This prank is almost six years old, but we just heard about it and had to share it:
In 2002, Dylan Reiff and Joe Korsmo began tracking the internet activities of Kolin, aka V. Gnome, an 18-year old computer gamer. They monitored and recorded Kolin’s AOL instant messages and gathered information about his friends and family from other sources on the net. Blending this data with scenarios from videogames and sci-fi films, they developed a mythology in which Kolin is “singled out as the savior of the human race.” The story is told in Gem Missile: A Tribute to V. Gnome, a 40-page book that incorporates photographs of Kolin and excerpts from his personal correspondence. In August 2003, Reiff and Korsmo showed up on Kolin’s parent’s doorstep in Chicago. Reiff introduced himself as “Z. Figiam,” Kolin’s “mentor from the future,” presented him with the book, and left without further explanation.
The plot thickened several days later with Kolin posted a detailed description of the encounter to an on-line gaming forum, along with digital photos of every page in the book. Members of the forum quickly added their own theories and responses, which ranged from close readings of the text and speculations about the gender of its authors, to admissions of jealousy and accusations that Kolin had invented the story in order to get a high rating for his thread (which in a few weeks had received over 40,000 hits).
A year passed after this initial contact. In August 2004, Reiff and Korsmo mailed Kolin a package containing a photograph of their meeting a year earlier, along with a note, a certificate, and a plane ticket to Minneapolis. Kolin was met at the airport by a man in a beat up Lincoln Town Car who identified himself as “The Gatekeeper.” For two days, Kolin was lead around the city in search of robots, buried treasure and information needed to save the future. Reiff and Korsmo involved numerous actors and another on-line gamer who, equally baffled, was driven with Kolin to a forest and abandoned there. At some point, Kolin noticed that his new friend had mysteriously disappeared. “I stood there alone in the woods, in Minnesota, with a shovel and a large black locked box, more confused then I have ever been in my life.” Kolin survived the trip and posted a detailed account of his adventure, concluding, “it was a great experience, and I would not hesitate to save the future again, if the chance ever arose.”
It’s an epic tale and one best read from the perspective of Kolin, the “victim” of this awesome prank. It’s a long read, but it’s worth it: Future Shock: A Three Year Cross Country Adventure to Save the World (link is down – see archived version here.)
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Win story of epic proportions.
Definitley fake
Loved this! It took a while to get through the whole “story” but it was well worth the trouble.
Such an amazing trip into someone else’s imagination!
This is the biggest load of bullshit, the book was wrapped in newspaper, why wouldn’t you just look at the date on the newspaper, no retard from the furture is gonna wrap something in present day newsprint,
The details are way to perfect and predictable, there’s nothing true about this story
What a load of crap
i feel alot more like i do right now than i did before i got here…
THis is obviously a fake story.
Wow, that’s awesome!
I read the entire story on the “victim’s” webpage and I gotta say I believed it more when it was explained that the first visit wasn’t part of a 3 year plan but was supposed to end there. But other than that, amazing prank 3 years for it to be complete and since he played along so well I guess they were lucky in choosing their protagonist.
Kinda funny….but didn’t it get old? I don’t think I’d be dedicated enough to follow a prank for three years, and I kinda wonder about the prankster. Who has time to devote to someone they don’t even know, just because it might be funny?
Kolin’s a great sport – either that or just too stupid to be angry over it. He wasted three years of his life. Completely. While he could’ve been building a career, doing anything to contribute to society, he was following through on a prank. I feel sorry for him.
“He wasted three years of his life.”
Not at all. At worst, he lost a few days over those three years. He contributed in the meantime.
this is a great way to spend 4 years of your life.
“hey,im bored, what do u want to do today?(and 3 more years)”
“lets…..”
this is mean and scary these two should be brought up on charges.Its just wrong
I spent my afternoon on this incredible story… It’s all true, I checked & crossed facts (names, education, back link from serious sources etc.)
Here is the thing (it quite well sums up & answers the debate about how all of this worked so far)
From Kolin Pope, in the Questions section’s of Future Shock
“I’d get a restraining order if something like this happened to me. Why did you go along with it?
The first time Zane spoke to me at my door, telling me he was from the future, I knew that I had to play along. The guys orchestrating this, they somehow knew that I’d have the sense of humor to not see the entire scenario as a threat, and even play along and take part in it. The way I think of it is, how often do you get a chance to save the future? I basically had to.”
> If you engage people who are ready to be engaged, your stuff has infinitely more chance to work! (Give a microphone in a wedding party to someone who don’t like to sing and you will see if this person will play your game…)
mean people.
Obviously photoshopped…
Umm, wow… let’s see, for the two perps, one word….stalkers. For the “victim” ….naive. That’s if it’s true, if it’s not then I substitute the above words with the word “liars”. If this was really done for a college class then I pity our future world if this is what they are being taught, pulling three year pranks on someone because we haven’t anything better to do with our time. Frankly I think this whole thing smacks of “Blair Witchery” so to speak. I mean come on! Three fricking years just for a laugh?? Pa-lease.
Epic? LOL!
Can someone re-up the entire story, I missed it and can’t live without reading that !
So given that the original site is down I dug around for a bit, and it turns out that archive.org has the whole thing online (see here – http://web.archive.org/web/20051217074507/www.thefutureshock.com/index.html). I haven’t read it all yet but it makes for entertaining (if baffling) reading. I love this kind of Alternate Reality Game stuff though, the world would be better for more of this kind of thing going on.
Absolutely amazing, spectacular, mind-blowing read. So much time and effort and so much awesomeness.
You are all now part of another epic prank. HAR!
I just spent the last hour reading this story…and laughing. There’s no way those guys could have known how well Kolin would play along. He was so well chosen, it could only have been fate. Truly epic, and hilarious! Great read, and worth the time.