Sci-fi Mystery Thriller: Reading the SIGNALs of the Cosmos
Truly pushing the boundaries of art, puzzles, and technology, Signal is one of the most interesting and innovative projects in the Cosmos ecosystem. Essentially, community members set about unraveling a series of unusual and time-staggered clues to work out the mystery at the heart of the game, learning and earning as they do so.
The massive open puzzle is appropriately cosmos-themed as many of the clues pertaining to outer space, extraterrestrial activity, fundamental physics, chemistry, and other strange phenomena, with anyone able to participate in cracking the code. Even those less technically capable can watch the steady process of deciphering and offer possible insights into what the clues may mean.
Art + Technology + Mystery
Much of the value of art is in its interpretation by the individual. Be it classic literature, a touching love song, impressive architecture, an elegant necklace, a beautiful garden, or a cleverly-designed game, appreciating art is an experience. The anonymous team behind Signal clearly understands this concept of art as being something to experience and has created something truly unique for people to feel, think about, and contribute towards. Signal leverages cutting-edge technology to capture something so unexpected and yet very real: Deep mystery.
It seems that in a world flooded with information and explanations about anything imaginable, much of the mystery and intrigue has been lost. For some artists, harnessing this human emotion of interest in secrecy has led to their ascension to legendary status. The infamous Banksy has been evading authorities for decades, inspiring a generation of underground graffiti artists to use their art as a means to critique modern society and governments. Banksy’s mysterious identity is at the heart of their art, choosing anonymity in order to preserve an authentic and uncensorable voice.
Also choosing anonymity, NFT artist Pak is one of the biggest and most innovative creatives in the NFT space. As many have noted, their identity is part of the art — mysterious. Pak is known for pushing the frontier of art as an experience, leveraging feelings of anticipation and the thrill of winning and losing money as a way to engage followers in the process of discovery and creation. Pak is also known for bringing minimalism and simplicity to their artwork, forcing individuals to seek their own interpretation of its meaning.
Actual Engagement
‘Engagement’ in crypto circles has become a meme. In most instances, what is often meant by ‘engagement’ is just spam, fake metrics, and noise. Retweeting and tagging random people in exchange for being placed on a whitelist is not actual engagement; it’s a ploy to garner more exposure — very different. Similarly, receiving hundreds of messages a day asking for airdrops, token release dates, or complaining about token price is not a metric for measuring engagement.
To ‘engage’ in something is to be involved with it. For a community to be engaged, it needs to be focused. Focused on what? Not important, but it needs to be focused.
Engaged community members give thought to what they are doing, build real connections with other engaged members, and will remain active contributors for a time. Signal has mastered the process of fostering engagement by setting puzzles that require genuine teamwork between complete strangers who make up the community. Due to the complex and mysterious nature of the game, no one person can solve it alone, and, in fact, it is actually more enjoyable for people to share in the process of unraveling the mystery as they gain reputation and can connect with other similar-minded people.
The team behind Signal also recognizes that timing is an important aspect of marketing and that instead of releasing the game all at once, where it may be solved in a number of days or weeks, the delayed release of clues allows more people to slowly gravitate towards the project. Newcomers can quickly pick up where the community is up to and be prepared for the next clue upon release. This leads to organic community growth and stickiness, the ideal combination for fostering genuine engagement.
Check out the latest clue: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6BNHODOTEqlEasyAy1fvnw
Website: https://www.signal.contact/
