The Beast – A Summary by Nitin

Patel
This Game was the first to encompass all the major elements of a true Alternate
Reality Game (ARG).

Beginning the Game

The Beast was set in the year 2142, fifty years after the events chronicled in A.I.
(Artificial Intelligence – the Spielberg and Kubrick movie loosely based on Isaac
Asimov’s – I Robot series of android stories and Philip Dick’s – Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep?)

There are 3 overlapping entry points or "rabbit holes.” The sense of entering into a
modern day “Alice in Wonderland” topsy-turvy world of intrigue and puzzles is
further enhanced by the very nature of these challenging entry points into the
game.

• 1. Some trailers and posters for A.I. had a credit for Jeanine Salla as Sentient
Machine Therapist hidden among the credits for Spielberg and the actors.

• 2. One of the trailers encoded a telephone number in markings on the

promotional text; if a player called this number and followed the given
instructions he/she eventually received an email stating in part that "Jeanine
is the key" and that "you've seen her name before."

• 3. An A.I. promotional poster sent to some technology and entertainment

media outlets had a very simple code stating "Evan Chan was murdered.
Jeanine is the key."

Each rabbit hole led to questions about Jeanine Salla, especially since one would
not expect a film made in 2001 to require the services of a robotherapist. This
game came into full force around the same time as the very beginnings of
powerful search engines and Googling Jeanine brought up several web pages set
in the fictional world of the game such as the homepage of Salla's employer,
Bangalore World University. Reading Salla's bio page, the player encountered a
link to the personal page of Salla's granddaughter, Laia Salla, as well as Jeanine's
phone number. Following these clues leads the player to the homepage of Evan
and Nancy Chan, family friends of the Sallas.

The player then needed to call an actual phone number, and accessing Jeanine's
phone message revealed that Evan recently died in an alleged boating accident
on his A.I.-enhanced boat, the Cloudmaker. From the beginning some question
the official story of Evan's death. For instance, on Laia's web page memorial to
Evan she writes "He was a superb swimmer. He was a wonderful sailor. He died
on the boat who loved him within sight of land." The incredible writing style and
personalization of the story line contributes enormously to the enhanced
involvement of the players.

Elements of Game Play

• The player is essentially an investigator; using powers of deduction,

observation, analysis, networking, puzzle solving and deciphering to solve the
case. After entering the Game through one of the rabbit holes, the player
joins the investigation into Evan's death. Over the course of the three months
the Beast went on, it incorporated thirty diverse in-game websites, from the
Anti-Robot Militia to the Coalition for Robot Freedom; from an architectural
magazine to a sleep clinic, and from the coroner's office to a hat store. As the
game progressed, the players came across additional mysteries, such as who
is killing A.I.-enhanced houses, the location of the sexbot with whom Evan
had an affair, and malfunctions in the weather-control system. By the end of
the twelve weeks, players had also had live phone conversations with a game
character and participated in Anti-Robot Militia rallies in New York, Chicago,
and Los Angeles. This rich, diverse and stimulating array of incredible content
was essential to keeping the players motivated to follow the story line.

Content and Story Process

• Compelling Storyline – non-interactive, as in the outcome was already

determined by the puppetmasters – but a well thought out and stimulating
story

• Well Built Characters - believable yet interesting and well constructed

characters

• Excellent Multimedia content – high quality video, audio files, emails

• Offline Interaction – community gatherings, phone calls, newspaper ads (one

clue consisted of the solution to a chess puzzle in the local newspaper!)

• 36 separate websites that probably held well over a thousand individual

pages of information and images – this was in the blossoming age of the
internet for everyone – more and more people had access to the world wide
web

• Vast range of writing styles employed within the game: the diary entries, the
cyberpunk mini-story of Martin and Diane's first encounter, the magazines
that differed wildly in tone

• Sense of Continuity – Content Updates were done every Tuesday

 • 1. This Reinforces the Community – a rallying point – every Tuesday

• 2. It Reduces the Strain on Players – one week to catch up to new

content

• 3. Reduces the Strain on Programmers – time to build new web pages

and content

• The Hook - "Evan Chan was murdered, and we want to find out why" Drove the
Game forward, got players hooked on solving the murder from the very
beginning of the game.

• Amazing and challenging puzzles for all levels of puzzle solving abilities

An excellent online support forum – and a touchstone for the entire game was
the Cloudmakers website.

• Cloudmakers was the name of a Yahoo group created to tackle the game,
named after Evan's boat. The group had thousands of members at its peak
and generated over forty thousand messages amongst players over the
course of the game. The game was being developed as it was played. While
most players came to the plotlines after they had been solidified, the
Cloudmakers group was constantly on the cutting edge of the game, pushing
the game's developers and influencing the plot. Warnings and messages sent
by Cloudmakers members to characters in the story regularly turned up in
the plot, and designs/blueprints and databases produced by the group were
referenced by and even featured on in-game websites and magazines (as
were the efforts of a smaller group, SphereWatch). After the game, the
 Puppetmasters admitted that they relied on the vast storehouse of
knowledge amongst the Cloudmakers and other player groups to be able to
meet any puzzle the designers created. For instance, a puzzle near the end of
The Beast required that the players understand lute tablature, and sure
enough there were Cloudmakers who could solve it.

Reasons for the Incredible Success of “The Beast”

• Ground breaking – this was the first ever “real” ARG

• Largest participation ever up to that point in time – began with 150 – grew to
over 40000

• Allowed for three levels of interaction:

• Casual – This was the majority of players who participated in the game
but never spent more than a couple of hours a week at most on game
play. They contributed to solving some of the puzzles and helped to
further the story line.

• Lurkers – these were pure observing members of the game who

followed the story line but never actively participated in the game.

• Hard Core Players – Estimated at just 1 percent of the entire 40 000

total players. These players spent hours maybe even days on the
game, driving the story forward, solving puzzles and uncovering clues.

• Evolving and interactive game play – it was something incredibly new and
had never been done on this scale or in this interactive way ever before.
Players could also see characters and plotlines evolve with the story.

• Communal satisfaction – many players made friends for life from the online
forums. Communities were built around the game and a whole genre of
people who “had played the beast” emerged.

• A Sense of Accomplishment – it was a long and difficult game, with

challenging puzzles and difficult clues – players felt a sense of
accomplishment in solving the puzzles and finding new clues. Those who
stuck with the game to the very end, felt an incredible sense of completion
after solving the case. “Evan Chan was murdered, and we FOUND out why!”

SOURCES

• “Beyond Reality – Aguide to Alternate Reality Gaming – by John W. Gosney

Wikipedia

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(game)

Cloudmakers Forum

• http://www.cloudmakers.org/guide/