The Beast

Duration: Feb 28, 2001 - Jun 30, 2001
PM Team: Microsoft
Type: Promotional
Result: Success
Player Rating:
View Players (7)

The man behind the curtain

I still have this email in my Inbox. I remember when I got this email, I cried. Sometimes just thinking about the email and how I felt at the time causes a lump in my throat.

-- Celina Beach

Plot:

Team:

Scott Bayless	- - -	Executive Producer
Jordan Weisman	- - -	Producer
Elan Lee	- - -	Lead Designer
Sean Stewart	- - -	Lead Writer
Todd Lubsen	- - -	Art Director
Lynn Knight	- - -	Production
Mike Pondsmith	- - -	Production
David Wells	- - -	Production
Doug Zartman	- - -	Production
Dan Carver	- - -	Designer
Pete Fenlon	- - -	Designer
Scot Baker	- - -	Site Writer
Matt Forbeck	- - -	Site Writer
Heike Kubash	- - -	Site Writer
Wil McCarthy	- - -	Site Writer
Tim O'Brien	- - -	Site Writer
Leslie What	- - -	Site Writer
Steven Arensberg	- - -	Site Writing Support
Olivia Johnston	- - -	Site Writing Support
William Niebling	- - -	Site Writing Support
Craig O'Brien	- - -	Site Writing Support
Pete Stassum	- - -	Site Writing Support
Sean-Mike Whipkey	- - -	Site Writing Support
Karen Joy Fowler	- - -	Site Writing Support
Alex Irvine	- - -	Site & Update Writer
S. Coleman Charlton	- - -	Site & Update Writer
Kevin Elliot	- - -	Puzzle Support
Karl Roeles	- - -	Puzzle Support
Vic Bonilla	- - -	Artist
Paolo Malabuyo	- - -	Artist
Mark Selander	- - -	Artist
Shawn Firminger	- - -	Finance
Christing Hill	- - -	Finance
Philip Freeman	- - -	Part-time Polymath
Christine Beck	- - -	Phage Wrangler

Player Reviews: (view all 1)

By: jamesi

Rating:

While not my favorite of all time, it ranks in my top five. Like so many others here, this was my first foray into what would become the genre of ARG. I caught the link from Ain't It Cool News while I was teaching English in Korea, and still remember the late nights in Jeon Ju, being scared out of my mind by the sounds of the Jellyhedz.

About:

This is the ARG that started it all. Some guys from Microsoft were hired to do an innovative promotion for the movie "A.I.", and they created a massive story taking place in the future, which people could see unfolding on the internet. This is where we invented the term "PuppetMaster", and where a massive community of collaborative players was created, and where interesting puzzles were integrated into the plot, and where you could actually interact with the characters, and where you were drawn into the whole thing through a rabbithole, and countless other things we simply take for granted now. The Beast created the model for ARGs, and many of the people involved (even players!) went on to continue developing the medium.

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