endgame

James Frey recently was at Google where he talked about the endgame universe. He talks about the collaboration and shares some information about upcoming things from novellas, the game and more. In regards to the book prize he discusses that over 100,000 people have passed the first puzzle, 20,000 people are working on the puzzles every day and that there is approximately 10 people in the lead right now. Despite that though, he feels people can catch up at this point and given the waiting periods to get access to the next part and with a 10:1 ratio (for every 10 hours longer to compete the previous step you have to wait 1 more hour to start the next stage) I am inclined to agree the system eats away at the lead some players may have. He also guestimates that someone will complete all puzzles and be eligible to win the prize in either August or September. It is an interesting listen all around…

Welcome back!

Many people get into the puzzles of endgame simply for the $500,000 in gold coins or are just naturally curious after finishing the book and reaching those juicy ‘endnotes’ at the back of the book. This invariably leads people to the kepler site, which is only to track progress on the book puzzles and to the el121212 site.

It isn’t surprising that this is mistaken for the first puzzle by more than one reader. Going through the links it is pretty much the only one that even remotely resembles something to be solved. The kepler site seems more promising, but quickly reveals itself to be more observational than interactive. So this leaves us with the el121212 site and a simple form asking for a password. All-in-all this is not very much to go on. El can refer to God, and likely many other things. 121212 has both no obvious meaning and unlimited potential meanings.

The most common interpretation seems to be as a date, and one associated with the end of the world no less. Although, why would that be? There were no specific doomsday predictions about 12/12/12. If you’re thinking the end of the Mayan calendar, that was actually supposed to be 12/21/12, although naturally a few reinterpreted the calendar to end 12/12/12. So, other than our obsession with numbers, what is with our obsession with dooms day predictions?

The religious reasons for apocalyptic predictions aside, there has been an increasing rate of these so called ‘doomsday’ moments. From the Heaven’s Gate cult to Nostradamus’s predictions of disasters, Y2K, 9/11, Harold Camping’s Judgement Day, Ronald Weinland’s second coming and so many more around the world, it is easy to see how disaster is on the modern mind. This, all after a century of World wars, nuclear bombs, the Cuban missile crisis and a cold war to boot. Perhaps this is why dystopian stories are so popular these days. In many cultures however, 12/12/12 was a day of luck, for marriages, new businesses and much more.

So, getting back to the El121212 site, how does one figure out the password? Well, everything I have said up until this point will not help you. The best two pieces of advice I can give for any online puzzle is look for the information you are given and take advantage of google. In this case, take a look around. The page itself says very little but it does have one clue. Find that phrase and go searching for it. This will likely lead you to the next site where the password would lead anyway, but its fun to know you entered the right thing. This next site basically just leads you to another which I will mention next. I have heard that the El121212 site might accept more than one password, but sadly I have no personal confirmation of that.

The next site is fairly well known even if you have not followed these steps. Ancientsocieties.com is run by Stella Vyctory, who knows about the ancient lines, endgame and a sort of conspiracy about what’s going on in the world. I believe the idea is she knows these things because she is part of at least one of the lines. On the ancient societies website she encourages people to learn about the lines, proclaim support for one of them, spread the truth and work through puzzles. Here cooperation is encouraged, unlike in the book puzzles where the rules require you to not collaborate. Stella can get you up to speed a little with this video…

As best I can tell El121212, ancient societies and Stella are all part of the alternate reality game or ARG portion of endgame. That being said I can not guarantee that this will not help with the book puzzles and winning the $500,000 in gold coins somewhere down the line. There may be some piece of information or even just a puzzle on her site that may resemble one you will see from the book at some point. That being said, this blog will not heavily follow the ARG portion of endgame at this point. I intend to cut through the crossover confusion of the multiple portions of endgame and focus on the book.

Check back soon as I intend to update regularly with guidance on codes and puzzles that might be of help. If you want to follow more about the ARG there are some great blogs out there and I am more than happy to point the way if you are interested. Till next time….