Timeline

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Italics denote a Joker-related aspect of the ARG.

2007

March

April

  • April 1, 2007 - A second batch of casting sides is found at Showfax, but their authenticity is questioned. One of the sides has a hidden message: "See you in December."

May

  • May 18, 2007 - An employee in a comic book store in Southern California reported that defaced Joker cards have appeared in the shop, with "I believe in Harvey Dent too! Hahahaha!" rubber-stamped all over them.
  • May 19, 2007 - Ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com is found, leading to the first game in the ARG. A defaced image of a Harvey Dent poster is shown, as well as a prompt asking people to submit their email addresses. After enough people register, the Dent poster is replaced with the first official picture of Heath Ledger as the Joker.
  • May 21, 2007 - Ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com is replaced with a "Page not found" error containing the hidden message "See you in December."

July

  • July 26, 2007 - At the San Diego Comic-Con, "Jokerized" $1 bills are found that lead to Whysoserious.com, a page advertising for jobs as Joker henchmen. The page includes coordinates to a location near the convention center and a countdown clock set to go off the next morning at 10am.
  • July 27, 2007 - Hundreds gather at the time and place listed on Whysoserious.com. At 10am, a phone number is written in the sky, launching the game. Collaborating with friends online, the assembled crowd (now wearing Joker face paint) is sent on a scavenger hunt throughout the city. After solving all the clues, a fan was selected to be abducted and killed in place of the Joker. The participants at San Diego were given clown masks as a reward, while online players were rewarded with the first teaser trailer for The Dark Knight.

October

  • October 31, 2007 - After watching the pumpkin rot (only on the left-hand side, a metaphor for Two-Face and a second reference to "The Long Halloween") and the candle burn out over the course of a few weeks, at the stroke of midnight Whysoserious.com updates with a workbench linked with 49 locations.

November

  • November 1, 2007 - The community uploaded images of 49 different letters onto the Whysoserious.com website, spelling out the message "The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules". Clicking on the solution played a clip of the Joker saying "Tonight, you're going to break your one rule," followed by a new image of the Joker.
    • Clicking on the image led to a new website, RorysDeathKiss.com, challenging participants to take photographs in clown make-up by major national landmarks in groups.
  • November 18, 2007 - At midnight, the end of the deadline for photo submissions, Rorysdeathkiss.com was updated with a new note indicating that all who had submitted a photo would receive something in the mail shortly after Thanksgiving.

December

  • December 4, 2007 - A carnival-themed scavenger hunt was revealed at Whysoserious.com/Steprightup, urging participants to pick up a package at 22 different addresses around the country. After location of the packages (which turned out to be cakes with cell phones inside), two rewards were found at Whysoserious.com/Steprightup/Pairofjokers: the teaser poster for The Dark Knight and a registration page for free IMAX movie tickets, for select participants to view the short prologue that will be attached to IMAX screenings of "I Am Legend."
    • A new email was also sent out from Wearetheanswer.org, essentially letting partipants know not to expect anything new from that side of the viral marketing until the New Year. A new audio file was also released on Gpdiad.com, featuring a confession from Jason McCree after the sting operation at Betty's House of Pies.
  • December 6 and 7, 2007 - Free screening dates for The Dark Knight's IMAX prologue, for registered participants as part of the their first "caper" with the Joker.
  • December 14, 2007 - Atasteforthetheatrical.com is found by decoding a message on a TDK poster. The site hints at the release of a new trailer.

2008

January

  • January 24, 2008 - 2 days after actor Heath Ledger's (The Joker) sudden passing, a small black ribbon is added to Whysoserious.com.
  • January 30, 2008 - The Joker cell phones from the cake hunt have their accounts renewed until March 29, 2008, indicating that the Joker games will continue sometime in the future.

February

  • February 29, 2008 - Ibelieveinharveydent.com is updated to allow participants to submit contact information, presumably as a starting point for a Harvey Dent-related game.

March

  • March 7, 2008 - Ibelieveinharveydent.com is changed to a campaign effort page. Participants are encouraged to print out and display/distribute flyers and submit photos/video of their efforts. Deadline for submission is March 26 at noon (presumably EST). Those who had submitted their phone numbers on the previous version of the site received a phone call from 000-000-0000, describing Harvey Dent's crusade and advertising the website.
  • March 19, 2008 - An update email is sent from the Dent campaign, acknowledging the police action toward the campaign stops.

April

  • April 4, 2008 - Gpdmcu.com, the website for the Gotham Police Major Crimes Unit, is now active.
  • April 28, 2008 - Whysoserious.com/Itsallpartoftheplan updates at 4, 5:40, 6:30 and 8:30 PM EST with instructions for the twelve events. On-site participants must search their surroundings for 3 2-digit numbers that can be used as a combination for an online safe. The safes contain information that leads them to a movie theater, where they are able to watch a new trailer for The Dark Knight. One person at each showing receives a vandalized film reel to share with the community. After all the events are complete, a secret code in the San Francisco safe led to the discovery of Whysoserious.com/Sittingducks. Finishing this carnival-style duck shooting game reveals Whysoserious.com/Happytrails, which promises to update on Sunday.

May

June

  • June 13, 2008 - Comcast subscribers are able to watch the first episode of Gotham Tonight. In it, host Mike Engel reveals that Harvey Dent has been elected District Attorney.

July

  • July 10, 2008 - The bomb on Whysoserious.com/Overture goes off, causing the Jokerization of every site in the game (except for the Joker's websites and Gothamhistorictrust.com). Simultaneously, the live feed is reactivated on Citizensforbatman.org, showing that the Batsignal is being reprojected on the Woolworth Building and Sears Tower; it then turns into a "Joker signal" a short time later. Solving a puzzle involving the vandalized sites leads to Whysoserious.com/Kickingandscreening and a reward of free tickets to a pre-release IMAX showing of The Dark Knight.
  • July 11, 2008 - Joker cell phone owners and players who used their phone numbers in the game receive a call from 000-000-0000. This call is mostly a mashup of other phone calls from the game, but features a new clip mentioning the Gotham National Bank.
  • Joker cell phone owners are contacted by hollywoodmoviemoney@yahoo.com amd receive free The Dark Knight tickets as a reward for their participation in the game.
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