Computer Database |
Rowan Stoll's Computer Database (otherwise referred to as the Project: Playtime ARG by countless fans) is an alternate reality game held by Mob Entertainment to tease the release of Project: Playtime and the contents featured in it.
Situated within an FTP server, it would be the player's goal to dig through Rowan Stoll's heavily restricted server to reveal the dark revelations happening behind the public's back. The ARG can be considered as non-canon, as these events don't seem to connect in the timeline itself (despite the contents being canon). The hunt had started when Mob Entertainment had revealed a code within the Project: Playtime reveal teaser, and since its release, multiple recordings and GIFs have been discovered. According to developer Micah Preciado, it had taken three months to set up and create the entire hunt.[1]
The ARG centered around the narrative of Rowan Stoll, a staff member at Playtime Co. who worked in the computer department. After mistakenly believing that Huggy Wuggy's Bigger Bodies' moving eyes resembled nanny cameras, he reported this to Leith Pierre. Upon discovering that Huggy Wuggy was a sentient figure and Playtime Co. utilized real humans as test subjects for the Bigger Bodies Initiative, Rowan vowed to leak all confidential files to the authorities. However, his actions would come too late as Boxy Boo, the first successful Bigger Bodies experiment and the primary antagonist marketed as the main antagonist for Project: Playtime, would lure Rowan and devour him alive.
History
Discovery
The original announcement for Project: Playtime had included a hidden message when brightening the image, which was later discovered to be the FTP address for the entire ARG. The hidden message in question was a series of numbers formatted similarly to an FTP server. This FTP server went as the following: 159.223.135.6. Unfortunately, as of today the address has been closed. However, during this time of discovery, theorists were still missing a username and a password, which was later discovered within a letter from one Rowan Stoll, sent to users who were apart of the Mob Entertainment Partner Program, along with a memorandum letter sent to the Playtime Co. Twitter afterwards to cover his tracks.
The username for the FTP server was indeed Rowan Stoll (stylized as Rowanstoll). This was discovered within the letter he had written to his mother sent out to Mob Partners. The password could be found by taking the first letter of every paragraph in the memorandum and putting it through ROT11. The password was "alea_iacta_est" translating from Latin into "the die is cast."
When entering the FTP server, all the files were (at the time) both locked and gated by a password. During this point, no more hints or teasers were released to assist the theorists in discovering the remaining files.
During this time, fans were skeptical regarding who had written the Employee Confidentiality Agreement, as the story was just beginning to unfold. However for those who speculated about this story, fans theorized that Stella Greyber, Rowan Stoll, or even an experiment such as Marie Payne were the author behind the letter. Other theorists believed that Rowan Stoll was actually far from good, and was yet another higher-up responsible for covering up any material that could result in a lawsuit to the Playtime Corporation name.
Recording 01 & Security Footage 01/02
A day after accessing Rowan Stoll's computer, a recording out of three recordings of him (listed as rec_01) and two extracted security systems (listed as sec_01 and sec_02) were unlocked, allowing for fans to start theorizing about what the password was. Unlike the remaining files listed on Rowan's computer, Recording 01 was the only file not accompanied by a password prompt. When viewing the video, a series of letters can be seen behind the reflection of Rowan's glasses. Combining all the letters together into one entire word reveals the code, "acequias", which translates to "justice, equity" in Latin.
The previous theories that Rowan Stoll was a higher-up for Playtime Co. had been debunked due to this video. Fans compared this recording to the Marcas Brickley Reprimanding, speculating that Rowan Stoll would later be fired from Playtime Co. due to his discovery of the "nanny cameras" hidden within Huggy Wuggy's eyes. What Rowan Stoll didn't know was the fact that Huggy Wuggy was a living organism, and customers feeling concerned that Huggy has been staring at them were indeed true.
Recording 02 & Security Footage 03
An image was posted on the Playtime Co. Twitter account featuring a vintage image captioned with, "Throwback to the Swinging Sixties". Although fans did not know at the time, this was one of the first teasers teasing the introduction of the savage Boxy Boo. Within the Poppy Playtime Discord server, the word "right" was constantly teased. After rotating the image 90° counterclockwise (right) and shortening the height of the image, a secret message showcasing the first and last initials of each higher-up alongside a date was revealed. "S.G. E.R. L.P. 05/28/91".
The Twitter accounts for the characters Stella Greyber, Eddie Ritterman, and Leith Pierre that were before simply being followed by the Playtime Co. Twitter account had been updated with brand new banners featuring a series of scattered numbers. Organizing these letters left to right out get the following string of numbers:
- 9-14-22-5-14-5-18-21-14-20
- 9-14-6-5-18-14-21-13
The final number can be found hidden on Stella Greyber's profile picture, as she was the only employee who didn't have a banner. The number in question was simply the number 1. These three numbers translated via an A1Z26 cipher in order of the initials seen on the Throwback image results in the code, "A_invenerunt_infernum", which translates to "They found it from Hell". Using the Latin phrase and the date seen on the Throwback image forms the code, "A_invenerunt_infernum_05/28/91". This code would be used to unlock Recording 02.
As Rowan Stoll backtracks his prior statements towards Leith Pierre in Rowan's second recording, a text-to-speech voice can be heard distantly in the background. If carefully dissected, the text-to-speech bot spells out "Birth_place_11/28/67". This was the password to unlock security_camera_03.
At the time, it was unknown why Rowan Stoll had all-of-a-suddenly backtracked on his findings. However with the knowledge fans had at the time, the leading theory was simply Rowan not wanting to be fired, caught accidentally looking at something he should not have seen, or trying to cover his tracks.
Playtime Co. Employee Guidelines and Rowan Stoll Twitter
On November 15, the Playtime Co. Twitter account posted a video, showcasing the Playtime Co. Employee Safety Rules VHS Tape. During the video, each listed rule was succeeded by a letter, and all of these letters together make the code "bcaebbefgd", Searching this series of letters together on Twitter will lead you to Rowan Stoll's Twitter account. At the time, the account contained only one tweet with one image - featuring an archived tweet dating back to 1988 regarding management hiring Rowan Stoll to fix Puzzle Pillars despite working in the computer department.
Private Documents, Recording 04, and Security 04
On November 18th, Playtime Co.'s Twitter account posted an image of the Playtime Express, accompanied with the text "All aboard the Playtime Express! The link playtime-co.com leads to an under-construction webpage which only bears an e-mail address, "support@playtime-co.com", which when attempting to email the support email, gave an official phone number for corporation. This phone number has text-to-speech voice claim that the entire factory is unavailable, and to stay on hold. While on hold, a piano tune plays.
During the same time these discoveries play, Rowan Stoll tweets a new post regarding fixing the phone line, and even added a small tune at the end. This tweet is meant to subtly hint that we must use the piano tune for a password. Converting the piano notes played into textual form, you will get the following: "DEADFACEAFACADE". Forming the term into actual words, adding underscores, and capitalizing the first letters, the term translated to "Dead_Face_a_Facade". This code, when entered, will allow access to the ZIP file "priv_doc01", under "private_documents". Included within is a poster for a new character, "Boxy Boo", equipment requests, a disciplinary notice for Patty Hall, and a board with multiple unreadable papers and supposed "Evidence" for an unknown event.
The Boxy Boo poster appears to a code scattered in a 5x5 grid pattern. Ordering each grid to spell out letters reveal the term "Mortem_Oppetere_07/15/1991". (Mortem Oppetere translates to "Desire death" in Latin.) Using this phrase as a passcode for "Rec_3" will open the Recording 03. At the beginning of the new tape, a strange, ear-grading static sound can be heard.
This clip can be decoded through a spectrogram (seen in the equipment requests image), and reads "diaboli_intra_buxum" not accompanied by any date. This translates to "devil inside the box" and unlocks the final security camera, along with a new image -- Boxy Boo's blueprints, which seem to have been torn so that the face is not visible. This final security camera depicts the Theater map.
Security 05 and Security 06
On November 22nd, Rowan Stoll's account in Playtime Co.'s FTP servers went offline, leaving bigger_bodies_initiative and employee_database inaccessible, forever lost. All accounts related to the ARG were heavily altered, replacing all of their banners, profiles, and avatars with some variation of "I SEE YOU". This was accompanied by the insignia of a flower with a singular eye that was visible in the Project: Playtime Cinematic Trailer.
Letters were hidden within the banners and avatars of each account as they tweeted an image saying "I SEE YOU" with broken morse code at the bottom. Putting all these images together with alternating Difference and Additive filters revealed the complete code hidden in the accounts. The tweets revealed morse translating to "caro est in aeternum", which translates to "the flesh is eternal". The banners and avatars together revealed the phrases "OVIHPKNABALZQZ" and "Play fair. Row: <- Column: ^, Filler: X. Innovation is key."
This is a Play Fair cipher, and its password was, indeed, INNOVATION. The cipher translated to "NOXFORGIVENESS". A new account was created within the FTP. It was later revealed that "no_forgiveness" is the username and "caro_est_in_aeternum" is the password. This entirely new FTP server had one singular file that reads "THIS_IS_WHAT_HAPPENS". These two files were not password-locked. and both files had shown the fate of Rowan Stoll.