More than 100,000 have signed up for Web-based thriller's premiere

06/07/2001

By DOUG BEDELL / The Dallas Morning News

An intriguing new Internet adventure promises to drag players into their own versions of The Game, the 1997 Kafkaesque cinematic thriller in which the main character receives a birthday present of pranks that turn sinister and malicious.

Like the protagonist played by Michael Douglas, subscribers to the upcoming Electronic Arts release of Majestic (www.MajesticTheGame.com) will find their real lives invaded by outsiders who prod them into action inside an expanding conspiracy.

Multimedia blitz for Web-based thriller's premiere • Collected Majestic conspiracy sites (majesticdocuments.com) • Extra content index

Unlike the film, Majestic will be played across the entire technological landscape of modern life – e-mail, voice mail, faxes, Net video clips, phone calls, instant message chats and hundreds of fake and real Web sites.

"You don't play Majestic," the game creators say. "It plays you."

EverQuest and a host of other role-playing games have already moved online. But none compares to Majestic. EA is pouring millions of dollars into the programming of this off-beat, innovative Web extravaganza. More than 100,000 people have signed up to play the first episode later this month.

The buzz has gone "viral" – spreading itself with rumors and shadowy Web sites. Newsletters carrying secretly coded messages are already sending thousands of titillated fans skittering across the Internet for clues to plot direction. More than 100 Web sites have sprung up – or been planted – by the development partnership of EA and Anim-X. Message boards are filling with "inside information" from fan Webmasters who claim regular contact with the creators.

"They're pushing the envelope like nobody's even thought about before," says John Little, a Houston Internet professional and Webmaster for the Majestic-Intel.net site, one of the first fan sites to receive "guidance" from game executives.

When it begins, Majestic players will move through an episodic, fictional plot interwoven with well-established conspiracy theories from around the Web. Players are challenged to sift the facts from waves of information flowing into their online lives, then solve puzzles and plot mysteries.

Says EA executive producer Ralph Guggenheim: "A lot of people have had ideas and plans for entertainment on the Internet. What I think they've missed is that the Internet itself carries entertainment in the Web sites one visits. With Majestic, we try to harness what's already out there with a story that we create for a suspense thriller experience.

"We don't try to make it into a movie. We use the Internet as the Internet."

Interactive X-files

The game also has an uncanny ability to learn about a player by observing the way he plays, and can tailor story elements based on its observations, EA says. At the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo, Majestic took home the PC Innovative Design Award after showing off a preview version during top-secret private screenings.

The game's subject matter alone is enough to attract a different breed of computer game-player – the kind who sees government and military conspiracies lurking behind major world events.

The name itself refers to the Majestic 12 documents released by the federal government in 1987. Mystery still surrounds these files, which federal agencies have branded an elaborate hoax. But many people believe they are tangible evidence that the U.S. military recovered a spacecraft and alien bodies in the vicinity of Roswell, N.M., in 1947.

"The key people behind the story at EA are probably more familiar with this subject matter than half of the conspiracy buffs out there," says Mr. Little, whose company BAnywhere.com is designing a way for Palm VII PDA users to stay in touch with the game wirelessly.

"I've been consistently amazed about how well thought-out their approach to this game has been."

Majestic is rated M (for mature audiences) and is aimed at 18- to 35-year-olds who like puzzle-solving and intrigue. But it may also entice older business people and daily computer users who are just looking for a daily dose of danger.

"I wanted to create Majestic for that generation that had grown up with interactivity, but no longer had the time to invest six hours a night playing a game," says Neil Young, EA vice president and executive in charge of production "There are a lot of us out there, and Majestic is for us."

You don't have to play every day. But if you did, each episode would play out over roughly 15 days and require about 15 to 20 minutes, developers say.

"That's another thing different about Majestic – it kind of paces you," says Michael Blackstock, a Tucson, N.M., conspiracy aficionado and MajesticAlliance.com Webmaster. "It tells you when it's time to move."

After the free pilot ends, those who wish to continue will pay $9.99 per month as part of EA's Platinum Service to become engrossed in eight more episodes. Users can select from various levels of realism. Clues and contact can be made entirely on the Web in a password-protected site, or they can be delivered as unexpected interruptions at work or home.

In its highest realism mode, players might be awakened by a telephone call from an hysterical woman. She might be begging you for help as someone busts down her door. Clues to helping her and advancing in the game may lurk in that weird fax you received at the office last week. Or they may be hidden inside the HTML code of an e-mail someone forwarded to your In Box.

All sorts of newfangled tricks are used for clue delivery. Some have already arrived hidden in the e-mail newsletter sent by EA to those signing up for the free "contact demo."

A second newsletter contained a hidden 972 area code telephone number that played an ominous message from a man deeply disturbed by his family's role in a murderous governmental cover-up. Yet another newsletter led fans to a voice mailbox that asks for an entry code, which no one has yet managed to discern.

"This is the weird thing about Majestic," says Mr. Little. "A lot of people don't think it's started yet. But in reality it has."

Players will be able to compare notes with about 20 other people who began their journey into Majestic at exactly the same time. This team aspect of the game is unusual and pervasive.

Although EA is setting up more than 80 Web sites, the company is also encouraging development of independent sites such as MajesticAlliance.com, Majestic-Intel.net and MajesticNetwork.com. Many Webmasters claim to have exclusive arrangements to provide some explanations of the Majestic plot as provided directly from EA or Anim-X.

"We encourage people to talk to each other and help each other solve the puzzle in the story and moving along," says Mr. Guggenheim, who come to the project with an extensive background in Hollywood productions, including stints at Lucasfilm Ltd. and Pixar Animation Studios.

A bunch of other Web site trickery will also be employed, say game insiders. Some techniques already observed include "manhole" sites where navigation hot spots are hidden, requiring persistent clicking to find a way in. An innocent-looking Web site may be transformed into a conspiratorial one through some activation mechanism, like entering a simple search term into a site search box. Randomized sites may have all their pages shuffled, pushing different pages to the top each time the site is accessed by a Majestic participant. And timed sites may lock out any access except for specific hours of the day.

"At its most intrusive level," say developers, "the game may also pop into people's lives with threats to "Back off, if you know what's good for you."

Too real?

"We're not talking about Ren and Stimpy here," says MajesticNetwork.com Webmaster Jason Kelley of Knoxville, Tenn.

"We're talking about something that has some serious undertones to it and a lot of truth behind it. The whole game plays inside your mind."

Mr. Guggenheim says the same dangers are inherent in other media. "Part of the game is the fun of creating conspiracy and creating suspicious events," he says. "People have to keep that in mind just like when they go to a movie theater or watch a television show."

The beneficial impact of this kind of interaction may far outweigh the risk, he says.

With Majestic, players will find themselves examining the very nature of information in the Internet age.

"What's to say that the Internet, newspapers or anybody else is really telling you the truth?" asks Mr. Guggenheim. "And what do you need to do as an individual in this society to protect yourself and supply yourself with the correct level of disbelief – questioning what you see and read and making up your own mind.

"Majestic tries to get people to think about their interaction with the world in that way."