An alternate reality game (ARG), is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.
You should be keeping an eye out for these over the next few weeks as we are NOT always as obvious about the ones we ARE running – so to start you off VERY gently we’ve come up with this one:
I am a member of www.rivmixx.com and they wanted to give us some free toys because we’re so great – but instead we suggested that they create a teeny-tiny-mini-ARG for us and we will give it to you the lovely blog readers – it’s one of the cute and sparkly new iPods with a built in video camera.
Go to the site and sign up – you’ll find hidden amongst the A-Z listings of the profiles of Bands, Djs, Labels and Venues a “hidden profile” containing pictures of the new ipod Nano – in the menu bar click ‘Become Fan’ and that enters you in to the competition.
The winner of the draw will be announced on the 25th September 2009.
Visit www.rivmixx.com enter.
Congratulations to Holly E for winning the iPod 
Oh my – everything has felt a bit ARGy over the last few months. Could it be…?
The answer is ‘alternate reality game’ played on a machine of sorts hoping to receve the I pod before I come to enigma in edinburgh
I’m lost…searched through all the labels, djs, artists etc, through all the a-z listings and couldn’t find anything seemingly relevant
I’ve just scrolled through every letter on that A-Z page on all four categories and I can’t find it! Am I just being blind?
I couldn’t find anything either. I clicked through to every band, dj, labels and venue which seemed like it could be a cryptic hidden profile. I feel robbed to be honest!
Adam, it’s hidden. – in fact the word hidden is mentioned twice. What were you searching for? I’ve been trying to do it cleverly – looking for ipod, derren, brown, dopi, highlighting pages to see if it’s hiding somewhere in hidden text…Not got anywhere yet, though.
Been searching a lot and still not found anything, though I’d have been disappointed if it had been easy to find. Can’t help but think we’re being led on a wild goose chase though!
Searching that site is going to bug me for days!
Wild goose chase maybe, but we’re all signed up to a burgeoning social networking site who have our email addresses and cities, and we’re all traipsing through each list, looking at the artists etc and being exposed to the ads, so at least someone’s winning this game
Sounds like fun! Although I never acctually win anything
Yeepers!!! I found it, it actually exists!!!!
Arghhh!!!!!!
Been through every letter and there’s nothing there.
This reminds me of the treasure hunts in the books by Michael Stradther (i think thats how its spelt) Clues depicted in pictures and all sorts, I love a good hunt…..though not for animals, unless you count fishing :-/
found it. looks like 7 others have too.
Vixter – give us a clue?
Phew! Found it too – now I can get back to work.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. That is all.
Finally found it. I can go to work now feeling relieved!!
STILL no luck for me…any more clues available?? I feel I\’m missing something probably quite obvious
Found it too! Jess, you’re not missing anything obvious so rest assured. It just means you’ve got to spend lots of time scrolling through web pages and not getting your work done like me! Good luck!
lol resorted to looking through the source code…..still cant figure it out T__T
I wanted to click a DJ, how upsetting
Yeah it’s nothing obvious, i just searched through every page until i saw the shiny little critters, lucky for me I have a lot of time on my hands before starting uni…
and the chance of winning is what?
There goes my lunch break…
Rather than browse through everything, I looked at how images might be stored on the site, and then looked for recent ones. This quickly led to the right profile.
@Adambates thanks. However I’m rapidly losing patience/the will to keep doing this….I’m gonna leave it for now …..
Can you at least give us a clue as to which catagory to search under please?
Great. Seeing banner ads of “Subliminal Sessions” on that site is now reeking havoc with my recent bouts of paranoia =/
What if all the commenters claiming to have found it are in fact Derren himself, the sly fox!
Everybody’s too well behaved, somethings up fo’ sure.
ah, so it’s actually there?
I thought that Derren was getting paid crap loads by Rivmixx to get us all to sign up hahaa.
This is one of the very rare times I wish I didn’t have ADD *sigh*
Found it!
Took me a while though…
I see why it’s called ARG
it’s what I feel like yelling.
AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGG
Found it, thanks MattB
okay so I’ve been through every artist on the site. I think I’ve missed something here.
Huzzah! *trundles off to try and find something productive to do with the rest of his day*
Aha! Found!
Me too! phew!
Found it!
Spent ages trying to find it. Came back to this blog and used peoples comments to give me a clue to finding it!
I don’t even want the iPod, I just want to find this ‘hidden profile’! It’s funny/sad how something so mundane as searching through pages and pages of a website can keep me interested for so long.
Yep, it’s there. Am now incredibly tired/bored and don’t want to look at that site ever again. I somehow doubt this is the effect they had in mind…
Found it… finally!
Repetitive Strain Injury anyone?
Im really confused.. does it actually exist ? I dont know who to trust lmao!
I quite like this
“Derren Browns how to control the nation. Gluing People to there seats with mind control? give them a bottle of wine and a tube of pringles and they wont get up for hours!”
Daily Record 14/09/09
i started looking for this about 2 hours ago..
..help?!
Yep, found it! I now have square eyes and I very nearly missed it, but it IS there!
LC x
haha.. found it. Was sort of easier than I though. I may have been lucky.
Arent these kind of websites supposed to be updated regulary?
“The contents of this webpage are copyright© 2008 DVS UK Limited”
Lady claire, whats the best way that we can get to it? 0-0
I’m losing the will to live, surely I have something better to do than this??
It’d be quicker to just go buy one
FOUND IT!! Took me the better part of an hour, mind. Thank you!
Ehehehehe … oh my …
Finally found it!
Yay!!
Sheeeesh got there in the end. It’s always the last place you look!
36 people beat me to it.
@Damien – Just go through the A-Z’s like they say. If you’re diligent and keep it up, you WILL find it, trust me! My eyes hurt through sitting looking at the screen, but it is there if you look hard enough (and once you find it, you can’t miss it!)
LC x
This is ridiculous .. im never goin to find it
Found it! Annoying thing is, I found it from the very first page I’d looked at! If only I’d looked at the page properly I could have saved myself a couple of hours!
…Gaarrgghh! *clickclickclickclick*
ok, i spent an hour looking for this before school pickup, dont really have an hour to look some more but now ive been challenged, i HAVE to find it, and i dont even want the ipod, ive already got one i dont bloody use….this is a definate sign of mind control!
I did it MattB’s way. Wasn’t going to say anything at first, but I just can’t watch people giving themselves RSI!
lol, haha, you guys are keen !
“I found it from the very first page I’d looked at!”… KinGrifff? Ive been looking at most of the artists now.. im at C tier… and im very skeptical about this.. could you tell what the 1st page you looked at was? =/
oh god damn it, do u have to look down al lthe pages for it? ive just been clicking through. ooommmggg i am going to poke my eyes out with spoons in a sec, it will be slightly more amusing then looking through these bloomin a-z’s. im angry with boredom and stubborness! GGRRRRR
i got so bored doing this i went right past it and realised i’d just seen it 3 profiles back.
jeeeessus!!! finally!!
I can’t even figure out how to do it MattB’s way!
Doing. My. Head. In.
i havent a scooby how to do it MattB’s way, so i think ill just go sit in the corner and rock back and forth.
Damien, I’ve already given you a massive clue in what I said. You just have look carefully!
@Gewitternacht Yeh, I wondered whether to say anything, but the thing with ARGs generally is that they are collaborative rather than competitive. OK so this actually is a competition, but I decided to stay in the spirit of the thing.
Yey I joined the club!
oh holy mother of god ive only gone and bloody FOUND IT yeeeesssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my day is now complete.
whilst looking through the group its in, i stopped and started looking through another group thinking it might more likely be in there….and i was literally a couple of profiles away from finding it….the irony! Couldve saved an hour of my life.
MattB – YOU’RE A LEGEND. I salute you. xx
Yes mate! I actually went past it at first and then realised soon after thankfully! I can now do something productive with my day now! good luck the rest of you! x
am trying to de-code kingriff;s clue but having no luck
Thanks, MattB, for not killing the challenge – far more fun than just monotonously clicking. A real sense of achievement is the reward for using the leetle grey cells!
WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!
Right I’ve given myself <5mins to have a shower, get dressed and find my husband some clothes. Should probably come back to this tmrw.
aha!! have found it! very clever indeed…good luck everyone xx
yeah im totally not going to find it.
Finally! Woo hoo! Thank god my boss didn’t walk in, I’ve been searching intermittently all day!
Looks like I was the 52nd person.
Nice and easy if you work out ways to look. 
Think I only looked at about 3 profile pages before I got the right one.
I’ve done it! Yet I’m still confused as to a) how MattB used his method, and b) how KinGriff gave a clue!
Oh well.
please help someone :’( I’ve got a headache, i’ve been looking with no luck for ages, and its makeing me snap and argue with people :’( I don’t want to be horrible to people :’( I just need help
Tash says:
September 17, 2009 at 1:44 pm
and the chance of winning is what?
Better than the odds for the lottery…….or not so it seems!
MY EYES HURT!! CANNOT FIND IT GUESSING IT IN DJ’S And As For The Pictures Idea I Have Tryed That But Have Also Failed I Bet Right In Face But I Just Cannot Go On Anymore!
I think I may explode with happiness. Found it.
//
Can someone PLEASE give me a clue!!!!
Darn it, lots happening on the blog and I’ve been out all day and I’m off to a birthday do in a bit. Huff! Tomorrow I guess. Look forward to reading all the snowflake stuff.
I can’t find anything. I think those clues are bogus too, red herrings. Short of looking at every single profile, I’m stumped.
That was excruciating, but finally managed to find it. I think I need some non-screen time =/
*walks away from laptop*
Yahoo! finaly- at least i have pleanty of time at the mo!
its a nice feeling to have found it!
The definition for ARG, is taken straight from Wikipedia!
wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!
FOUND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
god that took ages!!! but it was so worth it
Spent a while this morning clicking random ones, then tried a system of looking at the pictures, failed, then got a nice way to find it. Still not many of us have though. Good odds for winning so far
Oh geez, I can’t find the damn thing.
Fine. I’m gonna give in and resort to clicking every single profile page thing until I find it
I found it particularly quickly. Slightly annoyed I worked out MattB’s way AFTER finding the profile, but I think that way would have still taken me longer.
pleeease a clue, im going crazy but if i give up now ill have wasted my time, have tonnes of coursework to do tonight please!!!! xx
I hate this game……not only do I know feel stupid have hurt my clicking finger too
@MattB: thanks, I didn’t realise. I shall be more forthcoming from now on.
I wonder what method those people used who claim to have some other neat way of finding it which is even quicker?
Ok…this is drivin me mad!!!!!!! How about you give me a hint…say, the letter that it begins with? Pretty Please?
lets just hope i found it lol i mean how obvious is it?
going crazy here. close to giving up for mental health reasons.
i’d say 7 hours was long enough to look for something i’m not gonna win, been thru ALL the profiles, cant work out the pictures clue so… i give up, i’ve missed something that everyone else can see. good luck everyone else
@Margaret J youve said the letter it starts with twice in your post…ironic? lol
x
Yippee, found it!!!
OK….I think I’ve found it, but what I’ve found seems far too easy…..Anyone else who has found it wanna email me maybe, see if I’ve definitely got it?
just can’t do it!
I’m a bit confused though, what’s the difference between an ARG and just a competition then??
Oh My Dawkins!
Found it, woop!
@margaretJ if its what I think it is then you didn;t say it at all in your post…..
And people who have found it, how many others had? On the page I did, there were about 25 others following before me?
@Jess You’ll know if you’ve got it – it can’t be mistaken.
@Siobhán This isn’t really an ARG, but its the sort of thing that might form one of the puzzle elements of an ARG. Often there is some sort of mystery to solve, or story to uncover hidden away in websites, twitter, MSN or even in various “real life” places. Would be really great if there was a Derren Brown ARG of some sort (perhaps we could discover the real story of the lottery prediction for example
)
@mattb I\’m really not sure…there were about 25 other followers, one of whom was adam bates, posted previously here…but I;m not 100% convinced….
I cannot do it im too closed minded!!!
hallelujah found it
Officially given up!
…
I didnt say margaret had said it in her post lol…i said she said the letter that shes looking for….in capitals infact
it is obvious when you find it, really cant miss it….unless you double click by accident, which i did a few times lol x
Thank god for that finally found it!! yes it is obvious when you come across the page that you have found it!
Jess, I found a page that mentioned storage space on an Ipod shuffle, is that what you mean? it links to a real shop site? If thats what you have found, it’s not the right one, you will definitely know it when you see it,
haha thank god! after about 3 hours i found it, and will sleep well tonight!!
@Vixter, when you get to the page under latest news it says this is the page you have been looking for!!
Got it! Hurrah!
I’m not even that fussed about a prize, it was just really bugging me that it was hiding somewhere and I hadn’t found it
omg! found it!!!!!!
i found it yaaaaay!!
Sweet Mercy, my eyes are burning!
I just found it! (Permanent blindness is a small price to pay for the chance to win an ipod!)
After far far too long of not finding it and wasting my life, i’m giving up.
Never want to look at that site ever ever again. However if a new better clue is offered i may venture back…hmm…i’m easily coerced.
got it! but have to say I cheated big time.
there have been clues that lead you straight to the answer if you look hard enough
Huzzah, I found it. It really exists! And it only took me 11 hours of on/off searching. *facepalms*
Lol Derren, why does it not surprise me you have a featured post on ARGs haha – love it. Working on multiplatform ARGs I can only Imagine the beautiful combination of your trixty dixty mindset and ARGs – awesome – will see where you are up to with this creation!
PS; Congrats on yet another great show, if you actually happen to read this message (smile)
I FOUND IT! I’m not so Pissed off now.
Seeing so many comments just saying, “Yay I found it!” Is probably the most annoying thing I have ever seen. Quit fucking taunting us and just give us the damn page!
I know I’ll end up searching that site for hours if I go on it so not going there. Good luck to those who have. x
I have looked through every page, every picture, every artist. NOTHING. Anyone who is saying they’ve found it is lying.
Finally found it. Better late than never. Thanks everyone for sharing clues – cryptic, obvious or otherwise. Couldn’t have done it without your help. Even then it has taken me 2 days! I can now get my life back. To anyone who has said they “think” they’ve found it but they’re not completely sure, well if you have any doubts whatsoever, then you haven’t found it. Keep looking. It will be completely obvious when you find it.
I found the “This is the page you have been looking for” page, however there are no pictures of an ipod nano so surely this is a red herring, or fake put up by someone else to stop you looking and finding the real page. Right?
Doh. Ok. Found the real one. As said above, you will be under no doubt when you find the real one.
Thing is, how may people who have dedicated so much time to looking really care if they win an Ipod, and how many (like me) just don’t want to be beaten by this!!!
Luckily I found it pretty quickly, I’m going to get the sack if I keep spending all my work time looking for hidden things in this blog and websites!!!
me…i just wanted to see the page everyone was looking for, just so i knew i could find it lol i dont want the ipod but it would be fun to win…nice xmas prezzie for someone, maybe the hubby haha
x
I found a ‘this is the page you are looking for’ which obviously wasn’t the right one. THEN I found the right one, it’s pretty hard to miss once you click on it! God speed all who sail in her xx
U2 are not listed as an artist – do you think that is because Bono and the gang still havent found what Im looking for!
sorry for the poor U2 joke there!!!
Oh and by the way there are now a LOT of fans. Likelyhood of winning is on a downward spiral x
found it!
your clues are so obvious, it would be difficult NOT finding ti :p
Oh, I’ve FINALLY done it – It’s been bothering me in my sleep – how annoying!! It’s been quite fun though!
Found it!
*Takes a final breath and slumps over keyboard*
Yay, got it in from 30 mins yesterday and 10 today, thanks for all the clues guys, and the red herrings
Can’t wait for the show tonight
I have just settled down to catch up after a day away from the blog. My my, haha! Shall I even attempt to look for the clues? Or shall I just read on at everyone’s frustration and be smug that I wasn’t lured into giving it a try? I laughed out loud at CherryG’s post – hahaha! Love it. Grrrrrr!
Maybe I’ll have a wee look for clues later, but I have already been sidelined into reading up on nobacherie (don’t go there it seems), metaphysics and steganography. Can’t say I understood very much, as my creative right brain is deffo the hogger of most of my braincells, I’m not very up on my algorithms, am crap at crosswords and I’m years behind others on the blog, but hopefully I can osmose something along the way. Probably not. But it’ll be fun floundering.
I found it in 5 minutes so I’m a little happy chappy right now
*looks smug*
Is anyone else intrigued by the page to which KinGriff refers? The picture, does it mean something? Or am I delving too deeply…
okay ***k it. i cant find it, ive looked and looked. the clues up there make no sense, i now feel stupid and clsed minded and like a total idiot lol either someone tell me where it is, failing that im going to go outide, have a cigarette and randomly pick a colour out of purple orange blue green, and a random number/letter, go to that page when i come back, and if its not there the i give in.
awesome, but i neeed to find out the answer at some point, i cant bear unanswered questions, they drive me crazy!!!
@Fiona – 5 minutes?! How did you manage that?
Took me much, much longer, although it’s a great sense of satisfaction when you finally get there
The thing is, I’ve already got an iPod so I don’t know why I bothered…
@Francis – From looking through peoples clues up there ^^^
I had it between 2 letters and I picked the right one first.
Made it a piece of piss
My iPod died
I can’t believe how much my eyes hurt but I’ve found it!!!!!! only took two days of on/off searching
well, i found it but become fan has been giving me server error all day – anyone got this working on a mac?
Yeah the thing has server err-0r
I’ve had the same problem – ‘fatal error’ it tells me.
Couldn’t sleep so I cracked and looked and found it , was feeling quite smug and pleased, clicked on ‘become a fan’ and the bloody thing just kept saying ‘fatal error’. Annoying. Grr!
x
Oh. I should’ve read the other comments first. See I’m not the only one with the problem. Maybe they didn’t expect so many people to find it. Did Derren Brown fans break another website? lol.
x
Yep I found it too (yes really!) thanks to a very clear clue given above which narrowed the search down massively – but like a couple of others, I received the Fatal Error message
Fatal error: Call to undefined method sfExecutionFilter::inithalize() in /var/www/dvsmusic/cache/frontend/prod/config/modules_friend_config_filters.yml.php on line 57
how frustrating is that. Maybe they’ve realised how easy it is to find now and have closed it down?
It tells me that when I try to look at ‘my messages’ on the site, too. Anyone know if it does the same if you try to become a fan of any profile, or is it just the comp profile?
I’ve found it, but it won’t let me become a fan either, I get the fatal error message too. I’m wondering if there was some king of deadline and we missed it?
I’ve just tried other pages to see if I could become a fan of those and the same fatal error message comes up for those too.
Woooooooo hoooooooooo i found it yay x But when I try and click on become a fan it gives me an error code!!!
not just the comp page, lots of actions on the rivmixx website give same error
maybe this is Event 4?
First Take Over The Lottery
Second Take Over The Nation
Third Take Over International Security Agencies
Last Derren Takes Over the Entire Interweb !!
‘When one is frightened of the truth then it is never the whole truth that one has an inkling of.’
Ok, I’m really stuck… can anyone please help me?
Thanks xx
Ok….
I think i found it, only saying that because I am wondering if its a hoax website, as i don’t really see link to any of the clues above (apart from the really really obvious clue!)
Emili- you can’t miss it once you’ve found it.
I still can’t enter. The ‘become fan’ button has totally gone now. Guess they closed it but would’ve been nice if they’d let us know.
x
Is this competition still open does anyone know? I have been looking but cant seem to find anything even from all the clues above.
x
Rivmixx has fixed the error – you can now click on required links!
I’ve found it. I’VE MOTHERFMUCKING FOUND IT.
It’s intentional
Do we really need to log onto Rivmixx? I’ve kinda got enough things I’ve joined and I cannie be arsed. I think I’ll give this a miss. Bet it holds the clues to a million other things though. Huff. Och, maybe sometime later in the week then. I have enough redundant i-pods lying around the hoos.
I’m an alternate reality game?
Oh no, and there I was clinging on to the hope that I was human bean!
Heres the biggest clue you will get….none of the above are actually clues, you just have to go through it….think of one of the new features of the Nano, its in the name of the profile you are after. and im only saying this because i became so frustrated and now feel your pain…its in the labels section!
The winner is where?
Hi,
Does anyone know where the announcement of the winner is?
Cheers,
Mark
- I think Rivvmix have announced I should find out monday and let you all know. – Phillis
I won! Thanks to all at Rivmixx and DB – brilliant. Great competition and of course an excellent blog. It took me a while to find it but definitely worth the effort.
@Holly – congratulations!
Congrats Holly!
Nice one, congratulations.