Every COG Tells A Story

And my COG story begins on Monday, October 13th.

But, a little background first. I belong to the 2Old2Play Gears of War Clan, Art of War(http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php?name=Clans&clan=ARTofWAR). I joined AOW shortly after GOW I came out. Our clan is made up of some of the coolest gamers out there. We play GOW every Monday night (MNG) and usually several times a week. We talk smack, laugh and simply enjoy one of the best games to come out in a long time. Oh yeah, and we give each other tons of shite. In essence, we are a family, and we stick together, which will be obvious as our story unfolds.

So back to our story. On Monday, October 13th, my clanmate IsNotNull posted a thread in our Clan forum mentioning the Last Day Viral campaign that Epic is running to support the November 7th release of Gears of War II. For those of you unfamiliar with this campaign, Epic is placing 1000 heavy duty GOW COGs in various locations throughout the world and leaving hints in an number of online locales. To get updates on this campaign, check out Epic's GOW Community blog at http://gearsofwar.xbox.com/Templates/cmblog.aspx. After Null mentioned the campaign, I did a little investigating and learned that Epic's Community Manager, SixOkay was the ringleader of this program. SixOkay posts updates via Twitter, sometimes including GPS coordinates and other hints to where the latest COG has been hidden. As any true GOW fan would do, I signed up for an account on the Epic GOW web site and decided to keep an eye out for any COGs that might show up in Boston where I live.

Being busy with work, I would check the Epic web page now and again during breaks, but never thougth that a COG would show up in Boston. But, I was wrong. After a long day of meetings and office work, I came home on Wednesday, October 15th and plopped down at my computer to get caught up on what was going on in the world of AOW. I noticed some updates on the Last Day Campaign and clicked on the thread. I see that a COG has been dropped in Boston, and at Fenway Park, only two blocks away from my office! I begin to go into overdrive looking for intel on the location. I post for more info in the clan thread and head over to the Epic site to see what is up. After reading a few pages of posts, I realize (much to my dismay) that the COG has been found, much earlier in the day. I kick myself, thinking that this was my one chance to find a COG. I cringe to think that I was only two blocks away and oblivious to the prize that was minutes from my desk. Here is the COG as it was found: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixokay/2944815171/in/set-72157607834669563/

That day I signed up for a Twitter account and had SixOkay's posts forwarded to my cell phone. I swore that I would not miss another opportunity, if by some stroke of luck, another COG would be placed in Boston. I followed Epic's site religeously, refreshing way too often while in the office. I became obsessed with the search and followed other GOW fans as COGs appeared around the world.

Forward to October 20th, the call goes out that a COG has been placed in Berkley, and this time there is a clue to go along with the GPS Coords "They Marched into Sunlight". My clanmate Tank lives near there and was thinking about going on the hunt. But Tank had been foiled twice before in the Bay area and was hesitant to meet with disspapintment a third time. I had the day off and offered to provide beta to Tank as info came into the Epic web site. After some hesitation, Tank decided to go check it out, and after some work, Tank was the owner of his very own COG (see his story here: http://www.2old2play.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=49054.

Tank's Prize: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sixokay/2959330051/in/set-72157607834669563/

It was nice to be a part of the hunt, but I still wanted my own hunk of metal.

Fast forward to this morning, where my personal saga begins. I woke up at 4:30 am as I had to be at an event for work in New Bedford, at 7 am, which is about an hour south of Boston. We were scheduled for a long day as the event that we were working was scheduled to end at 6:00 pm. Around 4:00 pm, the event began to wind down and we decided to pack up early. I had another event to work at on Saturday and had to swing by our office in Hingham, MA on the way home to pick up some supplies for the following day. Hingham is out of the way, so I had to travel about an extra 30 minutes to get to that location. A few minutes after I arrived, my phone vibrated. I looked and there were three text messages in rapid succession, all GPS coordinates from SixOkay's Twitter. The strange thing was that all of the coords seemed to be in the same general area. I logged into my comp and went straight to google maps, figuring the West Coast was gettng more love. To my suprise the coordinates were in Boston! HOLY SHIT!

I printed one set of coordinates, logged out of my computer and hit the floor running, not even slowing as I ran past the printer to pick up the directions. I called Tank on my cell and told him I was on it and heading to my car. My fellow employees must have thought someone died as I bolted out of the store, to my car and sped away. I put my earphone in and called tank back, asking him where the three coordinates were located. The one set that I had printed out were on Commonwealth Ave, near Boston University. Not good, too many people with too much time on their hands in that area. Next set were near Hanover St. That sounded famililar, but I wasn't sure where that was. The third set were on Memorial Drive, near MIT, another bad location due to it's proximity to several colleges. I decide to go for the Hanover Street locaton and started peppering Tank with questions. He must have thought I was nuts. Here I am in rush hour traffice, driving a bright yellow Subaru Baja, weaving in an out of traffic while trying to read a road atlas to figure out where the hell Hanover St was. Finally I figured out that the coordinates were near an area call Government Center. Perfect location for a GOW drop. This place is like a huge concrete fortrees, wtih barriers and it's own subway station.

Government Center - Boston, MA

I told Tank I would call him back when I got close and hung up. The next 20 minutes seemed like an eternity. I kept thinking "what if someone beats me there?". My only hope was that anyone on the trail would hit the low hanging fruit near the schools as parking in downtown Boston can be a bitch. I thought I would never make it. But finally I saw the exit for Government Center and cut over, got off the exit and called Tank back. "Where on the street do the coordinates put the COG?" I asked him. He told me basically right in the middle of the street. So I looked for a place to pull over, but there was no streetside parking in that area. So I bange a hard right and luckily found a public parking lot. I pulled in, snagged my ticket, parked and was out of the car before the engine was all the way off. The coordinates were released at around 4:30 pm local time. It ws now 5:05 pm. Not sure if I made it in time, I went to the spot that Tank had pinpointed and called him back, cell phone on and head set in place. He said the coordinates landed right in the median, so that is where I started my search. The median had a long row of planter in sets of two, each with dirt but no plants.

Median at Coordinates

I started walking up and down the median, looking in each planter, digging in the shallow dirt and along the rail fence that split the walkway.NOTHING. After spending about 20 minutes casing out the entire median, Tank indicated that the coordinates plotted slightly to the south of the road, which is in the area of Government Center Proper, several acres of concrete, pillars and people. I started to look everywhere. I noticed a section of stairs that was blocked by concrete barricades similar to those in Gears of War used for cover. Ah Ha! I thought, this must be it!

Still, no luck. At that point, Tank is still on the phone with me and I am bugging out thinking I might loose this one. He told me to check out the Park on the North side of the road. Many of the COGs found up to this point were located in parks, so this seemed like a logical choice, so I headed to the park.

So I am looking around the park and there are all kinds of places to look. There are these tall glass monuments that you can walk through, lights burried in the ground, statues, bascially a million places to hide a COG. It is starting to get dark and people are milling about the park. I envision that everyone there is looking for "my" COG. I see a couple of college age guys who look like they are looking, so I walk up to them and ask "Are you looking for the COG?" The look at me like I am asking them to donate a kidney or something and then I clarify that I am looking for a Gears of War Cog. I explain the viral campaign and ask if they will help me. They start looking around and I begin to wonder if these are allies or competors. One guy finds one fake rock that was apparently used to house a light. The case is cracked open and he says that he thinks the COG might have been in there and that it is gone. My first thought "You took my precious!" all Gollum-like. Man, was I going off the deep end here. If one of those guys had showed me the COG, I might have tried to grab it and run. Not really, but it did cross my mind. So I keep looking and then I see this sign:

And I am like "Carmen? Carmine? Dude this HAS to be the spot!" Then I finally open my eyes and see this sign:

I think to myself "This has to be the location, Holocaust Memorial at Carmen Park? Come on!" You couldn't make this shit up! At this point, I relay my findings to Tank, who has been on the phone with me for almost 40 minutes at this point. I keep looking, even asking a few bums if they have seen the COG. When one says "Yeah, I saw that thing two months ago" I knew that I would get no help from them. But I offer them an unspecified amount of cash if they find the COG and keep looking. I start to get discouraged and tell Tank that I will call him if I find anything and ask him to let me know if someone posts that they have found the COG on the Epic site. This whole time, Tank is relaying the news of Avatrix's succes with the other two COGs and that Avatrix is heading my way to help in my search. Though I appreciate the offer of help, I really want to find this thing on my own, and not really knowing Avatryx at this time, I worry that he might be going for the Trifecta and that I could end up empty handed.

I keep looking and start to feel a little bad, runnning around this memorial for the dead as others are showing their respects. I decide that I will stay there and keep looking until I find the COG or learn that someone else has found it. Throughout the park there are these stone monuments with the names of the dead on them. Beside each monument is a stone bowl with numerous small rocks in each. People who visit the memorial take a rock out of the bowl and place in on the stone monuments in a sign of respect. So I decide to do just that, feeling that I should pay my respects given all the tresspassing that I have done. I start to walk around and look at the monument, really looking at it. I am still searching for the cog mind you, but I am also taking in this place that I never knew was even here, despite living just outside of Boston for over four years. I start to really admire this choice of location for the COG search, gaining a new level of respect for Six and his team as they create this parallel reality that we have all bought into. This place looks and feels as if it has been pulled right out of Sera itself. Right out of the Gears Universe.

I keep walking around, looking and thinking. By this time it is full on dark and I and wondering if I should go back to my car to get my headlamp to help in my search. I fear that as soon as I do this, someone will show up and find the COG, so I keep searching.

Then something catches my eye, a little glimmer in the lights that illuminate the park. I look and THIS is what I saw:

I could not believe it! I found it! I immediately called Tank to tell him the good news. A few minutes later I Twitter SixOkay with the news and Jedi with the CSID info from the tag. My heart is beating like I am on speed and I am feeling good. I tip my head to the monument one more time and head home, stopping to pick up some beer on the way home. Time: 8:05 PM.

Once home, I cleaned up my COG, placed in on an ArtOfWar Tshirt and took this picture to forward to SixOkay for his gallery:

This has been quite an experience and I wish to thank Tank for his support and SixOaky for putting together such an incredibly cool campaign.

And I would like to leave everyone with this image, set in stone at the Carmen Monument for Holocaust Victims. May we never truly allow our world to become like Sera.

And for Jedi Kez