Editor's note: Kevin infiltrated an alternate reality game for the upcoming Xbox 360 game Splinter Cell: Conviction. This is his report. -Brett
MISSION OBJECTIVE: Purchase a day pass to Wizard World Toronto Comic Con for March 27, 2010. Scout the convention floor for gaming-related booths or panels and find a story worth reporting.
I arrived at 11:47. I knew Splinter Cell: Conviction would be on display and playable, with Michael Ironside, voice actor for protagonist Sam Fisher, in attendance. Unfortunately I missed Mr. Ironside and the initial presentation, but I did get a chance to play the demo.
I enjoyed my brief time with the game but maintained my conviction to attend another scheduled viewing later that afternoon to see if I could acquire any further insider info.
Upon returning from a fire alarm that had temporarily forced convention attendees to evacuate, I noticed a line forming outside Ubisoft's demo room. Intrigued, I snuck into what I thought was another panel presentation for the game.
I soon discovered I had infiltrated a debriefing for "Inside Splinter Cell: Conviction," an Amazing Race-style alternate reality game. Designed by Ubisoft Montreal and sponsored by Microsoft to promote and evoke the world of Splinter Cell, the game sent 40 two-person teams scrambling around Toronto as panther-like black-ops agents in the hopes of procuring a trip to Montreal to check out Conviction at Ubisoft's offices.
MISSION REDIRECT: Interrogate contest organizers and pursue competing agents.
While I knew I wouldn't be able to compete, I was determined to gather intel on the proceedings. Participants were given a black Splinter Cell/Xbox jacket as well as a backpack loaded with a fake ID, passport, map, camera, transit pass, mirror, water, and a Nutri-Grain bar -- the super spy essentials.
Before leaving the war room, players were issued confidential dossiers detailing clues about four locations in Toronto's downtown core. Teams needed to visit three of the four secret locations and then use the information gathered to discover a fifth destination -- an EB/GameStop -- to complete the downtown leg of the mission.
Once players made contact with their GameStop informant, they would then be directed to their final destination. After explaining my intention of writing about the event on Bitmob, I managed to acquire the whereabouts of this destination from a helpful event organizer turned double agent: the Downsview Station subway stop.
Seeing as the agents had to have a passport stamped to confirm completion of at least three challenges, my advanced knowledge of the subway meet-up did not really risk breaking the game. I thanked my informant and went for a smoke to decide my next move.
MISSION UPDATE: Aggregate and study intelligence.
I struck out for HQ (my condo) to track the events online. A Twitter hashtag (#sccxbox) had been designated for participants to post hints, pictures, videos, and taunts -- although only one team made active use of this during the event to share video of their experience. For the most part, the teams remained off the grid.
I left HQ and toured downtown using hints gleaned from the debriefing and the Twitter feed, but without the intelligence actual players had been given I did not encounter any of the intrigue. I had memorized a contact phone number given to the teams in case they missed their 20:00 deadline but decided not to bother with the subterfuge and headed instead towards the endgame.
MISSION UPDATE: Advance to insertion point. Gather challenge intel.
I reached Downsview Station just after 20:00 and scouted around to find the rendezvous. I noticed my erstwhile informant with a small group of players gathered on a lower platform.
I joined them and listened intently as each team reported their methods and experiences during the race. They had been tasked with acquiring dates, times, and locations from contacts or documents at each stop.
Agents parlayed at a vodka bar complete with Russian spies; checked into a seedy hotel room to await a telephone tip-off leading to a basement encounter with a bound and bloodied hostage; infiltrated a closed nightclub, raced to the rooftop and escaped down an elevator all while evading flashlight wielding security REDACTED
I learned that the top six teams had already reached the subway stop. The first place team, brothers Christopher and John Kalanderopoulos, had crushed the competition, arriving 45 minutes before the next fastest team.
They had accomplished this using a combination of efficient route planning and challenge selection, keen observation and puzzle solving, and the use of taxis rather than the public transit passes each team had been provided in the initial load-out. The last tactic was bemoaned by some contestants as unfair, but from my point of view, their ingenuity was definitely in the spirit of Sam Fisher.
The finalists had been shuttled away via a chartered bus to prepare for the mysterious "final challenge." The rest of the contestants were eventually crammed into the charter and driven to an airfield warehouse to watch the top six teams engage in the grand finale. On the bus I was asked if I had checked in. Although I admitted that I was not on the list, my presence was not questioned.
MISSION UPDATE: Maintain cover and observe.
Upon arrival, we were herded to the entrance of a prison cell block and screamed into two single file lines by a warden and his guards. Cells on the left side housed the six teams while cells on the right contained surly inmates decked out in full prison regalia: jeans and wife-beaters, tattoos and dreadlocks.
We were marched to the upper mezzanine to watch as the warden made a show of a block-wide cell inspection. All the inmates lined up along yellow lines outside their cells to allow the guards to search for contraband.
As the warden paraded up and down berating the inmates, the hardened lifers took the opportunity to attack him, bar a guard into a cell, and escape into another section of the prison. Unbeknownst to the spectators, the competitors took advantage of this distraction to complete the winning challenge.
Using coded clues written on the walls of the now-empty cells of the missing prisoners, they returned to their own cells and raced to break the cipher. The warden released the trapped guard and declared a lock-down while his staff set to harassing various onlookers for information.
Soon after, the inmates returned and started a riot in earnest, locking away the entire staff in their own prison. The cell block was engulfed in smoke and flood lights. The prisoners jeered, klaxons blared, barrels were set aflame, and toilet paper rolls streamed through the air. Amidst the chaos, the finalists charged through the haze towards the exit to freedom.
At that moment, beamed onto an upper wall in the style of Splinter Cell: Conviction's projected environmental prompts, the words "Get to the Chopper" appeared.
The spectators were ushered outside to the airfield where a helicopter (!) awaited the team who had cracked the code the fastest. In the end, the Kalanderopoulos brothers claimed first place yet again. They were airlifted away to the raucous cheers of the crowd.
MISSION ENDGAME: Make contact with the winning side.
John and Christopher returned to the scene of the crime unscathed and everyone was invited back into the warehouse for sandwiches and drinks. Sixteen Xbox 360s playing the Conviction demo were situated behind a fenced-off storage area. Everyone ate, played, and swapped war stories until the shuttle started shipping us all home from a thrilling "mission accomplished."
I hung back and caught up with the winners, who were being oriented on their ultimate engagement: a two-day trip to Montreal for a tour of Ubisoft's studio -- including hands-on play time with a retail version of Conviction with the developers. Their exhilaration was still fresh and they happily shared details of the adventure, helping me grasp the scope of the event I had invaded.
Christopher said they were especially impressed with the design of the challenges and the attention to detail. "We participated in something phenomenal," he said. "The game was truly brought to life."
You can read Christopher's exciting first-hand debriefing of the challenges on his own site here. More photos and impressions from contestants can be viewed at Xbox Canada's Facebook page.
MISSION ASSESSMENT: Well funded live-action role-playing, marked and executed with precision.
The designers of this challenge did an exceptional job of translating the Sam Fisher experience into a real-world adventure. If Splinter Cell: Conviction is anywhere near as thrilling as this contest promotion -- and having played the demo, I have a strong suspicion that it is -- the developers of the game have an explosive hit on their hands.
MISSION COMPLETE: Return to HQ to await next assignment.
When not in deep cover, rogue agent Kevin John Frank can be contacted via Twitter @quipp.
