of traditional wooden door with frosted glass that wouldn’t be out of place as the entry to a professor’s office, while a door along the Piestewa Peak Summit Trail in Phoenix Arizona featured a more minimalist frame painted to look like glimpsing into a nebula of swirling purples and pinks.

While each door was unique in appearance, there were still a few details inextricably linking them together. Along the top of each door, the text “Interdimensional Door” was paired with a seemingly nonsensical hashtag. And underneath that text, a QR code was present that, when scanned, sent curious onlookers to the website ProjectKuri.org.

Interdimensional Doors found in Toronto ON, Vancouver BC, San Francisco CA, and Tierra Del Mar, OR

The Key Unconsciousness Research Institute (KURI) Project
The Project KURI website explains that it is an organization interested in studying how dreams can serve as doorways to alternate dimensions. In order to pursue that research, Project KURI is actively soliciting members of the public to share their dreams. As the organization explains in an Instagram post:

At KURI, we’re turning imagination into exploration. Our dedicated team of scientists, psychologists, and visionaries are pioneering research into the subconscious mind, decoding the messages hidden in our dreams. But this journey is not ours alone – we invite you, dreamers, thinkers, and seekers from all over the world to join us. Share your dreams. Become part of a global community by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

Website visitors are encouraged to share their dreams through a form on the ProjectKuri.org website or to message audio submissions to the project’s Instagram account, with promises that “The Kuri Tapes” will be coming in the near future. Curiously, the site also features a block of ciphered text, with no other explanation for its presence.

Untangling this message in particular helps provide a few hints of things to come. And while it’s possible to solve this phrase as if it were an unclued CryptoQuote from the daily paper, there’s a more elegant solution hidden within the doors themselves.

Clue Chasing with Magic’s Ravnica-Themed Puzzle Hunt

December 8, 2023 / Michael Andersen

Murders at Karlov Manor (Wizards of the Coast)

Next February, Wizards of the Coast’s trading card game Magic: the Gathering is releasing a murder mystery expansion named Murders at Karlov Manor, themed after the classic board game Clue. But the clues don’t stop there: in a recent preview of the set, Blake Rasmussen noted that there will be a series of puzzles beginning at the game’s prerelease on February 2nd and culminating in a meta-puzzle that will, once solved, “unlock information about the future of Magic.”

A Brief Primer on Magic: the Gathering’s Story
Before getting into what sounds suspiciously like Magic’s foray into the world of puzzle hunts, a little backstory on how lore functions in Magic: the Gathering might provide some helpful context. Because while Magic is first and foremost a competitive trading card game, the franchise has hidden an overarching story through its expansions. While Magic fans are likely most familiar with experiencing the story through “flavor text” added in the marginalia of the game’s cards, those stories are supplemented and expanded through a series of short stories, comic books, and novels. So what starts as the slow process of piecing together the story of two estranged artificer brothers engaged in a protracted war through narrative snippets and artifacts are expanded upon in novels and short stories that help fill in the gaps.

For the past three years, that story has focused on the war between Planeswalkers and Phyrexians. Within Magic’s lore, Planeswalkers are entities who possess a “spark” that allows them to cross between planes, hopping between the deeply thematic universes and worlds that make up Magic’s Multiverse with relative ease. A race of biomechanical creatures known as Phyrexians don’t naturally possess the ability to cross planes, but stumbled across a number of artificial methods to cross universes in pursuit of their goal of assimilating or destroying all inferior life across the Multiverse.

At first, it started simple. A single Phyrexian infiltrating a plane and spreading chaos and dissent, setting the stage for future invasion. But then, Phyrexians started assimilating Planeswalkers to their side, through a process known as Compleation.

The three year story arc culminated in a massive confrontation that saw Phyrexians and their involuntarily conscripted Planeswalker allies invading practically every known plane. And while the Phyrexians were defeated, in the process something happened that stripped many Planeswalkers of their powers. Currently, Magic’s Multiverse is rebuilding from an inter-planar war, while simultaneously adjusting to life with considerably fewer Planeswalkers capable of crossing those planes. And the most recent expansions have focused on that fallout.

Particularly flavorful cards that provide a taste of what’s to come as the story unfolds

A Magical Murder Mystery
Which brings us to Ravnica: a world with an industrial city the size of its home planet, dominated by competing guilds. Kaya Cassir is a Planeswalker who previously served as leader of the Orzhov Syndicate, although she was replaced by Teysa Karlov when she went to fight against the Phyrexians, returning as one of the few to retain her ability to shift between planes.

Author Seanan McGuire released the first chapter of Murders at Karlov Manor‘s story, setting the stage for murder as Teysa Karlov throws a grand fête for her rival power-brokers in the planet-city. Told from Kaya’s perspective, readers are introduced to a colorful cast of characters before getting left hanging on a cliffhanger, as Kaya chases down a scream from across the manor. Has someone been murdered?

A handful of cards (and their flavor text) have already been spoiled, and it appears that in addition to an actual murder, an attempt has been made on Boros legion guildmaster Aurelia’s life, and the story’s detectives are on a deadline to solve the mystery. Rasmussen noted that this set is particularly heavy on “Story Spotlight” cards that feature key moments of the expansion’s narrative, so fans looking to piece together the narrative on their own will have a lot to work off.