[arg_discuss] Deception and what it means to be Real

[Brooke Thompson]

For those not as glued to unfiction and ARGN as I am, there's been an  
"interesting development": Martin Aggett is a fictional character who  
planted himself heavily into the ARG community - so heavily that the  
guy behind it began to have second thoughts and when he decided he  
wanted to attend ARGFest he figured that would be the point of no  
return.

However, before he came out, he had:
* participated in discussions and played games on unfiction
* helped with ARGdb
* gone behind the scenes with a grassroots team developing a game
* become friends with a number of people, beyond superficial game  
playing relationships
* written an article for ARGN

His account on unfiction was suspended and the last words on it were  
the author's apology: http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=27985

ARGN has weighed in as well: http://www.argn.com/2009/06/getting_played/

Some fascinating stuff there that leads to a whole host of interesting  
questions. Things like: Is this just the nature of Alternate Reality  
Gaming - should we expect these things to happen? Is it ok for people  
to feel deceived (and can that be done in a positive way)?  How do we  
make characters real? What are peoples reactions and what makes them  
different (level of interaction? type of interaction? etc)? If trust  
is shattered, can it be restored and what does that take? Can people  
be playing when they don't know that they are - is there a way to do  
this and bring people into a game? What are ways that puppetmasters  
can back up from a decision like this once it's been executed? What  
steps can individuals or communities take to avoid or recover from  
something like this? What actions can a game take to help the recovery  
(should it?)? (i've got dozens of these... I love this! Does that make  
me sick? demented? just plain evil?)



(d'oh! I seem to have failed to send a couple messages in a way that  
actually sent. If it winds up that these go through twice - double  
d'oh.)