Many people have been following the exploits of four – well, two, now – intrepid individuals, running with their artiforgs from a bevy of body parts bounty men. Yes, they’re playing a real world, larger than life viral roleplaying game (VRG) based upon Eric Garcia’s amazing novel/movie, Repo Men. Universal teamed up with Wired Magazine and Lone Shark Games to present this amazing opportunity to  people to live the story. They cast four people as people who’d gone dangerously beyond late on their payments to The Union for their artificial organs (artiforgs) thus prompting The Union to bring in some extra Repo Men – everyone else who registered online – to hunt these four people across country and repo the overdue organs from the “soon-to-be dead” beats. Each day the runners must complete a task set forth by Groundswell; if they do not do the appointed task by the appointed time, then Groundswell releases information about their current location, and possibly other clues, to help the Repo Men find the runners. Two of the runners – Ciji and Usman – have been repo’d, but two more – Will and Alex – are still running, hoping to collect the $7500 bounty on each of their heads for themselves, if they can still outsmart the thousands of arm chair Repo Men hunting for them online and around the corner.

The Union Corporate Website – browse the catalog, consider employment opportunities, view testimonials from happy, healthy people living life to the fullest because THE UNION CARES

The Union is looking for a few good Repo Men – do you have the heart for the job?

Apply to The Union – Repo Men wanted!

The Fine Print – the rules of the game

The Runners – the tasks they do, and your chance to find them and repo the goods

The Scoop Behind the Hashtag: Decoding the #RepoMen Tweets – read this article, get the details and join the game before all four runners are repo’d

The Repo Men are Coming – the Official Website for the Movie – hits theatres 3/19/10 – read the Geek Speak Interview with Repo Men author/co writer of the screenplay, Eric Garcia

Lone Shark Games – the Gamers behind the game – find out more about this innovative company that has sparked such keen interest around the country in the last week of runners and Repo Men

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I was lucky enough to get a chance to talk to a couple of the runners, today, in addition to interviewing Teeuwynn Woodruff, the Creative Director for Lone Shark Games, about the game. I’ve also got leads on Alex and Ciji, so look for the women’s interviews, soon, here on GSB. As everyone is so very keen to glean any information they can about the runners, we’re doing things a bit out of order – linear thinking is over-rated, anyway – and presenting Will and Usman’s interviews, first. Below, you can read up on what Will had to say to me, then Usman.

I received a call earlier this evening, from a phone number I have sworn to take to my grave…or at least keep strictly confidential until after the game has run its course. Will, one of the two runners still running amok about the country, hiding from the Repo Men, answered a few questions for me while resting in an undisclosed location.

Justine: Will, thanks for calling me and taking time out of hiding to answer a few questions. I promise not to take too much of your time, and I won’t tell any secrets, unless you want me to, of course. How’s the running going? How do you feel about it, so far?

Will: Our plight is more noble than the people hunting us. We’re doing something special, and there’s only four of us. Well, two of us, now.

Justine: I’d heard that there are people scattered all over the country actively playing this game, while many others are watching avidly, even if they’re not chasing the prize.

Will: I heard the number participating is about 3000 people, maybe more.

Justine: We all know from your brief bio on the Union site that you come from a military background. What, if any of that, are you bringing to the game? Is it helping you stay ahead of the hunters?

Will: Yeah, I’m military trained. I trained to run clandestine missions, figure out the people who are pursuing us. I trained in camera surveillance and things like that, so when I look at city schematics, hotels, things like that, I look at the layouts and I think how I’d find me. Both times they’ve (Groundswell) released my coordinates I used that to help me. On March 10, they were released and I was in Dallas at that time. My task in Dallas was to eat at the same place – a street vendor – three times in the same day. I knew it would give more away than I wanted to complete the task and submit the picture. I made a conscious decision to avoid them because it was raining. In Dallas, there’s not a whole lot of street vendors so I decided early in the day I wouldn’t do the task. I used that to mislead the hunters. If you control what the people know about you, then you can control how they use it.

Justine: It sounds like some of this is pure skill, but there seems to be a good bit of blind luck in play, too. Do you have anything that comes to mind, so far, that worked more because of dumb luck?

Will: An example of blind luck versus skill – the first time GPS coordinates were released was in St. Lois. That’s the night I released all my army friends and friends in general to hit Twitter. Now, I didn’t tell them to take it down; they took initiative and basically shut down Twitter so I was able to use that and find out the hunters knew exactly where I was headed. I knew that wasn’t what I should do – where I should go – so I stopped the rental van I was in; I told the guy driving the van I was sick and he stopped. When he did, I told him I was being chased by people and then ran away and began walking. I ran into a couple police officers and they took a chance on me, and they gave me a ride across county lines, and I got help there, to keep going.

Justine: It seems that one of the interesting things I’m seeing is that in spite of the high tension potential of this game, and the clichéd expectations of cynicism from strangers about other strangers popping up, is a tendency to find, instead, some basically nice people who are willing to help. Definitely a “relying on the kindness of strangers” sort of thing, over and over.

Will: I’m getting a good real life “kindness of strangers” lesson. If you’re not someone who shudders at the idea of working with strangers, or relying on the kindness of strangers, it’s good and it’s been nice.

Justine: It struck me at one point that the lines between reality and the game, or Eric Garcia’s story, can easily blur, with our current economy and world stage tensions. How is that playing out for you, within the game?

Will: The lines of real and fake have been blurred for me. I can’t describe the situations right now, but it would’ve been embarrassing if I’d been caught the first day. They made a big deal out of my military training. But there was a point where I was compromised early in the game and it was very real and frightening. The lines were definitely blurred and my reaction was very real at the time.

Justine: Like I said earlier, I won’t publish anything you don’t clear, so you’re secrets are safe with me.

Will: I trust you, you seem nice and you work for the internet, so you must be honest. (Insert sarcastic tone and shared laughter, here)

Justine: That’s sort of the point of this, though, isn’t it? How much can you trust what you find online? How much of the contact that you have with others online is “real”, beyond the tweets, pixels and instant messages?

Will: The thing that excited me about this thing-it was reading Evan’s article. I saw a documentary called Mashup Manifesto. It basically opened my eyes to networking over the internet. Also, this networking during the game is kind of evil because people are trying to steal the money from me. That’s how I have to see it. But it means they have to work together to catch me. They have to build these networks. That’s really what I wanted to learn about, doing this.

Justine: Could be a scary use in the real word, when you think about unsavory types from criminals to terrorists using these skills. There is a very real scariness about that anonymous networking people can do online.

Will: Yeah, it can be scary. But you also have to go the other way, playing this game. I’ve been sort of helpless and I’ve had to rely on the real world networking while they’re doing it online. I feel like Jesse James.

Justine: So, did you have to leave anyone or anything behind to go on the run?

Will: I didn’t have much to leave. I came back from the army with what I thought was a pretty good resume, but I didn’t get a job ,so I didn’t have much to leave behind. I’m accustomed to living on meager means, I can do this. I’m a poor person but I’ve seen the world.

Justine: So, when you’re done with the game – and I am rooting for you and Alex, just like I was rooting for Ciji and Usman – what do you plan to do, next?

Will: Winning drives me, so hopefully I win, so I can get a nice suit, get a job, then go to China to teach English.

Justine: If you could say something to the Repo Men hunting for you, still, what would it be?

Will: To all the hunters out there, be nice, let me win. And have fun. Oh, I apologize for anything my buddies did to you. Enjoy yourselves.

***

Justine: Had you read Repossession Mambo, by Eric Garcia, before? Or did they send you the recovered edition with the Repo Men title to read before you began running?

Usman:  I didn’t read the book before, but I had heard of Repo! The Genetic Opera. But I’m not sure if that’s related. They showed us the first 20 minutes of the movie, to help acquaint us with the basic idea though.

Justine: Actually, Eric Garcia’s original short story, The Telltale Pancreas, dates back over 13 years, and predates everything. However, if you go back and look at time lines, the two stories do have an oddly coincidental timing thing going. Darren Smith and Terrance Zdunich wrote a 10 minute opera called “The Necro-merchant’s Debt,” per the Repo! Website. That was the genesis of the Repo! The Genetic Opera stage show, that later became the musical movie cult hit. Eric Garcia hasn’t seen, nor been part of, the Repo musical; likewise, Smith and Zdunich have not been involved with the Repo Men movie. Eric told me when we talked last week that he has no issue with the Repo! Folks, either. The “controversy” is largely in the minds of the media and rabid fans, apparently. (As an aside to my readers: I have much fondness for the musical; I own the movie and the soundtrack and have crushed on the Gravedigger while singing along at the top of my voice about Zydrate. I also have great love for Repo Men, the novel, and am keenly interested in seeing the movie. If by some stroke the Repo! Guys see this article, and want to talk about music, the effects of Zydrate when placed somewhere against your anatomy and scalpels, I’m game. Okay, back to the interview, already in progress.)

Usman:  That’s interesting. I can see how it could get people interested. With us, with the game, there’s a whole Internet of people looking for us. Just watching the game progress is pretty cool. Even now that I’m out of it, seeing what new twists and advancements are going on is interesting. I think Lone Shark is ahead of anyone with this game. I’m excited to be a part of it.

Justine: Where did you hear about this game? What peaked your interest and prompted you to run?

Usman:  I heard about it through Facebook. Saw Lone Shark say they were accepting applications. I remembered Evan Ratliff from Wired trying to disappear for 30 days and thought that it would be awesome to do something similar. A lot of people tend to not know where I am for long periods of time, so I tend to be alone for long periods of time. I traced everything to Evan’s actions; they trapped him via an app he’d added to Facebook. I’m technically savvy so I figured I wouldn’t fall for the same trap. In addition to seeing what would happen if you were starting over in someone else’s life, I was curious to see how I would be. See who I would be.

Justine: Did you do a lot of in depth planning or research?

Usman:  I improvised. I didn’t plan a whole lot out. I didn’t plan out my entire run. I thought it would be fun to see how I handled the tasks, being invisible and seeing how crowdsourcing works. DARPA did something similar. They had a few balloons they’d put out in public, but not published locations. The first person or group to find all the balloons were awarded money. A team from MIT won. They had people register and give them heads up when they found balloons around the country, and won the challenge. Something like this with people provides more challenge, since the balloons weren’t trying to hide, but we were actively hiding.

Justine: I love the idea of tracking balloons, but even more the idea of secretive, subversive balloons. I agree with you about the group mentality coming together over a commonality. I think it’s intriguing…

Usman: It taught me a lot of how I’d handle extreme situations. I had to get from one place to another with all these constraints. It’s a really well balanced game because hunters and runners have to keep track of each others and themselves. It was a critical thinking intensive game. It’s really testing how resourceful you are.

Justine: I can tell you’re in New York; the city sounds behind you, the sirens blaring. Sort of thing I imagine you’d have hidden, before you were repo’d.

Usman: Yes, that’s the sort of thing we were trying to use or hide.

Justine: How did people react to you when you asked for help?

Usman: I was amazed how many strangers helped me. I mean, I didn’t tell people hey, if you say these words and go to this site, you can repo me and win big money, but…

Justine: Yeah, that would be counterproductive.

Usman: I had a friend in New Mexico I hadn’t talked to or seen in a while. I called her up, saying I was in the neighborhood. At first she thought I was running from the police, but she believed me and offered to help. She and her friends were really into it. They helped me with one of my tasks – singing in the karaoke bar. She drove me over 6 hours to Phoenix and called a friend she hadn’t seen in a while to help me. That was a theme, too. Calling friends you hadn’t seen in a long time. Every time I traveled I’d stay with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while or a friend of a friend that they hadn’t seen in a while so a lot of people reconnected because of the game.

Justine: Since it’s a story that it is very dependent on technology, but has tones of “teching down” to remain below the radar, too, it’s Interesting how a lack of technology effected the course of your game, too, and how it brought people together in the real world, instead of just online.

Justine: Are you a gamer? If so, what do you play?

Usman: I like games I just never make time to play. I like something like Asteroids or Maelstrom – old arcade games. I also like the games that require you to find something. I was in an arcade the other day. I’m still hanging with Ciji right now, and she’s into Street Fighter right now, so I was playing that. I’m not a professional gamer, like her, but I did pretty good.

Justine: So, are you a scifi geek? What does a software consultant do when he’s not running from a massive corporation?

Usman: I have a ton of interests. I love reading scifi. I’ve gotten back into it, reading some of the classics. The Ender’s Game series, more William Gibson, stuff like that. Theatre is another one of my passions. Writing and performing. I’d done a lot of theatre in school, but since getting back to NY I hadn’t done much. I’ve been working and sucked up by everyday life. I want to do things that are more creative. There’s a lot of creativity in software development and thinking outside the box. Really trying something new.

Justine: I have a lot of friends in the computer industry, so I know all about not only thinking outside the box, but down the street and around the corner from the box in some cases. Thinking box free.

Usman: I did apply a lot of my technical knowledge and problem solving skills while I was running. Someone told me detectives say that they can make a lot of mistakes, but the criminal can only make one mistake. I made a lot of mistakes, actually, but if we learn from them, they’re still okay. Learning and being able to continue is more important and it would be boring otherwise.

Justine: What sort of preparation did you do? Was it difficult to walk away from your life for possibly a whole month? Pets? Family you had to run from, too?

Usman: For me it was pretty surreal. There wasn’t a whole lot I had to do. My sister lives near me but we were fine not seeing each other for a while. I let some friends know I’d be gone for a while, but I told people I’d be out of town. A few guessed what I’d be doing, but it wasn’t hard. No pets, and plants are still alive so it’s okay. My first thought was, “oh man, I left some dishes in the sink.” I had my laptop with me so I could work remotely, too.

Justine: Any intricate strategies, costumes, or just point yourself in a direction and go?

Usman: I’d wait till I got my task each day to get dressed. I’d pick something that would blend in and not look suspicious. To me, the least suspicious people are old people, so I wore khakis and a light blue shirt and a jacket of my grandfather’s. I went to store to buy baby powder, to age up my stubble, carried a bag, and moved slowly. I didn’t look like I was rushing around, trying to complete a task. I went to a Vietnamese restaurant and they gave me a bag that made me look like a delivery guy, so I kept the bag. I went around, went to Greyhound and stored luggage, then went back out and walked around as an old person. I was reading the book I had to buy for one of the tasks.

Justine: Neil Gaiman?

Usman: Yep. I bought the book at a store then went to a law library to read. I figured people wouldn’t have expected me to buy the book, just go to a library and borrow it.

Justine: I love Gaiman’s work. He’s a writing god. Which book did you choose?

Usman: I got Good Omens. I haven’t finished it yet but I’m loving it.

Justine: How did you end up pairing up with Ciji?

Usman: Early on it came up that we should team up because it would be better to conserve money and traveling as a pair would be less obvious. Everyone expects the runners to run alone. Both of us know different people and have different resources. One of Ciji’s friends helped us. Plus, two minds are better than one, and also we are two of the only people who are going with this, so we know the situation. Some of the time people think they get it, but they don’t completely get it; they don’t consider all the things we had to consider. It made it easier to know what to look for, and plan for the tasks. How we got caught was not directly related to being together. The thing that got us caught was we didn’t see they were actually targeting me. We didn’t see I was the one they’d leaked more info about that day. We only went to that rink because we didn’t know that.

Justine: I did love the story of the woman that did catch you guys, even though I was rooting for all of you the whole time.

Usman: I recognized her handle – Geneva Conventional – and her eyes, because she was one of the sharper hunters out there, very active online. It was cool she did the work online and on foot. There were two hunters outside, and they didn’t come inside. I’m glad she won but she does owe us dinner.

Justine: Dinner & drinks.

Justine: What was the worst part of your time running?

Usman: I had to be more cautious. It wasn’t like traveling. As a runner you’re not experiencing the cities you’re in. You have to find places based on your task or just running.

Justine: So what was the best?

Usman: Being able to do all of these tasks that take you out of your comfort zone or exploit your interests. The tasks were not completely random. They seemed to be based on what we put in our applications. I used my debit card to buy sweets a couple times, so they thought it meant I liked sweets, so they made me eat the largest ice cream cone I could find as a task. All because the hunters thought I had a sweet tooth. From my journey, hanging out with another runner through the last leg of it and getting from Florida all the way back to New York. We were going to go to Disney World, and we’re still going to go back. The people were the most fun part of it.