by Eric Ng, 28th June 2001

He sits at his desk, eyes locked on his computer monitor. Surrounding him are various empty soda bottles, some spare cd-roms, piles of loose paper, and a thick legal pad in front of him. Written on the pads are scribbles, numbers, sketches, and jumbled writing, some sensical, some not. The clock in front of him ticks down slowly as he feels the air thicken with growing suspense and unease. Then, the message boards flare, the chat rooms begin to pick up, and information begins to trickle in. Bolting up, he begins to pound his keyboard, his heart racing, knowing that this time, he will be the one to find it.

The game is on.

From a marketing perspective, the promotional campaign being waged by the "Puppetmasters" for the movie A.I. can be considered an average success, interesting in concept, capable of generating news stories and create a grassroots buzz around the movie, but nowhere near overtaking the ad campaigns and merchandising gambits that have been the bread and butter of marketing firms since time began. From a social engineering perspective, however, it is amazing.

Over 6000 people from all over the world have gathered together to solve what is known only as "The Game." Think about that for a second. Think about it some more. From one single clue planted in a movie trailer, a community has formed with over 6000 members, all enthusiastic for the next tidbit of story or the next hint of a puzzle to rear its head.

One could just say it was a clever marketing scheme. One could say that it was nothing more than some idea some lunatic dreamed up, and one could say that the game itself is ridiculous, that it has nothing more than entertainment value. They would be correct, to a point. But the game has managed to evolve itself into something more. No longer is it just a matter of finding and solving puzzles, if that was ever the point. Nor is the game now just a story, a book in a new format, a new presentation. The game has become a portal, it has become an entirely new world for us to discover and explore. We have become a part of the game, just as the game has become a part of us. We have become "integrated," interacting and communicating with the world the game has created.

But it goes deeper still. One may look at the community of Cloudmakers, and see how a game has managed to bring together so many people from so many different places. But then, that raises another question.

Why?

Why would so many people come together and form a community for a publicity stunt? Why would so many people find interest in this virtual world that doesn't exist anywhere but the virtual islands of the Internet? This is the more intriguing question. The answer to it is unique for each person, but perhaps, it might all really boil down to one major conclusion.

He wakes up the next morning to the droning whine of his alarm clock. Groaning, he slams it against the wall, and the whine fades to a gurgling whimper as the clock gives up. He eventually wakes up groggily, goes through his morning routines, and heads out for work. After an hour spent in traffic, he eventually makes it his office, where his boss waits impatiently, and where he spends the rest of the day in a 8x4 cubicle. He leaves work late, drives another hour through traffic, and ends up back home. He cooks an average dinner, and brings it to the table, where the notes from last night's updates have already strewn themselves over the desk. He eats with one hand, the other on the keyboard as he catches up to the events on the mailing list and in the chatroom. The game continues.

The situation above may not apply to most people on the member roster of Cloudmakers. What it does do, however, is show a possible explanation for why we find so much interest in the integrated game. The world of A.I. is not bright and shiny, where all of our problems are solved. In fact, we might find more problems in our virtual world that we do in the real world. But what it does do is provide an alternate reality of sorts for us to escape in. One where we can follow the lives of people who do more than go work in a cubicle all day. One where there is always a sense of adventure around the corner, something to look forward to, whether it be good or bad. We become virtual voyeurs, following the lives of fictional characters that still manage to seem more real than the people we meet on the street. They laugh, they cry, they act, and they do it better than some of the people we know. Life, exemplified.

Today and tomorrow, A.I. will premiere. Critics will see it, and review it. People will see it and might like it, and might not. In a few months, the movie will come out on DVD, and more people might see it sometime before it is relegated to the library of movies released in the summer of 2001. By then, the game that we have followed for several months now will be over, and the story at a conclusion, if not the conclusion. People will leave Cloudmakers, for the game is over. But some people will stay, mainly because of the community that has managed to build up around this game, because of the real friendships that have been forged through a virtual world. And connecting us all will be the world of Laia and Jeanine, the world of A.I.

He finds a post marked HUMOR on the CM message boards, opens it up, and laughs to himself. He knows the person who wrote it, and replies with appreciation. Switching to the chat room, he sees various friends, some who he has seen at ARM rallies, or real world gatherings, and others who he has not seen personally but who have managed to become his friends. Smiling, and flexing his fingers slightly, he sits down to talk with his friends. The game has just begun.

Eric Ng, known on #evanchan as KradDrol, can be reached at eng1@babson.edu.