In this article, I would like to talk not about the film itself (which will be released on March 28, 2018), but about the ARG component of the advertising company of this film.
For your information, Alternate Reality Games is not a role-playing game, participants do not receive a special game space or a list of rules, and the character of what is happening must be kept secret until the end. A player can be any person who finds a hook (they are called a rabbit hole) starting the chain of the game. If you watched the movie "The Game" by David Fincher, then you will have an idea of what ARG is :)
Steven Spielberg is not the first time resorting to this method, he has already launched something similar, together with Microsoft, in 2001 for the movie "Artificial Intelligence", ARG called "Monster", in which about 5 thousand people took an active part.
And yet, briefly about the film.
The film is based on the novel of the same name, published in 2011, written by screenwriter Ernest Kline. The film takes place in 2045, in a world that, according to tradition, is overpopulated and is in deep crisis. People are looking for salvation in the OASIS game, a huge virtual reality world in which its creator, James Halliday, leaves a unique testament - the one who first finds the Easter egg will inherit half a trillion dollars and complete control over OASIS. And the protagonist named Wade Watts, of course, also decides to take part in this pursuit of treasure, becoming the main contender for victory.
About easter eggs found at the moment:
In the first teaser, shown at Comic Con, at 1:32 there is a QR code on the hood of the car.
If you scan it, it will lead to the site - jointhequest.io. On which first appears such a picture
And after, a field for input appears
To find out the password, you'll also have to make a smart call :)
In the first trailer at 1:10 there is this frame, also with QR code
Which brings us to the page ( jointhequest.io/HallidaysGhost ) with an article about the creator of OASIS - James Hallidee.
If you look closely at James's photo in this article, you can see how he glances at the next clue, the barely discernible line of binary code on the edge of the photo.
When decoding the code, we get such a set of letters - TSARYUE NSG. And this is an anagram of the phrase GUNTERS SAY. But that's not all :) The day of the first trailer on Reddit appears a user under the nickname HallidaysGhost, he is publishing another article about James Halliday.
In the photo, you can also notice the line of binary code (only now on the right). After decoding, we get the following - EENRIE!DV. What again anagram - NEVER DIE!
By connecting the two phrases, we get the password - GUNTERS NEVER SAY DIE! which must be entered on jointhequest.io. After entering the password, a video with Youtube starts running on which the egg rotates and changes its appearance. This video is also not as simple as it might seem and on stop frames you can notice the words:
«What is the quest» While the purpose of this phrase is not clear, but who knows, maybe later it can come in handy for the next step.
Another couple of interesting things:
On the official website of the film After viewing the trailer appears such a scoreboard
It shows a rating, which can be found in the book of the same name on page 160.
It was also noticed the appearance of HallidaysGhost accounts in other social networks, but while they are empty:
Tumblr
Pinterest
Twitch