IntroductionThe Wyoming Incident is the internet’s longest running and oldest ARG there is. TWI reigned supreme back before Google bought Youtube, and when Google Video was the company’s video uploading platform. I stumbled upon this ARG through one of my favorite YouTubers, NightMind. Also known by the pseudonym Nick Nocturne, NightMind’s channel is one of the best researched and run channels around for those who love the creepy, unexplainable, and outright strange things that happen in reality, fiction, and somewhere in between. NightMind did an EXTREMELY in-depth video about all of the ins-and-outs of The Wyoming Incident; So in-depth, in fact, that it’s over 40 minutes long. For the purpose of time, and simply because I’m just relaying what I know about TWI through his video, I’ll just simplify the events and happenings in the TWI to the best of my own abilities. If you wish for a more in-depth experience, I highly recommend you watch his video covering TWI. How it BeganThe Wyoming Incident’s first upload was through Google Video. The video was introduced something like this: Someone was able to hijack a television station in Wyoming and instead of the regular programming, playing a video with the message “Special Broadcast” every 10-15 seconds and then black and white video of bodiless CGI heads with various expressions. Every so often there would be text on the screen, that didn’t make any real sense. Alongside the disturbing imagery, apparently the tone in the background of the video drove any unfortunate enough to view the broadcast insane, or at the very least induce nausea. The video is more locally well-known for this reason, but it’s popularity on the internet came to be when it was brought up years later on a forum called Unfiction. The GameWhen brought up on Unfiction, no one knew what the video was. That is, until a user called “Lyrainthedark” posted in the forum with a link to a new YouTube video and the simple message, “I found this on you tube this morning.” The name of the video was “Weird Video I Found.” The description said that the user who uploaded the video, GiveMeANumber, had received this video out of nowhere on their doorstep, assumed it was a prank, and promptly posted the video on line. The video itself was exactly the same as the first, except with different cryptic messages during the video. The messages this time were “Why do you hate?”, “You are ill,” and “We just want to fix you.” What users in the Unfiction forum immediately recognized was the username and it’s ties to the Neil Gaiman novel, Sandman. Another couple days later, yet another new user gave the forum a new video, this time with no explanation, just the link to the video, which itself was posted on Google Video rather than YouTube. In the video description, the upload talked about how their older brother had a collection of “bizarre videos” and wouldn’t share them with anyone. It wasn’t until the older brother died that the user was able to view the videos, and explained that this video was his favorite. Again, the video was almost exactly the same as the first two, but with different messages: “What hides in your mind?” and “We have already seen it.” The next lead came when a user on the forum pointed out one of the comments on the third video. The comment was from a user called “iliketoread,” and they posted a link to a blog that was apparently the original owner of the video of The Wyoming Incident. Using the name Gregory Miller, it was explained that the owner of another of the videos was man named Daniel Cable. After further investigation into the blog, there are mention of three other men. One of which was already dead, another was an ancient Greek, and the other was still alive and living in Wyoming. Forum users found the man, Robert Vreugdenhill, and his phone number. When one called the phone number, the answering machine was simply the sounds of beeping. More specifically, someone flatlining on a machine. Barely an hour later, another user in the forum posts the link to a blog called “The Happy Cube.” It was an old forum, and nothing had been posted in it for year but it said that there was a brand new user that joined just that day with the username “iliketofix.” Though never explicitly stated, this forum was supposedly a forum where serial killers would describe their favorite ways of killing people. They called it “cubing,” and in one of the forums there was talk of having a “CubeCon,” where they would all meet in a heavily populated city and kill together in packs. This was all the information anyone was able to gather. The next development in TWI came when there was another blog post by Daniel Cable. He was calling out to anyone listening to step forward to become the next recipient of the fourth video. Many of the Unfiction forum users stepped up to the plate, but one won. User “Esteed” won the video, along with a message. The message explained that the five people to have this video were driven mad by it or were already insane and the video caused them to break. The person who broke was Jack Q Pembry, the moderator from The Happy Cube. This explained why The Happy Cube was even in existence, it was a result of The Wyoming Incident videos. After this message, the blog completely changed. Every bit of evidence was scrapped all except for one last blog post allowing the Unfiction players to ask three questions, and if they asked three he would give them one last fourth bit of information. The first question was asked by Esteed, and went straight to the point by asking where the videos originated from. The answer was that the videos had “always existed” in some way, shape, or form, but were given to someone to update and put into video format. Another user asked what the purpose of the videos even was. According to the person running the blog now, they were made to influence humanity as well as to strengthen some sort of strange belief system of the responder. The third question was asking about what information from the story of all of this they had not been given or found yet. The responder didn’t quite want to answer this question, but they did mention that they should keep an eye on the YouTube channel that uploaded the first video, as they are a loose end in the situation. The Confusing "Conclusion"After this exchange with the blog poster, most activity moved over to The Happy Cube, where the brand new user “iliketofix” began making posts, speaking of ancient Greek mythology and explaining it plays into their own personal religion/belief system. The reason I can’t go into depth about this is the fact that there’s just so much going on that it’s hard to follow. There was a lot of roleplaying and lore. Long story short, there was a lot of what I just mentioned, two rituals that could have actually given someone a hallucination if truly done, and, eventually, a post stating that everything that had happened in TWI was a giant prank. There were even three different posts all by iliketofix stating this sentiment. All of those who were playing on the Unfiction forum were extremely upset by this, and with good reason. They spent so much time working to find new clues, checking the forums daily, pretty much devoting their lives to this undertaking. But to add insult to injury, eventually ilovetofix returned, stating that it in fact wasn’t truly a prank and continued posting all of the lore and roleplaying, and any mention of videos was suddenly irrelevant, despite the videos being the reason this ARG began. Eventually, a couple more photos were posted, but one of them was actually an advertisement for Cash for Gold, and anything else that followed was joking. The forum went dead for three years, and one last little post was added to the tops of all of the threads, titled “and so.” The only thing that “and so” contained was the statement “the children awoke that year.” Final ThoughtsWhen I first began to learn about The Wyoming Incident, I was all about it. It was an extremely cool idea, and certainly an ARG I would have loved to be apart of. However, when it lost all of it’s luster as soon as it became wishy-washy. You can’t have that number of people devoting time and energy to something, tell them it was all a joke, then tell them it wasn’t, and repeating once more. That really ruins the appeal to your players, especially when an ARG is something people will devote their life to for long periods of time. Not to mention the fact that there was zero closure. I know that if a video game or novel leaves too many plot holes unfinished I feel a bit empty and cheated, but leaving a true ending out would be devastating. The Wyoming Incident started out with a lot of promise, and seemed like it would deliver, which it did, but once all of that unnecessary lore and roleplaying began it got ruined. I really wish that they had simply done a little bit of lore, finished releasing the videos, and then maybe finished it with a real ending that anyone could be satisfied with; then this ARG would have been good.
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AuthorMy name is Vincent Bennett. I am in a mass-customized learning program at my high school called Apollo. This is a website for my third project, revolving around the amiguous, complex world of alternate reality games, or ARGs. I will be posting reviews of different alternate reality games and assessing their effectiveness. ArchivesCategories |