Scarlett radio 1.doc

Now, if you're a regular Internet user or a fan of computer games you may have heard of a new craze known as Alternative Reality Gaming, a new style of game in which players follow clues and messages hidden in anything from websites, newspapers and even radio programmes, in order to win an often unknown prize. The latest of these games, Perplex City, has a cash prize of £100,000 and has been running for over a year. Thousands of players have been recruited from all over the world to help find a mysterious cube or a sacred artefact stolen from Perplex City, a parallel universe only contacted by e-mail. To explain more about the search, we are pleased to welcome Scarlett Kiteway, a resident of Perplex City and editor of thescarlettkite.com.

Now first of all Scarlett, can you explain to our listeners why this missing cube is so important to your people?

Okay, so it's just got real historic importance to us -- you know, if your Mona Lisa got stolen or Britain's crown jewels -- its really important to us culturally. Also, it's got some very strange properties, um, I don't really know a lot about this, but my dad Sente is head of the Academy and they've been investigating it for years. Um, I have to confess, I don't exactly what it does, um, and I'm not sure they know either, but, so, yeh, they want to get it back so they can carry on working it out.

Okay, so how did it go missing if it's so blooomin' precious?

Well, it got stolen. They still don't seem to know who took it, um, in fact, they don't seem to have any leads at all. Um, they have an event every year to celebrate the Academy Games ending. So I guess everyone's attention must have been distracted. Um, some people broke into the museum, I don't know how many people, um, they disabled the security systems and they killed the guard, which was really scary. Um, err, I was at the ball actually, and, um, we all had to be questioned by the police. That was pretty scary.

Why can the people of Earth help?

Okay, so the Cube has some sort of, um, electromagnetic field or something that it gives out. Um, anyway, I know that there is a special way that the guys at the Academy can trace it and find out where it is, wherever it is. So they thought they'd just be able to follow this trace or whatever and, um, find out where it was, but it turned out when they followed the trace that the Cube wasn't anywhere in Perplex City, um, that's the city where I come from. Um, its not anywhere in our world. It turns out it's been taken over to Earth, um, so basically we're hoping if you'll get involved you'll help us to find it, wherever it might be.

Well residents of Perplex City have met some of the game's players in Abbey Road, London, haven't they what actually happened?

That looked like it was so much fun. What happened was, um, obviously we can't come over from Perplex City to Earth, but we're working with a company, Mind Candy, on Earth, who set up a little treasure trail to introduce some of the people who are looking for the Cube already, to us and our world.

Well look, you've seen photographs of our world. Is it very different from yours?

Yeh, we find you really fascinating, the breadth of your culture is amazing. The history, the art, the music and there's kind of a cult in knowing the names of the ancient earth scientists, and this sort of thing. There's a department of Earth studies at the Academy which specifically studies you guys and we get a lot of replica Earth artefacts in our shops. I'd love to be able to visit Earth.

Scarlett, if anyone's listening who's interested in helping find this Cube, how can they actually do so?

There's loads you can do. Probably the best place to start is www.perplexcity.com, err, which will lead you into a whole load of websites about us. My dad has set up a whole game, which will help you to find out more about us. The idea is that if you find out a lot about our world by playing this game then hopefully you'll be able to see something that we can't see and be able to work out who took the Cube. Um, we don't know who took it, but I guess 6 billion heads are better than one. So to get involved you should check out this game, um, there are cards you can buy which have puzzles on them to get you started. I did say we're into puzzles, didn't I? Um, and if you check out firebox.com you can order some and come have a look at my blog which is www.thescarlettkite.com.

There's a huge reward for whoever finds the Cube, isn't there?

Yes, there is. My dad is offering a reward of £100,000 for whoever finds it, that's about 2 million lecks, which is the currency over here. Err, that £100,000 will be just for finding the Cube and keeping it safe, because we haven’t worked out how we get the Cube back from you guys, but as long as it's in safe hands we'll feel happier.

Now do you have a message for those people that are already out searching?

Absolutely. We love you, please keep on looking, keep on trying to help us, we're all just so pleased you're on the case and I know you're going to find it.

Thanks Scarlett, that's Scarlett Kiteway a resident of Perplex City and editor of thescarlettkite.com.