Walter Williams - This Is Not a Game

FROM: LadyDayFan

Dagmar Shaw, whom most of you know as the executive producer of games like Curse of the Golden Nagi and Shadow Pattern, is stuck in Jakarta, where supplies of food and medicine are running out and people are being killed. We all saw the hotel burn. Dagmar wants to get out and the government ain’t helping.

Her original email is here and describes her situation.

It’s possible that our combined efforts may be of assistance.

I have set up several topics.

News and Rumors has to do with the situation in Jakarta, Indonesia, etc. Please post any information, along with a link to the source. Finance has to do with money issues. As detailed in her email, Dagmar has only a small amount of viable currency. If we can find a channel, possibly we could get money to her or otherwise finance an escape.

I have set up a special PayPal account to which people can contribute. Details are in the Finance topic.

The Escape Topic has to do with actual plans to move Dagmar to someplace safe.

We’ll keep this topic as an arena for general discussion.

TINAG… I think.

FROM: Hanseatic

TINAG, hell! I think it’s a damn game! But I’m willing to play.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

TINAG?

FROM: LadyDayFan

This Is Not A Game.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

Thanks.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

Corporal Carrot, TINAG is an ARG design aesthetic. The characters are required to believe they live in the real world, the puppetmasters are required to make a world that is internally consistent, and players should be able to function in the world as well as the characters.

FROM: Hippolyte

This really isn’t a game! I got email from Dagmar yesterday. She’s really stranded in Jakarta, where the hotel burned and all those people were killed.

How much should we contribute to PayPal?

FROM: LadyDayFan

Twenty bucks each?

FROM: HexenHase

Chatsworth, I disagree with you about TINAG. The effects you describe are entirely the result of the puppetmasters’ abilities to skillfully craft a game while remaining behind the curtain. The fictional characters are actors scripted by the puppetmasters-if the scripts don’t work, the players will never believe the game world is real, and the illusion fails.

‹posts deleted›

FROM: LadyDayFan

I have removed twelve flamewar posts to the Hell Topic.

Civil discussions of game aesthetics may take place in the Meta Topic.

If this continues, someone is going to lose access privileges.

FROM: HexenHase

Sorry.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

Me too. I’ll make nice from now on.

FROM: Joe Clever

I would like to state for the record that I think it’s a game. But I’m always willing to play along, even if it’s going to cost me twenty bucks.

FROM: Hippolyte

It’s not a game, Joe. But feel free to hack the Indonesian military if it makes you happy.

FROM: HexenHase

I can’t believe we’re engaging with Joe Clever on this or any topic! That cheating shit-for-brains!

FROM: Corporal Carrot

Careful, Hexen. Don’t start another flamewar.

FROM: LadyDayFan

Don’t worry, Corporal Carrot. Abusing Joe Clever is an Our Reality tradition.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

Can I ask why?

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

Because the crap-head’s style of play totally violates the spirit of TINAG. He cheats.

FROM: Joe Clever

It’s not cheating when there aren’t any rules.

FROM: HexenHase

There are rules to any community, whether they’re written down or not. We agree not to poke behind the scenes because it spoils the fun for all of us.

Corporal Carrot: What Joe Clever does is dumpster-dive Great Big Idea to find clues that might have accidentally been thrown away.

He followed the actors around to see if they might accidentally drop a script. And he twice hacked Great Big Idea to locate pages that hadn’t yet been uploaded to the Web.

FROM: Joe Clever

You say that as if I should be embarrassed. What I do is win games.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

Joe Clever is a complete egomaniac. Totally ruthless. Borderline sociopath. Probably crazy.

My guess is that he lives in his mother’s basement and has no friends.

We despise him.

FROM: Joe Clever

What I have done is to recognize that ARGs are in fact games. That’s what the G in ARG stands for!

Games have winners and losers. I am a winner. You people are losers.

FROM: LadyDayFan

Are we not overwhelmed by Mr. Clever’s personal charm?

FROM: HexenHase

And he’s even more charming in person.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

Can’t you ban him from the bulletin board?

FROM: LadyDayFan

I could, but he would immediately rejoin with a new handle.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

Ahem. Aren’t we supposed to be talking about Dagmar?

FROM: LadyDayFan

Good point. We need to get back to Indonesia.

FROM: Joe Clever

It’s a game.

FROM: LadyDayFan

You go on thinking that, J. C.

FROM: Desi

I’ve just found this topic. My god! I can’t believe we’re actually doing this.

I don’t know if this will be of any use, but one of my cubicle mates ranks high in penchak silat, or however it’s spelled. I’ll see if his school has any connections to martial arts groups in Jakarta.

FROM: LadyDayFan

Desi, that would be great.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

I took a scuba vacation in Bali a few years ago. Maybe I can contact those people and see if they know anyone with a boat in Jakarta.

FROM: Corporal Carrot

You guyz are acting like this is real.

FROM: LadyDayFan

TINAG, my friends. TINAG.

Dagmar plunged into the water, bubbles erupting around her. She arched her back, feeling the bubbles stream along her legs and the sensitive flesh of her neck, and rose through the dark water until her head broke the surface.

The night loomed around her, silent, the stars muted by wisps of cloud.

She began her laps. Arms, legs, lungs in synchrony, the warm water a midnight dream.

Her future, even her continued existence, was a question mark.

Swimming nightly laps was a defiance of that uncertainty, a statement that she was still an actor on her own stage. That there was still something in which her own will could alter events.

Even if it was just swimming, at night, hidden from the world.

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

Sorry, but I’ve worked the Bali dive boat connection, and it didn’t

pan out.

FROM: Joe Clever

We might try sportfishermen. Do you think any of them would have

a Web site?

FROM: Chatsworth Osborne Jr.

I’ll check.

I’ve been doing some thinking. We’ve got three possibilities for getting

Dagmar out of Jakarta. Air, water, land.

If we use an aircraft, the aircraft has to find a place to land, and

then we’ll have to move Dagmar to that place by car or bus or some

other form of ground transport. In addition, the Indonesian military

isn’t allowing anyone into their airspace, so any aircraft runs a risk

of being shot down.

If we use a boat, then we still have to bring Dagmar to the boat by ground transport. It’s not clear whether the Indonesian navy is blockading Jakarta by sea or how effective the blockade is.

If it’s possible to move Dagmar out of Jakarta by ground transport (say, by bribing or otherwise coming to an understanding with the military), then even if she doesn’t leave the country, she would be safer than she is now. Even though she’d still be in Indonesia, she’d be outside the area of complete chaos.

FROM: Hanseatic