akasarah's blog

For my final project, I decided to further explore ARGs (more specifically lonelygirl15) and the “actors” within them, to help shape and support my theories about the switch that turns our worlds on and off. I used an MTV article about lonelygirl15 to help.

Whether created or pre-existing, a world is reality.

ARGs are thought of and created. To the creators, players, and puppets, it is a reality to them for some time. The creators put real time and effort into the lift-off of the game. Players invest time and energy into solving the puzzles. The puppets, or actors, are really being filmed and really doing their job. In one way, or another, it is reality to everyone. The story itself may be made up, but it is itself a part of reality. Are lies not a part of our daily life—our real life? New Media has basically forced me to take another look at what I consider reality, what I consider truth.  read more »

Our group Flotsam and Jetsam, was obviously heavily influenced by the ARG that we watched for a week. Kidnapping and YouTube videos (with questionable acting) are two similarities. We went with Disney to go along with our group name, but boy did we go crazy with Disney (Tink as well). The Myspace pages were created with our own accounts originally, but were switched over for more realistic purposes. And overall, in order for us to successfully pull off this ARG, we had to resort to tapping into the mind of a 14 year old girl. For some, more than others.

Alternate Reality, as a concept and for me, is lived every day. We all put ourselves in what is not really reality when we spread a rumor/tell a lie, and truly believe it. We believe that is the reality, when it's the opposite of really. But does the fact that we truly convince ourselves that that's the truth, mean it isn't reality? Is their really another reality, or is the alternate reality just a ring inside reality?  read more »

I was scrolling through the channels on the TV (I have yet to figure out where all the channels are), and I saw that MTV was doing a True Life episode on three avid Second Lifers.

http://remotecontrol.mtv.com/2008/05/29/mtvs-true-life-takes-a-look-at-s...

I have so many words swirling around in my head. And for what? To define ARG.

Honestly, I didn't know they existed until this class. I had never noticed that there were websites that were part of puzzles, part of ARGs that tons of people are adamant to solve. I had never played an interactive fiction before, but now I have the experience. What is there to do with that experience? It seems like the goal is to define an ARG and whether or not it's truly a false world, or not.

While reading TINAG, towards the beginning of the book, I read my favorite paragraph. It was talking about how the goal of an ARG is to take the game and immerse it in the player's world, not the other way around. This struck me. Can this truly be achieved? I have experienced immersion from films, books, video games, but I never thought they were actually a part of my world. And who's to judge what a true ARG is anyway? I think it's evident by the varying opinions of our class that we each have a different experience with a text we're reading or playing. Just because one person's reality collides with that of a game, doesn't mean the person next to them will have the same experience.  read more »

I'm just under half way through Cathy's Key, and I'm finding that I'm just not as intrigued. I definitely liked the break from the traditional English literature we read. In the sequel, Cathy is exploring some questions that I had in mind, and hopefully she'll answer them. I am eager for more information on the actual history of the Ancestors and where they all are and are up to now.

It kind of annoys me that Jewel stole her book; for some reason, people like her get under my skin. I can't even explain it.

But back to the ARG aspect: I'm finding that I want to interact with the websites less than before. I still do, but I typically put it off. I have less motivation. I suppose I was just put off last time by the advertising on the websites, and I was really hoping there would be clues. I am still using the bag-o-evidence, but there's not as much this time. It almost feels like the evidence is just filler with this sequel. I'm not finding this book to be a true ARG, but really an interactive fiction novel.

Although I didn't think every word of the story is poetic or substantial, like many would consider literature, I think the overall premise of the book is (excluding the advertisements). Considering this book can be considered literature, is highly disputable. But it has, in my mind, helped contribute to its own genre. It's a horror/mystery fiction, intertwined into our "real lives." There's something there. This genre can take a story about a subject as seemingly simple (or even irritating) as female teen angst, and make it more than that.

On a more experiential note, I thoroughly enjoyed the book precisely because of the mystery between the pages. I love reading a novel that I can't even fully make sense of in the end; I typically get the gist, but I want to know absolutely everything. With any typical novel, I love going back and trying to tie up the loose ends I couldn't make sense of. This book takes an extra step since much of the story is told through websites, phone calls, and the physical evidence. I do have to admit, I spent a while afterward trying to make sense out of the family tree.  read more »

My interactive project was in its roughest form for the peer review. In all honesty, it was horrible. I'm not so sure it isn't just as bad in the final result. Like I predicted, it's not so much of a game as just a story. Well, I'm not even sure it's much of a story either. In all honesty, it's just a mini-rant on love at first sight and maybe it will intrigue some thought on the belief that ignorance is bliss. I don't think I came to a conclusion in the game, and neither does my character really. It's curiosity that ends the game, but I'm not sure whether I wanted that to be a good or bad thing. I couldn't decide between death or victory. I didn't want to be totally pessimistic and have the only ending death. I just can't bring myself to believe that there are only two outcomes.

I'm sure this makes absolutely no sense to anyone just reading this; it barely makes sense to me. I've just found it hard to determine how confident I am in my project/creation, because I'm just too close to the project.

I played the Hall of the Fount of Artois, and I was pretty indifferent to the game. I could appreciate it for its story value, but the puzzles, not so much. It was a fairly long game of picking up items in order to pick up and use the next item. That was basically all the strategy--pretty straight forward. You see an item, pick it up. The directions were standard: north, south, east, west. The setting was in an old, dusty mansion (I think) of a family who has a cursed son. The purpose is for you (a wizard) to lift the curse off the son. You end up doing this by concocting and giving him a potion.  read more »

I'm finding Inform to be fairly simple at the start, but the more I delve into it, the harder it gets. I think it's still really interesting to see the insides of an interactive fiction, and I can't wait to get the final product of my own. I'm throwing around a few idea, trying to find the perfect one in which I can incorporate a virtual world into. I want to do something unique, but I find that my ideas are often generic. I'm hoping even as I go along with this inform project, my ideas will develop like they did with the Aleph project.  read more »

I have made a website before, along with many layouts for blogs. These two experiences required dabbling in some HTML. I had used basic templates for the layouts until I actually understood the code enough to where I could venture from the generic template. But the HTML coding was slightly different than typical HTML. I had also made programs in Visual Basic. So, coding itself is not foreign to me. But doing an entire website, no templates, nothing to go on, was a daunting task.  read more »

The movie Lawnmower Man was more entertaining than I expected it to be. Although the graphics weren't quite as sharp or realistic as those we have today, they didn't take away from the movie. In fact, it just added the character a 90s movie about VR would typically have.

I enjoyed the movie; however, I'm not enjoying the project. I have done a few websites before, but I have found out that HTML is something I don't like to mess with at all (just a personal preference). And when I ever really needed to use HTML, I just found a basic template to follow, and it made the whole process much simpler. But here it is again: start-from-scratch HTML.

When starting out this project, though, my mind just ran with it. I came up with tons of ideas for my layout as well as my character. I think I've stretched myself too far, and the HTML layout is what's going to have to suffer.

I'm hoping I'm not going to be disappointed by the fact I'm going to have to compensate for lack of time.

**Spoilers, although I'm sure everyone has gotten much farther than me.**

I'm losing patience quickly with Shrapnel, because I can't seem to get anywhere. I manage to go in circles no matter which direction I go into. My body count is up to 4; three are me and 1 is someone who killed me in the first place. This is much more difficult an IF than Shade was. There seems to be properly developed themes that it follows--like, gore and Civil war. (Who would imagine those would go hand-in-hand?) But I suppose since I haven't made it through the game, I don't really know where all of this is headed. I still want to know where that light comes from, but I can't get there by the stairs or even by scaling the house. I can't venture into the woods to find those voices again. I'm getting the eerie feeling this is all a memory, but is it his memory or his friend's?  read more »

I hadn't realized this but I have played a game similar to 'Shade.' It was a game I ran across during my many visits to bored.com my senior year. (At the moment, I can't find the name of the game or the location; bored.com refuses to cooperate.) I was stuck in a room with various furnishings, and my goal was to escape the room before the people outside the door found me/killed me/whatever was intended to happen. I remember being immensely frustrated with the game and getting absolutely nowhere within hours of playing.  read more »