The Blurred Web – Watch the Line Carefully

You sit, idly poking the same key on your keyboard in time with the ticking of the clock. Reddit sits open on your screen, playing host to other tabs of social media, Wikipedia, and your e-mail account. There’s a sound buzzing in your ears, and you can’t tell if it’s tinnitus or so many dreams being crushed that it has actually reached an audible level. Bored. So bored. Why is work so boring?

The tab with your mail flashes, and you click it in the hopes that it’s something more interesting than spam. You read the title. You sit up, and lean forward.

You’ve just received more information on your mission, and it’s time to fight crime.

This is The Blurred Web, an augmented-reality game from go6 that challenges players to solve “serious and exceptional crimes” as a member of the Serious and Exceptional Crime Organization. Surprisingly, SECO solves crimes, instead of instigating them, as the name suggests.

Gameplay involves coded messages and leads from “the Controller,” but beyond the information itself, the whole game plays out on the actual Internet. Players will need to be able to search cleverly and know either how to crack codes or be skilled at Googling how to crack codes. Each game runs live for two whole weeks, and so “leads” are fed sparingly. Regardless, it’s up to the player to put everything together.

The first game is free to play and starts June 1st. If you’re interested/assaulting the same key on your keyboard over and over at work, you can sign up for The Blurred Web on its site, and you can learn more about its developer, go6, from their Facebook page.