Terminator Salvation – Play on Twitter

Hollywood movies are known for their high-tech special effects, especially SF blockbusters like the Terminator series. So it’s something of a surprise to learn that Terminator Salvation is turning to a text based service such as Twitter.

No, you won’t be able to download or watch the movie through Twitter, however you will be able to feel part of the film by “joining the resistance”. Sony is about to launch a twitter based game called Resistance 2018. According to the official website:

Members of the human resistance are communicating with each other through Twitter. The Resistance is able to “intercept” Skynet communications, but they are decoded, incomplete or unanswered. The Resistance is turning to the Resistance2018 community to help complete these intercepts and broadcast messages in support of the cause.

What this means in practice is that players follow @resistance2018 and receive “assignments”. These will be Terminator themed puzzles such as trivia and anagrams. Mixed in with these will be status updates and Skynet warnings to give the players clues and a sense of atmosphere. Players then reply using a hashtag and points are won and lost. It sounds great fun, I just hope it doesn’t overload the Twitter servers.

After all these years it’s good to see what is effectively text based interactive fiction (IF) back in the mainstream!