Can You Stop It

Client : 

Alternate Reality Games are the ultimate narrative experience, an immersion in between the borders of reality and fiction.

SFR wanted to promote its partnership with the Lille3000 committee. With that aim in mind, SFR contributed to the cultural exhibition « Europe XXL », that took place from March to July 2009, by creating a new operation that combined innovation and culture.

faberNovel transformed the city of Lille into a huge playground, using the cultural exhibition as a canvas. The players’ mission was to prevent the fulfillment of a prophecy that would lead to the destruction of Lille and the world.

Players had to become investigators on the Internet and in the city, using a whole set of technological tools such as, videos to be deciphered, hidden elements on the Web, voicemail, and SMS. This experiment facilitated ubiquity and the creation of a social network animated by collective intelligence.

faberNovel’s work

faberNovel designed and developed a new kind of game, an Alternate Reality Game (ARG), called « Can You Stop It ». The cultural exhibition previously mentioned set the stage for « Can You Stop It » through its half-angel & half-devil statues, that were key for the game’s development and built by Russian collective artists, AES+F.

The story starts out saying: « A prophecy says that bringing together these 12 angels and demons in the same place could trigger disastrous consequences, and the destruction countdown of Lille and the rest of the world… »

Players were given the mission to discover the prophecy and find a way to prevent the apocalypse. They could participate in the adventure through www.canyoustopit.fr and solve a new enigma everyday for 3-months using evidence scattered throughout the web and the city.

Multiple technologies were used to allow players to navigate throughout the game, including flashcode, Bluetooth antennas that broadcasted hidden signals in the city, messages obtained through a voice responding server, SMS, hidden elements on websites, videos and emails to be deciphered, and more.

Results

Can You Stop It brought together a wide community of players around the world. With this game, SFR shows that culture and innovation can be successfully combined. This experiment facilitated ubiquity and the creation of a social network animated by collective intelligence.