"Murray's Missions" in MS Flight Simulator Might Fill in Some Gaps for the #ConformityGate ARG
[PSA: If you're finding that your #conformitygate searches are being driven by urgency or desire for relief (rather than for fun)? I suspect some people still in this game (myself included) might have some OCD tendencies and this whole stunt (if it is a stunt) was made without our well-being in mind. So, consider taking a lil break before giving this post your time & brain-space]
Notice that? The hidden message? ("HAWKINS NEEDS PILOTS. SEND HELP") I had this inkling that maybe the missions in Microsoft Flight Simulator might explain some of the weirdness I've seen others write about the Global Player's WSQK broadcasts (e.g., technical difficulties). So, I spent way too much time watching this play-through video on youtube to put together a doc with my notes and a transcript of the dialogue between Murray and the rest of his "team." Murray confirms that the message was intentional, early on, and that the Heli-Tours business "is a distraction for the feds." I spent enough time working on this doc, that now I think I need to unplug and focus on catching up on real-life responsibilities (and maybe touching some grass) instead of trying to decipher if/how this timeline might fit in with the in-show and/or real-life WSQK station outages & repairs. I do think I would've enjoyed looking over it, though, if someone else had already made a transcript from the game, though, so I wanted to share it here in case anyone would enjoy running with this torch (in whatever direction) for a bit.
Basically, there's a training exercise and 5 missions. Some of these seem to align with moments in ST5, and some don't explicitly connect. I think time-travel/time distortion might be at play (like, maybe we as the pilot have traveled back in time once entering Hawkins?). It seems to be interesting way the 4th wall is being broken, at least, if any of this plot is revealed to be canon at some point.
Either way, here's the basics of what happens:
Training: Pick up Murray's "guy," "Sparky" in a "Training Area" by Lake Jordan, and bring Sparky back to the smuggler team's camp
Mission 1: Murray's "delayed somewhere outside of town," so we have to drop off Turnbow Trap-sounding supplies (and a mysterious "folder full of crucial intel") at the Wheeler house
Mission 2: Uh oh - the WSQK antenna went "fully kaput," so we're flying to a warehouse (that looks like Brimborn Steelworks to me) to pick up a "frequency oscillator" and bring it to WSQK
Mission 3: Murray finally made it into Hawkins, but he got chased by military and now his truck's broken down near Palace Arcade. We have to pick up some heavy cargo (a "massive, high-powered coil") that's needed to repair the antenna. We never actually see Murray, though, and apparently he's actively being shot at wherever he is during this mission.
Mission 4: There's a female comms expert named Bernie that's the only one who can fix the radio, but she and her car got stranded when some "old rifts" that were previously closed have re-opened, surrounding her, so the team rescues her and brings her back to the radio.
Mission 5: Our guy, Sparky, was apparently at the junkyard (with the final fuse needed to repair WSQK), and then disappeared. Murray sends us to go find him, but you actually have to fly through a rift to pick him up from the UD-version of the junkyard and back again.
My doc has some highlights, additional notes, and links to things I think are interesting about the game (possible clues), if anyone's interested.
One thing that I think is interesting is that when I've read through Flight Sim people's reviews of this expansion, is that it's a big deal that this expansion is free. Sometimes there are free expansions, but it sounds pretty rare...almost like powers-that-be wanted more exposure to this.
If anyone accepts this mission - I'd be curious to hear if you develop any theories!
[Again - Take care of yourselves! I hate that I'm still thinking about this ARG so much, and while I think ConformityGate is a real thing, I also think that the stunt might be causing more harm than good for most.]
