unforum

[Giskard]

[MageSteff]

[dmax]

[Alan Link Starfarbalwitz]

I'm new to ARGing, but seem to be getting that this one is playing differently than, apparently, most of the others. I get that one of the attractions of the genre is that it's sort of "gender bending" with reality, but where AWARE is going at this point, it feels like it's getting close to meltdown. It's an ironic situation, because without any center or stage to act from, there is definitely created a lot of confusion, which is interesting, it's just difficult to play a game in this way. Language, as an analogy, can be played with to show it's gaps and "constructed" quality, as with puns, but past a point, the whole think just falls apart. Games need boundaries and rules otherwise they become chaotic--nothing wrong with chaos, but it's not a game as I understand it.

If AWARE is supposed to do to ARGs what abstract modern art has done to criticism--ie, give it an example to write lots of intersting essays from, then that's pretty cool. But at the end of the day, I am more deeply moved by Van Gogh's "Sunflowers" than by a monochromatic canvas with a long explanation.

[dashcat]

Ya, what Alan said. And I loved your art analogy.

[Lysithea]

I suppose that now is as good a time as any for me to stop lurking and actually post something. Towards the end of last year I went hunting for online activities/communities, and I found unfiction.com. I almost signed up for Acheron, but four days later when I decided on the level of immersion, the acheron.us page had changed.
Basically I was very excited when I first heard about AWARE.

[flex12321]

and I'm new too. here's my story: when a friend told me about "the beast" I was very curious and started looking for ARGs. found ARGN, signed up for the newsletter, and joined this forum right after the newsletter announced that "AWARE goes live."

[yanka]

Given that I haven't been playing this game and that my understanding of what is happening here is very limited, let me apologize ahead of time if I'm speaking out of turn.

It seems to me that AWARE is following this type of scenario:
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in a game, which was advertised as a game, by a person that has made it known that he is making this game, it is revealed that previous claims are to be questioned, as, apparently, this is not a game. Conversely, players can become characters in the game, because - really - this is not a game.
----------------------

I think the scenario above is nothing short of superb, as far as the concept goes. I mean, isn't that the goal - to achieve such blurring of the borders between "game" and "rl" at which the player doubts the fact that he/she is playing a game? That's as "immersive" as it gets, it seems.

I do think the problem is execution:

[Giskard]

A very well put summary yanka. Having said that, I do not think it was ever the intention of those behind the curtain to have us turn against eachother, or to create distrust. unFiction has always been a very welcoming community and should stay that way and I do not think there was ever any intent to change that.

Some of the things that happened throughout the AWARE Pre-Game were, I think, pretty experimental though, and that only helped starting a discussion on where to draw the line. See also the drawing the line discussion in the META Discussion forum.

And on a sidenote, Lysithea and Flex, welcome to uF! Happy gaming! Or... well... this-is-not-a-gaming at least...

[Varin]

[Varin]

[gypsychk]

[Fi]

Yanka and Gypsy they are very good points. I wasn't seriously suggesting we formed a lynch mob, but just being frustrated that we weren't seeming to get anywhere! In retrospect, turning against the people who make the game what it is would be a very foolish thing to do indeed!