Ben Drowned: The Full Story & ARG

let's be honest about this right off the bat when it comes to creepypasta the chances of reading something that isn't about an older obscure videogame are pretty low the idea of an evil or haunted game is one of the most commonly used plots in a horror storytelling online we've seen sonic.exe herobrine Polybius pale luna and too many others to count the topic is incredibly popular and some might say overdone but every fad or popular movement begins somewhere an artist or creation that sets the precedent and kick-starts the trend the name of the originator for this kind of trend is one you already know and know very well you've heard of the bench round creepypasta you've seen all the narrators online who've told the story to millions of listeners you might have watched the videos with their millions of views you've seen the jokes and the images and the references by let's players but unlike so many stories that game in the wake of Ben drowned the experience doesn't end when the creepypasta narrator's video track runs out in the same way a copy of Majora's Mask held a much deeper world of discovery so does the tale of Ben drowned one of the most unique and ambitious online alternate reality games ever attempted hides under the surface of this creepypasta milestone and just as its creator is getting ready to launch the third and final act of the game we're embarking on a mission to put all the pieces together are you ready to hear the full story of Ben drowned close the door turn off the lights make sure your antivirus software is running smoothly and open your night mind after many months of viewer demand it's time to finally tell the story this is Ben drowned on September 7 2010 a visitor to four chains paranormal board posted a plea for help to readers he swore that what he had tight wasn't a copy pasted joke and needed everyone to listen he was having trouble with a video game specifically Majora's Mask having just moved into his dorm room at college the writer didn't have much more entertainment Besant was immediately available to him in this case what he had was a Nintendo 64 system and only one game during his first weekend at the dorm he drove around a few neighborhoods nearby visiting yards Hills on the off chance he could get more games he got lucky once or twice finding some titles he recognized before noticing one last odd set up outside an otherwise normal home only one table had been placed out front with a few watts intent on it no one was nearby upon approaching the table the writer was greeted by an old man with a strange almost off-putting atmosphere about him the college student asked if he had any old games explaining he was trying to collect some and after initially denying that he did the old man said to wait a moment and walked into his garage as the man tuck through his belongings the student examined the items on the table an odd series of paintings that looked quite a lot like inkblot tests including one resembling a silhouette of Majora's Mask from the Zelda game of the same title the old man came back after a moment with a game cartridge a copy of Majora's Mask but with no original title sticker on it instead the name had just been written down with a marker to the student surprise he was given the game for free and not being one to argue about a gift said goodbye and headed back to his car I thank the man and the man smiled at me and wished me well saying goodbye then at least that's what it sounded like to me during the car ride home I had a necking doubt that the man had said something else my fears were confirmed when I booted up the game and there was once a filename simply been goodbye Ben he was saying goodbye Ben I felt bad for the man obviously grandparent and obviously going senile and I for some reason or another reminded him of his grandson Ben the student went on to play the game on his own save file and performed a type of glitched use for extending time needed to complete the story's mission it worked but upon leaving the area he entered an extremely unexpected location with no characters in sight from this point the writer experienced an ongoing series of oddities with pieces of the game missing music playing in Reverse and events occurring in spots they were never meant to take place all the while an object from the game named the elegy of emptiness kept following him around this was a statue that could be summoned for puzzle solving efforts and was made to look like an ugly clone of the main character Elaine at several points the writer tempted to run from the statue which kept reappearing behind him while running through the empty town center the game teleported him to a new location with the game's villain floating in the air after shooting him a few times the character lifted link up and set him on fire as the sound of laughter played he was reset to the same spot and after running around a bit more set on fire again a third attempt to remove himself from the situation using a magical instrument gave the same results when the game screen returned after the third death blackout link lied motionless on the floor an ominous message appeared a moment later you've met with a terrible fate haven't you on the loading screen the writer saw that his game file was no longer there it had been replaced with one called your turn opening it up brought him right back to a shot of Link's body a return to the file screen from there revealed another change a new file titled Ben how is it that we have video of this the writer realized how significant this all was halfway through the oddities taking place and began recording before the statue started chasing him the video was uploaded to YouTube under his account titled J dues of all J dues Apple follows up the very next day on 4chan posting that he had a dream the night before about the elegy of emptyness statue following him early in the day he went back to the old man's house where he was given the copy of Majora's Mask no one was home but a neighbor was outside mowing his lawn Tjader Zobel asked him about the old man it was told he was moving he had no family living with him and no grandchildren the neighbor was aware of but if that was the case who was Ben J to Zobel asked the man's expression turned grim and I learned that four doors down eight years ago on April 23rd there was an accident with a young boy named Ben in the neighborhood shortly after his parents moved and despite any further attempts to talk to the man to get more information he wouldn't divulge anything else Jade usable went back to the dorm room and despite his fear turned on the game the playthrough he recorded featured a very broken model of link accompanied by very corrupted audio eventually the elegy of emptiness appeared over links form and a countdown began before the scene suddenly shifted returning a cutscene with a mask vendor character another shift occurred placing reducible outside with three characters including the statue and Venter he tried to solve the situation by selecting the magic instrument and playing a spell called the song of healing which only resulted in link bursting into flames the scene shifted to a new location with link wearing a mask that turned him into a sort of mermaid his horse was reacting to the ocean with fear a clear indication that something was out there J dizzle sent the character underwater where the ology of emptiness statue sat on the ocean floor after lights began to flash on the Statue link began drowning in mermaid form upon returning to the file selection screen a new piece had been added it directly under been a game saved under the title drowned the to save files told me his fate as I suspected Ben was dead he had drowned the game obviously isn't through with me it taunts me with the new save files it wants me to keep playing it wants me to go further two days later J DuSable came back feeling much worse about the whole situation after following some advice from readers our stayed up all night I can't sleep I don't care if people see this that's not the point I just want the word to get spread so I don't suffer for nothing I've lost the will to type about this unless I dwell on this the better I think the video just speaks for itself I did what you guys told me to do I played the elegy of emptiness song at the first prompt by the game I was given but I think that's what the game or Ben wanted me to do he's following me now not just in the game he's in my dreams I see him all the time behind my back just watching me it talked to me for the first time not just using text that's all in the game it spoke to me talked to me it referenced then it talked to me I don't know what it means I don't know what it wants my original game file is back just the way I left it before it was gone I don't want to play anymore I feel like something bad will happen if I don't but that's impossible it's a video game haunted or not it can't hurt me right that's what I keep telling myself but every time I think about it I'm not so sure the accompanying video shows Jade is about playing the LG of emptiness after which every encounter that can result in a text prompt says the same thing you shouldn't have done that jadoo scible tries many different actions all resulting in the same phrase until the screen goes black and a new message appears Ben is getting a lonely link is set next to an open area with a single tree on a hill once at the tree backwards music begins to play and the elegy of emptiness statue appears followed by a jump-scare screen of the masked vendor looking furious a new message appears you will be given one last chance back to where it all began come play with us the title screen reappears leading to the savefile screen the original file used by j2z ball link is back in place underneath bends another two days pass by when communication picks back up it's not from our narrator it's from his roommate at college or in this case former roommate Jade whose Abul had moved out after her very rough start to college life it had barely begun before he packed up and headed home and although his roommate didn't quite understand why he was staying in his room all the time barely eating and just not talking he is finally beginning to put things together I tried talking to him several times but he would cut me off or keep the conversation brief when I asked him about his strange behavior it was like he was convinced something was haunting him yesterday I came to grab my philosophy book and he approached me looking awful these horrible bags under his eyes he ended me a flash drive and gave me specific instructions he told me that he needs me to do one last favour for him he finally explained to me what has been going on gave me the info to Z to pick out and told me that he's getting away from here that it lured him to play it again instead of trying to change things that shouldn't have done that and to upload the footage and inform people what happened I told him that he could do it himself and he got this wild look in his eye and told me that he is never looking at that game again and that's the last thing he said to me he never even said bye when his parents came to pick him up on the flash drive there was the footage of the game last night a text document with his name and password for YouTube and a third document called the truth text containing what he told me were his notes that he'd taken he told me that this met everything to him that I follow his instructions exactly I've had this video since yesterday after watching it I had to go back and look at his other videos to realize what was going on and even then I'm really really confused the video I'm releasing tonight the truth on text will be released on September 15th just like he requested I haven't dared peek at it yet so the first time I see it will be the first time you see it out of respect to my friend to answer your questions now I haven't tried calling him yet I think I'll give him a call tomorrow to see if he's okay or not he should have gotten back home by now the final video actually starts off a bit more normally that we're used to things aren't so haunted in appearance and the music is playing forward J dizzle plays the game through his link and everything is going smoothly until he checks his inventory inside he finds a picture of the mask vendor and the elegy of emptiness he drops a photo from his inventory and proceeds into the next room where a creature teaches him the song to summon the elegy of emptiness statue after playing the statue appears and Jade whose Abul is left to fight a monster while trapped against the wall he doesn't stand a chance the monster approaches and cuts him to pieces with a loud violent slash linked ice and the scene cuts to black leading to this we then open to link in a graveyard reading the inscriptions on tombstones he comes the one that reads a vessel that holds wandering spirits rest here and you can spot a very familiar figure standing behind it link falls through the earth and we receive a new quote accompanied by the laughter of the mask vendor link then faces a twisting hallway that changes in rotation as he heads forward in the hallway he encounters the elegy of emptiness and the game freezes the title screen loads again followed by a quick return to the file saving space the file previously marked been has now been named Matt September 15th couldn't come quickly enough for readers of the story jitters apples roommate delivered releasing the file titled the truth on the promised aid revelation spilled forward from the text the first of which being that we've been played by an unreliable narrator this entire time while Jade useable was typing his messages at recording gameplay the spirit in the game of Ben was guiding our entire perception of the events by manipulating text and video Jay DuSable kept research notes I quickly turned into a diary detailing events behind the scenes revealing information begins from the first day that the story came online 346 p.m. go-to sworn driving back from Subway that I saw the LG stands you buried in some shrubbery staring at me go by now I definitely definitely need sleep 6 p.m. connecting my capture card to my computer to upload the footage thought my computer froze for a second made this strange popping sound when I hooked everything up but now it seems to be working fine again my computer can't die on me now 8:45 p.m. thought I saw an icon pop up on my desktop that looked like the statues face for a split second gave me quite a scare getting really unnerved and delirious I'm coming to crash after this 9:03 p.m. I don't remember having uploaded a vampire the masquerade bloodlines video last year this was probably the account that I shared with a friend of mine last summer I hope he doesn't mind me using it to upload this this is an important moment to focus on before uploads began for videos of majora's man ask the account already held to videos the first was a clip from a game called vampire the masquerade bloodlines in which the player approach to character named Rosa a fortune-teller though most of her statements don't seem to make sense there are pieces to pay attention to and when you might already recognize the father is it the father behind you the other video contains footage from a game called prototype in which the player assumes the role of Alex Mercer a shape-shifter that violently consumes other people to change forms remember this for later going back to Jerusalem secret file we find his condition growing worse the day after his first video upload of Majora's Mask 2:45 p.m. I've been getting random inexplicable headaches due to the lack of sleep and keep hearing that song in my head also it's flu season so I need to be careful not to get sick my immune system is going to be shit right now because of that all-nighter rio 2 p.m. my computer just on its own opened up a text document and wrote the words high and WWWE be calm by itself i went to the website it's one of those bought chatting programs Jai do simple had a conversation with the cleverbot that quickly showed there was definitely something talking back and it was not an automated program the other user admitted it was messing with his computer and only wanted one thing to play with him on that game Majora's Mask Judas will ask them yes the user replied I played with you Jade Isabel demanded to know who he was talking to the answer been the statue you're inside my computer now yes how you connected me how the hell did I connect you cables and cords the rest of the chat reveals that Ben is capable of opening and manipulating files and programs on the computer he is having fun with Jai DuSable and will continue to let him write his notes it's amusing to see what he thinks re fifty PM what have I done I've invited it into my computer I continue to write these notes write my summaries and I feel like I'm a prisoner in my one of security I don't know I don't know if I'm hallucinating or not I feel like I'm fucking insane right now I can feel it watching over me even as I type this then is controlling everything in the game toying with me leading me like a sheep but for what what's the purpose I know been drowned but why these hauntings what am I even doing it could probably even see this right now Ben called me the cleverbot again he tells me that he's sorry and wants to be free and that I can free him that just like how he got on my computer from the capture card he can spread but he needs my help he says I am special because I can help him that's the first nice thing he said he promises to leave me alone if I do it he swears he well I don't know what to think right now how can I even trust this thing I'm terrified of it but now it's saying that it was just having fun it's twisted up version of fun he's saying that the game is over I do want it to be over he says that he just wants to be free that he's trapped in the cartridge and my computer and he wants to be freed I don't want to have to deal with this shit I don't know how long I can deal with the watching it's watching my every move every keystroke I have nothing private anymore it knows everything that's been on my computer it tells me that if it wanted to and good to horrible things to me but it hasn't so I should trust it then call me the cleverbot again I ignored it and went to go take a shower when I came to my laptop I was welcomed with an image of the elegy statue staring at me with those dead eyes I don't want to talk to him fuck you been I'm not talking to you fuck you been I'm not talking fuck you been are not talking to you fuck you Ben I'm not talking to you it's been more than half an hour and the messages have stopped Ben has stopped I'm beginning the thing that Ben isn't confined to just my computer or cartridge I'm beginning to feel something it's hard to explain it I've never been spiritual but there's something different about the air in my dorm room now I'm beginning to see the elegy statue randomly as I search the internet in places I showed it places where he shouldn't be I'd be scrolling down and suddenly I'd be staring at a picture of the elegy statue always the elegy statue I don't know how much more of this I can take the following day jadoo scible realizes that Ben has tampered with his post for the second video detailing events pieces have been removed that mentioned Ben existing outside the game and something Jai DuSable wanted to tell us about the moon children is also gone he tried to contact been on cleverbot but got no response that night he had a dream about the moon children who wore masks to hide hideously disfigured faces maggots crawling out of their orifices sunk in black holes where their eyes should be two of the children held him down while the mask bender came in soda mask to his face the moon children then took jitter Sable's transformation the rest of the way turning him into an algae statue he woke up sweating crying and shaking reducible ran to the computer and went to cleverbot then finally answered him and expressed he was having more fun fun to play fun to toy with you make you feel safe he wanted to know how he would have reacted if he and it revealed himself and stayed hidden only doing little things to play he wanted to do something different with him you did this before Jo Celeste yes and I will do it again to who Ben did you know Ben won't tell that information to you how did Ben die you know no but how did he drown won't tell that to you why it is reserved for another 12:04 p.m. my room is beginning to feel different again there's something out there I feel really threatened like there's something that is trying to reach out to me and strangle me but it can't quite get there I think Ben doesn't want to play with me anymore I'll play again I'll play the game again Ben Ben can you see this I'll play the game again please just just stop this please please going insane trying to decide what is real and what isn't is Ben just playing a trick on me or is this for real it's been generating these replies or people actually posting them did I just see that screen flicker or was it my imagination imagine depending on the internet and trusting your eyes for your entire life and then being blinded you can't rely on it anymore you second-guess everything for the brief moments I am looking at my responses to the videos people were pointing out things that looked fake or photoshopped or whatever there's literally no way for me to know then change something on purpose to try and shut me up or maybe those replies were just constructed by benda trying to scourge me from even reaching out see I get fucking caught in an infinite mindfuck loop like this and this is what has been wearing on my sanity and pushing me to the edge as I'm writing this there's no way of even telling if anyone even cares as much as I think they do just another fucking trick does this whole document even exist am I ready nothing who have I been talking to the day of the 3rd video upload JD ripple claims that Ben has censured him again 11:55 a.m. there's an entire video summary of a video that I don't remember doing reading through the summary this sounds morbid resembling my dream from two nights ago except on a far more sadistic scale these mood children there's something more to them almost as if they're another entity from Ben something happened last night that I can't remember I'm posting the fourth summary to the forums now the shadow of my chair moved Ben won't let me visit YouTube I can browse the rest of the sites but he keeps on exiting the window when I go to YouTube why I'm feeling the air start to constrict I don't think I'm alone here whatever aura has been here is getting more violent I'm trying to contact been on cleverbot he's not responding I just get the AI my ears aren't fooling me I'm hearing the reverse song of healing I keep hearing yet now I'm positive of it earlier I thought it was a weird coincidence but just now I went to open my window and three floors down at ground level I saw the old man I'm completely positive I did the same guy he was just staring up at my window standing in the middle of campus if any students took notice of him they didn't seem to acknowledge it this is where J do Sable's know to end the rest of the document is from his point of view with full knowledge that's going to be his last communication to readers I've led my room taking the cartridge with me I don't want to go into details of what happened I'll lose my train of thought as I hammer them out it's been roughly two days since then this is my last summary and service to you of the final video you guys saw Matt WMV except we know that the final video was called JT useable WMV and only had a save file at the end marked Matt Ben broke into the upload process again making sure we didn't see the beginning during the video J do's of all now known as mad gave him two hints from been telling him to learn the elegy of emptiness song convinced it would end the game and put a stop to Ben's torment the result led Matt to believe it was over and he decided to leave it all behind after writing his closing thoughts on a library computer I've emailed myself the notes I have stored on my infected computer from the last four days I'm then going to combine those notes with the closings and openings that have typed here on the safe public computer into one text document I'm not taking any chances spreading Ben I would not wish this on anyone and I've made sure to have my bases covered here I didn't run into any problems with Ben when I was back on my computer trying to email myself the notes went right under his nose he has no idea what he just let me do had no problems opening the text document from my infected computer in my email either that said do not download any of my videos or anything about my videos I don't know how he can spread but I know that just watching them on YouTube or reading my text won't be able to allow him to do it otherwise he wouldn't have needed my help in the first place but I strongly recommend you do not take anything you see streaming online on to your own personal computer this will be my last posting I'm putting it up on this forum for the world if you see any further posts from me after today's current date September 12th and after the current time 1208 a.m. discredit them it's already been proven to me that Ben can access my account and password and manipulate my computer and like I said I have no idea to what extent it can do this but know that it will do anything to break free he is desperate to ensure your safety just forget about me please this fifth day will be my last day I'm going to burn the cartridge and then come back to destroy my laptop again even though I don't even know you this is sort of bittersweet for me in this semester I really didn't have any friends or rather I stopped paying attention to them but I suppose I'm partially to blame because I'm the genius who choose to live in a single I suppose someone to get a hold of me and save me before I got too immersed into this game would have literally saved my life I'm just glad it happened to me so I could get the warning out and make sure that Ben dies here lastly thank you for taking the time to open this and open yourselves up to me by hearing my story despite maybe not believing me you didn't have to do that really you shouldn't have your support this entire time has kept me going and now I am finally free of this I suppose I'm partially to blame because I'm the genius who chose to live in a single this means that Matt never had a roommate for his dorm he's been alone the entire time who uploaded the final post then I'll give you just one guess our unreliable narrator means we don't know Matt's condition after all he may not be as safe as we had hoped the same day the document titled the truth was uploaded a new video was posted other j2 Zoobles account free WMV readers were at a loss for how to proceed from here Ben was free and all along he had more power than anyone realized thankfully activity opened up on September 17th beginning with coded messages on Jeju Sable's YouTube activity log deciphering the codes led readers to a website you shouldn't have done that Don NAT our initial investigation by readers it was discovered that the web site belonged to a cult named the moon children worshippers of the goddess Luna this was an operations in communication space for members of the cult and now information has been lost after the site went down early investigators did manage to save a good amount of material to bear in mind as we explore that the web site was a piece of the game no matter what it contained at the time it's just an addition to the story according to the home page the moon children consider themselves Lunas chosen will be the sole survivors of the coming apocalypse and they possess extraordinary powers of spiritual energy immediately below the welcome text we can spot post from moderators that let us know the site is brand new three of these mods have pictures wearing masks and the moon children say they've been active for a while but have started a new site and may have some impending traffic they're aware of the mods mentioned and ascension date which has been assigned to the second poster neko known by the real name of chris he posted on September 15th saying his ascension date would be tomorrow it's all I can really think about now my family can't understand why I'm so excited the other mod dusk world mentions another interesting bit of information please guys don't make a mr. d upset this may be related to another moderator who posts an ex named drowned and Road you shouldn't be reading this I'll bring over his avatar changed it to a picture of the elegy of emptiness neko post the next day thanking everyone for being like a family to him he is excited to be ascending at last and writes I still feel like I'm gonna pinch myself and wake up at any moment I already have everything I need to go there it's like all my life I've been waiting for this moment when I can finally achieve what I was meant to do keep this site running strong for me while I'm gone I'll be back to come get you guys soon two hours later a post from dusk world comes through claiming that Chris had a successful ascension with milk occations it really warmed my heart when I heard the news and I'm sure it will for you guys too actually I don't exactly have her logs out here in front of me but I think Chris was the youngest person we've ever had to a successful ascension which makes sense Chris was always mature for his age we're all really happy for you Chris and hopefully we'll be seeing you soon now if only he would start talking to me the guestbook from the site contained more casual conversation between members of the moon children and if they didn't come across as troubled individuals already a few of the posts confirmed the death of their issues a moon child writes about losing their mask saying I was freaking out seriously sometimes I just get so used to it on my face that I forget to pick it up if I put it down to other users plays back-to-back replies discussing their urge to kill several people before sending and one member even offers to join another in a mass murder spree a page named the Creed actually contains two of them with instructions for any participant to be wearing a mask the initiation Creed also involves drawing blood from initiates before they can receive a mask and join the moon children another page mark theories contain two reoccurring theories on the end and has entries on Mayan Hindu and scientific ideas of the apocalypse Alling up to the final entry the Luna prophecy dating back to 1998 a moon child named Cal pris received several whispers from Luna herself rather than ascending him however these whispers informed him of how the ant will come about the whispers were brief and vague detailed below they break free of the prison and gulf the world man will be betrayed by its minions and I will be brought down from the sky consuming everything it's worth noting that the number three is reported by CalPERS to have been said numerous times sometimes in between words sometimes even between letters so it's assumed that there is some kind of significance there Gilbert was later found electrocuted whether it was foul play or an ascension was never determined although transcended Calpers's discovery has made him a legendary figure within the moon children and much of the order today is based off of that prophecy at least now we can confirm what was already suspected of ascensions they're just code word for death made by the hands of a deity or suicide the words of Lunas stating she will be brought down from the sky consuming everything is exactly the nature of the apocalyptic scenario in majora's mask link is in a race against time to prevent the moon from crashing into the earth and this brings us back to the video for the game prototype from earlier do you remember how the main character Alex Mercer had to consume others in order to transform note the use of the word consuming in Lunas prophecy and then take a look at these two posts from the site's guestbook gotta say I like the new site the layout needs work but it'll do the important thing is that most of us survived the blackout anyone know what happened to Alex I haven't heard from him no idea haven't heard anything on his end this correlation between the site and the prototype game might look like coincidence and it would have stayed that way had viewers not discovered the existence of a moon child named Rosa you'll remember Rosa as the character from the first video from vampire the masquerade the cult member named Rosa was found through personal contact with the moderator I fret to be his sister having an luck speaking to someone from the site after many attempts to do so users emailed several questions one of which asked about his real name he responded with Rodney R but another user who had been digging around found it listed on a secret page as Matt hubris a countdown clock had also been found on a secret page for a user named Ben a question sent to eyford about Ben revealed that he had been a member of the cult and had ascended but his body was never found when the countdown on Ben's user page reached the final hour the music playing on the homepage of the site change from its original relaxing theme to something familiar a vast version of the mask vendor song from majora's mask players of the game who investigated the source code for the page saw that the song was called matt's final hour just as the countdown hit its end anyone who emailed i fret received a reply reading hang on someone keeps knocking at my door it was the last message he ever sent the countdown ran out leading to an activity post on jeju zobelle's youtube account a posting of lyrics from a song called who's that knocking Bend's Bonnie may have gone missing but he was still around to visit old friends this also reveals the actual recent deducible last savefile was marked Matt it wasn't his real name it was been running down the name of his next victim a video response was made replying to the latest video free with a title made of the last few letters from ifrits contact page exploring the YouTube account that posted the reply the link missing revealed the name of the uploader to be Alex the missing moon child the video was a recording a blank playing the song of time in front of the moon from the previous game in the franchise the song of time has the ability to reverse time slow it down and speed it up the end result of this action was a full reset for the moon children website but when visitors took a look at ifrits page all they found was a display of three allergies of emptiness and a question expecting the fine someone else just like a boss in the game of Majora's Mask a character that was killed by an enemy would not reappear when time was reset a new set of secret messages that were laid throughout the site indicated there were moves to make on the player side of the story one player sent a video response to Ben's last upload on jeju Sable's account which showed link playing the inverted song of time slowing down the countdown clock on the website that had caused ifrits death Ben replied on the J disabled channel with a cipher code that translated to the message you've begun to start thinking you begun to catch on you've made a discovery today but how long until that blessing becomes a curse this was a confirmation of how the game was meant to be played layers could send gameplay in Majora's Mask using spells to create changes the next move was a song called new wave bossa nova which allowed those without a voice to speak this granted Rosa the ability to communicate with users through i40 mail which had been switched over to the name Matt it was discovered that she held the username and password to a page titled the truth unfortunately a player who disregarded the input of others involved in the game played the song of healing the same spell that made link burst into flames during jeju Sable's uploads the submission came very quickly after Rosa's appearance and as consequence of it being played she spoke with a player saying she heard someone outside her door Rosa gave up the username and password for the truth but the player wasn't quick enough to use it on the secret page and find information to help Rosa met the same fate as the original account holder Matt otherwise known as AI Fred the community agreed to play the song of time after debating amongst each other to save Rosa but they failed new video tags appeared on the video for vampire the masquerade stating you didn't save her nothing found on the truth could help them another user played a song that required special conditions in the game to be met in order to have any effect as consequence Alex's YouTube account uploaded a video of link being killed by his dark doppelganger a message from Ben that he had been sacrificed by the players wrongful use of the song other player submitted videos that successfully revived his character and then sent him away again by using yet another wrong choice of spell almost immediately after all of this on the morning of September 20th an event on the original 4chan board that kick-started the whole story took place shaking all players out of the experience Alex Hall the writer of the story maker of the Jade uzl and Alex videos and overall puppet master of the alternate reality game stepped out of the shadows to reveal himself and hold an interview difficulties of time and finances were keeping him from continuing the game as an actual college student Alex was not equipped to keep things running he had designed the website for the moon children himself paid for hosting and maintenance and on everything else involved with keeping the game up and running and the strain was finally becoming too much he admitted what steps players had been meant to make and of the game had been flexible flexible enough so that you can make mistakes and lose main characters like Rose and Alex but still managed to be dead the game was meant to mirror Majora's Mask as much as possible with four reset cycles to mimic the four giants in the game the video for rosa vampire the masquerade was the initial ground for basing the story's prophecy and how events would be laid out the prototype video was for keywords like Alex and consume and to act as a metaphor in the way pen operated the point of the game would have stopped Ben and for those wondering about that username je dues of all it turned out to be a mix of the names Judas and Abel in as short a time as the next day Alex gave the news that he had received donations that could allow him to continue the game in the near future and October 6 the moon children website came back to life images of gas masks and people wearing them appeared reminiscent of the profile pictures seen from the admin drowned layers came running back in time to learn about a scavenger hunt by adding a number between 1 and 63 to the end of the web address you could gain access to a new page containing a different file quite a few were password protected and file 31 was missing the site underwent several surface level changes with images of the elegy of emptiness appearing messages coming and going and other small transformations suhan players managed to crack the password to all files except for the 59 once that was broken into a message was found from I Fred declaring that he is not dead i preserved the message that ben was growing stronger the character of link had been a kind of blockade between players and Ben but even that protection had now been eliminated by the second video to come up on Alex's channel they had to fight and keep trying to beat it using all the knowledge and clues they obtained a ciphered message at the bottom called to a player by their real name telling them they were in danger this user was known online as Ryu kaki the next day any user who had submitted a phone number to the site through the contact page began receiving phone calls from a blocked number some calls were audio of the song of healing in Reverse while others were the elegy of emptiness followed by a voice telling them you shouldn't have done that Ryu kaki also began uploading on his YouTube channel starting with the video sounds in which he tries to find the source of some strange noises in his home next comes the video music about a phone call he keeps getting dang song and at one stop the two videos after this have ryu kaki explaining that he's being followed by something and that his phone has been stolen his story ultimately ends in tragedy with the release of the final video last words and a secret message to go along with it share through media fire the content of which essentially boiled down to the same thing eyford sad don't give up keep looking there are clues you need to find this is the point of the story in which the game began to break down updates for the next phase were delayed with Alex informing players in November of 2010 that the final stage involved in actual game and development using unity3d the layers were major enough that a public Q&A session was posted right on the moon Children website officially turning it into an out of game resource for the first time Alex had hired a small staff to help him create it and it was taking a little while to put the game together he was also paying them for assisting out of his own pocket in January 2011 the website became very largely password-protected Alex gave an update saying that the holiday release date he'd been planning for was unrealistic and new ideas met there would be a buildup prior to release of the game but that required more time in February the website began to crash as hosting issues came into play the Jade usable channel was updated with a coded message to send players to a forum called within hubris seeing that the old website was no longer stable for the game some of the users who moved over to the new forum received newspaper clippings and letters the article hinted at mu and children misbehaving offline and the message from Ben was just more intimidation and threats things began to slow to a crawl from here with minor updates on the j2 scible account and the within hubris forum in July of that year Alex officially announced that the project was off until further notice the game for the third act wasn't finished Alex had no more money to put into it and many other factors were pulling him in several directions the stress of it all and the complications were too much until it was ready to come back at full strength the entire Ben drowned project had to stop let it never be said however that Alex Hall is a quitter to this day work on the final eggs and the game for the Jade usable Arg and Ben's round experience continues it's been confirmed that the final act will be complete released by the end of this year on his official Twitter of multiple times six years in the making and Alex didn't give up despite the struggles he faced not only have you just learned about the original Ben's round experience you get to be a part of the finale as it takes place in 2014 Warner Brothers announced they were teaming up with director Clive Barker to adapt Ben ground as part of a live-action series based on creepypasta a landmark of success with the project that stands alongside the many millions of views on the original Jade usable videos Ben drowned can be considered an alternate reality game that really is about games it comes from the story of a haunted game it's meant to be played like one and to make progress in the story players had to incorporate footage from a game as previously stated creepypasta regarding video games is nothing new but the direction taken by Alex Hall and his dedication to staging the entire project goes above and beyond any haunted video game story today a full website hidden files coded messages character interaction with players and an actual game and development for the final act on top of videos this is what passion and dedication looks like as for the final mystery of how the gameplay videos were made we have an answer to that Alex used a program called project 64 a desktop Nintendo 64 emulator that provided access to animations textures and script functions given the actual codes for actions in the game he could script his own events and activate animations on the fly while recording no evil video game cartridge involved just a very creative and intelligent use of software and that is the tale of Ben drowned much deeper in its story than most people realize and not quite over yet I'll put the link to Alex halls youtube channel in the video description where you can watch the original videos uploaded for the story just make sure you ignore the latest video King Kong that was an April Fool's prank that's still hanging around for some reason it's not quite known exactly when the game is going to return but I'll be on the lookout for updates follow me on Twitter Tumblr Facebook or horror me know and I'll let you know as soon as I catch worth of the game is back on that's all for now thanks again for joining me in the dark this evening once more I'm Nick Nocturne and just like that statue with the eerie smile I'll be seeing you again real soon sleep time

Channel: undefined

Views: 1,777,388

Rating: 4.8737807 out of 5

Keywords: creepypasta ben drowned, creepypasta, ben drowned, bendrowned, jadusable, story, arg, haunted, game, majoras mask, night mind, nightmind, nick nocturne, nick nocturn

Id: QJlqY1O4B00

Length: 45min 26sec (2726 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 21 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/Devator22]

I stumbled upon this on the Internet as it was happening. It was one of the coolest things I'd seen and was my introduction to ARGs

[u/DanCheadle]

I love Night Mind, Nick's voice is the best.

[u/HairlessSasquatch]

That became cumbersome to listen to

[u/Loiathal]

Oh man, I was there for that!

And our ARG group made this out of it, which was a blast:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw1nnjAiHNQ

[u/[deleted]]

Can somebody tell me what ARG means? I keep seeing it in the context of creepy stuff on reddit, like right here and /r/creepy, but whenever I googled, all that comes up is Alternate Reality Games, which can't be the correct meaning in this context.