Sherlock Season 4 Improv Session Writers Chat (apologies for phone video)
Fucky of note:
“I am not given to outbursts of brotherly compassion” was never in the scripts, and was so LABORED over for that PRECISE wording……… but writing down the much more obvious “you know what we did to our sister” was ok???
“The only way to keep a secret is to make everybody distrust everything.”
HOLY SHIT okay, in the vivala.me video the woman mentions the number 16,676, which is oddly specific, you know. then i realized that it could be a date, so i spent some time googling 16/6/76, until i finally found this:
i mean seriously, how could this just be a coincidence???
omg hahahaha– I was looking up a plot summary to see if I could make any connections. The plot is about a Sherman Holmes suffering a head injury and then believing he’s Sherlock Holmes adlhfsgh BUT
“The genres into which The Return Of The World’s Greatest Detective fits are comedy-drama and mystery-suspense.”
Okay, I have been at work all day but last night I had a discussion with someone who runs a blog about ARGs and it was very helpful. He may be reading this, I don’t know but if so, thanks – not naming so he doesn’t get spammed with questions. I will be paraphrasing from the conversation we had.
From his perspective, A Sherlock – The Lost Special ARG is happening right now whether it is BBC official or not. A fan-run ARG is still an ARG. We are playing something even if it is just amongst ourselves.
It could be something well organized or it could be poorly designed but either way, it still “exists” so maybe the shaming/calling out people who believe in playing it can stop.
However, he also said that when games leave too much ambiguity and room for massive faulty leaps in logic and that goes unchecked, that’s not a well designed game, games where it isn’t clear if they are happening can be harmful for folks who struggle with reality in the first place and can also leave people (like random sitemasters, twitter accounts, etc…) open to harassment if they accidentally get caught up in it. So this is something to consider if the current level of ambiguity goes on for more than just the first few weeks. It could be a “real” game, just not a very good one.
People not interested in playing, reading ARG stuff can stop reading now if you want – just wanted those concerned/annoyed with the whole thing to consider this perspective.
So now here is what we have to consider – Is there a cohesive fan-run ARG happening? What is really a part of it? What is actually gamejackers or trolls?
-the lost special instagram?
-the lost special troll page?
-The “Contact” Twitters/The “Contact” accounts here on Tumblr?
-The “moles”/anons who send coded messages?
-What else might be? (looking for replies here)
If it is an official BBC Sanctioned game there are obviously a lot more things to consider – that can be a separate post if anyone wants to make it but I think most of us already know what pages/accounts/etc… would be the first places to be looking for clues since we have already been doing that the whole time.
Additionally, Once in the ARG mentality we find ourselves wondering about every unusual thing we come across, any site that seems strange or account that reminds us of Sherlock. These things are certainly worth considering but with caution.
One question he said everyone should ask – as a general tip for those new to playing – is “If this thing is *not* part of the game, what is the risk?” are you putting yourself in physical danger? Giving out personal information? Identity theft risk? Throwing money away or leaving your credit card open to fraudulent charges? And so on.
Another thing to consider is tempering your expectations. Which is to say, would you still be interested in playing if it isn’t an official game that actually culminates in a Lost Special/4th episode? In other words are you cool with the real ARG being the friends we made along the way? I don’t mean to take sides one way or another but it is a good question to ask yourself because it may affect the way you approach things.
I think these are important things to consider so I would appreciate a reblog/tag if you have followers who post in the sherlock arg tag or if you have followers who speak out against it/have concerns. Also, if reblogging, totally feel free to TL; DR it for your followers, I’m not great at brevity. Thanks
Here is the text, with my first thought comments in bold:
I was going to draw this out longer but the truth is, I’m
bored.
OK
There is no Lost Special. There never was, and there never
will be.
And you know this
objectively?
Once again, in their need to keep this midnight train going,
TJLC fans created something out of nothing.
Even if that is that
case, why do you care?
Seeing this obsession with “The Lost Special,” even though
series 4 was clearly over, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to run a
sociological experiment with a vicious fandom in denial.
Steven brought it up,
not us. Also, even if the series is
over, that doesn’t mean it’s over. They’ve
repeatedly said they have through series 5 mapped out. It was only in December
2016 they started hinting at “we don’t know, this could be it.” Sure Jan.
My poorly assembled website took not more than twenty
minutes to cobble together (as some people rightly pointed out) and very little
effort to maintain.
This is a lie.
“By the pricking of my thumbs (something wicked this way
comes)”- I edited an ominous message into the code and title, referencing the
Macbeth quote used in The Six Thatchers. It was strange to see how many people
didn’t recognise the “pricking” quote and even criticised the website because
it allegedly didn’t call back to Sherlock in any way- except that I was
directly quoting a series 4 episode.
Except most of us did
recognize this? What about your dancing
man code reference to Unto the Breach?
Watching fans defend how shoddy the website is, in their
need for thelostspecial to be real was especially funny. It was also funny to
see the people who guessed the website was fake and said as much, but didn’t
even care because they desperately needed something to hold onto, with Sherlock
over.
Whichever, why do you
care? Why would it be funny to you?
Then there’s the people who clocked that thelostspecial.com
wasn’t “real”… and yet never question their own dedication to TJLC and/or the
existence of a fourth episode of series 4, concepts entirely created by Tumblr.
The lost special site
was only one of hundreds of indications something is fucky.
Anyhow. Next, I threw a random bunch of numbers and photos
out there to see how people would scramble and react, and you didn’t let me
down. Mostly I chose the first photo I found of a character that I liked the
look of, in Google; there wasn’t real logic. I re-used some images out of
laziness. I used an online generator to make the Dancing Men/Henry V code post.
So the meanings we
found in everything, tying it somehow back to Sherlock, or ACD canon, or anything
else were all coincidences?
What do we say about
coincidences?
40, 27, kra, the various “hints” you think you found on the
website and found countless possible meanings of, they were chosen at random.
Even the elephant photo was chosen at random. It wasn’t until after I edited it
into the main website photo that I discovered the poor thing was named Mary and
had been shot and executed for killing a man (on 9.13.16. Everyone overthought that
one too much.) So I used that info
because it was serendipitous. “The universe is rarely so lazy?” Friends, the
universe is often lazy.
“They were chosen at
random.” “The universe is rarely so
lazy?
Sure Jan.
When I added a black image with five pixels of colour to the
website, you did not let me down. People played with the image until they
became convinced it was QR code spelling something out. It was just five
meaningless pixels of nothing, created in MS Paint.
Yet you did the whole
thing in 20 minutes.
The static gif was taken from a YouTube video of TV static
from some movie, with an old Moriarty close-up thrown in.
We know, 28 days
later. With Moriarty loaded in. Again, whole thing in 20 minutes.
The photo of John and Sherlock sitting in the watery 221B, I
got it from Farfarawaysite.com, and scaled it down a little because the photo
was large. That’s it. I didn’t change the proportions in any way, or alter the
colours, or add anything to the photo. Anything you saw in it, you imagined. I
left the big black header on the website as a hint to keep your eye on those,
since the thing I changed on 2/11 was in the similar Twitter header.
”That’s it. I didn’t
change the proportions in any way, or alter the colours, or add anything to the
photo. Anything you saw in it, you imagined.”
I changed the plain black header of the Twitter to a black
one with a word embedded in it. The profile photo was changed to a plain black
photo with XX hidden in it. No one bothered checking it, though clearly the
account was active again, so I changed the profile photo to show the Xs, as a
hint to look deeper. Finally people found the “clue” today, not that it
matters. The word spelled out there is another blind alley that leads nowhere.
Then accept all our
follow requests.
MMTE: The source code message was a hint toward Murderous
Mary the Elephant, which some of you guessed but no one looked for it.
murderousmarytheelephant.tumblr.com
(Don’t bother trying to access it, there’s nothing in
there.)
DON’T LOOK NOTHING TO
SEE HERE, EVEN THOUGH THERE’S A PASSWORD.
There was no set schedule for changes to thelostspecial. I
used intermittent reinforcement to keep people frustrated but coming back for
more. That’s why I added and removed things at unexpected times. There is no
pattern.
Ok?
For people wondering, wow, why would anyone take so much
time to do this? Well, I didn’t. Creating the plain black squares with a few
letters, throwing a message into the source coding, and uploading the new website photo of John
and Sherlock took maybe 5 minutes. Creating a side blog with no posts and
keeping it private takes one minute.
Except the
photoshopping you DID do as established would have taken more. Even searching for the first image you found
would have taken time.
Overall, it takes less than twenty minutes a week to do
this, once it was set up, because really? You do all the work for me. You all
did what TJLCers do best- you took a bunch of random data, inflated it into
something much more complicated than it really was, and created your own
narrative out of it. Even knowing it might be nothing, and was probably just a
fan-made site, you’ve still allowed yourselves to get worked up over it and
allowed yourselves to hope. You’re reading into nonsense and finding clues
where there are none, and naturally most of those “clues” pointed exactly where
you wanted them to point to. Confirmation bias at its finest.
Well all I get from
this is that we’re smarter than you are.
Learn from this.
Stop falling into conspiracies. Trust yourself when you can
see that something isn’t real or likely. Alternately, find something that
doesn’t make you feel sad or heartbroken.
Seriously? “Trust yourself when you can see that
something isn’t real or likely.”
Instincts are to be
trusted, John.
Also, my instincts
have gotten me into a pretty good place.
I’ll keep trusting them, thanks, and they tell me something is
fucky. We’ve seen this episode before.
Goddamn you’re
arrogant.
A few final notes:
“And in conclusion
*jerk off motion*
I was somewhat entertained by the several dozen times people
attempted to reset the password for the website and access the control panel.
If I was petty, I would’ve logged your IPs and reported you to your ISP. (Don’t
worry, I didn’t. I don’t care that much.)’
You cared enough to
look.
I didn’t send the “mole” anons or any other messages on
Tumblr. I think other fans decided to join the game. I imagine they’ll continue
until they get bored, too.
Read: I can’t say why
everything else is fucky too. Must be
more people like me.
The only twitter account connected to thelostspecial.com is
twitter.com/thelostspecial. I have no idea who runs the “contact” twitters but
I’m positive they’re fan accounts. (If you think BBC-sanctioned accounts would
post like that, I have a bridge to sell you.)
As for my twitter, I set up the thelostspecial twitter account, followed
some BBC-related accounts and left it alone for a week while TJLC fans went
wild trying to suss out who I was following. That’s all I did with it.
Then accept my follow
request. Seriously, YOU’RE SO CLEVER I
need to follow you to learn your secrets.
I didn’t start thelostspecial Instagram account. Someone
else did that, I don’t know who.
Nobody asked. Actually, I didn’t even know there was an
instragram account. Did anyone else
know?
And if you enjoyed hunting, try a legitimate online riddle
game, such as Amnesya.com for a challenge! All the fun, none of the TJLC and
fandom “fucky” business.
Well, since you
brought up “fucky business,” why are they screenshots of the Shrewd Living
posts in the “Museum?” Did you do that too?
Wow. In charge of a scam
website. Oh, you don’t know about
that? Then why put it in there? Why, John?
Nah.
Sherlock Series 4 is over. This is the end.
Thanks for playing TheLostSpecial! Goodbye and God bless.
Since I was ARG-skeptical until ShrewdLiving.com appeared in a truly strange and suspicious fashion, and because I remain at least partially ARG-skeptical, I just want to point out that my belief in the fourth episode is based on:
Steven Moffat’s own words
The official Sherlock YouTube channel teasing the idea of a fourth episode
Radio Times pushing the idea of a fourth episode to a greater extent than the online fandom was, early on in the rumor’s life
The significant amounts of missing footage/setlock irregularities
The deafening showrunner silence since TFP aired
The way the Russian and Turkish leaks were handled, including by BBC News
The chess promo photo having fuck-all to do with the episode we were given
That weird billboard in TLD most likely having some actual significance
TFP clearly being “fake” (by which I mean that there is strong evidence for its being a hallucinatory episode a la TAB, and clear ways in which it calls attention to its being an “interruption,” such as Mycroft’s romance film being interrupted by a horror movie)
To a lesser extent: the subject of Radio Times’s favorite “fourth episode” theory, Apple Tree Yard, ultimately being Sherlock meta (I only watched one episode, but I’m taking the word of various smart TJLCers who reported similarities in the scripts, visuals, etc. which were so uncanny as to make my eyebrows shoot up)
So if an anti really did make the Lost Special website, I can only say to that person: I am still unfuckable, you cannot fuck me, I have never been fucked,
I try to be skeptical but I honestly can’t see how ShrewdLiving.com could be anything other than part of an ARG. Why would a website which has no visible means of generating revenue (no actual advertising except for a single banner ad for Red Cross donations, no “promoted” product mentions even in the articles that do exist on its website, no store), no articles that couldn’t have been generated by one of those “publish your own ‘journalism’” websites, no contributor credits on its articles, no corporate name (”Shrewd Media LLC” etc.) attached to it, and no content dated after 2014 be spending money to advertise specifically to Sherlock fans on Tumblr in the year 2017, especially when the website itself has nothing to do with TV, video streaming, or entertainment in general?
Also known as: someone is having a laugh, used to own a website, and had a few bucks lying around to keep seeing you guys dance.
*sighs*
One year ago, it cost 25 000 $ to advertise on Tumblr. I don’t think it has dropped to 25 $ in 2017 so… who would hate us this much, really ?
Even if the 25k commitment is still true, it still could easily be explained by someone who already has an ad contract (because they own or work for a company) and just ran those ads in a one day slot.
The BBC literally told us to shove it up our asses, they don’t give a shit about us. Unfortunate, but true.
Why would someone who had an existing, hugely expensive Tumblr ad contract run ads directing Sherlock fans to an obviously fake website which has no noticeable links to any company or organization with an existing ad contract
Are you actually suggesting that this thing that has all the hallmarks of one of the actual viral-marketing ARGs that have been run by PR teams for movies, video games, and even a Nine Inch Nails album is not an ARG, and is actually the owner or high-ranking advertising/marketing officer of a company with a large advertising budget (and who is presumably answerable to no one about spending that budget?) who has chosen to use that budget to fuck with a small group of Sherlock fans on Tumblr by directing them to a fake website that they created in 2012 and updated while S4 was airing
BBC Sherlock has always integrated every platform I can imagine, including real world stunts, blogs, extraneous websites, and even a mobile game with the actual actors involved (they’re not cheap) to promote this show and imo has been an intricate game from the start.
We’ve progressed into a new phase of this game in s4 where the ‘alternate reality’ part is becoming more and more apparent. I consider this the boss level of the BBC Sherlock ARG.
Things I consider related/possibly related to the game include but are not limited too:
the obvious fakeness/wrongness of TFP
the potential existence of The Lost Special/secret fourth ep
thelostspecial.com
tons of new blogs popping up around here and pushing us in certain meta directions
the clues and codes we all keep getting sent
the asks some of us get with 🙂 or a decidedly moriarty-eqsue tone
the Dec. 29 incident in which a blog with the url ‘dymm’ appeared and followed a bunch of us and sent messages that only said 🙂
the supposed Sherlock RP twitter accounts that all start with “contact” (which were denounced as being unofficial by joe lidster)
the BBC’s responses to the complaints about s4
the almost complete radio silence from the cast and crew about s4 being over or about the problems with it
Here’a an article about other massive ARGs that have been carried off in the past, and if you click the link at the top of this post you can read the wikipedia article about the.
“The heart of the mystery is a gif of a glowing red orb, hovering above a dirt road in a forest of tall, bare trees. This gif has been tweeted by a bunch of game-related accounts, including GOG, Humble Bundle, streaming service XSplit, wiki folks Gamepedia, and PC makers Origin PC (no relation to EA’s store). The only thing they have in common is that they’re all liked and retweeted by Devolver, who tweeted the glowing orb in the first place.”
“It’s fairly clear this is a tease of a new game developed by No Code and published by Devolver, but they’re keeping any more details under wraps. We reached out to Devolver for comment, and their helpful, laconic reply was simply: “Secrets”.”
Very far-fetched – they have no reason to go into the video game realm with their ARG, if they’re playing one. However, I’m gonna download this game as soon as it’s released because it looks RAD af!
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