Student Pays Off $25k College Bill from His "Find WMD" riddle book, Sends Solid Gold Trophy to George Bush and Releases "Find Osama Bin Laden" Follow-up

One year ago, Shane Messer released a WMD riddle book and global treasure hunt to pay for his college tuition and help teach others more about the facts on the Iraq war. Within a few days, buzz from the game spread around the world to and Messer had not only succeeded in paying for law school, but he had created a cult-like following of gamers as well. Now, his new Bin Laden follow-up treasure hunt points the focus to finger to Afghanistan and questions why we havent found the evasive Laden.

(PRWEB) November 16, 2004 -- One year ago, Shane Messer released a WMD riddle book and global treasure hunt to pay for his college tuition and help teach others more about the facts on the Iraq war. Within a few days, buzz from the game spread around the world to and Messer had not only succeeded in paying for law school, but he had created a cult-like following of gamers as well. Now, his new Bin Laden follow-up treasure hunt points the focus to finger to Afghanistan and questions why we havent found the evasive Laden.

The prize was grand: a $5,000 solid gold trophy, a barrel of oil, and a bag of cash. All a person had to do was comb through thousands of real life documents and piece together a devilishly difficult riddle centered around the real life hunt for weapons of mass destruction. Nine months, and a thousand gamers later, a winner emerged in Colorado--ironically, a democrat who decided to send the gold to Bush. The then-28 year old Messer had not only succeeded in paying off his entire law school bill, but he had created a cult-like following of gamers as well. Now, his new Bin Laden follow-up treasure hunt points the focus and the finger to Afghanistan and goes on to question why we havent found the evasive Bin Laden.

The new Bin Laden game focuses entirely on the country of Afghanistan and the terrorist himself. It has moved away from the thousands of real news articles and is only about 20 pages in length. The game consists of an agent letter", copy of an intercepted letter between Laden and one of his lieutenants, and various maps and country demographics.

The new game will prove a bit more difficult than the last one," Messer claims. The last game had a few complex riddles, but overall it was pretty easy. A few people have now solved both the complex and simple versions of the riddle book, and it took them only about 100 total hours of tinkering. This game is much, much more complicated and will require some serious thinking outside of the box to solve. In this game, you have to go as far as figuring out what you arent given in order to solve it."

When asked whether Messer had a political agenda, not really" he says. My position has always been that people should make their decisions based on what they know about the facts and not what they are led to believe by the media."

Messer accredits the games peculiar riddle patterns to his life as a venture capitalist. I spend 10 to 20 hours a month looking at new business ideas from friends and colleagues in addition to another 50 hours helping to constantly implement systems and processes in existing companies that I already have a vested interest in. The challenge is always the same: to find recurring patterns that squeeze out cash."

Information about the Bin Laden game can be located online at http://www.thebinladengame.com.

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