We may want to add something about this to the Trail, probably right
near the introduction.

The Jeanine Salla conspiracy is a game, a series of puzzles for us to
uncover. No rules have been posted. With that said, there is every
reason to believe that "cheating" is possible.

For example, Ain't It Cool News has posted a putatively complete list
of every site that's a part of this game. We were clearly not
intended to find the sites this way. Anna Ghaepetto, the pseudonymous
character who registered many of these sites, has contacted AICN
directly and informed them that reading this list of sites can and
will spoil the game for you.

For example, the first "puzzle" you encounter in the game, under
ordinary circumstances, is the chemistry letter at:

http://www.familiasalla-es.ro/letter.html

Without giving away too much, suffice it to say that this letter
decodes to a web page. But if you read the AICN list of sites, you'll
find that site listed without ever having to solve the puzzle. This
is clearly not how the designers had intended it.

Others have plunged down through whois to call up Ghaepetto's
technical contacts. Sierra Wilson was listed as a TECHNICAL contact
for the game, and his answering machine was flooded with curious
callers. He had nothing to do with this game, and has since had his
number removed from whois.

Quite a bit of interesting information has been acquired via
whois... apparently famous game designer Doug Zartman, who was
responsible for Marathon, Myth II, and, most recently, Oni, was listed
as a contact for one of the sites. But this is clearly not how the
game was intended to be played. You don't solve mystery games by
calling up the authors and asking them how they end.

But, as many have pointed out, there are no written rules for this
game. (Indeed, no one official has ever told us that it IS a game!)
What constitutes cheating and what does not? Does looking at 'whois'
records constitute cheating? nslookup? How about HTML source code?
Is it cheating to find pages listed on Google or Mamma.com?

The current rule of thumb is that we ought to play the game from its
"Starting Point," and only read and access sites which can be found on
the basis of our starting material.

OK, so what IS the starting point?

The most obvious starting point is the AI trailer.

On the words SUMMER 2001, there are strange notches on each letter.
When we count the notches, we find that there are 10 distinct numbers:
503-321-5122. When we call this number, we hear a voice message that
tells us to write her at thevisionary.net. The response e-mail
contains information about the murder, but also tells us that Jeanine
is the key, and that we've seen her name somewhere before, but we've
probably forgotten. When we look again, we see that "Jeanine Salla"
is credited there as "Sentient Machine Therapist" for the film, right
after the costume designer. When we look her up on Google, the game
begins.

Of course, if you were quick, you might have found the very notion of
a "Sentient Machine Therapist" odd to begin with, so you might have
searched on Jeanine's name immediately. That's fine, since the
trailer itself is the starting point, not necessarily the number.
With that said, the number seems to lead us back to Jeanine: two roads
lead to the same place.

When I help new players start the game, I tell them to download the
trailer, look up the woman listed as "Sentient Machine Therapist" on
Google and to call the number encoded in the notches, which I tell
them directly: 503 321 5122. This might be cheating a little, since
they didn't figure out their first steps on the basis of the trailer
alone. With that said, giving new players a helping hand at the very
beginning gets them hooked faster. :)

-Dan

BUY SALLA T-SHIRTS!!! http://www.cafepress.com/salla


-unless you love someone-
-nothing else makes any sense-
e.e. cummings