Shepherd Company ARG - Electric Sheep on Steam!
I think the name is Roy (Batty) - name of the android/replicant played by Rutger Hauer in the 1982 film "Blade Runner".
ah yes, that seems to be a right path... in the third letter, three words are written spaced:
Great Scott -> favourite catchphrase of Emmett Brown in back to the Future
decked -> maybe relating to Rick Deckard, protagonist of Blade Runner
batty -> Roy Batty, another figure, as Amalfitano mentioned
now at least we have some names... 
EDIT: also "replicate" is mentioned... -> Replicants
EDIT2: Blade Runner was released 1982... "between Alien and 1984", like mentioned in the letter
EDIT3: Great Scott may also be a reference to Ridley Scott (director of Blade Runner)!! so all spaced written words relate to Blade Runner
EDIT4: Los Angeles also seems to be spaced written... it's the scene of Blade Runner... gues the case is clear here
Hmm, with this newfound discovery, I think I may have been mistaken, and the shepherds collective is a secret website to date unicorns.
Also, the movie is based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick.
damnit is it sheep or unicorns I aint dating no unicorn bunch of pricks if you ask me
another, somehow unrelated fact:
Adrian Shephard (with an a instead of an e) is the main character in the HalfLife expansion "Opposing Force" and also appears in Portal in two ways:
- Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device - ASHPD - Adrian Shephard, though this was coincidence as stated by the developers
- a keyboard with all letters of Adrian Shephard highlighted can be found in the game: A D E H I N P R S
from the letters, only N cannot be validly transformed by the circuit (guess it has no meaning though)
The Reply for asking, if his name was Roy (Batty):
- Code: Select all
My name isn't Roy, but here's some feedback:
Don't give up, you're on the right track!
just to confirm, i'll send an email asking if the motion picture is Blade Runner, even though we pretty much know it is.
give both the film and my name
(is he reading these forums? or is the fact he said "confirmation" and i said "confirm" just a coincidence? my email just asked if the motion picture was blade runner... actually never mind, of course he is reading this)
The "call me batty" line made me think of Blade Runner as well, nice to see the other connections you all made.
If you notice the end of the letter is worded a bit strangely. The first letter is the only one that matters? I take this to mean the first letter of the film's name. "B?"
I think his name may in fact be "Rob," he just wants us to get it without guessing.
The circuit must solve for "O" because that's the letter the shepherd's cane translates to.
ETA: I messaged him and got this returned.
It's a countdown. Looking into the spacing and capitalization of the message. I tried Baconian and binary to no avail.
Oh wow, Random, nice job putting it all together! I updated the OP with the latest info. I can't make heads or tails or the capitalization/spacing of the message. I wonder what's going to happen once the timer counts down to 0?