Above: Apparently this is not a photograph.Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?
Some excellent detective work by Simon Carless: It seems solid games blogger PixelVixen707 is a fictional construct, part of some ARG promoting something that has yet to be disclosed. If this is true, I have three reactions.
First, that's pretty awesome. Can't imagine the planning and dedication it takes to execute a stunt of this magnitude. I can't even successfully call out of work sick when I just want to sleep in.
Second, in the future I'll be sure to dig into the personal lives of any and all games writers for fear of this scenario happening again. Frankly, I never read the the post in question, "The Brink," because it started off with the sentence "I love my boyfriend" and then next thing I knew I was asleep with the keyboard imprinted in my face. I guess it turned into some kind of allegedly real-life survival horror scenario.
Last, whoever's actually been writing these posts about video games should keep doing it. They're good!
Update: Simon cracked the case. It's marketing for a book that comes out next year.
15 comments:
Son of a..
I just found that blog and really like it. I guess I can continue to like it, but now I'm disappointed that it's an elaborate ruse.
I participated in the ARG "The Beast" during high school, and it was an incredibly profound experience. I'm always delighted to see a promising ARG come along -- the stealthier and more convincing, the better!
I wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes - did they construct fake commenters as well? More fake bloggers!?
EVEN YOU COULD BE ONE, MITCH KRPATA!
/paranoia
Haha, I don't have any idea what you're talking about, Ben.
The human knows too much. He must be destroyed.
It's definitely impressive, but I can't help but feel duped. I didn't opt-in for this ARG :\
I agree that he/she should keep writing though, perhaps with a tad more honesty.
I'm curious as to whether the whole blog is the ARG -- her first posts are in January -- or if she (and whoever is running it) are just using the pre-existing blog as a vehicle for it.
I've been eagerly awaiting this post since your tweet this morning. After I read the GSW article I went and read all the New York Journal Ledger stuff, and will probably read the Brink sites tonight or tomorrow. I didn't notice the crappiness of the NYJL site (compared to a real newspaper) yesterday, as I was reading the links to it on my tiny phone screen, and figured it was just a mobile version... otherwise I might have caught on a tiny bit sooner.
This is the first time I've ever really participated in an ARG. I can't wait to see more stuff from it. The one thing I noticed is that one of the articles refers to April 21, 2004 as "five years ago", so presumably this is taking place in the future.
Anyone else found anything neat?
I guess partly it was easy to miss because I've been reading the site almost exclusively in Google Reader, which stripped out some of the context -- say, the blogroll which includes a prominent link to the "Alternate Reality Gaming Network."
What I really want to know is whether this invalidates several genuinely worthwhile blog posts.
Man, so many people are so upset by this. I don't get it.
I'm treading on literary theory here which I'm not qualified to debate, so maybe I can be enlightened, but...the author may be fake, but actual content is intelligent and informed. I don't see how that's something to be upset about.
And Chesh: the story is more focused on her boyfriend and what goes on at the institute; at most, it is a blog of one of the supporting characters, and the discussion there is what she was doing before her life got messed up.
I actually talked to Rachael's handler before this broke and the handler mentioned that they were struggling because they didn't want to say "HEY IT'S NOT REAL", yet the really blatant clues (which were there from the blog's first post, before any of us knew of her) didn't grab anyone's attention. Just goes to show how much blogs have become about being professional and no one gives a crap about the personal life details of strangers anymore, heh.
Upset isn't really the right word. Taken aback, I guess. I just have this feeling like somebody's been going through my stuff.
I feel duped.
Actually received an email following on from a comment I posted on the bettle post saying "thanks" for the support.
*le sigh*
Well, there's got to be someone writing the damned articles, even if a conglomeration and be damned if I don't want to see more of that writing!
SHIT! Should have picked it up. At the bottom of the email I received in response it reads:
~ email generously provided by the people who created me ~
I thought it meant her parents were paying her internet bill!
Etelmik: Yeah, the more I've found out about the actual ARG story, the less I've cared about it. Just give me more of that sweet PixelVixen707 word-love, please!
What an image!!
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