Project Serpo: Is it a soon to be released video game?

Even though most of the "regulars" involved in the giant Serpo Thread have moved on, there has continued to be several developments.

I'd like to review two important pieces of "evidence" that have surfaced recently, provide my analysis, and then look at some other issues.

First, as some of you have seen in the Investigation: Who and Why? thread, two images have surfaced form the GodLikePorductions website.

external image external image
(click to enlarge)

Zep Tepi noticed embedded comment text in both images.

Image One
AUG 14 (PAUL)
ORIGINAL DRAFT OF "EVIDENCE PAGE"
THIS IS FROM THE ACTUAL STORY SCRIPT, NOT THE VIRAL CAMPAIGN "HOAX"

AUG 18 (SUE)
MARCOM APPROVED

AUG 21 (BRIAN)
LEGAL APPROVED

SEP 2 (RICHARD)
DO NOT SEND TO "SERPO" VIRAL TEAM AT ALL COST. THEY MUST NOT BE AWARE OF THE ACTUAL STORY PLOT AT ALL COSTS. WE DON'T WANT ANY MISTAKES.

SEP 3 (IT)
GOT IT. DISTRIBUTED TO PROJECT CREATIVE SERVER, LA-CR27

SEP 8 (CREATIVE)
CHECKED OUT

SEP 12 (CREATIVE)
CHECKED OUT

SEP 16 (CREATIVE)
CHECKED OUT

SEP 18 (CREATIVE)
CHECKED OUT

Image Two
TAUG 14 (PAUL)
ORIGINAL DRAFT OF "EVIDENCE PAGE 32" SUBMITTED

AUG 14 (TOM)
THIS COPY IS NOT WHAT WAS PROVIDED, PLEASE CHECK YOUR VERSION. THE LOCATION FOR THE JOURNAL DISCOVER IS A CAVE, NOT AN ABANDONED FACTORY.

AUG 15 (PAUL)
REVISED "EVIDENCE PAGE"
THIS IS NOW FILE 'ROB-2964

AUG 16 (TOM)
THERE ARE THREE 'FLITTERS' IN THE SCRIPT.

AUG 17 (PAUL)
REVISED.

AUG 18 (TOM)
PRODUCTION APPROVAL

AUG 20 (SUE)
IS THIS PAGE FOR THE PRODUCT OR THE VIRAL CAMPAIGN? I CAN'T APPROVE UNTIL I KNOW WHICH.

AUG 21 (TOM)
PRODUCT

AUG 21 (SUE)
MARCOM APPROVED

AUG 27 (BRIAN)
LEGAL APPROVED

SEP 4 (RICHARD)
PLEASE KEEP THESE PRODUCT DOCUMENTS UNDER WRAPS. THE PR TEAM IS REPORTING SOME INTERNET BUZZ.

SEP 5 (IT)
GOT IT. DISTRIBUTED TO PROJECT CREATIVE SERVER, LA-CR29

SEP 14 (CREATIVE)
CHECKED OUT

SEP 15 (CREATIVE)
CHECKED OUT

SEP 18 (CREATIVE)
CHECKED OUT

The second image was posted with these comments:

You 'tards are so gullible.
IT'S A VIDEO GAME!
Here's another piece of "evidence" to wet your lame-brains [link] It was posted back in November.
All this crap was on some website about three months ago. The PR firm, or whoever was doing it at the time, #ed up their marketing by posting the wrong "evidence" and the site was quickly taken down. It wasn't called "Serpo" back then.
Now they've hired some UFO nutters for "credibility" (ROFLMAO) and are trying again with a new name, "Serpo". It's a typical military rescue team meet mutant aliens bull# plot. You guys believe anything, don't you?
Their twisted marketing # is all described right here [link] Congratulations for feeding the sick marketing asshole's profit machine. You boys need to get out and get some fresh air.

Going purely on what's represented by these images...
What we've been seeing is a viral marketing campaign (perhaps gone wild) for an upcoming video game. These images are not intended to be actual government documents, but are props used within the upcoming game. Perhaps the player "discovers" these log entries during the course of game play. The explanation being presented is that someone in charge of creating "online buzz" in advance of the actual game initially used the wrong images (these) that contained the embedded copy in a first try at a planned hoax. That failed, and now the "marketing team" has hired some ufo-people to do a better job with a new name, supposedly "Serpo."

Several people attempted to analyze these images, assuming they were presented as possible actual scans of DIA documents. Some aspects seem to jive with portions of the Serpo story, some conflict, and some seem to support how the journal entires should have been made. But I that's the wrong perspective now... these are not presented as government documents, but video game props.

This is certainly as plausible an explanation as anything else we've seen. It raises several interesting questions:
1) Are Victor and Bill in on this?
2) Have Victor and Bill be used by the hired ufo-guns?
3) Has the "buzz engine" spun out of control?
4) Is Victor being used by Bill?
5) Is Bill being used by Victor?
6) Are these images from a rival ufology group intent on discrediting Bill & Victor?
7) Is there any point in analyzing hoaxes of hoaxes?
8) (Insert X number of additional questions here)


I think this is a third new twist in the "Serpo Affair" we've been following for several months. I really doubt these are part of a video game project as the originator would have us believe. I think we have someone who is "piling on" to hoax a hoax. We've seen that with Titor, Aussie Bloke, and many others. This is not unusual.

Now. You'll notice I said I think it's a third new twist. The second being the transition from Anonymous One with Victor to Anonymous Two with Bill R. But I don't think this third event has anything to do with the first two... but as Serpo lives on through the years, will likely remain connected (just as there has long been doubt about some of the Titor posts actually coming from "Timetravel_0".

I could be wrong, and Serpo may actually end up being a video game that experienced some "viral marketing" gone out of control. But it doesn't feel like that's the case. What do you think?



(Thanks to garyo1954 for providing the original images)

[edit on 16-2-2006 by SkepticOverlord]

If this turns into one of those campaigns that ruined the crypto forum, I'm gonna fume!!!

I'm going out on a limb with this one, (a 38 light-year long limb to be exact)...

11/22/2005 - Ubisoft and Free Radical join forces to provide an innovative action blockbuster

Some pertinent points from the Press Release:

• Untitled action game based on new Intellectual Property for release in 2006-2007 (I've found a snippet as well that claims it will be a sci-fi first person shooter but can't remember where that link is).

• Game will be for mature gamers (age 18), it will feature "difficult strategic choices and moral dilemmas, tapping into both rational and emotional instincts."

• "With this game, we plan to take players to a new level of intensity and create an environment at once terrifying, enthralling and impossible to resist."

Random weak links that I'll throw together for fun:

Free Radical Design is based in the UK. Ubisoft HQ is in France but opened a San Francisco office in 1991 to expand their North American presence. Bill Ryan is based in the UK and travels to San Francisco from time to time.

Incidentally, virtually all gaming magazines report the 11/22 press release as cryptic and mysterious. Unusually hush-hush for an upcoming game. Usually games are marketed 2-3 years in advance, right?

One of the key comments in the embedded text is the following:

SEP 4 (RICHARD)
PLEASE KEEP THESE PRODUCT DOCUMENTS UNDER WRAPS. THE PR TEAM IS REPORTING SOME INTERNET BUZZ.

Surely if this is related to 'our' Serpo, we will have heard or seen evidence of this so-called "Internet Buzz" for ourselves?

Thinks back to August - September last year...

Hmm, draws a blank.

Someone with far too much time on their hands. Full marks for creativity though. Loses marks for getting the all important details wrong.

Hi. Interestingly I found this when doing a Serpo related google search. It is from a football forum. The last comment is the interesting one. www.thisisstfc.com...

Interesting comments Zep.

I keep trying to assimilate those MARCOM remarks, but thought were supposed to be the shocker error that pushed us into thinking MAJCOM.

Then I found a comment on another board asking if Bill had seen or heard of Zed Tepi's video game possible Serpo connection. Apparently the poster remembers Bill had telephone contact with Zed Tepi before.



SERPO gets confusing and confusinger.

G

Hi guys,


Sorry but this stinks of hijacking of a perceived hoax; zep tepi caught the first slip and it was widely reported, therefore any further slip ups must be viewed as deliberate or grossly negligent! Not too professional if you ask me.

This appears to be mischief making on a grand scale, I am very surprised at SkepticOverLord being taken in sufficiently by a GLP post from an anonymous source who inadvertantly left information that would be found by a thorough examiner of evidence and running with it here at ATS.

When does Denial of Ignorance include raising thinly veiled disinformation or at best a deliberate attempt at hijacking the SERPO hoax? SO, I know you are better than this, what's going on??

Best Wishes

J

Originally posted by gingerlad
SO, I know you are better than this, what's going on??

Did you miss this part of my post, "I really doubt these are part of a video game project as the originator would have us believe. I think we have someone who is "piling on" to hoax a hoax"?

I decided to post this thread, because lots of people were attempting to analyze these images, thinking they were presented as authentic DIA documents. They were not, are not, and are not even game props.

well,

a quick google of ubisoft + "Bill Ryan" turned up some results... poking through the links now...

is it the same billyboy?


twj

Those two pieces of typed journal/log were giving me fits until I accepted they are a hoax to compound the hoax we have.

My reason:

If Anon wanted to post documents on the net he wouldn't need Victor.


G

Originally posted by SkepticOverlord

I decided to post this thread, because lots of people were attempting to analyze these images, thinking they were presented as authentic DIA documents. They were not, are not, and are not even game props.

Hi SO,

Thanks for the edge-up. I see where you are coming from and yes it is well worth having that debate and clearing things up. I really should know better, but I'll get you one of these days!

Best Wishes

J

Does anyone have the originals? It looks like the images were removed from the free hosting service. (I never thought to save them)

SO,

I have them both. Thought to compare the text, the type, etc. but never got to that. Can you host them somewhere?


G

(two dozen links later)

hmmm... seems not. That woulda been too easy anyway *laughs*

rock on
twj

solcambell,

Tha's probably chelseafan1, from the main serp-oh thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I don't know how to link straight to the post, but it's down near the bottom of the page.

posted on 15-1-2006 at 03:18 AM Post Number: 1923482 (post id: 1945375)

The, um, Americans will believe anything Brits say attitude seems to be the kicker... that and the football thingy *shrugs*

I tried logging onta that football site... they want me to turn off my Norton stuff *laughs* I don't even turn my Norton stuff off for god.

More smoke and mirrors *sighs*

bah.

Torb,

I'm looking through the search on ubisoft and Bill Ryan. There are a lot of Bills and Ryans for sure. I can't find any mentioning Bill Ryan.

Doesn't mean there isn't one, I just haven't located it yet.

G

I'm still at the edge of my limb on my guess that Serpo is a viral marketing campaign for an upcoming video game by Free Radical/Ubisoft. I did find a prominent marketing company with a relationship with Free Radical/Ubisoft which is New Media Maze, conventiently located in Bristol, UK. www.newmediamaze.com.... One of their services sends spiders to sites where their viral info is distributed, catalogs the page and reports back to the company, which they use to report to their client.

Skeptic, any spiders/bots from www.newmediamaze.com coming here?

There would need to be "ping graphics" in appropriate posts to track awareness of a viral campaign like this. I haven't found any images anywhere that are served from newmediamaze.com... nor do we have any referrals or visitors from that domain.

Hi S.O. - I'm glad to see that you called this a hoax on top of a hoax. When the first image came out - our "request_anonymous" made no mention of a video game marketing campaign. He/She just made the impression that they were fed up with how this was being "handled". Trying to give the impression that they are ANON.

When we immediately dissected that document and proved beyond a doubt that it was a poorly done hoax (given the dubious classification of "secret", improper formatting for such a military document, etc...) - then our "creative" request_anonymous decides to release a second document and give the impression that it is a video game marketing ploy.

Why the change in story? Because after being proven a fake, the only explanation this moron could come up with was that it is a "fake" created by a video game company.

I've personally decided to throw out these documents and not let them distract us from the real question - who is anon#1 and anon#2, where did the information come from, and why is/was it being released. One thing this last "third hoax" does prove is how easily people tend to be manipulated by lies.

-rdube02

It was # 2

Bill Hamilton "the hired UFO Gun"

And then Bill Ryan took it upon himself to try and flip the script. And fabricated all of the Anon # 2 stuff.

I told him long before this thing blew up that he (Bill Ryan) was going to get double crossed and he tried to play it off that he had no idea what I was talking about. Then the switch up and Bill Ryan then took the ball and ran with it, totally off the original game plan.

Which is why "serpo" is in such a convoluted mess right now.

IMO yes Victor and Bill Ryan were both taken for a ride and then Bill Ryan seeing that he could possibly use this to his advantage "took over" the story line.

Its is very plain as day, just people get caught up in their own devices and intentionally obsecure the facts right in front of them with wild theories.