Vanishing Point, LOKI Revealed ...

Just got the final contact from L.O.K.I. I'll let you read it for yourself. But it doesn't look like AMD will be making a "SuperRob" Athlon any time soon. Pity.

Congratulations on a game well played, and thank you for helping us disappear.

You were not the first to guess our identity, but because you played our game, we want to tell you our secret.

There is no such person as Loki - or rather, she is four sisters who decided to be one extraordinary person.

Each of us has a unique talent:

Lorelei is our tinkerer. Clocks and counting, space and time: she is our genius.

Odessa is our performer, our actress and magician, the girl we send in to dazzle and charm. Odessa goes to meetings: Loki gets promoted. It's very convenient.

Kara is our reader. With a love of history and a photographic memory, she gives us access to any fact, figure, or event at a moment's notice.

Ivy is our spy. She's the girl you dont notice, the face you don't remember, and vanishing is what she does best. Ivy has gotten us out of more than one impossible situation.

Together, we have presented L.O.K.I. to the world. Our mask and super-hero, LOKI has allowed us each to be bigger than ourselves.

When we heard Microsoft and AMD were looking to give extraordinary prizes to exceptional people, we knew LOKI could never find a more perfect job. This, Odessa said, would be a trick we could never top. O, how we wanted this job! (And what clever, unfair, underhanded things we did to the other applicants to make sure we got it! But that's another story.) And once we got the job, we all agreed that Loki's greatest triumph would be her last.

We created the Vanishing Point to reward the smartest minds (and communities) on the planet - and still we underestimated you. We used our smarts and our guile, not to mention money and connections and countless hours of time - and still you humbled us. We knew the terrain and barely gave you a mapand that didn't stop you. We built puzzles that should have taken you days and you solved them in hours.

"Loki" is a genius: but you were far more brilliant. You were thought made fire. You were lightning.

Thank you for your work, your talent, and your dedication. It has been a privilege to witness: an honor and a delight.

For each of us to live, Loki had to die. Thank you, thank you beyond words for taking her to the Vanishing Point.

Lorelei
Odessa
Kara
Ivy

I will say that I'm stunned at the level of detail woven into the game. In retrospect, everything makes sense. Even back to the very first video, the clues were there. The candy wrappers on the table that were assumed to be an homage to 4orty2wo Entertainment were actually a clue after all. Six total chocolates, but only four eaten, all of different flavors. I also love that the game had a great payoff, not in terms of the prizes, but a satisfying ending delivered in a personal manner. Something that even games you pay for frequently get wrong. You're asking someone to do more than pay for the privilege of playing your game ... you're asking them to devote time and attention to existing in your world for a time, and that's not something you should take lightly. Companies like EA don't get that. AMD, on the other hand ... does.

The website now hints at a "sequel", but much like their other efforts for Microsoft, I'd be willing to bet that it'll be a new game for another major launch, mostly likely for Halo 3.