EMBARGOED CONTACT: Karen
Strickholm
310-820-1079
IT’S A BIRD! IT’S A GAME!
NO…..
IT’S A WHOLE NEW
ENTERTAINMENT GENRE!!!
Unique New Internet
Experience Search4e.org™
Goes Live November 1st!
Extensive Lycos
Cross-Promotion In Place!
Search4e.org
is an interactive, real-time,
parallel reality that breaks down the barriers between the ‘real’ world and the
constructed world. The constructed world
is build around the mysterious disappearance of the plot’s main character, Ed Sobian, which the audience/participants actively
investigate, uncovering clues and prizes along the way.
Transcending
traditional entertainment genre categories such as gaming or television shows, Search4e.org
moves beyond these traditional definitions in several notable ways:
ü
Main characters
are played by real actors, who then play out their roles in scenes
scripted for the ‘real’ world. These
scenes are then filmed and incorporated into the story line on the Search4e.org
site. For example, a participant
might win tickets to a ‘real’ Broadway show, and find that they are seated next
to one of the characters from the Search4e.org storyline.
ü
The main characters
are active in the real world. For
example, several of the characters have opened accounts and are actively
selling items on E-Bay, and one character has a profile posted on Matchmaker.com.
ü
The
entertainment experience has a truly unique prize and promotions structure. As the audience/participants investigate,
they periodically uncover objects in the course of investigating that are woven
into the storyline, such as rare coins, collectible antiques, and other consumer
products such as an automobile. The
individual who comes across these objects actually wins that item in the real
world, and when they claim it, they encounter a ‘real world’ merchant who has
been scripted to interact with the prize winner in accordance with the
storyline.
ü
Audience/participants
are actively involved in creating and influencing future plot twists and turns. Numerous
official and unofficial supporting web sites and discussion boards exist where
back-stories, side stories, and new story elements are ‘discovered’ and posted. See, for example, www.dotconnectors.com/forum/,
and www.oysterlassjunkyard.com/forum/.
ü
Multiple
entertainment mediums are
incorporated, including Internet gaming, video, publishing, and live ‘street
theater’.
ü
The highly
cognitive Search4e.org has strong appeal to both genders, with the
beta group showing strong participation by both men and women.
“I’ve
searched for the past five years for an entertainment property as compelling as
Search4e.org,
which is absolutely unique in today’s entertainment marketplace,” commented Massarsky. “It’s
like falling into a John Grisham novel.
Participants are simultaneously investigating the mystery, and
influencing the future direction of the storyline. In an added twist, the fictional and real
worlds intersect through our unique prize and promotions structure, our staged
‘street theater’ events, and by making the characters appear to have lives in
the real world.”
The
Lycos cross promotion, slated to launch in conjunction with the Search4e.org
November 1 kick-off, will include banners, live chats with characters
from the storyline, dedicated discussion boards and key word referrals. Additionally, Lycos will be incorporated into
the storyline as a location where various clues might be found, and actual
clues and prizes will be planted throughout the Lycos site for Search4e.org
participants to uncover.
Steve
Massarsky is a successful entrepreneur who has
received extensive press coverage. In
1989, he helped found and then built the third largest comic book company in
the
About S E C O N
D S T A T E™
Headquartered in
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