NEUROCRACY 2.049 by pyrofoux, Playthroughline

Have you ever lost yourself in a wiki rabbit hole? Imagine doing that for the Wikipedia of the year 2049. This is Neurocracy, an interactive narrative experience that offers an anthology of compelling sci-fi stories connected across an online encyclopedia. It is both a crowdsourced alternate reality game and an epistolary hypertext novel, opening with a high-profile assassination that you must investigate.

Visionary Sci-Fi #

Neurocracy builds a speculative world directly on top of our own, exploring the fascinating and terrifying car crash of technology and humanity. The diverse articles on Omnipedia depict an all-too-near future where networked brain implants are as commonplace as smartphones, and equally suited to mass surveillance. In this neurometric panopticon, your thoughts can betray you, but there are ways around that.

Wiki-Based Mystery #

****The story of Neurocracy is episodic and unfolds across ten consecutive days in the year 2049, starting on October 1st. Each episode represents a snapshot of a single day, with new articles added and existing ones updated to simulate bouts of frantic editing that reflect the global fallout of the assassination. Each article offers a unique narrative thread to follow, detailing a person, organisation, technology, or event relevant to the story and themes of Neurocracy.

Player Manipulation Interaction #

Neurocracy offers an array of tools and resources to empower your investigation: a community forum (shaped like Talk Pages) to discuss clues and theories, and a dynamic conspiracy board that draws information directly from Omnipedia. Using these tools enables you to leverage your collective imaginations and play an active role in building the world of Neurocracy.

Reception #

“Ambitious, confident writing | part experimental game, part murder-mystery novella, part postmodern exploration of how we take in stories”— The Guardian“A brilliant futurist mystery of truth and technology | absolutely confident in the richly detailed and subtle world they’re constructing”— Eurogamer“A compelling exercise in collaborative, online sleuthing | perfectly nails the feeling of losing yourself in a Wikipedia rabbit hole”— Waypoint“A multifaceted mystery that cries out for a Pepe Silvia conspiracy board | the project has cultivated a tight-knit community that eagerly shares theories”— The Verge****

Notes #

Neurocracy’s ten weekly episodes were first released in 2021 to critical acclaim. In the summer of 2023, we organised an updated ten-episode run with new stories and systems called 🌐 Neurocracy 2.049 🌐When you purchase a copy of Neurocracy 2.049, you’re getting an app that functions as both a custom interface to browse Omnipedia and a tool for making conspiracy boards. Omnipedia remains freely accessible as a website on any browser, but using the app enables you to directly feed all of Omnipedia’s content into your conspiracy board.
**Disclaimer: **the app is designed specifically to browse the Omnipedia website. We cannot guarantee its safety when using it to browse other sites!