Alternate reality games (henceforth referred to as ARGs) have become the new marketing for the communications age - they have been used successfully for TV Shows, Software, Video Games, Movies, and most recently, Music, with the release of Nine Inch Nails' new album "Year Zero." The premise for an ARG is relatively simple: usually they involve websites, generally found by some sort of hidden message (the first for Year Zero came from placing highlighted letters on a tour t-shirt into order, spelling a url "IAmTryingToBelieve.com") on which people can look for clues to other sites, find hidden messages, and become immersed in a new world, essentially. Recently, though, since the release of Halo 2's massively popular ARG "I Love Bees", the experience has become something far more wild altogether. For instance, participants in the I Love Bees game would be instructed to wait at a certain intersection near a pay phone and wait for it to ring, in order to receive further instructions as to a meeting place, or new information that could be used to dive deeper into the story. Year Zero took it even one step further - subscribers to a certain site found through the album's booklet received information for the whereabouts of a giant mural, which in itself held clues, and eventually led them to a specific meeting spot, where they were led through the woods into a big warehouse and were treated to a short staged NIN concert, that was later "broken up by the feds" after only six songs.
er... perhaps I should explain the Year Zero premise a little better...
It all began with the t-shirt, and slowly spread to new methods of finding clues. Flash drives were planted in bathrooms at concerts, containing new songs, and often at the end of the track, static could be heard, which when fed through a spectrograph produced a picture, or a piece of text. Crazy eh? So through those sites, followers of the game learned that this album was much more than it seemed to be. Year Zero actually refers to a date approximately fifteen years in the future, where mass paranoia and government control has turned the world into an 1984-esque nightmare, where the U.S. Bureau of Morality strives to control exactly what US citizens are reading, seeing, listening to, etc. In this future as well, the government has implanted nanochips in people's wrists to prevent them from getting certain jobs, or leaving their country of residence without permission, and they have introduced a drug into the water that keeps people lethargic and disconnected with the violence and depression occurring around them (this all began after a dirty bomb attack on Hollywood during the oscars. Equally disturbing is the appearance of a ghostly figure referred to as "The Presence" which generally appears as a giant spectral hand reaching down from the sky, and with increasing numbers of appearances up to a certain date (February of 2022, or now February of 0000) the point after which no dated information can be found. The websites that the search led to are actually sent back from the future to prevent it from happening in the first place (it's almost eerie how realistic it all is... the sites often have somewhat distorted imagery, or letters missing from words, or what looks like someone smeared static across the pages). The album and music video for survivalism are also purported to be from this future world themelves. Other clues have been found by decoding subtle morse code in a track from the album, picking apart tracks to recognize distorted voices that end up saying urls backwards, and probably most exciting, coating the cd itself in black thermochrome that when heated, turns white and produces a string of binary code. The website http://www.ninwiki.com has the most comprehensive listing of every site involved (in total, it's probably over one hundred pages).
The really interesting part about the whole process is the attention to tiny details, and the amount it adds to the experience of listening to the album. As I said, it's truly eerie how realistic it feels, and the deeper you dig into the story, the more it almost infects you - in honesty, Year Zero was not one of my favorite NIN albums until I read all of this - now not only is it far higher ranking in my book, but everything by the band has been taken to a new level of urgency (it's funny how even if it was not planned, past NIN releases almost seem to fit in with the story now).
So the real question is, is it all worth it? Of course it adds to the drama of the impending release for those involved, but some have argued that it's just another, albeit more complex, form of viral marketing, simply intended to create buzz and hype and to convince more people to buy. Although I do agree with this TO A POINT, it's obviously that this was not the intention here. In an article in Game Informer, a correspondent from 42 Entertainment (the company behind "I Love Bees" "Year Zero" and "Iris", a similar campaign for Halo 3) said that they are so serious about their dedication to the story that there is a rule against using the word viral in the office (you actually get fined if someone hears you) and apparently they're trying to outlaw "marketing" as well.
The fact of the matter is, as I said before, the amount that these ARGs add to the game, album or movie they accompany is huge. I have often complained that iPods and iTunes were going to lead to the death of all albums, but it is nice to see that some artists out there have found a new way to get their fans excited.
And come on... deep down in all of us there's that little Indiana Jones that wants to solve clues and decipher complex codes to reach the final buried treasure.
And even more exciting? NIN fans are happy to discover that Year Zero is only the beginning, and another album is expected at some point next year. To quote frontman Trent Reznor:
"This record began as an experiment with noise on a laptop in a bus on tour somewhere. That sound led to a daydream about the end of the world. That daydream stuck with me and over time revealed itself to be much more. I believe sometimes you have a choice in what inspiration you choose to follow and other times you really don't. This record is the latter. Once I tuned into it, everything fell into place ... as if it were meant to be. ... The record turned out to be more than a just a record in scale, as you will see over time.
"Part one is Year Zero. Concept record. Sixteen tracks. What's it about? Well, it takes place about 15 years in the future. Things are not good. If you imagine a world where greed and power continue to run their likely course, you'll have an idea of the backdrop," he continued. "The world has reached the breaking point — politically, spiritually and ecologically. Written from various perspectives of people in this world, Year Zero examines various viewpoints set against an impending moment of truth.
Pictures:
One of the involved websites - hollywoodinmemoriam.com
"The Presence"
The logo for the site "uswiretap.com" - even scarier given what Bush is trying to do right now...
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