Tag: violette’s dream

UPDATE: There’s gold in them thar’ real world locations

clue found under ultraviolet lightWhile it’s not quite a return to the gold rush days of yore, the alternate reality game for Velvet Assassin, dubbed Violette’s Dream by the players, involves much more than just fake Nazi gold bars. In fact, much to the delight of Dee Cook (addlepated) and Russel_k at the Unfiction forums, there are authentic gold bars ready to be found in the real world! According to a press release sent to us, while these gold bars are the first to be discovered, “[m]ore caches of gold are still being hunted down.”

The ARG, a campaign for the upcoming XBOX 360/PC game Velvet Assassin, has been entertaining players for three months thus far, and continues to play out at trailhead/meta site violettesdream.com. The premise of both the ARG and the video game is unique in that it is inspired by real-life British spy Violette Szabo. The video game launches in fall 2008, and we expect the ARG to continue past the release of the game, as

Along with the press release came some photos of the find in Fredricksburg, Texas, which you can see after the jump.

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Velvet Assassin Sent Us Alternate Reality Gaming Gold

violette.jpgIf the number of alternate reality games centering around video games are any indication, video game publishers “get” ARGs. Activision promoted the release of GUN with “Last Call Poker”. Sony promoted Uncharted with “Sullivan Stories”. And perhaps most famously, Bungie Entertainment promoted the release of Halo 2 with “I Love Bees”, and followed that up with “Iris” for Halo 3.

While you’re waiting for the rumored ARG for Resistance: Fall of Man, check out Gamecock Media Group’s new alternate reality game promoting Velvet Assassin, a stealth action game coming soon to XBox360s and PCs. And I’m not just saying that because they sent us a bar of fake Nazi gold.

That’s right, ARGNet received a bar of gold from the Deutsche Reichsbank over the weekend, along with two stickers leading to Follow-the-Dream.com, which redirects to ViolettesDream.com. In addition, there was a note written in German with a Post-It note telling players to “Help me stop them — Follow-the-Dream”. Since it sometimes takes a few extra days for mail to reach Canada, the folks at Destructoid and Unfiction have already translated the letter. One of the commenters on Destructoid notes that “If RedRabbit’s translation is right, you just got a Nigerian scam email in videogame PR form.”

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