ENGL 376MM:
New Media Studies
A Fall 2008 course at the University of Mary Washington exploring the discourses of counter-factual world building in new media culture.
A Puzzle
Submitted by zach whalen on Mon, 11/10/2008 - 09:04. Tags:
On Friday, there will be a quiz covering This is Not a Game and our conversation so far about ARGs. On that quiz, there will be an opportunity for extra credit, which you can receive if you correctly solve this puzzle. Not only will this get you some practice at puzzle-solving, this puzzle is appropriate since it appeared within a Dave Szulborski game.
The attached images are two sides of the same document, and it contains an encoded message. Everything you need to break the code is on this certificate.
To get you started, here's a copy of the printed text on the front side:
To All Members of the Armed Forces Wherever Ye May Be: and to all Mermaids, Sea Serpents, Whales, Sharks, Dolphins, Eels,
Skates, Suckers, Crabs, Lobsters and other living things of the sea Greetings: Know Ye: That on this _____ day of _________________________,
in Latitude_____________, Longitude 180.00 there appeared within the limits of Our Royal Domain the ___________________________________
Be It Remembered
That the said Vessel and Officers and Crew thereof have been inspected and passed on by ourselves and Our Royal Staff And Be
It Known: By All Ye Members of the Armed Forces, Landlubbers, and Others Who May Be Honored By His Presence, That
Skates, Suckers, Crabs, Lobsters and other living things of the sea Greetings: Know Ye: That on this _____ day of _________________________,
in Latitude_____________, Longitude 180.00 there appeared within the limits of Our Royal Domain the ___________________________________
Be It Remembered
That the said Vessel and Officers and Crew thereof have been inspected and passed on by ourselves and Our Royal Staff And Be
It Known: By All Ye Members of the Armed Forces, Landlubbers, and Others Who May Be Honored By His Presence, That
Having Been Found Worthy to be numbered as one of our Trusty Golden Dragons -- and duly initiated into the Mysteries
of the Far East. Be It Further Understood: That by Virtue of the Power Vested in Me I do Hereby Command All My
Subjects to Show Due Honor and Respect to Him Whenever He May Enter Our Realm.
Disobey This Order Under Penalty of Our Royal Displeasure
Davey Jones Golden Dragon Ruler of the 180th Meridian
Good luck!
In the spirit of ARGs, are
In the spirit of ARGs, are we permitted to group up on this puzzle?
Collaboration
I don't know, will collaborating help you solve it? If you solve the puzzle on your own, are you willing to share your answer with others? How would you share it?
Sharing
Probably start a comment thread or blog post here, honestly...let everyone have a chance to participate, problematic for grading though that may be.
Maybe
Yes, it might be problematic, depending on what is being evaluated.
Perhaps
Perhaps you could give extra credit for participating in solving the puzzle as well as (or instead of) actually solving it. It seems to me that it might be more worthwhile as an exercise to participate in some small-scale collaborative problem solving than it would be to simply solve the puzzle on our own.
I know that makes it slightly more work for you, I guess, but isn't the process more the point of an ARG, rather than the fact of solving a puzzle?
Besides, cynical though this is, I imagine that the solution to that puzzle (I know searching the string of numbers at the top hit a site or two that appeared to be a Monster Hunters Club walkthrough) is easy enough to find online that simply offering extra credit for the solution might be a little...iffy.
Extra
Actually, as long as this credit is the "extra" variety, I don't mind if everyone gets it.
So...
Is that a yes?
Whatever you need
As far as this puzzle goes, you can do whatever you need to get to this solution. All I'm concerned about, in terms of a grade, is what you put on the quiz on Friday.