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June 18th, 2001

Games Without Frontiers

For months now, I’ve heard and read about the web-based game connected to the forthcoming movie A.I.. I filed it away, assuming that it was just a website or two with a logic puzzle, and when one put all of those logic puzzles together, something really lame would happen.

I’m somewhat pleased to report that this isn’t the case. The game’s plot is very very deep, and only seems to have loose connections to the movie. The basic story is that Evan Chan has been murdered, and it is somehow connected to Dr. Jeanine Salla, who is listed on the movie’s credits as Sentient Machine Therapist. That’s roughly all you’re given to start with. But search for either name on a regular ol’ engine like Google, and you get her homepage as number one. From there, you can spend countless hours on this mystery.

The overall depth and complexity of this plotline is what impresses me. At various points, participants have used email, phones, and faxes to investigate this mystery. It doesn’t hurt that the entire thing has an aura of creepiness around it.

Some have commented that this entire game is nothing more than a massive marketing ploy for the movie, which it very well may be. But certainly, this is one of the most intricately developed things I’ve ever laid my eyes on. If you’re looking for more information, you’ll probably want to start at cloudmakers.org and get up to speed with the Trail or the Guide. -pm

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