original proposal  
Derek Jensen (Derek Jensen), 07/06/2001 - 12:38 AM
    
"To: Ross (plot@csbl.net)
From: Derek Jensen (aka I_monk)
Tentative, relies on another storyline to run tandem with. Characters need to be fleshed out.

The Information Liberation Front is a group of college-age hackers with high ideas of social awareness and activism. They've taken the "information demands to be free" rhetoric and made it their life's purpose. They protested at Quebec City and Windsor and Seattle and brag about being tear-gassed by the fascist cops, etc. The problem is, they aren't actually that good at hacking. They're nearly entirely "bark" with very little "bite". They're more conspiracy nuts than anything, seeing boogey men around every corner. The four members of the group actually do little more than talk about drum and bass music, obscure anime references, and online gaming. Lead by Herm3z ("h3z"), Zed7, r!an, and Sero (all with real names to be revealled later), they'd be a great source for teenage perspective and/or a Laia-like "narrator-ally" character.

Herm3z, we'll find later, is a 22 year old poli-sci major. A typical geek, he's shut up in his dorm room most of the time; asocial in the real world but the social buterfly in his online circle of friends.

They have a site of course, the main page comparable to the average self-styled "radical activist" group, complete with allusions to other "cells" and brave acts of hackery and digital justice. At the bottom of their site is a tiny link to a hidden page for the members to login and access postings and links to other sites (both in-game and out). This would become a minor puzzle for the dupes to work over. Not being good hackers, the password is hinted at on the main page.

Once inside the hidden message page, we find that the ILF has just recently "liberated" some "incriminating evidence" from one of the sundry Evil Multinational Corporations - their sworn enemy of course - in the form of an encrypted spreadsheet. They brag about hacking the corp's intranet and looking around the databases, where they found the spreadsheet. Encrypted several times, it would be a puzzle needing to be unlocked by the dupes in stages, as keys are released by various sources. The tone of some of the messages posted will suggest that the ILF isn't taken seriously by anyone.

In actuality, the ILF have been duped. Someone lowered the firewall and let them in, framing them for the data theft he or she was committing at the same time. The corporation itself will depend on the other storylines being used. It could be a drug lab if a medically-themed plot is used, for example.

A week or two (assuming weekly updates) after the login password is cracked and the spreadsheet found, the ILF homepage is hacked and scrambled. An ominous pop-up warns that the ILF are in over their heads and that the cops (FBI, RCMP, whoever) are on their way. Oddly, it would appear that that the crime they have been framed for has flown under the company's radar, so the mystery character has decided the risk of being discovered is too great and calls the cops on ILF to make the connection clear.

Herm3z will be arrested but released when his computer(s) reveal no trace of the hack he's accused of.

Taking place in text hiding in HTML, a three- or four-part conversation between one of the ILF members and another, possibly from another cell (not revealled yet), unnamed character brings the dupes up to speed: the ILF site was hacked, the spreadsheet copied, and then hacked ("looks like someone else") and scrambled ("meybee to hide something"). The implication being that when the dupes cracked the password and got the spreadsheet, they caught the attention of the mysterious corporate mole, who then covered his or her tracks by scrambling the site. The conversations indicate that it's "h3z" from ILF, but the other participant goes unnamed. That the conversations have been secreted away in other sites will suggest that one of them is a much better hacker than the dupes have been led to believe.

After another two weeks, when the conversation has appeared and been completed, another established site, some sort of news organization maybe, will announce the death of two teens in a car accident. Hints will suggest that the two teens were Zed7 and r!an. This will be left dangling for a few weeks just to raise suspicion and specs. By this time the dupes should have the first part of the spreadsheet cracked. It will disclose the name of the "evil multinational corporation" and a simple Google should get them the URL.

A week later the ILF site will be resurrected and reformatted. Herm3z won't mention the deaths but will give a little speech about corporate intelligensia trampling the rights of his organization, etc etc. At this point he will become a liason for the dupes to interact with. He'll mention some of them on the site, if applicable, while decrying the actions of others, when applicable. Every week he'll change the login password because he suspects someone keeps cracking it, and as always the password will be hinted at within the page itself.

Over the course of the rest of the game, Evil Corporation A will be linked to Evil Corporation B, who are battling for control of the market place (of whatever product it is they make or distribute). The mysterious "mole" character, hopefully tied securely to another storyline, will be an employee of Evil Corp B, out to steal research and such.

Evil Corp A's website will include a product number search, where dupes can input numbers from the solved database, when they solve it of course. Some of the results will be mysteriously "not available" and some will be hacked, vehicles for whatever hidden messages need to be sent. They'll appear as strange "bleeds" from emails on the system, the perfect place for new character names or URLs to be mentioned. The "incriminating" product or element will depend on the main storyline - a cure for AIDS that's being supressed by the company, for example. Perhaps a form of mind control - the ILF are conspiracy nuts after all, they'd take it seriously (meaning the dupes would have to as well). The final decryption of the file will reveal whatever the big secret is, which will have to be decided later when other plotlines are known.

The mole character, and therefore h3z, will seque out of this subplot and into a secondary storyline in the main plotline. I hope to tie the mole character to another established character - as a secret identity perhaps, or (preferably) the sibling or friend of an established character so the dupes could work into this subplot from two directions, while h3z would retain the "liason" role for dupes to work with. As a "liason" h3z could pass along information to the dupes, sort of like Laia's meditations or Martin's diaries.

The unknown character's motivation will be up for spec, though evidence from the main plot will suggest that both companies are doing something illegal or unsavoury and that he might actually be on the side of the ILF but forced to work for the opposition. Spec will fly that he is also the unnamed hacker in the hidden messages. The implication will be that the mole is actually an IFL cell member who is smuggling information out to h3z, who has to play dumb as part of his cover.

The Sero character will never be more than a name on the screen.

I realize it's not a major plot, but it's not intended to be. I think we'll lack story depth if we limit the game to a single thread. I intend to focus most of my attention on the graphic design side of the production, but I'd also like to "voice" a character - h3z - and give him a world to work in. The world in this case would be like a nexus for links to game and non-game sites (helping the illusion of reality) and a side-story for the dupes to follow as a line of development for the main story. As necessary, references to other characters can be added wherever possible (i.e. h3z's cousin is Main Character Man). "

Changes have been made here and there, I'll post them as soon as I know what they are...