For weeks the internet has been abuzz about a mysterious new website, VanishingPointGame.com. Rumors have been a bound about who’s running it, how to play, and what the forth coming contest would be all about. Oh yeah, and who the heck is Loki? Many of us got packages in the mail – a small puzzle box with a memory stick inside. The clues started. Most of us ended up with a cyphered image – it looked something like this:


Even more threads started across the internet, a countdown started on the webpage. Even various websites dedicated to the contest appeared. What would happen when the countdown hit zero?

Last night, we finally got some answers. But first, some background. It didn’t take long for most folks to figure out this was the mother of all marketing campaign, created by 42 Entertainment for Microsoft (as the initial teaser image was first seen on the Internet Explorer Development Blog, and the Flash login page is seen connecting to the 42 Entertainment domain). This isn’t the first time the two have worked together either. 42 Entertainment as also behind the highly successful Halo viral marketing campaign in case you didn’t know.

Needless to say, the marketing has paid off.

Last night, the event official began, and our own Larry Richman was there in Las Vegas attending the premier live at the Bellagio Casino. Here's what he had to say about the event, "It was pretty amazing. I don't know if you've ever seen or heard about the famous Bellagio fountain show, but it's world famous. In this case, they literally stopped the show in the middle for the Vanishing Point presentation. Inside sources told me that it was the very first time that anyone had ever projected images onto the water. Apparently it's not that they never allowed it, but that nobody ever asked."

Needless to say Microsoft has pulled out all the stops on this one. And if you missed it, they did make a subtle reference to the Bellagio event during the keynote. Justin Hutchinson, Group Product Manager, was demonstrating Microsoft Windows Vista ShadowCopy and showed a Microsoft Word document being formatted with preview and other fancy things. One of the documents used for the demo was the "Fountain Show Planning."

If you missed it, check out the photos of the event taken by Long Zheng. You can also find videos of the event on YouTube and at the official website.

As soon as the countdown hit zero last night thousands starting playing. Many had to wait for the video to appear online so as to get a "clue" (pun intended) as to what was going on with the puzzles. Several websites started working together (more on that in a minute), and minds everywhere were cranking. I was able to work myself through the first round by this morning. My prize when complete (besides a nice point count) was a video from the now famous Loki. She was much more casual this time around... hrm, was it even her?

As you can tell the mysteries surrounding this contest are many. Confusion is today tying up the minds of surely thousands who are trying to quickly solve the first round of puzzles before they hit the Vanishing Point.

And that brings me back to my point of this article. Who's playing, and who's winning? Several websites (especially community forums) are jointly working together to solve the riddles and puzzles surrounding this contest. But there's a lot at stake here. I mean, just consider these prizes:

The Ultimate Vista experience. A Rocketplane® XP Vehicle will fly you into space --- SPACE!! This plane is a four-seat fighter-sized vehicle fitted with a delta wing and a V-tail which provide good flight characteristics both subsonically and supersonically. The vehicle is powered by both turbojet engines and a rocket engine, enabling it to accelerate to speeds just over 3,500 feet per second (2,386 miles per hour) and reach altitudes in excess of 330,000 feet (100 kilometers) providing the sensation of weightlessness for three to four minutes! The price tag? Previous trips have cost somewhere in the ball park of $200K. Nuff said. This is an experience worth working for.

This grand prize package also includes a Windows Vista based AMD powered Dell desktop pc, 24" widescreen monitor, Zune™ digital media player, an Xbox® 360 gaming console, three Games for Windows game titiles, a Microsoft® LifeCam VX-6000, Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007, and $50,000 cash to help defray the cost of taxes.

The other prizes aren't to bad either. You can check them all out in detail on the Official Website.

So it makes you wonder? Why's everyone playing together as a unit? If it's an individual challenge, what's the good behind playing together? I suppose it's a live together - die alone type of scenario. Everyone works together until the end, and then it's likely going to be cutthroat. Nothing like a good challenge to bring out the best in us all, LOL.

If you haven't found your way to the homepage yet. Take a moment to meet Loki and get started. After all, a site with the name VanishingPoint isn't going to be around forever.

Enjoy... together, or alone. Many will enter, only one will win the Ultimate Vista experience.


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