• Home
  • Latest Posts
  • Categories
    • Craft
    • Fashion + Beauty
    • Featured
    • Film + TV
    • Gadgetry
    • House + Home
    • Kids
    • Life Dorkage
    • Love + Sex
    • Opinion
You are here: Home / Featured / Nokia Conspiracy For Good hits London

Nokia Conspiracy For Good hits London

August 11, 2010 By Emma Cossey

Nokia Conspiracy For GoodThe weekend before last saw the first live action instalment of Nokia-backed augmented reality game Conspiracy For Good. The brainchild of Heroes creator Tim Kring, it’s an umbrella project harnessing the power of technology and gaming that is as much about pushing the boundaries of interactive means of gameplay as it is an attempt to benefit disparate charities.

The gathering on Saturday by London’s Traitor’s Gate partly referenced volunteer efforts to clean up the river Thames, while on Saturday 24th July a further instalment of the adventure was prefaced by members donating new toys to charity Kids’ Company for donation at Christmas.

This first instalment saw existing Unmembers and newcomers come together to track ‘armed and dangerous’ hostage Nazirah along the Thames and help her evade capture on route to a safe house elsewhere in the city. Taking part was a matter of registering at the site and turning up on the day.

The mission

Kring himself took part in the action along with his son and was curious to learn first-hand from participants how they found the experience. Despite a few issues with delivery of the video footage – waiting around for the clip to buffer and then missing the important parts of the directions – there’s a lot to be said for the point-the-cameraphone, scan-the-tagged-item, view-the-video-clue and set-off-for-the-next-one format.

The history

The Conspiracy For Good underground movement first came to light in May last year when the then-undisclosed organisation began to make a series of revelations about private security firm Blackwell Briggs’ government remit to minitor citizens by networking the capital’s CCTV cameras.

Nokia Conspiracy For Good busCommunicating via secret forums at iamnotamember.com, activists aghast at the privacy implications of Blackwell Briggs’ endeavours sought to expose their plans. Counter measures saw a number of high profile figures forced into public denial of membership of the unnamed pressure group, with the likes of Joss Stone and Ringo Starr making unwelcome appearances on The Pirate Bay.

The Unmember organisation was forced to regroup, re-emerging in spring 2010 under the guise Conspiracy For Good. The direct action group with laudable aims had arrived.

The game elements of Conspiracy For Good are played out via a series of websites and forums where secret messages are left as ‘drops’ for the next message. A similar premise is used for the live action version.

Nokia mobile phones with augmented reality video overlays were able to pick up predefined clues and video messages hidden in plaques and messageboards around London. By aiming the phone’s video scanning sensor at a tagged symbol or other trigger object, the Unmember was able to unlock the next clue and watch a video message detailing the pursuit by Blackwell Briggs.

Risky business

Following the trail was not without risk. Supporters had tagged parts of London with Conspiracy For Good symbols and anyone caught apparently following the trail was liable to apprehension by security personnel. We were apprehended on more than one occasion and narrowly escaped having our handsets confiscated. Unlike some of our more experienced co-conspirators, we weren’t able to sneakily take snapshots of the surveillance team and share their mugshots as a warning to others.

Luckily, we were able to talk our way out of the situation and double-back to the temporary safe house that had been set up. Here, we became initiates in the Conspiracy For Good movement. I can’t tell you more since shortly afterwards the safe house was stormed and we were subject to a gunpoint interrogation before being flung out on our ear.

How to get involved

If you want to know more you’ll have to head to conspiracyforgood.com and learn where to assemble for next week’s instalment.

Emma Cossey

Emma is our resident fashion and social media specialist, having worked as a blogger, editor and writer on a number of fashion and beauty websites. She writes regularly for The Bag Lady, and has previously written for The Times Online, Shoewawa and Jorg & Olif among others.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterLinkedInPinterest

Please share if you enjoyed this!

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Related

Related Posts

  • Mathematical! Adventure Time comes to LBP3
  • Five awesome mobile sports games you need in your locker
  • Five addictive games for your phone
  • Xbox One – Soon you’ll be able to watch TV from the comfort of your own sofa

Filed Under: Featured, Gadgetry Tagged With: Gaming, Heroes, Nokia

Hey there, dork

You're a nerd, we're all nerds, let's make something beautiful happen. Sign up for our newsletter. We promise not to use your details inappropriately.

Yes, I need more email!

Welcome to the Dorkside!

About Us
We are a group of geeks with interests that range from crafting to the latest lifehacks. If you can be geeky about something, we're probably covering it! Here are some of our most popular current obsessions:

Doctor Who :: The Walking Dead :: Craft Patterns :: Fifty Shades of Grey :: Apple :: Game of Thrones :: TV Reviews

Recent Comments

  • Lillian on Here are 10 Things I Hate About the Gilmore Girls
  • Lillian on Here are 10 Things I Hate About the Gilmore Girls
  • Brittney muns on Here are 10 Things I Hate About the Gilmore Girls

Recent Posts

  • Edifier Prisma Bluetooth Speaker with ‘Storm-trooper’ styling
  • Gtech AirRam Mk2: Our new favourite battery-powered vacuum cleaner
  • These are my 10 Commandments for Email. What are yours?
  • Are you brave enough for a Personal Barber shaving box?
  • What parenting gadgets are actually worth getting?
  • Doctor Who LEGO is upon us! Get it before it sells out!

Most Popular Reads

  • Doctor Who hits his stride in Time Heist caper
  • Meet the Tablift – the universal tablet holder
  • Peppa Pig knitting and crochet patterns! Update: And Sewing!
  • Here are 10 Things I Hate About the Gilmore Girls

Dork Adore

  • Advertising
  • Dork Adore Writers
  • Contact Dork Adore
  • Discount Codes
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Competition Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Writing for Dork Adore
  • Latest Posts

Categories

  • Craft
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • Featured
  • Film + TV
  • Gadgetry
  • House + Home
  • Kids
  • Life Dorkage
  • Love + Sex
  • Opinion

Follow Dork Adore On

RSS
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Miramus Ltd © 2014 · All Rights Reserved