Join Cult
30,000 players in one week · 8 city blocks · $0 marketing spend
The progenitors of Cult have released the Document, “the recursion that withdraws the soul from her bounded instability,” and invite you to partake in “The Prime Distraction.” Does this cryptic mumbo jumbo make any sense? Not exactly, but the puzzles hidden in the text at JoinCult.com will if you’re in downtown Culver City. Using hidden links and rhyming verse, Join Cult takes players on a tour of the local business district, revealing more about a fictional secret society along the way.
One clue reads “The beast in cage of water revels, it’s Baum who was his tamer / On bench in brass with news of past we find this city’s namer.” This leads players from a fountain featuring the lion from the Wizard of Oz to a nearby brass statue of Harry Culver reading a newspaper on a bench. Each subsequent stanza takes players to another permanent landmark in view of the location they’re currently at, until they’ve explored eight city blocks and unlocked the arcane secrets of a cult simply called “Cult.”
After organically discovering Join Cult online, a player attempted to solve it using Google Maps and satellite imagery. They chronicled their attempt on Tumblr, which went viral and led to JoinCult.com receiving over 30,000 visitors in a single week without a single dollar of marketing spend.
A Discord channel with thousands of alternate reality game enthusiasts from around the world then worked together to complete the game, eventually sending Los Angeles locals to clue locations in person. The audience on Discord watched their progress, proving that an Overlay’s reach can extend far beyond the area in which it’s built.