The Game: A Scavenger Hunt

[Music] since the early 90s a rotating group of game organizers have been carrying out elaborate scavenger hunts across the west coast the hunts which combine puzzle solving racing and teamwork started out as amusing brain teasers meant to provide a unique experience to some of the area's more ambitious thrill seekers the game is simple you need to get clues solve them figure out where to go next go there perform some difficult challenge retrieve the next clue until you're done and with each passing year the puzzles became more elaborate and demanding you've had to discharge a machine gun deal with a live rat and do lots and lots of other crazy things getting past all manner of obstacles eventually culminating into one event where sleep deprivation impaired judgment and cryptic clues pointing toward dangerous locations left one man paralyzed and partially blind resulting in a 10 million dollar lawsuit against its game masters this treasure hunt has been referred to by many names such as the gentleman's game in the Bay Area race fantastique but most know it by the ceremonious title of the game the origins of the game can be traced back to the 1980s and the Disney film Midnight Madness in which teams of college undergraduates compete to win an all-night race and scavenger hunt high school student Joe Belfiore and his friends were so enamored with his concept that they decided to make it a reality named after the movie which inspired it the first real-world Midnight Madness was coordinated in 1985 stretching across 150 miles of Clearwater Florida landscape and played by four teams of high school students being the first iteration of the game it was little more than a race from one destination to the other with a few obstacles along the way but the seeds of an innovative experience were already beginning to bloom setting and placed the tradition of the winning team being responsible for organizing the next event several more games took place over the following year as they grew in complexity they first began incorporating radio broadcast crossing swamps on inflatable rafts and locating clues on top of the skyscraper but when Joe Belfiore the game's founder moved across the country to attend Stanford University in California Midnight Madness came to a conclusion rather than leave his new tradition behind Joe decided to test the idea of orchestrating a similar game with his new dorm mates the idea was met with enthusiasm and leaving behind the old title of Midnight Madness the Bay Area race fantastique was born [Music] throughout the years of Joe Belfiore ace undergraduate Barth as it became known cemented itself as a new Stanford tradition and with each passing game not only did the difficulty increase at one point requiring players to use the San Francisco's Airport x-ray machine in order to uncover a hidden message within a piece of cardboard but so did the level of storytelling in the third iteration titled who killed game control the game took on a murder mystery theme introducing a narrative structure which is something later games featured heavily the Bay Area race fantastique became so popular among Stanford students that it began to gain media attention with local news crews coming out to document the events about 77 well-dressed Stanford students are running all around down San Francisco's Union Square right now looking for clues in what's called the unusual treasure hunt called the Bay Area race fantastique I won't talk about the acronym there it will go on for more than 18 hours and the only treasure is learning as they follow each clue from one location to the next and as the media coverage increased so did the game's popularity with more and more students showing up to participate Belfiore became a minor stanford celebrity with journalists wanting to speak to him about his unusual creation there's something really valuable about putting people in a state of duress Belfiore a said in an interview with Stanford daily and they have to reach for ensign themselves to get the physical endurance or knowledge needed to do something that they thought they couldn't do when Joe Belfiore graduated Stanford students continued the Bay area-based fantasti a tradition which persists even today but similar to Belfiore from Florida to California he had no intention of leaving his brainchild behind relocating to Washington State in order to work for Microsoft as a program manager Bell VOA began organizing events in Seattle which people began to refer to simply as the game sometimes operating his event organizer and occasionally as a player Joe continued raising the bar and surpassing expectations for what a recent scavenger hunt could entail this write-up in the San Jose newspaper featured a sample clue of the 1997 game which asked players to deduce that these random letters found written on the underside of a rug were abbreviations for US states and then used the shapes of these states in order to spell out a word although such creativity was not without controversy in the 1999 game which was held in New York City and featured a fictional terroristic theme in which players were meant to track a double agent in the style of a James Bond film a fake bomb was placed in the Marriott hotel of the third World Trade Center tower after being discovered by a hotel janitor the New York City police were contacted and due to the terroristic bombing in the World Trade Center just seven years prior the police took this extremely seriously and the Marriott hotel was evacuated but unfortunately as startling as this was it was far from being the game's most controversial moment in October of 2002 the game took a dark turn Joe Belfiore now 40 years old was beginning to start a family and had intended to make one final game before focusing on his career at Microsoft with a budget of $40,000 this was to be the most elaborate game to date the adventure was titled Shelby Logan's Run and the players were meant to navigate the Las Vegas cities and deserts in order to save the life of Shelby Logan an ex CIA operative who was to be disposed of via a chip in his brain recruitment for this game was unique bizarre and a little horrifying prospective contestants would receive a knock at their door and when they opened it obliterans stranger stood on their doorstep insisting to speak to shelby logan the contestant would have no prior knowledge of who Shelby Logan was but the stranger growing increasingly hostile with his insistence among the contestants association with Shelby would stop only when a voice amplified by a megaphone commanded him to step away from the door the stranger would be apprehended by two men and thrown into a van and the contestant left to ruminate on what they just experienced until the following day when they found a note attached to their door when the player dialed the number listed they were answered with this this is the witness protection program hotline if you are a participant calling in a situation of emergency and would like to report an immediate or direct threat to yourself or your family please press or say one now if you are a participant calling on a non emergency basis to report an anonymous or passive threat to yourself or your family and are calling from the wire telephone or a secured cellular phone please press or say two now if none of these options apply please enter the function code for your desired operation at this time if you have received this phone number via the internet or an email thread please do not forward the email or continue to spread this phone number this hotline exists for the assistance of threatened witnesses and their life safety this is not a game one alarmed player who understandably didn't quite realize what was happening was part of a game contacted the Redmond police department to explain what had just happened which prompted the officer to attempt to get in touch with a witness protection hotline hi this is officers this with Ribbon Police Department up here in Redmond Washington and I'm working a case concerning some suspicious circumstances and the complaint who reported this suspicious circumstance was given this phone number I want to find out if this is legit or if you know any of the parties that are involved or somewhat could you please give me a call back or somebody not a computer person but a somebody a real live person so I can verify what's going on of course this was not an actual hotline but merely an automated recording and after some trial and error players began to figure out how to proceed entering this four-digit function code provided on the note left at the player's door Shelby Logan's case number was provided zero 7 - 9 - 2 5 6 2 - 1 4 6 - along with a website - a fabricated witness protection database where the player is meant to enter the case number in order to access Logan's protected individual profile from there the player learns why Shelby Logan is in trouble his 35th birthday is coming up the age in which agents in his field are subject to D accession the profile page prompts the player to enter in a series of emergency contacts for Shelby Logan which will serve as the player's teammates for the game once that is completed the player is given access to a satellite tracking system and over the next several weeks the players witnessed the satellite gradually zero in on a set of coordinates in Las Vegas Nevada in the early dawn of October 25th 2002 after following coordinates to the Eldorado lakebed in Las Vegas nine teams were awoken from their campsites by the sound of helicopters nine silver softballs were dropped from the helicopters onto the campgrounds written on the balls was the following message welcome to the silver state back in 20 minutes when I returned follow me Leave No Trace and stuffed inside the softballs were cd-roms which contained this video clip hello I have Shelby Logan if you've received the messages I left you already know I'm a serious dude I thought that once the IDP chip had been implanted there was no hope of escape I had spent my 35th birthday in a coffin fortunately there's some good news I also discovered the IDP as a bug when it switches to final the accession mode sometime within the 24 hours before it stabs me it looks like it will be possible to bypass the security interlocks it should be possible to insert a code string that will disarm the ITP chip before it goes off first you're going to have to find the debugger device second you're gonna have to find me third you're going to have to exploit the bug into IDP finally once you're into the IDP you'll have to figure out how to disarm today she'll be Logan's neural chip was said to explode in less than 48 hours and it was up to players to solve the puzzles in order to deactivate it with each puzzle solved players would receive a number in which to enter into the witness protection hotline in order to receive a clue for where to go next each test will have an access number as soon as you can call the WITSEC hotline if your function code to 6 if I have information for you the system will give it to you them all 9 teams quickly packed up their camping equipment and loaded it into the respective vans ready to follow the helicopter once it returned the first stop was hoover dam at a glance there was nothing to see other than dirt grass and water but using high-powered binoculars the player spotted a raft with a large sign that read come here the players had to acquire a boat or some kind of watercraft from the hoover dam rental facility and reached the raft in order to get the next clue the next stop was Lake Mead in which players had to rent scuba diving equipment in order to solve a puzzle 12 feet underwater the puzzle was a spin out puzzle in which the player must rotate plastic notes in the correct order to reveal a combination which would be used in an upcoming scenario the third location was black island the players hiked uphill in order to arrive at a flashing red beacon using the combination they obtained from Lake Mead a box was open to reveal a portable debugging device which would be used to deactivate the deadly chip inside Shelby Logan's brain calling the witness protection hotline and entering the code found attached to the device players were answered with this recording excellent you received the portable debugging device now it's time for the second chapter in this mission you need to find me and then connect this debugger to the IDP chip implanted in my brain once the device was turned on players learned that it also doubled as a tracker in which to find Shelby Logan but by turning on the device they had activated a countdown time after which the neural chip was set to explode giving them only 24 hours to find Shelby and deactivate his chip by this point it was a little after 2:00 p.m. and the teams had been going nonstop since dawn and they clearly had a full 24 hours left following the tracking software in the debugging device players arrived at their fourth location redstone dune trail similar to the Hoover Dam location there were no obvious clues and redstone that alluded to them being in the right place and due to poor cellphone coverage there was no way to contact game control to ask advice forced to wander the trail aimlessly players begin to hear music playing softly from hidden speaker and there they found their next clue loading back into the respective vans players drove 30 minutes along the white domes trail in order to arrive at a location called the valley of fire running low on gas some teams had to make significant detours to the nearest town in order to fuel their vehicles at this point it was late afternoon and the Sun was beginning to set and here's where the game got particularly weird arriving at a hiking location known as the mouse tank named after a naturally formed circular enclosure players were told that this is where they will need to find the numeric code for the debugger necessary to deactivate the chip in Shelby Logan's brain but there was one catch the code was hidden within a live rat named to templeton team search Templeton's fur to see if a code had been written on it but no such luck feeding the rat laxatives and sifting through its droppings also yielded no results the solution take Templeton to an all-night veterinarian clinic which game control had previously visited in order to supply them with the necessary scanning equipment and have them locate the microchip inside him in order to access the code many teammates bonded with the rod over the course of the game and kept him as a pet next the game led players to an ATV rental facility and which players were equipped with four-wheelers in order to ride across the Nellis dunes trails to arrive at their next location this challenge was slow going due to the fact that it was nearly pitch-black by this point arriving back to civilization teams were then tasked with various challenges within the Las Vegas strips such as completing firearm training at a gun range deciphering a code illuminated and dice atop the awning on Fremont Street and dressing and drag in order to perform karaoke at the cobalt bar Shelby Logan's Run was shaping up to be the most elaborate and exciting experience to date living up to the expectations Joe Belfiore had placed upon himself as his final game staged kidnappings piercings tattoos and even infiltrating the Southern Nevada correctional facility the game continued in full force all throughout the night and into the early morning players were exhausted but the adrenaline of each new extreme challenge propelled them forward but around 8 o'clock in the morning as the game was reaching its final set of challenges tragedy struck [Music] it was a couple hours after sunrise and the players had been awake for nearly 30 hours although for those who were seasoned in the game this was nothing new but four player Bob Lord a 37 year old software engineer in entreprenuer this was his first game and perhaps he was too eager to prove himself in the third to last location the game led players to the Argentine mine complex consulting the clue found at the previous location the good spring cemetery and which players had to locate the headstone for Shelby Logan Bob Lord and his team followed instructions to walk exactly 1133 feet and into 1306 the clue specified that 1306 is clearly marked strictly forbidding the player to enter any others but what was 1306 well that was of course the puzzle rather than walking 1130 three feet from the starting location Bob climbed upon a small hill in order to survey the mill then use trigonometry to recalculate his target location which pointed him to an open mind confident in his calculations Bob decided this was the way forward although the numbers pre-painted across the mine was 1296 not 1306 as the clue specified and despite the fact that someone likely gained control had also spray-painted the word no repeatedly across the mine entrance Bob had concluded that this was a reference to something he'd seen in a previous puzzle as Bob Lord entered the mine he fell 30 feet headfirst shattering his c3 vertebra once game control found out about the accident Shelby Logan's run was cancelled and Bob Lord was rushed to the hospital over the next few months it was determined that Lord would never walk again his wife Jackie Lord was grief-stricken and angry she went to Argentina mill and spoke to Bill Durban the mine safety inspector asset turned out bill was a consultant for Shelby Logan's Run and when asked for advice and incorporating open minds into the game he's quoted saying I did everything I could to tell them that this was the stupidest thing I ever heard mining expert and consultant Steve Russell is also quoted trying to dissuade the incorporation of mines into the race people died in these things all the time Russell claims to have told gain control lawsuits were filed against the members of game control who were responsible for orchestrating the event including Joe Belfiore and his wife who reached an out-of-court settlement for ten point six million dollars one member of game control however refused to settle and instead chose to go to court and a blog titled static zombie a player who participated in Shelby Logan's Run and subsequently testified in the court case recounted their experience every player signed a waiver they wrote a scary waiver it explicitly stated that players might be called upon to perform strenuous activities with possible consequences including death I don't know how that waiver holds up under Nevada law but it wasn't vague and it wasn't perfunctory what happened was terrible and tragic they continued but ultimately someone didn't follow instructions I don't believe the event organisers should be held responsible despite the fact that the last remaining member of game control won his court case and the blame for the tragedy remains subjective depending on personal views and opinions the entire ordeal has left a diminished enthusiasm for the game's creators the fact that someone got injured in a game I made it hurts Joe Belfiore said of the whole incident it was not my intention far from it the game still continues nearly as frequently as it had before the accident but with a much stronger emphasis on player safety but only a few have followed Joe Belfiore Iza Nishal format many have taken the foundations of the interactive treasure hunt formula and innovated one of the most recent games the 2015 black letter game was a subscription-based adventure and which Clues were mailed to the players home the tradition of the Bay Area race fantastique continued for Stanford students and alumni although the last instance of this I could find was in 2012 Joe Belfiore went on to climb the ranks of Microsoft becoming the corporate vice president of their experiences and devices division and has even been recognized as one of the top 10 best technology designers by Business Insider his involvement in the game diminished but he continued his pursuit of innovative storytelling through non-traditional means as evident in this 2004 TED talk Joe can you hear us hey Joe you got - hi [Applause] [Music] it turns out the cell phone frequencies which as you know are in the gigahertz range are near a national neuron resonance frequency in most adult human brains please get your cell phones turned on anymore phone's turned on if your phone rings then your phone has the virus and so do you and that is serious this ain't no Mad Cow folks oh [ __ ] [Applause] [Music] ladies and gentlemen too about the Joe Belfiore inventor of the game the effort money and coordination that went into creating experiences such as Shelby Logan's Run is impressive and it's likely that the need to craft extreme challenges that would shock and excited suppliers had shifted the priorities to the point where very real hazards were part of the experience innovative experiences such as the game are few and far between although with the success of alternate reality games and escape rooms there certainly appears to be a growing interest in incorporating mental and physical challenges into playable narratives but as with any new type of game it's important to remind both the creators and the players to tread carefully and cautiously and remember that the point is to have fun stretch the limits of human potential and above all take away something positive it's an intellectual exercise it's a challenge of mind body and spirit it's the ultimate test for the modern-day Renaissance man and Renaissance woman he added hastily recently atrocity guard has reached an incredible milestone of 50,000 subscribers when I started this channel nine months ago I never imagined I would receive such overwhelming support I read all your comments and I tried to take something away from every single one and I'm always trying to improve in terms of research writing and presentation and your enthusiasm makes this process a joy many of my fellow content creators have also been instrumental in my success in terms of support collaboration and advice and so to them I'd like to say that I've never been more proud to be a part of the communities I am this one and it's an honor to partake in this journey alongside you all if you enjoyed this video and look forward to similar content please consider subscribing if you'd like to support the channel a link to my patreon can be found in the description below as well as a link to my subreddit where I invite you to join the discussion of past present and future videos lastly if you'd like to stay up-to-date on Channel news you can follow me on Twitter at atrocity guide [Music]

Channel: undefined

Views: 299,355

Rating: 4.9587665 out of 5

Keywords: The Game, Shelby Logan's Run, Scavenger Hunt, Bay Area Race Fantastique, Atrocity Guide, Weird, Bizarre, Rabbit Hole, Road Race

Id: o1yZ-ymG7lY

Length: 24min 52sec (1492 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 02 2019