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TIAG & TINAG
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AtionSong
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Joined: 29 Aug 2006
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 		 TIAG & TINAG
TIAG & TINAG are abbreviations for This Is A Game & This Is Not A Game, respectively.

They are used under the notion that most ARGs claim to be real events (not fictional). Originally from "The Beast", they emphasize and encourage players to treat the game as if it were acrtually happening, and the puppet masters treat it as such. This means that you will less often then not find a PM labeling their ARG as "fiction" (thought many exceptions exist).

Often times, if a player wants to talk about an out of game element (for example, what the Puppetmaster may be thinking), they may begin their spec with "TIAG". TINAG is just the opposite, and is used as a reminder that all events being discussed are "real".

PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 7:01 pm
Last edited by AtionSong on Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:11 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Phaedra
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Joined: 21 Sep 2004
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 		First, in all the ARGs I've played and lurked on, I've yet to see a post about the game as a game labeled "TIAG."

Unfiction is out-of-game. Therefore the default here is not to pretend to be "in-game" or "in-character" (although occasionally someone does).

Second, TINAG is a design philosophy, not a rule governing player discussion. There are no rules governing player discussion. That's one of the things that allows the design philosophy to work.

See Brooke Thompson's excellent elucidation of the aesthetic here, or Sean Stewart's essay on interactive fiction:

Sean Stewart wrote:
One of our key slogans for the Beast was, This is Not a Game. We wanted to write characters that were more like people than the characters in video games. We wanted the phone numbers in the game to work like real phone numbers; the emails to feel like real emails; the websites to present as real websites. This fetish for verité has real costs and consequences, and nobody has chafed under the restrictions more than us.


TINAG is about the game not admitting it's a game. It has nothing to do with how the players behave, because it is in place as a philosophy before the game even goes live, and will remain in place regardless of how the players react (even if it sometimes has to be compromised a bit purely because of logistics). It's not about player roleplaying. It's not about how players conduct discussion. It's not about how players label their posts.

It's not about the players at all, except in the sense of creating an experience that allows them to suspend their disbelief.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 8:24 pm
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AtionSong
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Joined: 29 Aug 2006
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Phaedra wrote:
First, in all the ARGs I've played and lurked on, I've yet to see a post about the game as a game labeled "TIAG."

Really? I often see people do posts such as:
Quote:

[TIAG] But why would the PM just send us around in a circle like this?[/TIAG]


Phaedra wrote:

Second, TINAG is a design philosophy, not a rule governing player discussion. There are no rules governing player discussion. That's one of the things that allows the design philosophy to work.


Point noted, and I'll add this to the above description.

PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:08 pm
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djsampson
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 		You probably would have been better off posting OOG or IG as a sticky.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:16 pm
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Phaedra
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 		Yeah, it still seems like you're really defining IG/OOG.
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:41 pm
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thebruce
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Joined: 16 Aug 2004
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Location: Kitchener, Ontario
AtionSong wrote:
I often see people do posts such as:
Quote:

[TIAG] But why would the PM just send us around in a circle like this?[/TIAG]

I've personally never seen that, but I think in this instance, you're more likely referring to the sometimes annoyingly over-used /meta 'tag'...

something more like
Quote:
{meta} But why would the PM just send us around in a circle like this? {/meta}

as in purposely stepping OOG (in relation to the context) to make a comment.
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:29 pm
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Mikeyj
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Joined: 18 Oct 2004
Posts: 1847
Location: London

 		It has come from the Perplex City threads...It appeared a while ago and seems to have got stuck into the vocab. Smile Not sure how, but might be an interesting philological study for someone. Personally I'm happy with TINAG and TIAG does seem redundant, but IG and OOG are used less often too. Intriguing Smile
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:40 pm
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HetMasteen
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Joined: 11 Jul 2007
Posts: 342
Location: In the Court of the Crimson King.

 		I'm seven months too late.
But, what the hell, I've got something to add.
One of the things that most attracted me to ARG's was the TINAG paradox. I love that both sides (players and PMs) know that this is a game, and make an unspoken pact of sorts to not talk about it.
TINAG is basically the first rule of ARGs. You do not talk about fight club.

The reason I see this as a paradox is that the necessity of reminding someone that this is not a game, in itself implies that it is, in fact, a game.
Hollywood screenwriters love to use TINAG in their movies as well (A high ranking officer yelling: "You think this is a game?!" into a telephone receiver). I doubt this scenario occurs often in real life. It seems to be necessary only in situations where the reality of events is vague or questionable to begin with - hence the paradox. If it was real, no one would need to say that it's real. But if someone says it's real, it makes it a game... kind of a catch-22 problem.

I find this to be a fascinating concept, and exploring it can help stretch the limits of ARGs (thinking along the lines of: "what other real-life events can we incorporate in this game?").
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PostPosted: Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:00 pm
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Caffiend
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Joined: 31 Oct 2008
Posts: 202
Location: Rockford, Illinois

 		Well then doesnt this all also correspond to us , the players, true secret desire, to in fact find one of these so called "GAMES", that in actuallity turns our to be "NOT A GAME".
In other words were hoping to find the one that is real, just a morbid thought, I mean I know I am hoping for the day one of these things does...

PostPosted: Sat Nov 01, 2008 4:27 am
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