There’s nothing like a well-made fake. And conspiracy theory blog MIR-12 is nothing like a well-made fake. Granted, the production values for the site, part of the viral campaign for an upcoming video game called Singularity, are very high. But that’s just the problem. If real conspiracy theorists had made it, the homepage logo wouldn’t be nearly as slick, nor would the conspiracy, which involves a Chernobyl-type accident at a top-secret Russian weapons facility, be so involved. Then again, the fact that we’re sitting here writing about the stupid thing probably means the advertisers are getting exactly the response they want.

To summarize the premise, MIR-12 is a global community that is pooling its resources to unravel a mystery about “something that happened in 1950s Soviet Russia.” Each day’s post adds a new clue about this something, in the form of a grainy black-and-white photo or a YouTube video with voice-encrypted narration. And for all you on-the-go conspiracy theorists, there's also a Twitter feed. Currently, the “agents” (a copy writer posing as a message board full of comments) are all abuzz over the death of fallen comrade Natasha Norvikov, a buxom beauty who died trying to stop a government scientist from... OK, we’re getting bored now.

And frankly, to say any more about the thing without receiving a check from the X-Box 360 people is beneath us. But we would like to answer one fictional commenter’s question about a detail from the introductory video, “What We Know.” Agent MIR-12_62284 asks: “Can anyone translate that sign on the beach?” With pleasure. The sign on the beach says: “Dangerb: Not allow. Limited area.” Oh well. It's a better effort than Jason Bourne's gibberish-filled Russian passport.

[Mir-12: Viral Marketing for Singularity?] [ARGNet]

Photo courtesy of Mir-12.com