We're all a little tired of ARGs with a viral marketing slant, but not every alternate reality game is trying to sell us something. Perplex City, a worldwide hunt for the mysterious Receda Cube, revolves around puzzles alone—there is no games marketing department pulling the strings here. Because of this, the puppet masters have been free to concoct an intricate alternate universe which intersects with Earth via various real-world events and websites. The story is rich and immersive, centring around a character called Sente who has lost the Cube and is offering $200,000 (or £100,000) in real Earth money to the first person to find it.
An excellent starting resource to get into the game is the official site or
the player-created quick-start guide and
reference wiki; in order to help the search for the
Cube, players must solve a variety of
puzzle cards which are an
easy way to jump into the universe and help with the collaborative solving effort. A new wave of cards has just been
launched—you're not going to solve this alone, so join the hunt. With veteran
creators who even ran a small ARG for recruitment,
anything is possible.
