I was chatting with Magnus the other day about this and it has really intrigued me. You don’t have to be a NIN fan to appreciate this, just a little concerned with the direction the world is heading.

In case you haven’t heard or seen anything about “the game”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_alternate_reality_game

At first I thought, wow what a unique marketing campaign. The more I delved into the murky depths of “the game” the more I realized that Trent’s comments may be true, that “the game IS the art form” and that the album is just a small part of the larger picture. The alternate reality that has been created by Trent and 42 Entertainment is darkly complex and eerily convincing.

Just a complex marketing campaign? A new form of entertainment? One of the most interesting and effective social commentaries to appear in decades?

Campaign timeline:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_timeline_of_the_Year_Zero_alternate_reality_game

Year Zero chronology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_Year_Zero_alternate_reality_game

P.S.
Don’t drink the water!

Zosorand - 30 April 2007 04:13 PM

One of the most interesting and effective social commentaries to appear in decades?

No, the whole “USA is the ultimate evil” commentary is neither new nor interesting.

Last issue of rolling stone (with the Grindhouse hotties - rose mcgownan and rosario dawson - on the cover) had an article about this. Trent’s a big gamer apparently, stopped production on The Fragile because Halo came out.

I read about the concept game before the album came on MTV.com of all places. Not a NIN fan at all but I still respect it, plus the CD has heat sensitive ink and such. I found the whole doping the population theme rather reminiscent why Oregon has picked to rebuke the federal mandate of putting Floride in the water supply. Portland and Eugene both rejected the FLoriding of water based on insufficient evidence to help teeth and health concerns. Floride was used the poison Jews by Germans in the ol’ concentration camps for the record, and does make people docile. Its one of those things I’m surprised doesn’t get more play by conspiracy junkies. Neat to see itself manifest somewhere else.

I don’t get it. Is it some sort of subliminal message/advertising campaign? I never followed along with the Halo 2 promotional thing about the bees either.

I guess I need to hire Mulder and Scully to figure out this one for me. Some inside job trying to expose top secret military UFO info!

Occasionally these things are fun, when they’re not so much marketing but just something to play along with the original piece, say like Lost which lets you dive into the dharma initiative.

I started poking around in the online game, its fun and well conceived, there’s a rather odd tale that’s a web comic, various stories like a Hacker who’s happened to find bits of records of detainees by the Moral board and such. In day when there’s not enough protest music when there should be, this is a rather involved piece of art that makes use of technology in a unique fashion, where you can even receive phone calls if you so like.