[arg_discuss] TINAG and the curtain: necessary?

[Brian Clark]

Provocative declarations, Morbus. Mind if I poke at a few of them?

"It's important to note the difference between an "ARG to market" (such 
as I Love Bees for Halo 2, and numerous others), and one intended for 
something else. When your goal is to build a community then surprise 
them in the end with Ovaltine, mystery is just fine. When your goal is 
to sell product, build a brand, or come out Day 1 and say "we got 
prizes!", mystery can work against you: it creates suspicion that the 
prize isn't real, that your money could be wasted on irrelevant product, 
or that no one can be held accountable."

To be honest, Morbus, I'm not sure I follow your distinction. If your intent
is to sell a product and build a brand, isn't that exactly what "ARG to
market" is in your definition? Aren't those brands just as interested in
making sure that prizes aren't misperceived as fictional, or that the
consumer's money wouldn't be wasted on an irrelevant product, or that
consumers wouldn't feel no one is held accountable?

It seems like a false dichotomy you're setting up, one that suggests that
Microsoft, 42 Entertainment, Bungee, etc. didn't care about the same things
you say you care about (when they are brands and product developers just
like you, right?) Or worse, that they just don't care about those things?

"In conclusion: "I've become satisfied that both IG and OOG, both TINAG 
and TIAG, both story and discourse, are critical to an enjoyable 
experience; the mystery of "what's going on in this story?" is more 
important than "they mustn't find out this isn't real!""

I think you misunderstand how some puppetmasters use the curtain what TINAG
was meant to evoke in people. 

"They must not find out this isn't real" = hoax
"Let's not rub their face in the fact this isn't real" = curtain

In some ways, though, if you have to rely upon OOG mechanisms to explain
what you intend to do, or what an experience is, or what an experience meant
... it might be that there are more active IG mechanisms for accomplishing
the same thing. In fact, sometimes if you purposefully don't provide the OOG
mechanism it provides the incentive for the fans to build it themselves.

That said, in every project I've ever been involved in, the curtain is
constantly up for renegotiation. Eldritch Errors is making us rethink it a
lot because of a factor you don't even mention. The flip side of the curtain
is the orgy of the PM chat -- the lack of OOG information fuels the desire
for a lot of it all at the end. But if you have a serial, you don't ever
really have an end and have to rethink the "post-ARG OOG orgy" aspect of the
curtain's definition, an aspect that people rarely even discuss. 

PS: Ovaltine has always blown, decoder rings or not :)


Brian Clark
  Founder/CEO, GMD Studios (www.gmdstudios.com)
  bclark at gmdstudios.com