[ SKYNET RESEARCH ALTERNATE REALITY GAME? ] +FEB 2 2009

For those of you who visited and registered your email at the TERMINATOR:SALVATION spinoff site SkynetResearch.com, you should have received your first clue that this site is likely a so-called Rabbit hole hosting an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) tie-in to this summer's feature film.

When you received automated email replies and confirmation to your registration, you should have also received a vCard attached to the bot email which gives the following PO Box address and New York phone number:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
FN:Skynet
N:Skynet;;;;
PROFILE:VCARD
ADR:;;PO Box 179;New York;New York;10013;USA
TEL;TYPE=WORK:718.395.2563
EMAIL;TYPE=WORK:info@skynetresearch.com
ORG:Skynet Research
URL:http://www.skynetresearch.com
END:VCARD

Dial the number and you'll hear a synthesized (and somewhat creepy) female voice mail greeting you with: "Welcome to Skynet Research. We're committed to making your life different."  At the beep, leave a message if you dare. 

A domain ownership and phone number search didn't yield any promising clues or hints on who is the Puppetmaster behind the game nor how to proceed, so it's quite likely the game has not yet been activated.  As noted in the update, the TERMINATOR mythology is a natural fit for an internet-based ARG, even more so from the Skynet side of the story which is destined to exploit human technology and turn it against us as a war-prompting weapon in humanity's extermination.

II wouldn't be surprised if Skynet Research plays out similarly to the corporate tone of the TERMINATOR 2: 3D BATTLE ACROSS TIME attraction at Universal Studios, luring unsuspecting human 'subjects' into the AI-driven 'research' website, only to reveal it as some kind of trap which mirrors the plot danger presented in TERMINATOR:SALVATION's storyline. 

TERMINATOR:2018 will be playing right along with you humans, since our enthusiasm for this game's prospects don't prompt us to offer much resistance against a TERMINATOR-based ARG — this should be fun!

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