A Hairy finish to worldwide web mission

Totally.

La Moustache Fausse - the task that made the news.

We hit the town once more, on a visit from our respective hometowns, and obviously because there was such a high level of SFZero-ness (as in, two players. It can just about cope with one inactive visiting player, but two active taskers?!) we subsequently hit the news. We'd intended to send a photo to the Banbury Cake, a newspaper known for publishing pretty much anything you send, but that wouldn't really be as awesome, would it?

So imagine our happiness when someone sent us a message (Through MySpace of all things) claiming to be from the Banbury Guardian (A paper known for being important) asking us for details. Well, we were very, very, sceptical.... this is what you have done to us! A mass completion of Induce Paranoia is due for you people!
However, after a large amount of research, we confirmed that the message was actually a genuine request from Richard Woodall, a genuine reporter who genuinely worked for the Banbury Guardian. There is of course still debate as to whether the Banbury Guardian counts as a genuine newspaper, since Banbury doesn't usually offer much news.
Still slightly sceptical, we contacted Richard:

"It would seem you are either an actual reporter, or a friend who has really done a lot of research.
Where are you getting your information, Mr. Woodall?"

He proved beyond all doubt, reasonable or otherwise, that he was indeed the person contacting us. Then, being a journalist and by nature nosey, he sent us a long list of question to answer:

"What's your name, age, and where do you come from?
Why do you do the moustache fitting'?
Have you done it before?
Who thought of it?
What did other people watching think?
Have you done it in other places?
Are you still in Banbury?
Where do you get the moustaches from and what are they made of?
How many places in Banbury did you stick them to?"

Tom sent back an even larger list of answers, trying to steer the angle of the article towards SF0 in general, rather than just our moustaches:

"I may be available on a phone by the end of the week, I believe I return home tomorrow. My co-conspirator has already returned, and may well be available.

You are welcome to use the photos on here, although there are more of them elsewhere, which I shall tell you about shortly. We would prefer it if you didn't use the photos in which we are present.

My name is Thomas, and my collaborator is Jowan. We're both currently 16, and we both originate from here in Banbury, although we both moved away several years ago. I now live in Great Yarmouth, and Jowan lives in Bournemouth. This was a lucky crossover of family visits, so we decided to meet.

The moustaches were added as part of the online collaboration game SFZero, based in San Francisco. The game involves tasks set my the administrators and players which participants go out into the real world and complete, posting proof on the site for points, so as to rise up the leaderboard. The better a task is completed, the more people will vote for it, the more points it will receive. Although this is said to be the aim of the game, the community places far more emphasis on 'epic' completions, than those with many points. We've contacted the creators of the game for a better description, and we'll make sure to send that on.

We've both played SFØ for a while, I have been playing for just over a year and Jowan has been playing since February this year. We've both completed many tasks, however so far only Great Yarmouth has spawned a large team of collaborators, so Jowan has had to task alone up 'till now. We've not done this specific task before, but we've done many other things. This is the first task completed here in Banbury.

The person who thought of it was another player going by the name of Lank, who is currently in San Francisco. The text of the task submitted reads:

Tasks / La Moustache Fausse

Execute an epic addition of a false moustache to a publicly-viewable image (or multiple publicly-viewable images) over which you do not have original creative control.

It is worth 75 base points, plus 5 points for every vote. The player limits are a maximum of 100, minimum of 1 and it is part of the SNIDE (Society For Nihilistic Intent And Disruptive Efforts) group of SFZero.

Whilst we were applying the moustahces, we didn't get much reaction. It seems if you look like art students, no-one will think twice about what you happen to be doing. Whilst passing back later after the additions, we did see someone chuckling and taking a photo. Apart from that, we don't really know what the reaction is.

Like I say, we haven't done this particular task before, although it has been done by other people elsewhere. If you go to the following URL you will see the other completions of this task, and you will find the page with ours, with more photographs.

http://sf0.org/tasks/La-Moustache-Fausse/

I am still in Banbury, Jowan has since returned to Bournemouth.

The moustaches were simply made from cardboard and string, and stuck on with white tack, we've very high-tech you see.

The places which received moustaches in Banbury are... The White Lady, The statues outside the music shop on the high street, 2 smiling workers on the window of a wine warehouse (still there as of yesterday afternoon) and an advertisement on the back of a bus. Photos of all of these can be found on the SFZero website."

After this, Jowan wrote to the three creators to get a quote. We weren't sure exactly what we needed, but got a good response from Sean:

"SFZero is a 'collaborative production game'. Players build characters and gain points by completing real-world tasks created by their peers. The goals of play include meeting new people, exploring the city, and participating in non-consumer leisure activities. Though initially focused on the San Francisco Bay Area, SFZero has expanded to include player communities from across the United States and around the world, from Los Angeles to Chicago, Mexico City to London. SFZero's unique player community and mission-based gaming mechanism have attracted attention from media outlets such as SF Weekly, London's Metro, Rhizome News, Current TV, and CNET, as well as from gaming scholars such as Greg Niemeyer and Jane McGonigal."

Then, phone calls happened!



And thus, we bring to you....



And it seems to have recruited at least one player, may I present proof of this.