ARG

Overview
The ARG started on Dec. 9, 2008 when an eerie account by the name "IIIIIII" posted a thread in binary. These accounts were later named the "Viral" accounts and it seemed that these mysterious artificial intelligent beings somehow took over Real7alk. Each "Viral" account, or "AI", had its own sketchy version of one of the Real7alk staff members' avatars. This played deeper into the plot.

Later each viral account had made several encrypted posts. The members worked together to crack the codes and find out what was going on. Meanwhile the real staff members tried sending subliminal messages to help the members. Shortly after each staff member post, they were banned by the seemingly powerful viral accounts. After much clue-solving the members finally reached the end of their mission. An audio recording was unlocked, however it was too indistinguishable for any of the members to translate.

Later on the viral accounts made a few last hints to one last clue. Sure enough the members cracked the code and downloaded a video in which was believed to hold some kind of message. The video was nothing more than a mere Rick Roll.

The ARG was over and the site was thoroughly owned. Although some members were outraged at the rick roll, others found the ARG entertaining and time consuming, and thus thanked the staff for setting up this game. The ARG was designed to help pass the time for the release of the new Real7alk homepage.

Codes




Although the majority of the messages were in text format within the forums themselves, the cryptic banners (shown above) played a large part in the ARG's progression. Both banners, which briefly show another message in binary, acted as links to different parts of the site, but were protected by a username and password which needed to be determined using the clues left by the AIs.

The first banner linked to an audio clip simply known as "The Call". This clip was alluded to by the AIs in one of their messages which stated "Wait for the call".

The second banner linked to two images. The first image was a very small preview of the new homepage, and the second was a preview of the prize for the first Real 7alk contest, however it was distorted beyond recognition.

Closer to the end of the ARG, a third banner appeared. Several other messages referred to a file named "real7alk.exe". Once the banner was unlocked, members gained access to this file. After discovering the final password to open the file, it was revealed as the Rick Roll