[arg_discuss] Deception and what it means to be Real

[Markus Montola]

Two more cents on this discussion, now that I finally catched up with 
the discussion.


I think it's interesting to see people trying to build a kind of an 
inverse magic circle here. ARGs span everywhere and play with deception 
and fabrication everywhere, but there is a problem if someone brings the 
deception on the home ground of the deception afficionados.

I mean -- is it morally and ethically acceptable to have a game 
character create a Facebook presence? As I have understood, that is 
against the TOS/EULA of Facebook. If yes, why are the Unfiction terms of 
service more significant? Why is Unfiction's "Forums are out of game -- 
no exceptions" any more forceful statement than "This is not a game"?

The Swedes at The Company P have the habit of occasionally being/playing 
game characters themselves. I mean, for example, that Martin Ericsson 
showed up in the final event of Sanningen om Marika *as himself*, except 
that like all the players, he was following the game's central theme 
"Play as if it was real". Besides, what's a "real persona" anyway in a 
nickname community? You can't base trust on realness, since realness 
does not exist.

This will happen again and again. It's the property of the medium. It 
may be considered bad puppetmastering, but if other venues can be 
appropriated, why not the behind-the-scenes as well?


My take is that I'm surprised that anyone in the ARG community is 
surprised: This is exactly the sort of internet literacy things I have 
thought ARGs would teach their players.


Nothing is real. Everything is real. You will never know, and still 
don't. It's all just words. Words are not just words.


Best,

  - Markus


Andrea Phillips kirjoitti:

> On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 4:04 PM, Brooke Thompson<brooke at giantmice.com> wrote:

>> 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

>>

> 

> Thanks for bringing this up, Brooke. I think Martin/Steve's biggest

> mistake was looking at Terms of Service and thinking, "Well, that

> doesn't apply to me." It's happened before, it'll happen again, and

> that's because there will always be people who think a rule wasn't

> mean for THEM.. But I wonder if something akin to this doesn't happen

> all the time. And I'm not even talking about in ARGs, either.

> 

> We live in a time when your public and online representation of

> yourself doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with who you are,

> really. On the internet, nobody knows you're a dog, right? We

> puppetmasters use this to our advantage, but so do regular people

> sometimes. There are the ones who post about dramatic breakups or fab

> parties that probably don't happen, to make their lives seem a little

> more exciting. There are the ones who deceive by omission: too painful

> to talk about getting divorced, so online I'll just stay married, you

> know?

> 

> So while this is a particularly gaudy example of that kind of thing...

> well... I guess I'm just philosophical about it. At the end of the

> day, the window dressing might have been a little different than it

> should have been, but the mind you were interacting with is the same.

> I can see why some people feel terribly betrayed, but at the end of

> the day... it is still the same guy.

> 

> Though as they say, I don't have a horse in this race, and it's

> probably easier to be philosophical about something when you're

> disengaged from it.

>