Hello all,

Haven't posted in awhile (busy with school) but I thought some of you might find this interesting. Personally two of my favorite things in the world are Shadowrun and NIN so I think its cool as hell.

Trent Reznor, who is a self-proclaimed sci-fi gaming dork (he did soundtrack stuff for Quake and Doom) recently finished his latest album titled "YEAR ZERO" which is said to be a heavy concept album. The band is currently on tour in Europe, where a track called "My Violent Heart" was "leaked" to the public- fans at two venues found jump drives with an MP3 file in public bathrooms. The MP3's had embedded image files of something called "the Presence" and the tour shirts had an encoded message leading to a website called iamtryingtobelieve.com

So long storey short this has uncovered a whole network of mock websites set in a post-apocalyptic distopian future, chock full of plot hooks for Shadowrun, plus images, codes, sound files, etc....

Check out this thread complied by fans at echoingthesound.org


Method

That is some seriously wicked cool viral advertising.

I would have called an advertisement scam, but Backgammons verdict sounds way cooler .

Meh. Like anything else, the concept is interesting, and the people following it are (at least seemingly from the first linked page) jackasses. "Love the [x], hate its fans" and all that.

Judging from the first site (iamtryingtobelieve.com), it could be pretty cool, although I see it being better material for Dark Matter or something of that nature. Could do something with it in SR, but it wouldn't be my first thought.

I am going to bookmark them for Dark Matter use though, thanks for posting it.

I think http://bethehammer.net/ has some pretty cool ideas that can be used in Shadowrun. You could have a sammy who's background is that he took the red pills. He can never go back to his family and has serious mental problems due to the sex/kill confusion. Makes for a good sammy, i think.

Ooh, shadowrun connection:

In the credits to year zero, this is written:

Wolrd building: trent reznor and rob sheridan
world integration and enhancement: 42, alex lieu, jordan weisman [...]
(bold mine for emphasis)

Well then.That's interesting.

Does anyone have a copy of the jump dirves?

if anyone's interested in the web phenomenon/game, a buddy of mine put together an interactive tour of the whole thing. you'll need a bittorrent client, like Azureus, to download it.

heh, why not? Reznor does...

CYA...

Just covering my own ass.

But I do know of some fan sites that got nasty-grams from the record label and/or RIAA, despite what Trent is trying to do.

Its widely known that Trent opposes all the anti-piracy bullshit the record labels are trying to enforce, but his own label doesn't necessarily appreciate him giving music away for free...

Exterminal.net

This website has some really evocative world information. Go through it since it's not that long and the Bardsley, G. section has some neat use of HUD glasses and text messaging used for espionage-like behaviour.

It also has a .WAV file of "Capital G" off the record; just run it through LAME or something and you have a nice little *.mp3 of one of the catchiest songs on Year Zero.

It's a good album, and it's inspired more than a few things in my campaign.

- Rep.

This thread needs a resurrection.

Wired Magazine's new issue features an article on Jordan Weisman's 42 Entertainment and the Trent Reznor's Year Zero project with them. It's an awesome article, especially the part at the end about the end-game concert.

This was the most disappointing CD/project I've ever heard and seen coming from NIN.