This topic has 27 replies, 18 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 10 months ago by 
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We know that “TheController,” “TheVoyeur,” “Wiretrees,” and “LustAdder” were all registered before the site went live. But it does look like there are others that walk among us as potential plants.
I don’t want to start a witch hunt or call out those who may be actual people. But I would just like to point out that we should keep an eye on people. Especially ones with interesting names who change their pictures to generic masks or symbols.
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@astro4545, I figured some of us would want to “play a character” and use a mysterious avatar just to mess with people. I can definitely see us getting worked up over that.
Plus, I can see there being some very obvious “others,” but the ones we’ll really have to worry about are the ones we don’t even see coming.
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@taysavestheday I’m certainly guilty of that. Sorry! (Not sorry >:)
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@shinobi, just as long as you rescue Sadie this round–all is forgiven!
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@taysavestheday Fourth time’s a charm, right?
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Of course you’d be the one to make this topic @taysavestheday
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You know, play however you want obviously, but I’m not a big fan of playing “characters” in any sense, and the spirit of ARGs (at least in the before times) was not to have players be characters but to be themselves. It’s not LARPing. And…honestly, if we’re not all on board with the same social contract of play it leads to confusion and worse. Obviously I’m a cranky 40 year old college professor with a stick up my ass whose main friends are all cats, so, what do I know. 🙂
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@coryphella – PLEASE make an immersive show based on this
Obviously I’m a cranky 40 year old college professor with a stick up my ass whose main friends are all cats, so, what do I know.
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@mike – I did, it’s called being married to me, and its sole audience member tried *really* hard to permanently escape it last fall. 😉
I think the immersive I’m working on for the Edinburgh Fringe has greater artistic merits.
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@coryphella, I will agree fully that by being/playing yourself, you get the most out of an experience. Most of the immersive theater events that make you be yourself focus on self reflection, empowerment, and growth. And those are the experiences I have come out of feeling rewarded or that I can make a difference. They are incredible journeys that are often cathartic. Although that’s how I do things, I understand that’s not for everyone, and some people find it more comfortable to be someone else in an experience. Everyone has their own path and I’ll support anyone that wants to play.
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@taysavestheday – Actually, historically speaking immersive theatre in Los Angeles has differed significantly from examples in other places, so I could be speaking way out of turn from what is the norm there. But if you look at examples going all the way back to Dionysis in 69 or even more recently Adriene Howells, the goal has never been to ask the audience to be anything other than themselves. Anything that gives them an opportunity to play a role is a really recent construct, though again, LA seems to be centered more around “haunts,” and I don’t know very much about those. But people entering into something like Sleep No More and choosing to play a role has created significant problems there. Alternate Reality Games, when they began in 2001, were asking people to behave as themselves in another “reality.” As in, what would you do if these circumstances happened specifically to you. That has changed significantly since then. Like I said. All my friends are cats, so I wouldn’t listen to me either.
Many people choose to go through life playing someone other than themselves, and we all perform to some extent all day. The only thing I’m trying to say is that when we all make different choices like that, it can lead to confusion, and sometimes consequences. Part of the magic with things like this is that we *don’t* know what to do, and having to figure out the “how” of it – what is going on, WTF are we supposed to do, etc. – that’s the best part. We all know to call phone numbers and email addresses. Really, the directions on how to play should stop there. That goes for my big fat mouth too. I’m sure that the best parts of Lust will be when something happens that NONE of us know what to do with, and we will all have to figure out how to navigate something for the first time, together.
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@coryphella excellent and well thought out point, but I’d argue that the idea of “playing a role” was present even in the early days of ARGs (I don’t have the authority to speak on immersive theater so I’ll leave that to the experts *coughcoughSummoning @mike or @russell cough* ).
As far back as ILoveBees in 2004, people asked to (at least partially) play the role of UNSC personnel. After that the Repomen ARG had people playing the role of organ repomen, and even the more current Have You Seen Jake has been rewriting peoples’ histories in such a way that I’d consider everyone in there to be playing a form of a role (please don’t read too much into this, Jake lovers… I’m only hearing all of this second hand)
I absolutely agree with your last paragraph here in that the fun of this is that there are no rules or ways to proceed and finding our own paths is the very thing that makes ARGs and immersive theater fun to begin with. But I’d also argue that there’s a level of fun present in exploring what aspect of yourself would be interested in this world in the first place.
I’d argue that most of us were playing a role in Tension in that, if the events were real, we all would have run for the hills immediately instead of being inducted into a cult. Instead, we all played the roles of people who would stick with it, go deeper into this cult for one reason or another.
Some of us took that one step further and explored a more rebellious side or a more… let’s say cult-friendly side when in reality we wouldn’t be either and that added personality added to the experience overall even if it wasn’t fully genuine.
I don’t mean to say that everyone should play the role of someone they’re not or should always be 100% true to who they are, but the most fun I have in these experiences is being able to immerse myself in a sort of character that allows me to explore an aspect of myself that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to if I reacted to events “as myself” so to speak.
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@thegilded You make a nice point about buying into the greater illusion of whatever we choose to participate in when it comes to ARG or immersive events. What we would do in “real life” is different than what we choose to do in such invented environments. Yes, I believe we all played a role in The Tension Experience that was based on ourselves. I always did my best to respond with honesty and sincerity… that IS HOW I CHOSE to play the game. Others decided to stir the pot more deliberately. It is my personal belief that my biggest rewards (and my biggest disappointments) within Tension came from that personal level sincerity. Was I myself? Not entirely, but the emotions I expressed were genuine. I was NOT acting.
I agree with @coryphella that the idea of being asked or choosing to “play a role” (someone we are not) turns any scenario into a different event. Also, it makes that participant more of a wild card… not necessarily in a positive manner. I like to ponder Megan’s point of “what would you do if these circumstances happened specifically to you.” It’s a personal journey, after all.
As far as “rules” for the game, that’s a personal choice, as well. (I was told by one participant that their strategy for Tension was to become so annoying they would have to be given special attention and it seemed to backfire on them. Others chose to harass actual businesses and individuals who had nothing to do with the “in game” experience. Those are paths I would not choose for myself.) It goes along with other factors like the amount of time your life allows you to explore the world being created.
As corny as it sounds… I go back to the basic idea of treating others with respect. Even if an ARG / event asks you to participate in conflict, respect the event and those who have also chosen to participate.
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(I was told by one participant that their strategy for Tension was to become so annoying they would have to be given special attention and it seemed to backfire on them.)
Ah, yes. Nothing makes people want to do special things for you more than being an obnoxious little shit. How on earth could that possibly backfire?
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@thegilded – yeah, I really shouldn’t speak too broadly on ARGs tbh, I had *very* in depth experience with The Beast and then only observed the others – the performative roles in The Beast didn’t ask us to play characters, though, that’s the difference, same as with Tension – we were performing, but (many of us) were ourselves, just in extraordinary situations. Yeah, we wouldn’t have done what we did but we also knew that it was fiction. But, the conversation on ARGs mostly comes from one I’ve had elsewhere with other ARG-ers (creators not players). Again, things change, peoples’ styles of play change all the time, and just like Tension, The Beast was a brand new WTF IS THIS situation that no one had ever navigated. Having those two be my main ARG touchstones as a participant, I’m a big proponent of keeping people as in the dark as possible about *what to do* or *how to behave*, other than don’t be a dick.
I also come from a place of feeling *incapable* of playing a role, honestly. I have great difficulty pretending anything, and so you will never see me being anything other than Megan. I struggle just to try to accept the “extraordinary situation” in front of me as a “reality” at all.
I was told by one participant that their strategy for Tension was to become so annoying they would have to be given special attention and it seemed to backfire on them.
*bangs head repeatedly on desk*
I have so many, many things to say on this, but I won’t say them here. Can we stop trying to be a culture of people that needs special attention? It’s honestly destroyed the artistry in Sleep No More for me and many others.
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Though, also, @thegilded, I think “playing the role of UNSC personnel” as you did in Bees is different from “playing the role of sweet innocent virgin” or “playing the role of underhanded stabby-in-the-back guy.” You are still Sean, just Sean the UNSC guy.
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Guys… I’m a plant. This time it’s totally true.
BRING ON THE WITCH HUNT! YA’LL WERE STARTING TO LIKE ME AGAIN AND WE CAN’T HAVE THAT!
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@thebuz Nothing you ever say will make me believe that you are anything but an absolute sweetheart ? Plant or not…
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@blondie Well that won’t do. Must begin plotting. I got a villains complex to feed and protect!
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