Walking the Edge of Reality

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Walking the Edge of Reality

A look behind the curtain to my world...

META - Blurring the Line
Sunday, March 15, 2009 8:32 PM

Depending on how you look at it, this could either be a good thing or a bad thing: I've been criticized and praised for being too real.

Some examples:

The Facebook Profile: Jen's Facebook profile has existed since mid-November (some of the more astute players noticed Gibson was friends with her several times before they met; this was an error as I intended to start the clock earlier than planned). In an effort to add to the realism, I made her a student of Celebration High School and the University of Central Florida.

This opened up a flood gate of ACTUAL students of both schools, and before I knew it Jen - a fictional character - had more friends than I do. Most of which asked "do I know you?", but friended her anyway. She suddenly became the most popular graduate of the Celebration class of 2008.

And it gets worse... Apparently my choice of an attractive blonde (all stock photos from Shutterstock; I wonder if the model - or her mother, for that matter - knew what she was getting herself in to) invited a certain group of individuals that *really* wanted to be "friends" with her. She's been getting emails and wall posts that... well... I've had to go wash my hands after reading some of them. I've gotten more invitations to dinner, drinks (for God's sake people, she's only 18!) or simply "hang out" in the Orlando area than I care to think about.

In contrast, nobody cares for poor Gibson; he doesn't have a single "real world" friend. Well, that's not entirely true; someone else with the last name "Case" attempted to friend him, and I declined it.

The Corporate Site: I have a tendency to make sites that look all too real, and I have an intense aversion to posting a disclaimer because it detracts from the game experience. But the site, 99% of the content of which is literally copied from websites owned by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and other real life defense contractors, doesn't fool a few people.

Shortly after the LGL site ran, I got at least two companies - companies that I verified to be real companies (one of which was a Fortune 500 company at the time) - wanting additional information on the products and services we provided. I mean, are they joking? A company that says they created a sentient, autonomous AI the passed the Turing Test, yet has not gotten a single mention on *any* major media outlet... and they think it's real?!?

DecepTech Industries has gotten a similar response so far. I've gotten emails from residents of Armonk, New York looking for employment (I have verified that these are real people; one of which even has a LinkedIn profile). I've gotten emails from military personnel asking for additional information. I have gotten emails from military personnel - RANKED military personnel - asking to be advisers. And I've gotten an email from a web designer in Seattle; apparently my web design wasn't good enough, and for a nominal fee ($1800) they can redesign our website and stop the rampant "500 Error" pages. Gee, thanks!

The "Missing" Poster: I was scared of doing this, because it can go real bad real quick.

Project Ophiuchus did something similar with locatemyfriends.co.uk; they went very public with the missing poster, even creating full-sized PDFs for download. The end result was that real world law enforcement entities caught sight of it, thought it was serious, and down came the hailstorm. The resulting chaos forced the PM to create a disclaimer on his "About" page.

For that reason, I not only didn't send it to anyone outside of the player base, but I don't make reference to the wanted poster anywhere on the websites. I'm afraid people will take it too seriously. Last thing I need is the FBI involved. They wouldn't believe me anyway.

I like to think that, as a PM, if any of the above does happen to you... you're doing things right. I mean, that's the point of what we do, isn't it? Make the experience *feel* as real as possible. But you have to keep it in perspective, and be careful of crossing the line. You could be facing the sharp end of law enforcement and the judicial system if you make things seem real to a larger audience.

When in doubt, fall back on the disclaimer, but avoid it if you can. Even if you do have to resort to such a thing, do keep in mind that players will understand; we've seen games collapse before they started in the past.

I don't know how many of you out there are aware of what happened once... There was this game that was just getting started. I don't quite remember the content of it, but it involved something that a law enforcement entity would consider bad (I don't remember if it was a terrorist threat, kidnapping, etc...). The PM acquired a mailing list from somewhere and used it for the trailhead.

The problem: in that mailing list there were several addresses that didn't belong. Such as, for example, the webmaster of the White House website, the webmaster of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the webmaster of the Department of Justice, two senators, etc... etc...

It's one thing to upset some people because they're trying to get information from something that isn't real. It's another thing to have the Department of Justice paying you a visit and labeling you a terrorist. Needless to say, that game didn't get far.

I make it a habit to manually scrub all my email lists (a daunting task, as my current list has 500+ addresses in it). And the system will flat out disregard any address that ends in ".gov" or ".mil". You would-be mass mailers out there... it might be a good idea to keep that in mind. A little due diligence can save you from a mountain of pain.

Posted by David "Nighthawk" Flor on Sunday, March 15, 2009 8:32 PM

2 comments [ View Comments ]

Posted by fishjp on Sunday, March 15, 2009 10:47 PM

It nearly broke my heart when I had to use "the Disclaimer". However, I do understand what you mean about being somewhat proud of the fact that your work is mistaken for "real" by someone.

Posted by Lore on Friday, March 20, 2009 6:55 AM

I'm the person with the last name "Case." Its part of a pseudonym I've been using online for years now. I really am one of your rabid fans. Please friend me. :(

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