Loyal reader Kyle K. pointed us out to the ASCII art in the front page source for Digg, and lo and behold, we checked and found an image in ours, too. (Kotaku’s editorial operation had no knowledge this was being done.) They’re also available in the front page sources for Daily Motion, the WWE, GameSpot, Games Radar IGN and presumably others, as the clue in our source code is the same as the one in GameSpot’s. Just load the front, go to your view menu and hit “view source” you’ll see it after some scrolling.
The ASCII art directs you to this site, where you enter the password you found and then go off in search of the other five. For brevity’s sake, here they are:
Password 1: excommunicate (found on Digg)
Password 2: scythe (found on IGN)
Password 3: grafter (found on GameSpot and Kotaku)
Password 4: styx
Password 5: unbaptized (found on Games Radar)
Password 6: alighieri (found on WWE)
What do you get? Well, as of publication, the server for this page is utterly overwhelmed. I plugged in the correct answers and was treated to a 189MB mystery download that, at this rate, will take until tomorrow to finish. My guess is it’s a trailer of some sort, but who knows. When I find out, I’ll update here. Meantime, enjoy the pretty ASCII images.
Jason
February 4, 2010 at 12:11 PM
Thats just insane, who in their right mind would think to look at the source code!?! lol
Still bloody well done!
Report Permalinkbrent3000
February 4, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Thats funny lol,
ASCII art FTW
Report PermalinkChris Rickard
February 4, 2010 at 12:17 PM
The more they promote this game, the more I feel it will suck.
Report PermalinkIf they’ve spent half as much time developing this game as they have promoting it then it should be great, sadly that is rarely the case.
Shambrook
February 5, 2010 at 3:35 PM
Gee, you’d think that since the game development team is spending all this time on advertising they could hire a separate team to handle there advertising completely unrelated to the game. That way the game development team could focus on the game while the advertising and marketing team could focus on advertising.
Hell small developers could even sign contracts with large developers to handle all this for them. Like say a small game company with two sucessfull and critically acclaimed games could sign on with a massive team like EA who would then distribute and advertise the game.
I wonder why no one has done this before…
Report PermalinkJHayes
February 4, 2010 at 12:25 PM
The devil is in the detail
Report PermalinkStone
February 4, 2010 at 12:29 PM
Ok call me a cynic but that is pretty elaborate and maybe, just maybe, “Loyal reader Kyle K” is an insider to the whole ‘stunt’.
Report PermalinkIsaac
February 4, 2010 at 12:36 PM
Package includes:
25 page concept art book (I have the death edition, will have to check it has more considering it was paid for :S -> or that it is different)
3 songs from the soundtrack
promotional posters
wallpapers
and the ascii art
Note though that the posters and wallpapers appear to be ones I haven’t seen before, and I’ve been following the came.
Report PermalinkYoshi
February 4, 2010 at 12:47 PM
It contains, “GAMEMUSIC”, “HELLAWAITSWALLPAPER”, “CONCEPTARTBOOK”, “CIRCLESOFHELLWALLPAPER”, “CIRCLESOFHELLPOSTERS” and finally “ASCIIART’
Some fairly interesting stuff in them and some great concept art. =D
Report PermalinkTom
February 4, 2010 at 1:36 PM
Gotta say, that’s some nice ASCII art. Although it seems like the focus is more on the marketing than it is on, y’know, the game..
Report Permalinkcharles
February 4, 2010 at 2:13 PM
As if this isn’t a “viral” marketing ploy that kotaku are involved with. Uhh marketing blows… but this is kind of original
Report PermalinkZendegi Leonard
February 4, 2010 at 4:18 PM
all EA would need is some dude at Macquarie bank to get busted looking at the images in the source code. Then they could call it a day
Report Permalink