Michael Andersen
@mjandersen
Stares at numbers at Simon and Schuster, runs ARGN.com - more ARGs, escape rooms, immersive theater, and puzzle stuff than you probably want to hear
I think this was my first time spotting a House of Hades Toynbee variant in the wild!
Think I can get away with putting up an out of office message that says I am only available for conversations about Matt Dinniman's new cat Svetlana (of the Dinniman Imperium, First of her Name, Destroyer of Filth, Daughter of the Oak Fell, She Who Purrs)?
With multiple pieces of social proof and nothing easily readable to the contrary, Google's AI is now reinforcing the claim. Despite the original poster explicitly saying "I made this up".
The Deadline article doesn't exist, and a day later the original poster explicitly responded to the tweet, "Guys this isn’t real stop believing me". But that's not how information spreads online, so a content aggregator made it social media "news" - and I am <not> redacting sources here.
Anecdote of the day on "breaking news" and how the algorithm is killing context - In the wake of major analog horror adaptation news, a fan (whose handle I'm redacting out of courtesy) made up a tweet about Monument Mythos being picked up by Apple TV. It was likely done as a joke.
This doesn't mean what we're all secretly hoping, Matt Dinniman signed a copy of Pierce Brown's book at an Arizona bookstore...but a fella can dream. If you thought I went feral for the Book of Bill ARG, I would be beyond insufferable during the Scolopendra's Nine Tiered Scavenger Hunt.
Got out of the Black Mirror Experience, currently running through The Shed. It was technically and logistically impressive, but some of the impact was blunted for me because I don't really recognize what I look like without glasses as me, so the uncanny valley was even more uncanny.
Scavenger hunt round 2! (I make no promises of completing this one)
I was hoping they'd be nice enough to do it this way! Full Backrooms map, from the zine.
You may not realize it, but you owe @amberalice.bsky.social a debt of gratitude. Between Toy Story teasers, wedding rumors, and Stevie Knicks shirts there is a near endless stream of my bullshit that you've been shielded from.
While discussing my pseudo-professionalism, I was reminded of my active participation in LinkedIn endorsement bombing, back in the day. You can still find a few of the artifacts of that era of LinkedIn hacking in my profile, if you know where to look. www.buzzfeednews.com/article/char...
...oh that's funny, while cribbing slides from past presentations on ARGs I've given, I uncovered a talk I have no memory of giving. Apparently I can add Oregon State University to the list of college classes I've guest lectured for? Good job, past Michael, still proud of you for this one.
Ah yes, the start of me thinking there was a secret Game Changer ARG...how naive yet prescient I was.
Live commentary on Escape the Greenroom with Tommy Honton!!! gamechangerchallenges.com/live
I think we're now up to 2/3rds of all activity coming from one particularly aggressive entity that keeps hitting the site every 2-3 minutes for the past week. And while I could play "not a person" whack-a-mole, I don't really want to risk the false positives.
Got to sneak into Escapology's Rockefeller Center location before it opens! They managed to pack a lot into the space. Hoping the decor is part of a secret lobby puzzle, because that steampunk glove pointing to the left practically *screams* "I'm a puzzle".
Just got reminded of @nicktierce.com's Swashbuckle Noir Pirate Investigator membership cards, again. What a great puzzle. Super satisfying reveal, made full use of the tactile nature of the object. So glad I shamelessly begged a copy off of him, being a nuisance really does pay off.
It's a bit of an odd citation, feeling like an artifact of an earlier page edit - I wasn't the person to add it, and wouldn't be surprised if it gets removed now that I've mentioned it. But it's yet another reminder of how much Colbert has always played with his audience and his guests.
Mail Call: I am one NPL membership away from being one of the cool* kids! *puzzles are cool, right?
I will practically never name and shame pitches (I don't have the time to cover everything that comes in, but will at least check out the projects). But this pitch was so generic, sharing it reveals nothing. It's the "hey we saw you at the other side of the bar and liked your vibes" of cold emails.
I promise to be selective in my Game Changer Kickstarter posts, but I am moderately proud of this response I just submitted. Check out the campaign, it is exactly the spectacle I was hoping to see in the world. www.kickstarter.com/projects/dro...
BAPHL emailed that their puzzles (and solutions) should be going live in the nearish future, so I can share one of the wilder physical puzzles from the event - linked logic puzzles that require you to dribble water in one side, to figure out how the holes connect.