Not a Game

[The23rdGod]

this is not a game, this is a tool.

games are only games when EVERYONE gets to play.

people are just being played.

This whole surge of interconnectivity that's been goin on w/ the interWEB for awhile now(you know, youTube, myspace, facebook, BS) has made me nervous from the get go. I mean, it all seems reasonably inevitable but that doesn't stop it from being atleast alittle scary.

I have an interest in the Occult and have for quite a while. So it REALLY piqued my interest when people started remarking about seeing Crowley's picture pop up. Things like this given soo much attention in the media just seems odd. Not the YouTube phenomena itself, just the fact that society's "REALITY" tv addiction is increasingly becomming an interest in the unreal.

BUT THIS IS ALL SO ONE SIDED. Sit here and plug away, be proud that they've made a reference to your post, but you're still intereacting with an artificial reality, and not even your own, someone else's. Someone who most likely is/will soon be, making money off of the time you spend stirring their sh it around on the net.

WHAT'S THE REAL AIM of ALL THIS?

it's not just entertainment, it's business and obviously research.

Sayyy, 8 years ago, would you have believed you'd be following a fake-doc-u-drama-serial-blog-whatever-the-eff-it-is, about a teenage girl with obscure bits and references to serious occult connections?

That you'd spend time analyzing encrypted bits of video as if it held some as yet, unknown meaning?

I never saw much wrong with enjoying the more interesting sides of our culture's entertainment. But that's when it was fiction, not fiction pretending to be reality.


just so artificial... am I the only one who is alittle creeped out by it?

[orvetti]

For me, it's just fun escapism. Because of my schedule and the fact that I have two young sons, I don't get to watch much TV, and because I'm a nerd, I spend a lot of my free time reading thick books (not unlike Bree), so bite-size shows and the occasional slow hour at work spent in this forum are a nice respite.

A smart media consumer can only be manipulated if s/he chooses to allow it.

http://www.youtube.com/orvetti

[Sfonzarelli]

this is not a game, this is a tool.

games are only games when EVERYONE gets to play.

people are just being played.

This whole surge of interconnectivity that's been goin on w/ the interWEB for awhile now(you know, youTube, myspace, facebook, BS) has made me nervous from the get go. I mean, it all seems reasonably inevitable but that doesn't stop it from being atleast alittle scary.

I have an interest in the Occult and have for quite a while. So it REALLY piqued my interest when people started remarking about seeing Crowley's picture pop up. Things like this given soo much attention in the media just seems odd. Not the YouTube phenomena itself, just the fact that society's "REALITY" tv addiction is increasingly becomming an interest in the unreal.

BUT THIS IS ALL SO ONE SIDED. Sit here and plug away, be proud that they've made a reference to your post, but you're still intereacting with an artificial reality, and not even your own, someone else's. Someone who most likely is/will soon be, making money off of the time you spend stirring their sh it around on the net.

WHAT'S THE REAL AIM of ALL THIS?

it's not just entertainment, it's business and obviously research.

Sayyy, 8 years ago, would you have believed you'd be following a fake-doc-u-drama-serial-blog-whatever-the-eff-it-is, about a teenage girl with obscure bits and references to serious occult connections?

That you'd spend time analyzing encrypted bits of video as if it held some as yet, unknown meaning?

I never saw much wrong with enjoying the more interesting sides of our culture's entertainment. But that's when it was fiction, not fiction pretending to be reality.


just so artificial... am I the only one who is alittle creeped out by it?

Here's a thought...who cares?

[ravensgrace]

just so artificial... am I the only one who is alittle creeped out by it?

Hear hear! I could not agree more, and the fact that escapism has become a 24/7 pasttime for so many teens/young adults is the scariest and creepiest of all. Especially when I have 4 children growing up into this culture. When I was younger we'd spend maybe 2-4 hours a day escaping, and now it is an all day every day event for so many of them.

Honestly, if I was apocalyptic in any way, which I am not, then I would be screaming, "The End is Nigh" from the rooftops.

EDIT: I did not mean to imply that the OP was apocalyptic.

[afewthings]

I never saw much wrong with enjoying the more interesting sides of our culture's entertainment. But that's when it was fiction, not fiction pretending to be reality.

I dont really get what you mean by the above.

all fiction imitates, or "pretends" to be reality to some extent. The point is to create an illusion or portrait of reality that is engaging to the audience.

Using a novel medium like youtube to deliver the story doesn't really make it any different.

[lonelygirl]

I never saw much wrong with enjoying the more interesting sides of our culture's entertainment. But that's when it was fiction, not fiction pretending to be reality.

I dont really get what you mean by the above.

all fiction imitates, or "pretends" to be reality to some extent. The point is to create an illusion or portrait of reality that is engaging to the audience.

Using a novel medium like youtube to deliver the story doesn't really make it any different.

hear, hear, there are a lot of fictional works out there that mirror reality and this is no different. the only difference is the medium used.

[The23rdGod]

Using a novel medium like youtube to deliver the story doesn't really make it any different.

It does if you check out the context.
What was youtube before this? and what could this slowly(or not so slowly) turn youtube(other outlets) into?

Im just gettin a strong inclination that people are STILL being had in a worse way then they can think.

I know Brian Flemming
( http://www.slumdance.com/blogs/brian_flemming/ )
goes way back to the beginning of this shite, but on September 1st he posted a link that seemed to be a continuation of his ongoing LG15 comments. That entry just had the title: "It's not about the Girl" <Picture of Oswald Being Shot> "it's About the Game"


With the Oswald picture taking you to a site about a book that's content seems strangely familiar:

Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for Cayce's client. But when her borrowed apartment is burgled and her computer hacked, she realizes there's more to this project than she had expected.

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/books/pattern.asp

Was Flemming just saying he thinks the LG15 is an example of this brand loyalty crap or...?

How would that post he made be interpreted?

[afewthings]

It does if you check out the context.
What was youtube before this? and what could this slowly(or not so slowly) turn youtube(other outlets) into?

Youtube was never and still isn't, *anything* specifically.

It's simply a platform which allows people to distribute media, whether it be fiction or non-fiction or anything in-between.

Incidentally, I read Gibsons "Pattern Recognition" back in 2003. One of things that intrigued me about LG15 was how much it reflected the book- a case of life imitating art...or art imitating art.

I don't think there's anything sinister or creepy about it.

Serialisation which gathers huge loyalty from fans is nothing new (Dickens, anyone?).

Also, I don't think this is just some marketing thing either. Probably the film-makers will move on to the commercial realm after LG15. And we might even see some kind of "brand" created out of LG15. But selling out is nothing new.

Even if it LG was a marketing/brand thing from the outset, that's not really shocking either. Viral marketing isn't a new idea. Internet discussion boards were used to generate a buzz about Christina Aguliera way back in the day.

and even if youtube was overrun with this kind of viral marketing, something else would come along soon enough to replace it...ce la vie.