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notes

Post-beast, several Cloudmakers banded together with the intent of throwing their own Alternate Reality Game. They gave themselves the code-name LockJaw, and ferretted themselves away cackling gleefully.

In November 2001, Wired News ran an article titled, "A Conspiracy of Conspiracy Gamers," which contained an interview with a lead member of the LockJaw team of puppetmasters. The article stated:

"Code-named Lockjaw and slated to launch in November, the game revolves around the secret activities of fictional company GanMed Biotechnical and its work toward developing a highly controversial genetic therapy to halt the aging process."

Alas, nothing further was found until February 2002, when y2kbozo triumphantly announced to the Cloudmakers list that the GanMed website had been activated. Thus, the game kicked off to the delight of hundreds, and spun a web of mystery and intrigue centered around the misadventures of an unfortunate young band of urban explorers and their encounters with a fictional genetic engineering company and its secret human trials performed on the unsuspecting inhabitants of a planned and manufactured fictional town called Moreland in West Virginia.

Lockjaw held true to the ideals of the Beast and was an exciting, superbly written interactive adventure for its players, who were even able to chat live with characters from the game during weekly Euchre games on Yahoo! while attempting to pass important information to an urban explorer who was unknowingly employed by the biotech company with the questionable ethics. The players brought about their own unexpected climactic "solution" to the campaign, by drafting and "filing" a class-action complaint against GanMed Biotechnical on behalf of the residents of Moreland.