Blizzard launches new website - Project Blackstone

[McFrotton]

the blackstone..has... Melted?

lololol omfg

[Deleted]

_director of research encryption and text analysis: Cameron dayton _further text analysis: Matt burns, robert brooks, micah whipple, cate gary, evelyn fredericksen, micky neilson _xeno-imaging: Mr. Jack _director of research encryption and text analysis: Cameron dayton _further text analysis: Matt burns, robert brooks, micah whipple, cate gary, evelyn fredericksen, micky neilson _xeno-imaging: Mr. Jack

[Sam the Wiser]

I'm shocked they haven't shut the site down yet.

[NatePsy]

_director of research encryption and text analysis: Cameron dayton _further text analysis: Matt burns, robert brooks, micah whipple, cate gary, evelyn fredericksen, micky neilson _xeno-imaging: Mr. Jack _director of research encryption and text analysis: Cameron dayton _further text analysis: Matt burns, robert brooks, micah whipple, cate gary, evelyn fredericksen, micky neilson _xeno-imaging: Mr. Jack

Micah Whipple is Bashiok so I'm guessing all the other names are also Blizzard Staff members.

[McFrotton]

Srly its just HotS marketing campaign nothing to see here

[NatePsy]

Srly its just HotS marketing campaign nothing to see here

A very interesting and awesome "marketing campaign" at that, nothing to see here? Far from that.

[mvaliz]

Least they didn't use Flash for the site this time. So tired of my poor browser getting rammed by a flash crash. I welcome our new Blizzard HTML5 Website Overlords!

That strikes me as a bit odd now that you mention it... why would they do it in HTML5?

...it's almost as if they WANTED somebody to hack it eventually...

My totally un-founded knee-jerk theory? Project Blackstone = Blackthorn reboot... especially since it's a Cyberpunk-style game. Would tie in well with a viral site that needed "hacking" to get into it.

[Mr Anderson]

Blizzard... making a ARG? Heh, never thought I see the day.

EDIT:

I sure did screw myself over... is blizzard going to send assassins to kill me now?

Yes! They are going to send in Ghosts and Dark Templars to kill you!

[Gothicshark]

StarCraft related. inside the site it has two emails

Welcome!


Esteemed Colleagues:It is my profound pleasure to welcome each and every one of you to Project Blackstone. Hold your heads high, people. You are now members of a select team, a group that has been handpicked by top officials in Dominion intelligence and approved by Emperor Mengsk himself. You will be the front line in scientific research dedicated to the protection and expansion of our empire of man throughout the Koprulu sector.I am sure that many of you have questions regarding the nature of your selection, your brisk arrival, and the expected duration of your stay. That information will be made available to you when I see fit. Until then, please familiarize yourself with the facilities and get to know your peers. The badge issued to you upon your arrival will trigger automated guidance lights running along the floors, so be sure to keep it on your person at all times. Hallways marked with green lights will indicate the path from your quarters to your designated workspaces. Hallways lined with a flashing yellow light are off limits, and represent potential danger to unauthorized personnel. Hallways lined with a red light should be avoided at all costs, and your presence there will guarantee a speedy execution. Please restrict your movements to the approved areas only.Again, welcome to Project Blackstone. I look forward to making your acquaintance at the barbecue in the (green-lit) social lounge this evening at 1900 hours.


Dr. Helek Branamoor, PhD Chairman on Dominion Xenostudies, Imperial Science Advisor, and Chief of Research for Project Blackstone

RE: Welcome!


My Dear Dr. Branamoor,Imagine my surprise upon finding a "Reply All" option at the bottom of your warm and informative welcome note. I am uncertain if you intended this as encouragement to me and the rest of your honored guests to engage in open discourse or if you merely forgot to remove the option. Regardless, I am certain that I am not the only member of this exciting new team with a less-than-favorable opinion of your recruitment methods. I consider myself a patriot and supporter of the current regime, and so a simple invitation from your department would have resulted in my speedy, dutiful, and voluntary acceptance of this new opportunity. It certainly would have been much more cost-effective than sending one of your uncouth ghost agents to haul me through the broken glass of my imported colonial Teredelle windows at some ungodly hour in the night. I didn't even have time to pack a toothbrush.Please consider this a gentle reminder that you can attract more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.


Dr. Talen Ayers, PhD Xenobiologist, bestselling author of Ayers on Aliens, and frustrated invitee

[Rhyseh]

That strikes me as a bit odd now that you mention it... why would they do it in HTML5?

...it's almost as if they WANTED somebody to hack it eventually...

My totally un-founded knee-jerk theory? Project Blackstone = Blackthorn reboot... especially since it's a Cyberpunk-style game. Would tie in well with a viral site that needed "hacking" to get into it.

Not sure if your being sarcastic here. Just in case...

They obviously wanted someone to hack this. They made it ridiculously easy for anyone who's ever worked with code before. For anyone curious as to how this was solved then read on.

If you have a look at the source code of the page it read:

<!--
d8888bL d8888bL .d88bL 88 d88888 .o88bL d888888b
88 8D 88 8D .8P Y8L 8P 88 d8P Y8 88
88oodD' 88oobY' 88 88 88 88oooo 8P 88
88 88 88 `8b d8' Y8 88 88 Y8b d8 88
88 88 YD `Y88P' Y888' Y88888 `Y88P' YP

d8888L db .d8b. .o88b. db dD .d8888. d888888b .d88b. d8b db d8888
88 `8D 88 d8' `8b d8P Y8 88 ,8P' 88' YP 88 .8P Y8. 888o 88 88'
88oooY' 88 88 88 8P 88,8P `8bo. 88 88 88 88V8o 88 88
88 8b 88 88TTT88 8b 88`8b `Y88b 88 88 88 88 V8o88 88TTT
88 8D 88booo. 88 88 Y8b d8 88 `88. db 8D 88 `8b d8' 88 V888 88.
Y8888P' Y88888P YP YP `Y88P' YP YD `8888Y' YP `Y88P' VP V8P Y8888

### ============================================================================
### [REMINDER] REMOVE THIS COMMENT BLOCK BEFORE CODE DEPLOYMENT!
### [REMINDER] POSSIBLE EXPOSURE OF SENSITIVE INFORMATION!
###
### [BLACKSTONE]

?HX?cec27e03c51e1b18bc89e78003788ed0e87080f64da416cffda68f0d2cb3e9893ef5bcf00613
b5dfdbb3827240a2d6f3ebc0ff1989fa2187c016722f53d141d2a7cd6f678118d6d425eecca627a4
a85138180a6fbe74934ab51c31aa15811d06ca320390ee5781cd233ae7377a8d807caeeefe7267c4
c6c9ca032124e1db8f361c3b4918a3931c119bcc3ac62ecbf4e09f7a95223d0bbe9f53415920db1b
a3eb8f2bc85dc0e2e7a46d40b9c908777f59ea6197851569301788f38ea07b07e2245f92cc95a67a
621726d5631c77fa637b4cd15daaa1a77de5e82e7ebcb73ca6803927adf975864c96b94e13aa542a
d63be8f0e6ad1558aa4e7eaba0567751050ad858459ec4c0fbef5ce9aab20500fade?H

### [REMINDER] REMOVE THIS COMMENT BLOCK BEFORE CODE DEPLOYMENT!
### ============================================================================
-->

No one puts this into the front end of a webpage. Ever. They certainly wouldn't label it as such. Anyone who's worked with encryption before could probably tell you pretty quickly that this is encrypted hex code. What's more they actually give you the decryption key BLACKSTONE.

Here is where I got a little stuck due to my lack of mastery with encryption algorithm's, however a quick google search directed me here:

http://www.fourmilab.ch/javascrypt/javascrypt.html

All you need to do is post the hex code into the red box, type BLACKSTONE in the yellow box and voila! It's translated. Here is the plain hex code for anyone who is uncertain which part I was referring to:

?HX?cec27e03c51e1b18bc89e78003788ed0e87080f64da416cffda68f0d2cb3e9893ef5bcf00613
b5dfdbb3827240a2d6f3ebc0ff1989fa2187c016722f53d141d2a7cd6f678118d6d425eecca627a4
a85138180a6fbe74934ab51c31aa15811d06ca320390ee5781cd233ae7377a8d807caeeefe7267c4
c6c9ca032124e1db8f361c3b4918a3931c119bcc3ac62ecbf4e09f7a95223d0bbe9f53415920db1b
a3eb8f2bc85dc0e2e7a46d40b9c908777f59ea6197851569301788f38ea07b07e2245f92cc95a67a
621726d5631c77fa637b4cd15daaa1a77de5e82e7ebcb73ca6803927adf975864c96b94e13aa542a
d63be8f0e6ad1558aa4e7eaba0567751050ad858459ec4c0fbef5ce9aab20500fade?H

[Gothicshark]

Almost forgot to post the picture of the little baby Zerglings.

[Pfeff]

Well it says SC2 in the URL and there is "Adjutant" in the bottom left...obvious starcraft now stop it. All of you

[Deleted]

Well it says SC2 in the URL and there is "Adjutant" in the bottom left...obvious starcraft now stop it. All of you

I'm still trying to find the person in this thread, who doubts that.

[Flaks]

I'm shocked they haven't shut the site down yet.

A very likely intentional "leak".

I'm going to go with Titan on this one. The Starcraft things are all misdirection.

[fengosa]

That strikes me as a bit odd now that you mention it... why would they do it in HTML5?

...it's almost as if they WANTED somebody to hack it eventually...

My totally un-founded knee-jerk theory? Project Blackstone = Blackthorn reboot... especially since it's a Cyberpunk-style game. Would tie in well with a viral site that needed "hacking" to get into it.

Isnt HTML5 mobile browser friendly. Im sure that has something to do with it.

[Buu]

Here's the linked Twitter accounts (taken from Reddit source):

https://twitter.com/Adjutant3327
https://twitter.com/LeahAMartine
https://twitter.com/PamelaGFoster
https://twitter.com/RedellQuinton
https://twitter.com/HelekBranamoor
https://twitter.com/TalenAyers
https://twitter.com/VeraLangridge
https://twitter.com/TalenAyers
https://twitter.com/DanielRothfuss
https://twitter.com/TaliseCogan
https://twitter.com/WarrenGHeld
https://twitter.com/LeeTreicher

A redditor QuixoticNeutral put together a storify version so you can follow the events from the twitter feeds easier: http://storify.com/QuixoticNeutral/project-blackstone/

Wow...that looks like a lot of work from Blizzard for... nothing important. Seriously, why write all that plot and spread a team in releasing it, just for hype on something that already have a lot of visibility and attention on other circles?

[NatePsy]

Wow...that looks like a lot of work from Blizzard for... nothing important. Seriously, why write all that plot and spread a team in releasing it, just for hype on something that already have a lot of visibility and attention on other circles?

Who cares? If they're going this route to hype up the latest SC2 expansion then I say good for them, I enjoyed what little was offered to the community thus far.

[unholytestament]

Wow...that looks like a lot of work from Blizzard for... nothing important. Seriously, why write all that plot and spread a team in releasing it, just for hype on something that already have a lot of visibility and attention on other circles?

The folks who write plot related materials probably finished anything in HOTS requiring their input months ago. And I doubt the web design team had any involvement in making the game itself.

But hey, continue the proud tradition of bitching about anything and everything. Lord knows someone has to...

[NatePsy]

The folks who write plot related materials probably finished anything in HOTS requiring their input months ago. And I doubt the web design team had any involvement in making the game itself.

But hey, continue the proud tradition of bitching about anything and everything. Lord knows someone has to...

Exactly, I don't think they're going to start work on the next Starcraft II expansion anytime soon, maybe in a year or so but probably not now so their time has been freed up a bit and I'm guessing Blizzard wants their plot writers to move onto this and hype it up. People need to stop bitching and just enjoy something that the guys at Blizzard didn't need to offer but are because they love to create excitement among the fans. I'm glad they hold events and such, it's really nice of them.

[Kelimbror]

Wow...that looks like a lot of work from Blizzard for... nothing important. Seriously, why write all that plot and spread a team in releasing it, just for hype on something that already have a lot of visibility and attention on other circles?

1) Read up on viral marketing.

2) It probably took 2 people one afternoon to write all of this up. This is their profession. Their craft is to tell stories. It's...not really that hard to make fake blurbs about a game.