Uncharted ARG gets weirder, people get hurt, your LOST DVD collection mourns

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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.