Yes, that is a blindfolded young woman RUNNING through a 40-foot wide 7-circuit labyrinth, with the help of her humming teammates. What are they doing? They're training for the 2008 Summer (alternate reality) Olympics.
The real Summer Olympics start on August 8, 2008. But the Olympic moment I'M waiting for is August 23/24, when players of The Lost Ring alternate reality game will run their own world championship race in the Lost Sport of Olympia.
Back in February 2008, the lost sport was just an urban legend. Now, thanks to the online community that researched the legend, found historic artifacts detailing its ancient gameplay, and created a wiki for reconstructing the rules of the game, we know how to play it.
Teams everywhere from Beijing and Singapore to Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Madrid have been perfecting their strategies and training their athletes. A team is even being formed in Capetown! Here are a couple recent videos from experienced teams in Shanghai and Tokyo:
We've been practicing all summer and all spring. Here's a video from a training camp in Northern California, where team captains from New York City, Vienna, and more gathered to compare strategies.
So, what's the endgame for these athletes? On August 23/24, six cities will race virtually on six continents, and right now, it looks like Team Wellington, New Zealand is the front runner for the gold.
YOU CAN STILL PLAY! Other teams with a lot of training and skills accumulated this spring and summer include Team San Francisco, USA and Team London, UK. If you live in Wellington, San Francisco, or London, they can still use some team members for the championship race. Email me at my first name at the name of this blog.com and I'll introduce you to their team captains! There are no front runner teams in South America or Africa yet, so if you are going to be on those continents on August 23/24, you should jump over to http://www.findthelostring.com/ and introduce yourself to one of the bloggers and let the world know you are ready to compete at the Lost Sport Olympics!
8 comments:
This might be something you've already thought of or dismissed, but it would be cool to have a RL game where you have two or more teams of people that act as an "organism". Like a cell. Folks on the outsite "see" things and communicate that to their inner partners with words like "go" and "stop". The inner partner level act as the nervous system and communicate in some way to the "brain" ... Perhaps the communication is by touch instead of words... just sorta free thinking. Your blog is very intriguing.
Yeah! This is awesome! Despite the fact that I'm incredibly jealous of Wellington for being ahead of us, I'm incredibly jucied for the Olympics! As long as I beat Pangaea I'm fine :P
Also: A SHOUT OUT TO ALL SAN FRANCISCANS/BAY AREANS. WE NEED YOU. Dav.Flamerock@gmail.com email me and I'll get you on the team.
cool blog, keep it up !
Yep, thats interesting :s must be good fun for them though!
I am pleased about the interesting contributions and would like to express my radix complement in addition. This post is just great. Just keep on writing these kinds of posts.
wow, seriously i have never seen this and its amazing, i wonder how long it takes to be trained like her, walking in a maze-like path. I would just get confused with all the humming around me
Great blog missus.
Looks like a great team building technique. Don't know about entering the Olympics just yet, but may be worth a go at the next office meeting!
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