[arg_discuss] Deception and what it means to be Real

[Brooke Thompson]

> Personally I don't like the trickery angle either. The thing is,  

> people

> really can suspend disbelief and care about characters they know  

> aren't

> real. Look at any movie/book with a big following. So the "Oh I am  

> one of

> you - psyche! I AM NOT REAL" bit just seems tacky. What I'd love to  

> see is

> someone do the same thing, but say outright that this character  

> isn't "real"

> Not on argnet, of course, or unfiction - but somewhere. Could you  

> introduce

> a completely (and obviously) fictional character into a community  

> and have

> them be accepted, then lead that community into a game?



Two recent examples of this would be PixelVixen707 for Personal  
Effects: Dark Art and the guy (Andrew?) from the BloodCopy blog for  
True Blood.

PixelVixen707: She's a game blogger who began working her way into the  
game blogging community and now also writes for suicide girls. Though,  
to be fair, though there's a "hosted provided by the people that  
created me" disclaimer on her site, it's not completely obvious that  
she is fiction and there was a bit of a hullaballoo when the game  
blogging community first realized that she wasn't "real". And while  
the person behind her states in the comments at ARGN that she now  
makes it clear by linking to articles about her fictional nature, a  
brief glance at her blog, her profile at suicide girls and her first  
few entries there don't reveal such links. However, there doesn't seem  
to be any issue with it in that community - and I'm fairly certain  
that the member (at least the active ones) are aware of it due to the  
press surrounding the book.

The thing is, she adds value to both communities. As I said elsewhere  
(oddly enough, just a couple days before I learned about Martin  
Aggett), "Any conversation about her fictional nature reverted back to  
that fact - if she's writing intelligent, thought-provoking and, for  
her audience, relevant material, doesn't that make her real? Or, at  
least, real enough? Should she have to write a disclaimer on her blog  
or attach it to each post that these well thought out and interesting  
posts on game design & theory are actually being written by a  
fictional character?"

PixelVixen707 links:
* Her Blog: http://www.pixelvixen707.com/
* Suicide Girls Profile: http://suicidegirls.com/members/PixelVixen707/
* Suicide Girls Column: http://suicidegirls.com/members/PixelVixen707/news/
* * (first article there): http://suicidegirls.com/news/geek/23677/Hit%20Play%20with%20PixelVixen707%20Velvet%20Assassin/
* Suicide Girls Blog: http://suicidegirls.com/members/PixelVixen707/blog/
* * (first post there): http://suicidegirls.com/members/PixelVixen707/2117085/
* Some initial reaction: http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brainy_gamer/2008/11/a-bit-thick.html

BloodCopy: This is a blog that writes things from a vampire's  
perspective. While the posts themselves don't always make that  
completely obvious, the majority of them do. And the site, that  
definitely does. Unlike PV707, you are very aware that you are in a  
fictional (and fantastical) universe. I mean, vampires just aren't  
real, so you're either dealing with a nutcase or a fictional character  
(or characters) - either way, you know something is up and to not get  
too close. The problem & controversy happened when the blog was  
"bought" by Gawker and, so, content from it was pushed onto other  
blogs in the network. People got upset, especially once they provoked,  
but the anger seemed misplaced as it came out as being angry at  
advertising when, I think, that was there way of saying "it's not  
addng value here." On it's own, the blood copy blog is fine and adds  
value to its readers. However, when that content is pushed onto  
another site, it districts users from what they went there for in the  
first place - it takes away value.

BloodCopy links:
* The blog: http://bloodcopy.com/
* The hullabaloo on io9: http://io9.com/5271559/vampires-are-not-real-and-blood-copy-is-not-a-real-blog