Even in these days of hyperconnectivity and free information at your fingertips, nothing works better than a riddle to captivate thousands of people. From the famous book MAZE to high-profile examples like Cicada 3301, the challenge can be far more tempting than it seems at first. Now it's the turn of Do Not Believe His Lies. The app has been in the App Store for almost a year, and after 38 phases, nobody has managed to decipher its complete content. Do you want to try it?
Some riddles are relatively easy to solve, while others demand an enormous amount of time, not to mention dedication. Personally, I no longer enjoy them as I used to: I guess I'm getting old, and patience erodes in the process. Still, it's very nice to see thousands of people enjoying the act of getting entangled, searching for clues, and studying images for hours, waiting for something new to appear before their eyes. As if that weren't enough, the magic of the web has enabled the possibility of solving riddles collaboratively. Some mysterious developers welcome this, while others canceled entire projects precisely for that reason. In Do Not Believe His Lies, its creator, Polish developer Lukasz Matablewski, prefers the former. The app is compatible with iOS devices, and although he is convinced that users will decipher all the content, he also believes they won't do it for the rest of the year.
Everything begins with a small hidden message on the screen, which is revealed when you raise the brightness on your smartphone or tablet. Then comes another message written in Morse code. So far so good, but then it combines fragmented and inverted images, file downloads, barcodes, audio samples, and a long etcetera. The original release date for Do Not Believe His Lies was July 10, 2014, so its players have been fighting its mysteries for more than eight months. After steady progress at the start, the more than 40,000 players who downloaded it remained stuck for five months at phase 38... but the solution came two days ago. What's next?
Apparently, everything seems to indicate that there will be a pause before the new phase. For those wondering how the game is financed, the answer is simple: each incorrect entry shows an ad. There's also the option to buy “hints” meant to guide the player without offering direct solutions, although the trend shows that most participants chose the scenic route instead of “pay to win”...
