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Home , 42 Entertainment, Jimmy Iovine, Jordan Weisman, Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor

THE FUTURE OF ADVERTISING ISN’T -.-...... -.-. -.- --- ..- -

WRITING BETTER SLOGANS OR USING COOL PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEO. - .... .

IT’S CREATING INTERACTIVE STORIES PEOPLE CAN EXPLORE OVER THEIR PHONES, -.-- . .- .-. --.. . .-. ---

-.-. .-.. ..- . ... .- - .-- .. .-. . -.. ONTHE WEB,

MAYBE EVEN THROUGH A FLASH DRIVE HIDDEN IN A BATHROOM.

IT’S A NEW ART FORM. -.. --- - -.-. --- -- ... .-.. .- ...... -..- - .-. .- ...

JUST ASKNINEINCHNAILS’ TRENTREZNOR. BYFRANKROSE // PHOTOGRAPHS BYROBERT .---- ...... - NON-COMMISSIONED CREDITS TK HERE NON-COMMISSIONED CREDITS TK HERE

0 0 0 JAN 2008 ILLUSTRATION BY Firstnametk Lastname ILLUSTRATION BY Firstnametk Lastname JAN 2008 0 0 0 a site displaying a glowing wheat field, with tag on the song contained a clue that led to which she promptly uploaded. The metadata the drive was the hall where the band had been playing. On finding a USB flash drive in a bathroom stalls at to confuse and sedat and confuse to par was it declared, to bioterror agent supply. Ostensibly, Parepin was an antidote intro apparently denouncing something c into t “iamtryingtobelieve.com” typing the fan fo posted a photo letters spelled “i am tryi with what looked to be a printing error: hall concert Lisbon 19th-century a at sale Inch Nails’ European tour, T-shirts went on On February 10, 2007, the first night of Nine reali old Lisbon photographer named Nuno Foros s dom letters in the tour schedule on the back to the site’s contact link generated a cry wha agai i heard a recording of a newscaster announc- les telephone number. People who called it Fans quickly interpreted this as a Los Ange- tour dates included several boldface digits. the Lisbon shows, when she noticed that the which she had bought at one of about to wash was a di Sue named woman a 14, what? Or game? interactive of kind Some album? next the for do with Nine Inch Nails. A setup debate wide should you.” Onlin auto-res ng, “Presidential address: America is born h e o eir Web browsers. That led them to a site emed slightly boldfaced. Then a 27-year- A few days later, on February ng. Then, a woman named Ana reported n t z couldonlybeanewNine ,” followed by a distorted snippet of of snippet distorted a by followed ,” ed that, strung together, the boldface p onse: “I’m drinking the water. So .--- .- -. ..------.. ---.. ------..--- -. .- .--- d a what this had to had this what previously unreleased song, o f his T-shirt on the Spiral, ! d e s erent T-shirt, uced into the US water water US the into uced , fans world- , but in reality, the page t of a government plot plot government a of e citizens. Email sent sent Email citizens. n a r g to believe.” Foros lled Parepin, a drug um. People started Inch Nails Nails Inch R p NOBODY NOTICED IT. THAT FOR NEARLY TWO DAYS HE INITIAL CLUE WAS SO SUBTLE an- tic was the f by , then a Microso movie Spielberg Steven the into tied ultimately puzzl collecti mill bo c made ARGs for products ranging from from Windows Vista to ranging products for ARGs made songwriter behin songwriter singer- the Reznor, Trent before. months underground res c leav reali nate cove don’t have tha extens songs. In the ’60s, concept albums came with Beverly Hills: how to provide context for the f Clic site labeled “Another Version of the Truth.” how to mak a problem,” he recalls, l a Christian military dictatorship. “But I had ism, ravaged by climate change, and ruled by tic suite evoking an America beset by terror- been recording the lege ho and dragging the mous loor deck of the house he’s remodeling in in he’s house remodeling the of deck loor omplex game played out over many months, o Ye All this activity had bee had activity this All pn ald4 Entertainme 42 called mpany w t h onlineandinthereal world,inwhich k i ever, revealed a much grimmer-looking i r a ons of people across the planet had had planet the across people of ons ing on that led to a forum about acts of ng Redmond, Weisman founded a founded Weisman Redmond, ng ,” he says, “using the media of today.” e rs earlier, Reznor had heard about a about heard had earlier, Reznor rs i AI: Artificial Intelligence ve liner s, riddles, and treasure hunts that that hunts treasure and riddles, s, n v i d “America Is Born Again.” Clicking ely solved a cascading series of series cascading a solved ely rst of what t e y games—ARGs for short. After After short. for games—ARGs y the world’s most elaborate album n t . “So I started thinking about otes and lots of artwork. MP3s Year Zero i stance. Pirates of the Caribbean d c Nine Inch Nails, had had Nails, Inch Nine ame to be called alter- o e unging on a second- across the screen, , agrimlyfuturis- n set in motion motion in set . Developed n f t, which which t, t exec, it : forms of stor a massively dysfunctio taste a fans his togive Dead Man’s Chest him do t players that a game involving millions of cratic police state, and h tainment didn’t exi didn’t tainment every continent. on followers of millions attracting them of many year, every launched are games the story. Eight yea ger passiv owned—by the ultimately shaped—and is narrative The tell and retell the story on story the retell and tell the in and mysteries, to assemble the pieces, solve the collective intelligence to emerge a enables Web the but person, one any for complicated too is shards of information. The task from story the together pieces to live events, and the audience calls phone to sites Web from fragments, in all sorts of media, tion. These narrativ inte of kind new a ment’s Web site and clicked Send. He filled in the contact form on 42 Entertain- he wanted to share this story with his fans. about the future dystopia he imagined. Now had spent a long time thinking and writing Reznor was st was Reznor How could this work for h w at in a big way. orldwide would help help would orldwide e consumers, the players live out y telling cannot match. No lon- a . Reznor wanted udience in ways that other e r r s ago, this kind of enter- s pping into into pping e active fic- active t; now dozens of such such of dozens now t; s unfold in e n p o decided al theo- rocess, rocess, f life in in life f Year Zero l ine. ine. ? Reznor

REZNOR GROOMING BY CORI BARDO FOR REDKEN/CELESTINEAGENCY.COM he ha “which is “which people.” other co sipping says, he the most entertaining thing on the planet,” con intimately as views he fields two action, inter- social and design game in more is a vaguely Talmudic appearance, he and a salt-a der ands on hardcore indus tor of ’senter of tor In 2001, Weisman wa Weisman 2001, In j oined. “Games are about engaging with d barely heard of Nine Inch Nails. Slen- HEN WEISMAN HEN at his lakefront house near , o ft-spoken, with curly dark hair hair dark curly with ft-spoken, n d-pepper beard that gives him t rial rock. His experience opened Reznor’s email ! ee in his g his in ee t ainment division, s creative direc- creative u esthouse, esthouse, ’ s not big world in the weeks leading to the release peop Th the Uni Quest Ultimate the to Answer to the Galaxy the to took the name from tainment as a boutique m Enter- 42 launching full-time, ARGs do to decided 2003 in and Microsoft left He ful. on based one videogames—including of ber which was developing the and a num- man created was was created Weis- man ARG the but materialized, never e AI company’s first game, ilovebees, had had ilovebees, game, first company’s l —to support its launch. The launch. its —tosupport e answering pa answering e v erse, and Everything” is in fact 42. , which maintain which , p henomenally success- henomenally The Hitchhiker’ y phones around around phones a rketing firm. He i s on of Life, Life, of on that “the “the that AI s Guide game maze of bizarre Web sites about robot rights name therapist’s the Google Knowles at Ain’t It Cool News, suggesting he member of Weisman’s group—wrote Harr poste both the and a prerelease prom credit for a “sentient machine therapis need something to talk about.” would share it,” he explains, “because we all if the audience discovered something, they shouting the message, hide it. “I figured that opted for a “subdural” approach: Instead of you’d go crazy,” Weisman says. That’s why “Yourhe brain filters it out, because oth The ARG for for ARG The r . Soonsomeone—allsignspointto a And what doe what And Japa a about this all What’s field. known by the best is far so that producing is Abrams film a promote to files Web sites and fake MySpace pro- been planting enigmatic clues on recently, someone—not 42—has Abrams’ JJ touting game still-talked-about a in things, other among bars, late ads andspeciallymadechoco- dio called Hi-Res used television 500,000 players. A London stu- than more drew that Audi for fake auto theft to begin a game a staged outfit, Florida a dios, ucts in the years since. GMD Stu- prod- of scores launch to used in a Burger King parking lot. a Florida hurricane to take a call of block all attempts to get t who are so media-satura ing problem: how to reach people marketers a solution to a grow- That’s becausethegames offer J. Walter Thompson ad agency. Montague, creative director of extraordinarilythe e to figure it out. been falling all over themselves York Harbor? Abrams fans have Godzilla-like a with the s Alex Lieu, Susan Bonds, and Alex Bonds, Lieu, Susan Jordan Weisman of , which Weisman which of 42 Entertainment, pioneered alternate reality games. reality alternate pioneered 2 Similar games have been been have games Similar “When done well, ARGs can be AI n ese drink called Slusho? Slusho? called drink ese began with an ob an with began . One player even braved u dden appearance of c odename Cl m s ! it have to do do to have it ective,” says Ty onster inN . That led to a to led That Lost t h ed they o e . More More . rough. s tional rwise o cure cure t ver- ” in e w y and a phone number that, when called, played in rural who helps moderate the Nine pellerhead to follow it. “Our assumption,” reached Wal-Mart and , someone not. What matters is that someone—Reznor, up a building on the way out. A building? a message from a woman whose husband had Inch Nails fan forum Echoing the Sound. “We says , ’s head writer, would upload it to the sites, which Microsoft, Disney—writes a check. And, for Reznor was awestruck: “These are my kind just died in a suspicious boating accident. had no idea of the scope. That was the most “was never that there’s a continent ofp eople his most avid fans would be carefully moni- now, the checks generally come from com- of people!” Within 24 hours, thousands of people were fun—not knowing what would come next.” who love nothing better than to do spectro- toring. So he planted hints in the music—a panies trying to sell something. As a result, “I’m still trying to work an actual cadaver trying to figure out what had happened. Debates raged as to whether it had anything gram analysis. But there are always a few, few seconds recorded out of phase on “The many ARG developers want to break out of into a ,” Lieu says. “You’d think Weisman had long been working toward and if you make a world that’s compelling Great Destroyer,” for instance. Played on a marketing entirely and find another way Year Zero would be the one, but it wasn’t.” that moment. Severely dyslexic as a kid, his enough, there’ll be a lot to do even if you’re monaural device, the music briefly canceled to make money. Novelists, film directors, Blowing up a building wasn’t practical, world changed when he was introduced to not interested in the really arcane stuff.” itself out, leaving nothing except a barely and television producers get to tell their so they came up with something else. On Dungeons & Dragons. “Here was entertain- Most fans didn’t realize their progress audible voice saying something like “red own stories; why not ARG-makers? GMD April 13, all the players who had signed ment that involved problem solving and was Studios, the company behind up at a subversive site called Open Source story-based and social,” he says. “It totally the ARG for Audi, has been Resistance were invited to gather beneath put my brain on fire. What we’re doing now is running a game that it hopes a mural in Hollywood. Some of those who a giant extrapolation of sitting in the kitchen will spawn graphic novels and showed up were given cell phones and told playing D&D with friends. It’s just that now maybe a TV show. In Septem- to keep them on at all times. Five days later, our kitchen table holds 3 million people”— to do with Philip K. Dick or the Bible, how it ber, Stewart and two other the phones rang. The players were told to the number that ultimately engaged with compared with Children of Men or V for Ven- longtime associates of Weis- report to a parking lot, where they were the AI game. detta, and why the Year Zero Web sites kept man’s left 42 Entertainment loaded onto a ramshackle bus with blacked- During the development of that first ARG, referring to something called the Presence, to start a new company, Fourth out windows. Weisman argued that no puzzle would be too which appeared to be a giant hand reaching was being monitored nonstop. Unlike less horse vector.” At redhorsevector.net, play- Wall Studios, with similar ambitions. The bus delivered them at twilight to hard, no clue too obscure, because with so down from the sky. The band’s European interactive forms of entertainment, ARGs ers would find a top-secret report suggest- So far, however, no one has managed to what appeared to be an abandoned ware- many people collaborating online, the play- tour dates became the object of obsessive require a close collaboration between the ing the source of the nightclub massacre create an ARG that can sustain itself through house near some railroad tracks. Armed men ers would have access to every conceivable attention. “It was like, bang-bang-bang— puppet masters—the unseen figures who —a weaponized virus called Red Horse that advertising, subscription fees, or any other patrolled the roof. The 50-odd players were skill set. Where he erred was in not follow- there were so many things happening at create the story—and the audience. “The caused acute homicidal psychosis. model. The most ambitious attempt was Per- led up a ramp and into a large, dark room ing that idea to its logical conclusion. “Not once,” Ladd says. “It was one gigantic burst makers and the consumers are in a tango,” Surprisingly, though, no one was upload- plex City, a treasure hunt staged by a where the leader of Open Source Resistance only do they have every skill on the planet,” of excitement.” Stewart says. “It’s a dance, it’s passionate, ing the album. Reznor had assumed it would London company called Mind Candy, which (actually an actor) gave a speech about the he says, “they have unlimited resources, Fans in Europe were so eager to find new and sometimes there are sinister overtones. hit the peer-to-peer sites by mid-March, but has received $10 million in venture capital importance of making themselves heard. unlimited time, and unlimited money. Not flash drives that they ran for the toilets the It creates a unique dynamic.” at the end of that month there was still no —a first in ARG-land. Perplex City was said Then they were led through a maze of rooms only can they solve anything, they can solve moment the concert venue doors opened. After every gig, Reznor rushed back to sign of it. Without the music, only a hand- to be a locale in an alternate universe whose and deposited in front of—a row of amps? anything instantly.” Weisman dubbed his On February 18, at the Sala Razzmatazz his hotel so he could watch the action on ful of new clues were coming out. “The fans most powerful artifact, a polished metal With the sudden crack of a drumbeat, Nine game the Beast, because originally it had 666 in Barcelona, someone scored. The drive fan forums and in chat rooms unfold on his were getting antsy,” says Alex Lieu, 42Enter- cube, had been stolen and buried somewhere Inch Nails materialized onstage and broke pieces of content. But as the players burned contained an MP3 file of a new Nine Inch laptop. “I couldn’t wait,” Reznor says. “‘Did tainment’s creative director. “So were we. on Earth; whoever found it stood to receive into “The Beginning of the End,” a song they through those and clamored for more, the Nails song that trailed o! into the sound of they find it? Did they find it?’ I know it sounds Trent was stunned. And the whole time we a $200,000 reward. Clues were hidden on a had never before played in the US. “This is name took on a di!erent meaning. He had crickets. But when the cricket sounds were nerdy, but it was exciting.” The 42 Entertain- were thinking, ‘When is someone going to series of cards sold in toy shops, bookstores, the beginning,” Reznor intoned, as guitar created a monster. run through a spectrograph, they yielded a ment team, working out of a cramped loft steal this album?’” and online for about $1 apiece. chords strafed the room. He got out one, Weisman and Spielberg viewed the Beast series of blips that gradually resolved into in downtown Pasadena, California, kept an VCs had visions of Pokémon dancing in two, three, four more songs before the SWAT as an extension of AI. But the bill to fund it a phone number in , Ohio. People even closer watch. They had to make sure their heads. But though 50,000 people in 92 team arrived. Then, as flashing lights and came out of the film’s marketing budget, who dialed this number (and some 1.7 mil- the players didn’t get frustrated or go too EZNOR WOULD LIKE to make one thing countries registered for the game, the cards flash bombs filled the room, men in riot gear and the ARG certainly created buzz for the lion did) heard a horrific recording from a far down a wrong path. about the Year Zero game perfectly turned out to be di"cult and expensive to pro- stormed the stage. “Run for the bus!” some- movie. Meanwhile, the Internet was trans- mysterious organization called US Wire- It didn’t take long to spot the first prob- clear: “It’s not fucking marketing. duce. Last June, not long after the cube was one yelled, and the players started sprint- forming marketing. Western commerce had tap: a young woman on her cell phone at lem. On several sites, brief snippets of text I’m not trying to sell anything.” unearthed in a forest in England, a planned ing. The bus sped them back to the parking been built on a clear proposition: I give you an underground nightclub, with shrieking from mildly subversive books—One Flew That’s why he paid for the game him- second season was abruptly canceled. “I’m lot and that would take them safely money, you give me something else of value. and gunshots in the background, screaming Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Slaughterhouse- self, out of his recording budget. For still convinced there are exciting commer- home. But before they drove away, they were But like a rug merchant who o!ers prospec- hysterically that someone had come into Five,Heather Has Two Mommies—had been a while, he didn’t even tell his label cial models that no one has found just yet,” told they’d be contacted again. tive buyers tea before discussing his wares, the club and killed her friend and that the scanned into the background to provide what he was doing. But the game was says Michael Smith, Mind Candy’s CEO. “It’s Now that the album is out, the game has the Internet was beginning to engage and cops had locked everybody inside and she visual interest. Players, however, were inter- extremely e!ective at generating a wonderful world we created, and I very, very gone cold. “I don’t know if the audience entertain customers—whether with free was going to die. A visit to uswiretap.com preting them as clues and trying to figure excitement. Every time a song was much want to relaunch it.” Unfortunately, he was ready for it to end,” says Susan Bonds, singles on iTunes or an ARG that could run (“A Partnership Corporation of the Bureau out what they meant. leaked, the message boards were doesn’t know when that will happen. the president of 42 Entertainment. “But for months—before asking them to part with of Morality”) revealed that federal agents At 42 Entertainment, panic set in. “It’s swamped. By the time the album we always expected to pick it up again.” their money. “All marketing,” Weisman says, had bolted the doors to the club, a known a silent contract,” explains Steve Peters, hit store shelves in April, 2.5 mil- Reznor, after all, had conceived Year Zero “is headed in that direction.” “resistance” hangout, while the 112 people the game designer charged with tracking lion people had visited at least one STHE ALBUM’S RELEASE date approached, as a two-part album. “Those phones are inside spent two days tearing one another player progress. “We respect you—which of the game’s 30 Web sites. The buzz the game hit the peer-to-peer sites still out there,” she adds. “The minutes have to shreds in a mad frenzy. means we’re not going to lead you along by was so great that Interscope chair and regained its momentum. Reznor and the expired. But we could buy new minutes at OR NINE INCH NAILS fans, the unfolding The clues on the flash drives were typical the nose and then not give you anything.” —Reznor’s label boss at Uni- team from 42 Entertainment had a critical any point.” ! of the Year Zero game was as puz- of what makes a good ARG work. They were They decided to add a clue suggesting that versal Music at the time—called Weisman to planning session in London to figure out zling as it was exciting. “We didn’t know hard to spot and even harder to decipher, the texts were from banned books. talk about buying 42 Entertainment. a way to wrap it up. , the game’s Contributing editor !"#$% "&'( where it would go,” says Cameron Ladd, but because the narrative was being pieced There were more complications to come. From 42’s perspective, it hardly matters chief designer, suggested an explosive ([email protected]) wrote about a 19-year-old community college student together online, you didn’t have to be a pro- Reznor presumed that weeks before the CD whether you call the game “marketing” or finale: Stage a surprise concert and blow 3-D movies in issue 15.11.

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