I wish I could tell

whether I'm actually about to try out for an interesting experiment or if I'm getting my chain yanked through some sort of elaborate hoax or worse.

It began a month and a half ago with an advertisement on Blogger's ad at the top of this page for a web talent contest, a sort of interactive novel that brought different talents together in a mix of role-playing, writing, and production all at the same time. Obviously, my interest was piqued.

In the interim I've received several e-mails from one person full of all sorts of bizarre, mysterious hoops that are either designed to protect the product or to get me to help market an equally bizarre, mysterious something-or-other; whether propaganda, fraud, oh, who knows. So, I'm a little paranoid. So, I'd rather have info up front. I haven't' dropped out of the thing yet. But I'm waiting to get the mysterious download of the first part of the novel before I throw my full resources into the thing. Somehow I wouldn't be surprised if the 'Producers' as they keep being called read this and throw me out of the thing entirely, but really, if they purport to want people who can think, I'm demonstrating that right now. Unfortunately, the only references I've found online have been to the contest announcement, rather than anything about its veracity. And the new website at least has a list of other names that may, indeed, be the 'Producers', but again, I don't believe everything I read. I guess what gets me is there are a lot of odd steps, with the e-mailed instructions in direct opposition to the ones on the websites, with a bit of mockery in the e-mails towards anyone who doesn't want to run through the process.

Unfortunately, perhaps, this whole peculiar thing has raised my hackles in terms of sensing something 'off' but at the same time I'm just too damn curious to drop out now. Still, if anyone else has an idea of what's going on, let me know. If, as I continue, it turns out to be legitimate (or not), I'll follow up in a later post. (I've at least gotten a response from the latest hoop, so I should know something in a couple of days). I still wonder if at the end of everything I'll find that the wizard is just one small person behind the curtains. But we'll see.