Following my curiosity in all things ARG (and lazy propensity to let other people do the work for me) I noticed this video update about Uncharted's elaborate PS3 pre-release campaign. The video features what I presume will be an in-game character (Elena Fisher) shot as a documentary about a pirate attack while searching for the ruins.  There's also two sets of posters of the dead guy with different writing on it.  Its easy to get through the first part but then you'll land on this cryptic nonsense:

927
EMTKWUM
BW
BPM
RCVOTM

WUT?  I give up.  I think the first number represents the amount of people who's heads exploded trying to figure it out. I'll let you Internet Matlocks do the dirty work: feel free to bust a capillary at www.sullivansstories.com

[Via Siliconera] 

-Original post- 

I'll be the first to admit that I have no brains for alternate reality games.  I'm completely daunted by them -- it's almost like trying to trying to spoon-feed meat broth to a loosely wall-chained vegan, or maybe it's more like enduring hours of political debate with a hippie when all you want in the end is violent unprotected sex or their employee discount at Z Gallery. These are two fictitious first hand accounts (I'm a perfect gentleman, obviously!) and so is everything else that's blogged on www.sullivansstories.com, as noted by a little discreet footer found at the bottom of the page.  A Drake's Fortune ARG has launched and it has me blue-balled in the brain.  As Aaron Linde once said ... WUT?

I did try to cheat the game by skimming the source code and a Craigslist URL stood out which shows a high res map and ... ok, that's all I got.  I'm passing this along to fellow Dtoiders to figure it out: Do you have a brain for ARG's?  If you find anything cool, please post in the comments and I'll update this story.  As a wise man once said: None of us is as dumb as all of us! The post reads:

Antique “Drake” Map for Sale – circa 1580

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Reply to: sale-456542149@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-10-22, 3:33PM EST


This map was recently discovered in a small village just outside of Portobelo, Panama. The previous owner claims it was once the possession of Sir Francis Drake, the legendary English explorer and privateer. This piece is a must have for any collector of rare maps and antiquities. Considering its age, the map is in fairly good condition except for a small worn-out section in the left hand corner. Due to its unverified authenticity, buyers should beware.

Charming. On a sidenote, it's interesting to see companies pursuing ARGs online -- I suppose since I'm blogging about it I must not be the only one that finds them to be a bit of an alluring curiosity even though (unlike the machine that is Fronz) I have never gotten that far in them.  I'm curious as to how the community feels about these sorts of marketing promotions as opposed to traditional banners and sweepstakes booty.