Perplex City Alternate Reality Game

Perplex City, an alien metropolis so obsessed with puzzles that even the cows at their fictional dairies are purported to be bred for their high IQs and puzzle solving skills, has a problem: the Receda Cube, an ancient artifact of unknown origin (also of unknown powers, significance, and purpose) has been stolen and hidden somewhere on Earth. In an effort to recover this prized possession, the Puzzle Scribes of the Perplex City Academy have put together a series of 256 puzzle cards, which they are distributing to humans in hope they'll be able use them to discover the Cube's whereabouts.

Why should you care about this somewhat silly fantasy set-up for game? How about a £100,000 very real cash prize for recovering the artifact? (That's about $200,000 USD). And if the big bucks aren't enough of a lure for you, it turns out the game is quite fun too.

The concept is simple: you purchase card packs of 6 cards each, and on every card is a puzzle. The puzzles come in many forms - logic puzzles, word searches, cryptography, optical illusions, trivia...it seems that any sort of puzzle that can be made to fit on the cards is fair game. Figure out the answer to the puzzle, create a free account at Perplexcity.com and submit your answer. If you're correct, you'll score a predetermined amount of points (determined by the card). If you're incorrect you'll have two more chances to guess before having to wait a full 24 hours (which you may choose to spend, for example, repeatedly banging your head against your desk in frustration) before you can submit an answer again.

Here's where things get more complicated: the cards have a visual rating system which indicates their level of difficulty and rarity. I have no complaints about the rarity rating - but I do question how they gauge difficulty. I solved a Blue (mid-range) card within 3 seconds of laying eyes on it, but more than one red (easy) card left me scratching my head.  Players hoping for the big cash prize will need to collect (and presumably solve) all the cards, because on the reverse of every card is a portion of a map depicting all of Perplex City; ostensibly a puzzle in its own right.

If you're only solving the puzzles for a bit of mind-stretching fun, you still won't get off all that easily. You may not need to worry about what cards you do and don't have, but you will need to worry about what gadgets and resources you have handy. The game packaging suggests that coffee houses, pubs, and other social gatherings are appropriate Perplex City playing venues. And whereas the cards portable-ness does make that true - I would suggest that you go your coffee houses, pubs and other social gatherings armed with your mobile, laptop and wireless connection at minimum; because although some of these puzzles can be solved with good-old fashioned puzzling skills, many of them also require specialised knowledge, research...and, if you're feeling especially lost, perusal of the Perplex City forums for help or an SMS sent to fictional Perplex City puzzle scribe Von - who will charge you a real 50p to SMS you back a helpful hint.

Did I mention these fictional characters have a tendency to pass over to our reality?  Not only will Von text you, but Perplex City journalism major Scarlett Kiteway maintains a blog and can be contacted by email.   Players can even follow the narrative of the hunt for the Receda Cube as it unfolds. Furthermore - Perplex City is invading our real world in a very big way this month with live action player events in London and New York City.  At these events, players will have the opportunity to confab, trade cards, and face some real life game challenges. Played  to its fullest extent, Perplex City is more than just a collectible card game; it's about technology, research, interaction, society, information sharing and the perception of reality.

If you're phobic about facing all this techno-society stuff  alone - don't worry; card solving is good in groups as well. I dropped a couple of Perplex City cards on the table at a recent get together with friends, left the room to get some coffee and returned to discover them gathered around a puzzle card, excitedly arguing about syzygy. (Note: If your vocabulary is as lacking as mine is, you may find a portable dictionary an essential puzzle tool as well.)

Just remember that although you and your friends can solve the puzzles together, each card is imprinted with an individual ID number, so only one of you will get the credit and points for solving that particular card. If your friends are also playing for points, they'll have to find a duplicate card in order to have it count towards their score as well (not so important if you're just playing for fun - but you may want to keep you WAP-enabled mobile with you at all times so you can log in first if you're playing for the big money).

Currently, 128 of the 256 cards are available - and although the Perplex City campaign has been active in the UK for several months, it is only just about to make it's way to the US (and I'm trying very hard not to be bitter that all you UKers have had several month's head start). Cards packs can be purchased on-line at Firebox.com or at various retailers for about $5 per pack. 

As a puzzle fan, I could see myself easily getting sucked into Perplex City and it mysteries - if only I could puzzle out how to simultaneously dedicate countless hours (and dollars - $5 a pack adds up when you're trying to acquire 256 cards which are doled out at random) to  tracking down the Receda Cube in that alternate reality while still maintaining my actual life in this one.

Perplex City Website