Add Violence Back Cover...ARG?

[sentient]

Hi all.

First time poster here, having recently become slightly obsessed with this potential ARG. I missed the YZ thing entirely, and so I've devoured this thread in the last day. Really enjoying all the speculation and trains of thoughts. Obviously that van tee shirt is the highlight.

Anyhoo, I think I have noticed something on the back cover/machine. I'm not sure that it would feed into any sort of ARG yay/nay discussion, but I think it does tie into the whole dystopian theme around YZ and these EPs. I don't think I've seen it mentioned in this thread so far, apologies if it has and I've missed it.


Looking at the lights below the "K", they are labelled Structure and Function. I did a bit of googling and found these pages on Wikipedia, relating to Structure versus Function in the formation of a complex society.

Functionalism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_functionalism (Social structures come first, followed by roles)
Versus
Structuralism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_structuralism (Roles/aspect of society comes first, the social structure organically comes from those defined roles)

The machine is set to Structure, suggesting that the roles needed by this (simulated or not) society were decided first, and then the social structure formed afterwards.

Again, I'm not sure how much you can read into this regarding an ARG, I just thought it was interesting to learn about and even if that's not what the lights mean, at least I've learned something about a topic I'd never heard of until this morning.

Welcome to ETS!

I think that's the beauty of an ARG such as this in that it puts us in an arena of information we may not be familiar with but by researching elements of clues we have a whole new perspective on either the subject matter of the artistic effort or the ideas it promotes. Year Zero did that really well for me in seeing the existing nature of our social/political environment as one which can be looked back on by our future generations as a point in which we could have decided to make a better future for us all. I really love how artists do this to not JUST market a piece of art but to also augment the message in this deeper, more powerful way.

[Graceless]

If there is no ARG I will be hugely disappointed, because the Year Zero event was so amazing both in terms of story itself and the shared experience of coming together with other fans to unravel the mystery. I can live with it because the albums are great regardless, but the hope of getting to feel that excitement again is hard to let go of.

[Theodora]

Hi all.

First time poster here, having recently become slightly obsessed with this potential ARG. I missed the YZ thing entirely, and so I've devoured this thread in the last day. Really enjoying all the speculation and trains of thoughts. Obviously that van tee shirt is the highlight.

Anyhoo, I think I have noticed something on the back cover/machine. I'm not sure that it would feed into any sort of ARG yay/nay discussion, but I think it does tie into the whole dystopian theme around YZ and these EPs. I don't think I've seen it mentioned in this thread so far, apologies if it has and I've missed it.


Looking at the lights below the "K", they are labelled Structure and Function. I did a bit of googling and found these pages on Wikipedia, relating to Structure versus Function in the formation of a complex society.

Functionalism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structural_functionalism (Social structures come first, followed by roles)
Versus
Structuralism - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_structuralism (Roles/aspect of society comes first, the social structure organically comes from those defined roles)

The machine is set to Structure, suggesting that the roles needed by this (simulated or not) society were decided first, and then the social structure formed afterwards.

Again, I'm not sure how much you can read into this regarding an ARG, I just thought it was interesting to learn about and even if that's not what the lights mean, at least I've learned something about a topic I'd never heard of until this morning.

Oh man you are bringing me back to my grad school days. I have my master's in Marriage and Family Therapy and these theories were part of my education.

[sweeterthan]

Well the guitar picks were handed out by someone from a bag like 5 min after the show ended. So I didnt know who's guitar picks they were. Even so, solving the Morse Code on the announcement post on Twitter only to have it lead to the location of the NIN Merchandise table made me feel a little like this guy:

I think we missed something. It couldn't have been just about merch.

[katara]

I think we missed something. It couldn't have been just about merch.

I'd hate to have been the person who had to report to Trent that no one showed up to pick up the new AIR ammo boxes.

[LiquidEngineer]

I completely agree. That's a lot of work for something most fans are going to do anyways. Someone working then booth apparently even said there was a limited item available, but already sold out. Yet no one has seen said item. Surely at least one person on this site would have acquired one. Yet, radio silence. I half wonder if the booth people didn't buy them up to throw on ebay later and make a pretty profit.

[davefeeder]

Welcome to ETS!

I think that's the beauty of an ARG such as this in that it puts us in an arena of information we may not be familiar with but by researching elements of clues we have a whole new perspective on either the subject matter of the artistic effort or the ideas it promotes. Year Zero did that really well for me in seeing the existing nature of our social/political environment as one which can be looked back on by our future generations as a point in which we could have decided to make a better future for us all. I really love how artists do this to not JUST market a piece of art but to also augment the message in this deeper, more powerful way.

I totally agree.
My wife and her brother have always been huge NIN fans, and I was never really that keen. That was until we went to see them live and it blew me away.
Even after that, I've never really delved into the songs in the same way I've done with some other artists.

This ARG (or collection of very cool references) has really grabbed me (in the same way that Lost did years ago), and I've listened to YZ in a completely different way than I ever have before.

[sheepdean]

I'd hate to have been the person who had to report to Trent that no one showed up to pick up the new AIR ammo boxes.

I'm fairly sure Trent would post on here with "hey here's an idea let's [x]" if no one figured out something. He probably did that last time, unless people with zero prior posts are REALLY good at solving ARGs

[davefeeder]

Oh man you are bringing me back to my grad school days. I have my master's in Marriage and Family Therapy and these theories were part of my education.

It's so interesting! It's not something I've ever really thought about at length before, but I found myself in knots thinking about it yesterday. This is the power of good music.

[sentient]

I'm fairly sure Trent would post on here with "hey here's an idea let's [x]" if no one figured out something. He probably did that last time, unless people with zero prior posts are REALLY good at solving ARGs

"What the obsessives maybe don’t know is that if I were to explain everything to you, or just explicitly lay out what the new EP is about, you’d only be disappointed. You don’t really want to know. The experience of grappling with the thing is what makes it interesting, not the immediate gratification of going, “Oh, that’s what it means.”"

[Harry Seaward]

I'm fairly sure Trent would post on here with "hey here's an idea let's [x]" if no one figured out something. He probably did that last time, unless people with zero prior posts are REALLY good at solving ARGs

I don't know about Trent himself posting here, I can't imagine him following the ARG progress that closely, but otherwise I think that's SOP for ARGs like this. When people aren't figuring things out in the order or timing they're meant to, an 'insider' (i.e. 42E employee) will come here to nudge things along. That's not to say that every new, 1-post account in the ARG thread is a plant, but keep an eye out.

[nooneimportant]

It's assumed that Trent posts here. It's not confirmed it's him but people have an idea that it's probably him. As for giving hints to the ARG, it's rumored he was in the old Spiral chat room and made a comment about the Oscars which lead to the discovery of the Hollywood in Memoriam site.

[davefeeder]

Ok, so I've got a couple of theories, of sorts, about the machine. Bit of a braindump, but I've got nobody else to run this stuff by, so here you go.


What if "they" (whoever they are) are running a simulation to see how humanity pans out, and in the image on the back cover, the simulation is up to present day, and we're still estimated to terminate in 2022.
Maybe there are a load of iterations of the simulation, tweaking the settings to see what happens.
The loop degrading at the end of The Background World could be the electronic representation of those iterations, as we get worse and worse each time.


The more I think about this, the less I like it (my idea I mean), but maybe someone can pull something out of it that they find useful.


I also do like the idea that we are actually in the simulation now, and the various settings represents the world as it is today. I guess that's a fairly obvious interpretation though.


I'm really loving the analogue feel of it all. Really reminds me of old 60s and 70s sci-fi. Perhaps that's where the machine is, back in the 1970s.

[Masma]

Did anyone realize the slowness of nin.com? Maybe they have some hidden links/data/whatever embedded... Sorry, I'm not good at this, I just noticed.

*edit*
Now I wrote this, I just see the 3 dots in different combinations while waiting 'til the site comes up... am I going crazy?

*edit*
Sorry, I better shut up now.

[Warped_Savant]

I'm fairly sure Trent would post on here with "hey here's an idea let's [x]" if no one figured out something. He probably did that last time, unless people with zero prior posts are REALLY good at solving ARGs

I remember, during Year Zero, that there was a clue on anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/merry as to how to move to the next page but after about 5 minutes of people not getting it the site code was changed just a little in order to push people in the right direction. (And yes, it really was within a matter of minutes). I'm fairly certain that, at this point, if there was actually an ARG (which I still don't think there is) people in charge would have realized that some (a fair amount of?) fans would lose interest and stop looking by now. I'd be shocked if they saw everyone struggling this much for this long and continued to not give a little bit of a hand.

[Adam10647]

[QUOTE=jamesd553;367355]Well the guitar picks were handed out by someone from a bag like 5 min after the show ended. So I didn't know who's guitar picks they were. Even so, solving the Morse Code on the announcement post on Twitter only to have it lead to the location of the NIN Merchandise table made me feel a little like this guy:

I managed to go to both the BF show and FYF. I was one of the people that got a pick from Trent's roadie, they were just on a speaker or something in front of the stage. There doesn't seem to be anything special about it. Here's some crappy pics I took real quick on the way out the door this morning (I didn't have time to check em and didn't know they were this bad).


I also checked all the Men's & mixed use bathrooms as soon as I got in (like 10 minutes after doors) no USBs or anything. After that I checked out the merch table and they only had stuff from the website. I got to FYF pretty late in the day the merch booth was pretty well cleaned, they said everything was available on the site I got the impression there was no exclusive show specific merch but if there was they were long gone.
Hope this helps if anyone wants better pictures of the pick let me know and I take a better one after work but it's just a white pick with a NIN logo and the pick company's name below it.

[DRanged691]

I remember, during Year Zero, that there was a clue on anotherversionofthetruth.com/0/merry as to how to move to the next page but after about 5 minutes of people not getting it the site code was changed just a little in order to push people in the right direction. (And yes, it really was within a matter of minutes). I'm fairly certain that, at this point, if there was actually an ARG (which I still don't think there is) people in charge would have realized that some (a fair amount of?) fans would lose interest and stop looking by now. I'd be shocked if they saw everyone struggling this much for this long and continued to not give a little bit of a hand.

We have to remember that this is a long game. Information will likely be withheld until the 3rd EP drops.

[mewsick]

Loving all the theories here, you are all great ! But after all the recent interviews i think maybe its a lot less complicated than many would hope. I mean he literally talked about how the YZ ARG may have been a mistake, overshadowing the actual music. He's talked about the obsessives being disappointed, if they actually knew. And I recall in one interview something that particular struck me was He spoke about how his process has changed, saying something like "oh ok , the end of TBW sounds cool, good, done, lets move on". Of course the are some obvious, and less obvious references to previous albums, But i think since HM the music has been about reflecting on the past and who he use to be , rather than who he is today (nobody wants a nin album about how amazing life is, having a family, etc). I just get the impression he doesn't have the time nor the desire to carry out some big complex thing again. If there is something, all the clues we need are there, could be as simple as the info already discovered. I might be wrong though, thanks again to everyone digging, it is fun to read .

[grime_z]

Just so everybody stops obsessing about them, they have had those same guitar picks for years now. I have a few from when I worked the O2 show in london which was in 2014

[Warped_Savant]

Just so everybody stops obsessing about them, they have had those same guitar picks for years now. I have a few from when I worked the O2 show in london which was in 2014

OMG! They've been planning this for 3 years!!ELEVEN!!11!!!!ONE!!

[Dryalex12]

I think I'm on to something.........

[AndItKeepsRepeating]

[Elrickooo]

I like to quietly follow the ARG stuff however most of the things that everyone does on here goes way over my head, some seriously smart people on here. Anyways I though I'd try contribute. I saw earlier everyone was speculating on the letter K that keeps appearing (album cover & Less than video) do you think there is any significance on it being the 11th letter and The Background World runs at 11:44, maybe someone can scan the audio around the 11th minute mark and see if anything crops up.

[cheddamash]

I like to quietly follow the ARG stuff however most of the things that everyone does on here goes way over my head, some seriously smart people on here. Anyways I though I'd try contribute. I saw earlier everyone was speculating on the letter K that keeps appearing (album cover & Less than video) do you think there is any significance on it being the 11th letter and The Background World runs at 11:44, maybe someone can scan the audio around the 11th minute mark and see if anything crops up.

I believe someone confirmed the floating Ks in the Less Than video are present in the IRL game. Seems like just a coincidence.

[Applous]

I was thinking the k could be relevant to the K for Kontrolle (control) from the MK ultra project?

[shagg_187]

Alright. Here's my opinion on what's happening.

There are two timelines. One timeline is YZ timeline. Second timeline is AV timeline.

In this alternate timeline, "Still" has been replaced with NTAE. Which is why the cover art is the same, and which is why it's called "Not The Actual Event", i.e. The album NTAE is not part of the original timeline.

AV replaces With Teeth.

EP # 3 replaces Year Zero.

The simulation machine changed a few variables and hit reset, resulting in an alternate timeline with alternate songs and scenarios.

In Timeline #1, Trent Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails.

In Timeline #2, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are the official members of Nine Inch Nails. Atticus Ross is the "anxiety" that's been added to the simulation.

[dvp]

In Timeline #1, Trent Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails.

In Timeline #2, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are the official members of Nine Inch Nails. Atticus Ross is the "anxiety" that's been added to the simulation.

Also in Timeline #2 it is called "The Nine Inch Nails"

[shagg_187]

Also in Timeline #2 it is called "The Nine Inch Nails"

Haha yes!!!

[Harry Seaward]

Has anybody pointed out the bits of Year Zero that align with the idea that it was all a simulation? Particularly the lyrics to Zero Sum, particularly "all we ever were, just zeros and ones."

[davefeeder]

I believe someone confirmed the floating Ks in the Less Than video are present in the IRL game. Seems like just a coincidence.

What if Trent got involved with the design of the game and got those Ks put in there!

I'm only half kidding, I think

EDIT:
https://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/2017/07/trent-reznor-polybius-music-video/
That article seems to confirm that my flight of fancy isn't true (in that Trent only contacted Llamasoft after Polybius was released, not before).

Ah well. That would have been quite some feat of planning.