[arg_discuss] TINAG, the Curtain, and the 4th Wall

[Andrea Phillips]

On 9/20/07, David Fono <fono at dgp.toronto.edu> wrote:

> Hey guys,

>

> I feel like it's my civic duty to point out that we should probably

> be using the term "fourth wall" in a lot of the places we're using

> "curtain."

>

> It's a bit of a tricky distinction, but it's pretty much the same one

> that Andrea astutely made between TINAG as immersion and TINAG as

> information hiding.  The fourth wall refers to the illusion by which

> the characters in a fiction appear to inhabit an actual world of

> their own -- to break the fourth wall is to make the audience realize

> they're observing actors in a crafted work. The curtain refers to

> something far more specific.


I disagree with what you say here. To me, the curtain is the barrier
between the audience and the storyteller/puppetmaster/dev team. The
fourth wall is the barrier between the audience and the characters.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall#Breaking_the_fourth_wall

In an ARG, there is no fourth wall to begin with; the characters
constantly interact with the audience.

--
Andrea Phillips
andrhia at gmail.com
Words * Marketing * Interaction