The Dark Knight Tying up loose ends for the ARG - 42E speaks! (kinda)

[Anita18]

So I went to a little get-together thingie with some ARG people "in the know" ( ) and they gave me permission to post whatever I thought was appropriate for you guys. Mainly, anything I want without using any names, since forum posts don't show up on Google alerts and the WB marketing guys won't come knocking on their door.

So um, let's call my sources "Twitchy" (the Joker goon the Paris bowling ball guy met) and "Rent-a-clown girl."

Important stuff!

• The ARG is essentially over. WB is simply keeping their options open in case they want a new trailhead later. 42E has no power over this, and they don't really like to leave us hanging either. But it IS over at this point in time.
• There are no such things as ninjas on the boards. All of the stuff we solved - it was all us. If they help us, it's only in the game design, not clue-ing us in.
• Rent-a-clown girl was the SHH lurker. She was the only one at 42E who witnessed the epicness that was...THE HIPPO IN THE STATIC. And when all those posts were taken down, nobody else would believe her. Oh man, great memories, guys.
• WB marketing also lurked, and would freak out every 10 minutes when a game was updated because someone would always be upset.

Changes and stuff

• They didn't have to scrap a lot when Heath died in January. As I suspected, they only plan about a week or two ahead of actual play anyway. The biggest change came from increased scrutiny from WB since TDK became SUCH a huge deal after Heath died. Which leads me to...
• They had to take down the Two-Face teaser on Whysoserious.com/Myhero because Wuertz says "Jesus!" in it.
• The Domino's TV spot was supposed to contain a lot of clues, but Domino's never released it as wide as they promised, nor was it ever online in HD, so they had to repackage these clues into a new text message.

Other interesting background stuff

• 42E met closely with Jonah Nolan (aha! Just as I suspected!) and Jordan Goldberg, Chris Nolan's associate producer, throughout the development of the storyline, so that's why the ARG and the film's story coincide as closely as they do.
• All of the Joker cards they handed out to participants were used in the shooting of the film. We have TDK movie memorabilia, guys!
• They did get to see the first cut of TDK, and it was very, very close to the final version. Only a few seconds shaved off here and there. No completely deleted scenes or anything.

Hilarious randomness

• We totally broke their servers on multiple occasions. During Operation Slipknot, the phone server that adeptly handled the load on the NIN ARG completely fizzled, and they decided to divert the calls to Twitchy's personal phone while they tried to fix it. His voicemail immediately filled up and players started getting his phone number on his voicemail message, and apparently it was posted here. Twitchy still gets spam calls to this day.
• Poor Twitchy, as I've mentioned before, was in charge of handing over the Paris bowling ball, since the alley they assigned didn't have lockers. He waited for over 4 hours, and by the time he got back to his hotel room, everything was closed so all he had to eat was yogurt and some Pringles, and he didn't even have a spoon for the yogurt.
• Apparently they hadn't read the script when they came up with the phone-in-cake idea, but it was serendipity that it matched so closely with the film! That bit actually involved a lot of experimenting with the cakes and figuring out how to put the evidence bag in there and have the ringers at the right volume, etc etc.
• The reason why they requested a password when doing the Acmesecuritysystems.com/Delos thing was to avoid anyone using the system to do prank calls, like Saw V is getting in trouble with now.
• 42E is rather indignant that you guys thought they used a green screen for Rachel's press conference (it was a set) and that Gary Oldman wasn't Gary Oldman.

Anyhow, that's all I remember for now. Twitchy and Rent-a-clown girl are totally fun, nerdy people and any ARG fans in the LA area should let me know if they want to meet up with them at the next ARGparty!

 

[Bunker]

God I miss those days.

 

[Caped Crusader]

Man I miss it a lot.. I miss getting frustrated but having fun at the same time

 

[Zacky]

God I miss those days.

 

[JaD]

I wonder who got the card from the mob meeting ("Here's my card")

That'd be amazing

 

[redfirebird2008]

God I miss those days.

LOL, you miss the hype?

 

[Nirvana]

Great Nostalgic thread.

I have to say I'm rather curious about that video...I want to go to an ARG Party.

 

[ronny]

Can't they at least update the CFB forum? I mean, Brian died horribly. Surely someone would mention it?

 

[Zacky]

I wonder who got the card from the mob meeting ("Here's my card")

That'd be amazing

I never got a card.

 

[sarg2k]

It was great reading the info above.
I miss the hype as well it was a great time.
Living in England I only got to watch alot of the events unfold online but they finally did one to show off the third trailer, we were all given a Joker card and watched the trailer together...
Then on the way home from London I got mugged and the card was in my wallet, I was heart broken, just reading the above makes it all the more worse.
Someone on SSH who was also there agreed to sell me one but changed his mind even though he got 4 of them, which I was a bit upset about.

Anyway I just want to say thank you to 42e as they made the experience amazing.

 

[BlueLightning]

I had a lot of fun being a clown, I still do. Its nice to see something new about the virals, Thank you Anita.

 

[TheBatman072]

This really was the greatest era to be a Bat-Fan.

 

[The Caped Knight]

So I went to a little get-together thingie with some ARG people "in the know" ( ) and they gave me permission to post whatever I thought was appropriate for you guys. Mainly, anything I want without using any names, since forum posts don't show up on Google alerts and the WB marketing guys won't come knocking on their door.

So um, let's call my sources "Twitchy" (the Joker goon the Paris bowling ball guy met) and "Rent-a-clown girl."

Important stuff!

• The ARG is essentially over. WB is simply keeping their options open in case they want a new trailhead later. 42E has no power over this, and they don't really like to leave us hanging either. But it IS over at this point in time.
• There are no such things as ninjas on the boards. All of the stuff we solved - it was all us. If they help us, it's only in the game design, not clue-ing us in.
• Rent-a-clown girl was the SHH lurker. She was the only one at 42E who witnessed the epicness that was...THE HIPPO IN THE STATIC. And when all those posts were taken down, nobody else would believe her. Oh man, great memories, guys.
• WB marketing also lurked, and would freak out every 10 minutes when a game was updated because someone would always be upset.

Changes and stuff

• They didn't have to scrap a lot when Heath died in January. As I suspected, they only plan about a week or two ahead of actual play anyway. The biggest change came from increased scrutiny from WB since TDK became SUCH a huge deal after Heath died. Which leads me to...
• They had to take down the Two-Face teaser on Whysoserious.com/Myhero because Wuertz says "Jesus!" in it.
• The Domino's TV spot was supposed to contain a lot of clues, but Domino's never released it as wide as they promised, nor was it ever online in HD, so they had to repackage these clues into a new text message.

Other interesting background stuff

• 42E met closely with Jonah Nolan (aha! Just as I suspected!) and Jordan Goldberg, Chris Nolan's associate producer, throughout the development of the storyline, so that's why the ARG and the film's story coincide as closely as they do.
• All of the Joker cards they handed out to participants were used in the shooting of the film. We have TDK movie memorabilia, guys!

Hilarious randomness

• We totally broke their servers on multiple occasions. During Operation Slipknot, the phone server that adeptly handled the load on the NIN ARG completely fizzled, and they decided to divert the calls to Twitchy's personal phone while they tried to fix it. His voicemail immediately filled up and players started getting his phone number on his voicemail message, and apparently it was posted here. Twitchy still gets spam calls to this day.
• Poor Twitchy, as I've mentioned before, was in charge of handing over the Paris bowling ball, since the alley they assigned didn't have lockers. He waited for over 4 hours, and by the time he got back to his hotel room, everything was closed so all he had to eat was yogurt and some Pringles, and he didn't even have a spoon for the yogurt.
• Apparently they hadn't read the script when they came up with the phone-in-cake idea, but it was serendipity that it matched so closely with the film! That bit actually involved a lot of experimenting with the cakes and figuring out how to put the evidence bag in there and have the ringers at the right volume, etc etc.
• 42E is rather indignant that you guys thought they used a green screen for Rachel's press conference (it was a set) and that Gary Oldman wasn't Gary Oldman.

Anyhow, that's all I remember for now. Twitchy and Rent-a-clown girl are totally fun, nerdy people and any ARG fans in the LA area should let me know if they want to meet up with them at the next ARGparty!

Good times , thanks for the info Anita

 

[BatmansWood]

Whats ARG???

 

[Dark Sentinel]

So I went to a little get-together thingie with some ARG people "in the know" ( ) and they gave me permission to post whatever I thought was appropriate for you guys. Mainly, anything I want without using any names, since forum posts don't show up on Google alerts and the WB marketing guys won't come knocking on their door.

So um, let's call my sources "Twitchy" (the Joker goon the Paris bowling ball guy met) and "Rent-a-clown girl."

Important stuff!

• The ARG is essentially over. WB is simply keeping their options open in case they want a new trailhead later. 42E has no power over this, and they don't really like to leave us hanging either. But it IS over at this point in time.
• There are no such things as ninjas on the boards. All of the stuff we solved - it was all us. If they help us, it's only in the game design, not clue-ing us in.
• Rent-a-clown girl was the SHH lurker. She was the only one at 42E who witnessed the epicness that was...THE HIPPO IN THE STATIC. And when all those posts were taken down, nobody else would believe her. Oh man, great memories, guys.
• WB marketing also lurked, and would freak out every 10 minutes when a game was updated because someone would always be upset.

Changes and stuff

• They didn't have to scrap a lot when Heath died in January. As I suspected, they only plan about a week or two ahead of actual play anyway. The biggest change came from increased scrutiny from WB since TDK became SUCH a huge deal after Heath died. Which leads me to...
• They had to take down the Two-Face teaser on Whysoserious.com/Myhero because Wuertz says "Jesus!" in it.
• The Domino's TV spot was supposed to contain a lot of clues, but Domino's never released it as wide as they promised, nor was it ever online in HD, so they had to repackage these clues into a new text message.

Other interesting background stuff

• 42E met closely with Jonah Nolan (aha! Just as I suspected!) and Jordan Goldberg, Chris Nolan's associate producer, throughout the development of the storyline, so that's why the ARG and the film's story coincide as closely as they do.
• All of the Joker cards they handed out to participants were used in the shooting of the film. We have TDK movie memorabilia, guys!

Hilarious randomness

• We totally broke their servers on multiple occasions. During Operation Slipknot, the phone server that adeptly handled the load on the NIN ARG completely fizzled, and they decided to divert the calls to Twitchy's personal phone while they tried to fix it. His voicemail immediately filled up and players started getting his phone number on his voicemail message, and apparently it was posted here. Twitchy still gets spam calls to this day.
• Poor Twitchy, as I've mentioned before, was in charge of handing over the Paris bowling ball, since the alley they assigned didn't have lockers. He waited for over 4 hours, and by the time he got back to his hotel room, everything was closed so all he had to eat was yogurt and some Pringles, and he didn't even have a spoon for the yogurt.
• Apparently they hadn't read the script when they came up with the phone-in-cake idea, but it was serendipity that it matched so closely with the film! That bit actually involved a lot of experimenting with the cakes and figuring out how to put the evidence bag in there and have the ringers at the right volume, etc etc.
• 42E is rather indignant that you guys thought they used a green screen for Rachel's press conference (it was a set) and that Gary Oldman wasn't Gary Oldman.

Anyhow, that's all I remember for now. Twitchy and Rent-a-clown girl are totally fun, nerdy people and any ARG fans in the LA area should let me know if they want to meet up with them at the next ARGparty!

Anita, I am truly jealous of your awesomeness. Excellent stuff!

 

[Bunker]

LOL, you miss the hype?

Pretty much.

 

[SPIDERMAN117]

A year ago....ahhh Rory....damn.....I miss those times...

 

[Jokers_Wild]

So sad it's all history now.

I used to complain about there being too much going on at once...man, how things change.

 

[batman11]

Great stuff Anita.

Must've been pretty cool to chat with these people. I can only wish I ever get the chance to.

 

[Bond]

Nostalgia ftw.

 

[riskproductions]

Very cool! And for anyone interested, Im currently making a very large and in-depth scrapbook on the ENTIRE campaign via Powerpoint that I'm going to sell a bunch of for a few bucks (just a few, im not trying to rip people off lol) profit on eBay. I wanna sell it to any SHH member at just the cost to make it once its done (probably like $15 just for the paper and binder). Literally its going to be like 200+ full color pages, Im not even to the 2008 stuff and it's already 100 pages. But it will still be a month or a month and a half until I finish it. I thought people would like to have a coffee-table ready memento to remember the Virals. The WIKI is amazing, and a big help to the scrapbook, but I think people would also like to have a print source. (Anita I know you help run the wiki, and if you'd like to be involved in this I'd love to have your input) I'll keep ya posted!

 

[BeserkerHilf]

i can't believe rory is a year old already.

 

[Anjow1060]

Amazingness. Good stuff Anita.

- Jow

 

[michephantom]

42E brought me to Superherohype. How can I ever repay them?

But I wonder, what WB is "keeping their options open" for. What do you mean a new trailhead? The only thing I can think of is for the december dvd release, or the next movie, and I don't see the dvd release as being ARG-worthy.

42E are hard workers.

 

[Magenta666]

D: oh god now i need to find those joker cards, i lost them