2008 Woodie Awards
Collectible Puzzle-Card Game offers hope for the socially hopeless
Melissa Lewis
Issue date: 6/19/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Monday, June 19, 2006
Perplex City, a new collectible card game, is here to affirm your suspicion that one day you, too, would use your caffeine-addled brain for good - at least, the good of your wallet. The prize for the first person to use these cards and story to locate a cube buried somewhere on the planet is $200,000. Black Lotus, here you come!
A company called Mind Candy out of London has internationally distributed hundreds of cards against the backdrop of a complex story line. As of April 2006, 194 of the set were released. The other 62, called "Wave four," are set to be distributed later this year.
Each card is one of eight levels of difficulty; their level is indicated by color. The harder the card, the more points it's worth and of course the rarer it is. The most common cards are red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black and finally silver.
Aside from tackling a single puzzle on each card, players must piece together clues to a larger puzzle by reading pieces of a map on the backs of cards or gathering subtle written or visual clues on each card. If it sounds complicated, don't fret - it is.
Players organize by creating personal profiles on www.perplexcity.com.
The Web site tracks each players solved cards, attempted cards, map pieces, and more. Players have the option of keeping their contact information in their profile and may receive messages with clues regarding the game at random. When you receive the message, the trick is to act cryptic so your friends think it's a hot date.
Also on the Web site are news articles, story line information and forums for people to discuss cards and the overall game.
Players can either ignore the story or tune into every exposition-filled podcast between World of Warcraft games. Each pack of cards contains six random cards and costs an
average of $6.
Players hail from many countries; the top five players are currently from Korea, the United Kingdom, Antarctica and Seychelles respectively. The game also features live events. According to the Perplex City entry on www.wikipedia.org, "Sixty players attended an in-game event in search for clues, only for one of their own to be revealed as a mole and escape in a black helicopter - later, 220 people participated in the first Perplex City Academy Games in London, a high-tech scavenger hunt across the capital."
For people who don't want to invest any cash just yet, the Web site offers two free cards to solve online once you create a profile.
So hang in there, my binaryreading brethren; you may not be living a Steve Carell movie after all.
For more information on cards, go to www.perplexcitycardcatalog.com.
Perplex City, a new collectible card game, is here to affirm your suspicion that one day you, too, would use your caffeine-addled brain for good - at least, the good of your wallet. The prize for the first person to use these cards and story to locate a cube buried somewhere on the planet is $200,000. Black Lotus, here you come!
A company called Mind Candy out of London has internationally distributed hundreds of cards against the backdrop of a complex story line. As of April 2006, 194 of the set were released. The other 62, called "Wave four," are set to be distributed later this year.
Each card is one of eight levels of difficulty; their level is indicated by color. The harder the card, the more points it's worth and of course the rarer it is. The most common cards are red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black and finally silver.
Aside from tackling a single puzzle on each card, players must piece together clues to a larger puzzle by reading pieces of a map on the backs of cards or gathering subtle written or visual clues on each card. If it sounds complicated, don't fret - it is.
Players organize by creating personal profiles on www.perplexcity.com.
The Web site tracks each players solved cards, attempted cards, map pieces, and more. Players have the option of keeping their contact information in their profile and may receive messages with clues regarding the game at random. When you receive the message, the trick is to act cryptic so your friends think it's a hot date.
Also on the Web site are news articles, story line information and forums for people to discuss cards and the overall game.
Players can either ignore the story or tune into every exposition-filled podcast between World of Warcraft games. Each pack of cards contains six random cards and costs an
average of $6.
Players hail from many countries; the top five players are currently from Korea, the United Kingdom, Antarctica and Seychelles respectively. The game also features live events. According to the Perplex City entry on www.wikipedia.org, "Sixty players attended an in-game event in search for clues, only for one of their own to be revealed as a mole and escape in a black helicopter - later, 220 people participated in the first Perplex City Academy Games in London, a high-tech scavenger hunt across the capital."
For people who don't want to invest any cash just yet, the Web site offers two free cards to solve online once you create a profile.
So hang in there, my binaryreading brethren; you may not be living a Steve Carell movie after all.
For more information on cards, go to www.perplexcitycardcatalog.com.
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