The internet is aflutter with rumours about a new alternate reality game that's said to be funded by McDonalds and - incongruously - the Olympic Games. The Lost Ring began last week, when certain gamers received a package in the post with a web address hidden in a ball of string.
From Wired:
The ARG is developing around five characters who wake up with amnesia in South Africa, England, Korea, Japan and Argentina. Each finds a tattoo on his or her arm reading, in the global Esperanto language, "find the lost ring."
Best thing the players have found to date, though, is the Terms of Use which links McDonalds with the game. And buried in the legalese is this marvellous definition of their aims:
"You agree to immerse yourself in solving a global mystery and help us in our mission to bring the world together through play."
All together now: "I'd like to teach the world to sing..."