Edoc Laundry hits stores nationwide (and I’m assuming internationally as well).  Don’t have an EDOC Store near you listed on the site? Check the category  “Retail Therapy” for online retailers we’ve found.

“OH MY GOD PEOPLE ARE GETTING THEIR HANDS ON EDOC CLOTHING!” you scream. You might also be exclaiming “WELL CRAP! THERE ARE NO STORES NEARBY ME! And EDOC Laundry.com isn’t selling them online!¹ Why must I be so screwed?!”

Well fear not, fellow consumer. The word is out on the street and the calls of the internet are forcing us to find retailers with online as well as brick-and-mortar shops.

Of note, 80s Purple is selling 14 shirts of the EDOC line, and is shipping quickly within 2 days of purchase (WOW! Fast on the fix!).

Also, Evogear has a few of the EDOC shirts for sale, too (no report on their speedy shipping times though).

As more reports of online and retail sales roll in, we’ll keep updating.

(And yes, even the men’s tshirts run small. ² *Sigh* I’m starting a new campaign. I thought WHSC would be the big one of the game, but maybe BEN will be: BIGGER EDOC NOW!)

Also, there is now a Flickr group where you can show off how adorable you look in your edoc clothes.

1. Yet. “coming soon” taunts the cruel, cruel shopping cart. [↩]
2. The men’s polo shirts run even smaller. Just sayin’. [↩]

Since this little space on the internet has been getting a number of hits lately from Google (Hi! I Love You!), I thought I’d take this pause in the clothing solving to say, again, “HELLO!” and welcome to the fun that is EDOC Laundry and Alternate Reality Gaming.

As you may or may not be aware, the premise of EDOC Laundry revolves around clothing with a clue. Not smart clothing, per se, but clothing to make you feel smart. Each item of laundry is encoded with a secret message, that when plugged into the EDOC Laundry site, unlocks a video clip in the story of the demise of the rock band, Poor Richard.

Games like this are often referred to as Alternate Reality Gaming, which, were I to describe it,¹ is Interactive Fiction on crack. Hallmarks of ARG include collaborative solving, community discussion, and interaction with the story. Similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, the story is often told in nuggets and snippets that require you to put the story together and make a cohesive unit. Sometimes (Read: quite often) this requires you to collaborate with other people. Sometimes, the codes, clues and roadblocks put up in the middle of the story require you to puzzle, solve and work with other people to get the answer and move the game forward.

With that said, nothing on this guide would be possible were there not people out there solving the codes on the shirts and unlocking video clips (I myself SUCK at solving puzzles). So, thanks to everyone who’s been working on this already, and a pre-thanks to those of you just joining us in the experience.

This site will hopefully act as a guide, trail and possibly a form of Cliffs Notes for EDOC Laundry. To aid in the mission, there are pages for basic FAQ, a list of characters, information about EDOC found in the press, a page for a compilation of the story, random trivia about the game, ARGs and historical factoids, and a contact page where any and all are welcome to contact me (and the other authors) with any comments, suggestions, inquiries or basic “What the hell IS this all?” questions.

Also, I’d like to point out a couple of other resources available and linked from this site. Another group of players is working to create and maintain a wiki for EDOC, which contains clothing solves, copies of videos, archived information from the websites of the game, and other various information. If you’re interested in learning more about ARGs in general, ARGN is a news site dedicated to reporting on the genre and aims to inform about new games, exciting game moments, interesting gaming tidbits and reviews of games. Unfiction and the Unforums are dedicated to the player community of ARGs. The Unforums is the major site for discussion of games and is open to all (They also have a thread/forum for EDOC Laundry where you can meet up with other players and chat about the game). For more real-time interaction, I invite everyone to join your fellow players in IRC on chat-solutions.com in the channels #edoc and #unfiction.

That’s about it for now. Thanks for dropping by and sticking around

Now let’s get cracking on some clothing solves!

1. Which she just did. [↩]

Clothing stores in LA, Atlanta, Seattle, Davis (CA) and DC have reported EDOC Laundry on sale! Interested players have started purchasing shirts (Note: even for the men-folk, people are reporting that sizes run small) and adding to the collection of videos already unlocked.

Unfortunately, online sales appear to still be unavailable ( *mopey face* Not that *mopey face* is going to make those shirts bigger in size… *ponders breast reduction* ), and also lists Toronto, Canada as being in Alberta - a slight movement for the city from Ontario. We here hope that the Toronto-ans are enjoying the cooler weather and heavier accents.

Nonetheless, Hooray! (Also, Google has placed our charming little blog and guide at #5 for the search “Edoc laundry.” <3 all around.)

EDOCLaundry.com magcially works in FireFox! WOO REJOICE GEEK REPUBLIC! (though it still says “best in Microsoft IE”….)

I have some of the EDOC clothes. ¹

And oh, are they lovely. First, however, I should say that they are small. My EDOC size is two sizes larger than my Express, J. Crew, Limited, Nine West and Gap size², and a size larger than my Banana Republic. So if you buy clothes at any of those stores, for EDOC, estimate up.

With that out of the way, oh! are they fun.

The Bleeding Heart shirt, which I have in black, got me several compliments at the mall.

This picture really doesn’t do it justice. It’s cut in a way that’s really flattering, and the swaths of color make your waist look smaller.³ I kid you not.

Embroidered in the area with the drips, although you can’t see it in this pic, is a heart. Now here’s the thing. On the inside of the shirt is a gun. Shooting Morse code. Into the heart. Which then bleeds on the outside of the shirt. ⁴

The EDOC logo, on the sleeve, is also embroidered. That’s one of the nifty things about these clothes: the detaling.

I also have to mention the care tag. Because it made me giggle like a kindergarten girl. But I won’t spoil that little surprise for you. Just don’t forget to read it, if you buy any of the clothes.

I also got the Super Girl shirt, in gray. It is, unfortunately, still too bloody cold here⁵ for me to wear it, but hopefully soon. What looks, in this pic, like a sort of greenish brown pipe design going through the shirt is actually a lovely METAllic bronzy-copper on the real thing. This is also a very nice, flattering design, and it’s long. This is not a tank top that’s going to turn into a midriff-baring shirt on you. The katakana in the white areas are used phonetically to spell out English words.

Finally, I got the De-Flower shirt. Unfortunately, although its swing tag says it’s a medium, the internal tag says small, and it’s a wee bit tighter than I like to wear things.

However, it fit well enough that I could get some idea of how well I’d like it if it were a teensy bit bigger. Graphic-wise this is my favorite (although it doesn’t have the neat waist-enhancing optical illusion that the Bleeding Heart shirt creates). The shoulders (as indicated in the drawing) are slightly gathered. Very nice.

And get this. There are glow-in-the-dark letters on the cream-colored shape behind the flowers. Again with the giggling like a kindergartner.

My little clotheshorse heart overfloweth.

1. Don’t ask. [↩]
2. XS — I tell you this because it does seem like there’s less of a difference between an XS and a S than there is between a S and a M, so maybe as sizes get larger, so does the difference between them; maybe if you’re a L in Express, you might be an XL in EDOC, but I dunno. We’ll have to wait until more people in more sizes try the EDOC clothes to say for sure. [↩]
3. And seriously, when is that not a fun thing? [↩]
4. Am I just really easily amused, or is that tres cute? [↩]
5. We got SNOW FLURRIES on the FIRST DAY OF SPRING. Why does ANYONE LIVE HERE?! *sob* [↩]

Today two new clips were unlocked: SECRET IDENTITY and BETTER TO BURN OUT THAN TO FADE AWAY.

The plot, ahem, thickens¹.

BETTER TO BURN OUT…made us squee aloud, being the dorks that we are. It features the band going to Boston where they get a little annoyed with the owner of the club they played when he tries to stiff them. His name happens to be Charles Stamp. Get it? Like the Stamp Act? Oh, they slay me.

So Sam decides to protest. In the parking lot. He gets the other band members to join him in his Boston Rock Party (har de har har har) and they manage to sell lots of CDs in the process. Alas, there is no tea to be seen.

Surely the actual American revolution was never this fun².

Also, Lyn Saunders has a Secret Identity as…Lyn Folger, ready made for when she flees to another country to hide out from the cops. Maybe the information from previous versions of the site is extant.

At this point, we have lots of questions, but one burning one: Hey, wait a minute! Why is Poor Richard dead? Didn’t we WIN this war?

1. Like Yankee pudding. [↩]
2. How could it be?  They lacked flush toilets and glow-sticks!! [↩]

There are nine symbols that recur atop the quartered circle EDOC logo. Perhaps it’s coincidence, but it looks like there may be a pattern. More specifically, it looks as if each symbol may correspond to a character in the story. But this also might be quite a stretch.
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We just noticed that the little glowing sparklies on PRB.com move away from your mouse. If you’re really bored, you can try to herd them into a corner. It’s harder than it looks. I’m just sayin’.

Phaedra and SCRAPPY are bored and would like this game to launch now. We’re being forced to create posts on WHSC, footnote the hell out of stuff, and wonder what PHAEDRA will wear tonight while celebrating her birthday. And yet the shopping cart remains tantalizingly un-enabled.  *Vulcan Mind Meld* LAUNCH!