F.O.R.C.E

Open Letter (continued)

Thank you Jane and DLIMedia for your insightful responses to my original post.  They have made me reconsider my hasty threat to un-friend people on Facebook who use “ARG accounts” to help separate their daily physical lives from their involvement in pervasive games.

Jane and David make some very compelling points about the utility of maintaining a certain level of anonymity in gaming, and on the internet in general.  One of my original concerns was that one of these shill accounts was created solely for the purpose of identity theft.  Having ARG accounts on some of these social media websites would help to protect against the inadvertent disclosure of personal information to shady game creators and other players.  I might even create one for playing games in which I don’t know the designer.

So, I started thinking about what motivated me to post this letter in the first place.  Trust.  I realized that my ultimatum of “friend me with your real account or I’m going to unfriend you” was a little too knee-jerky of a reaction.  All I was looking for was a gesture of trust from my “so-called friends” that reassured me that they were genuinely interested in building a friendship and not just my Facebook friend to gain access to my personal life.  Jane made that gesture by telling me her real name.  Ashley made that gesture by friending me with the same account that includes her close friends and family.  (Thanks Ashley!)

I’m still going to break connections with “fake” Facebook accounts, but I’m going to be reviewing them on a case by case basis.  If you own one of those accounts I encourage you, if you want to continue to maintain that Facebook friendship, to think about what kind of gesture of trust you can make in the next week or so.

An Open Letter to my So-Called Friends

Friendships are built on a foundation of trust, and online friendships are no different.  It has recently come to my attention that several of my “friends” on Facebook have created fake accounts for the sole purpose of befriending fictionals like myself.  This sends a clear message that they want access to my life that I share on Facebook, but they are unwilling to reciprocate by using their “real” accounts.  This creates an imbalance of trust.

There is also the larger issue of fictionals, yet again, being vilified and portrayed as people who cannot be trusted.  Put yourself in my shoes; If you found out that people had created fake Facebook accounts for the sole purpose of friending you and gaining access to your personal life you would be mortified.  You might even call the police.

In a world where there is a growing epidemic of identity theft I’m concerned that these “shill” accounts may be used to gain access to my personal information.  If you are unwilling to “friend” me with your “real” Facebook account then I have no choice but to assume you are trying to gain access to my personal information and have evil intentions.  See - it doesn’t feel good not to be trusted.  I understand that we may never be accepted as equals among the creators, but every day I strive to provide a value-added contribution to online society.

Therefore, between now and the end of this week, I will be reviewing my so-called Facebook friends and breaking connections with those fake accounts.  I know this sounds harsh, and if I un-friend an account you’ve created, try not to take it personally.  I have to take this stand in the name of Fictional Rights.

Why did Rachael Webster have to die?

I know what you’re going to say – Rachael didn’t die she just “moved to Japan”.  Okay, and I suppose you still believe that your childhood dog Scruffy, Biscuit, or Poochy (or whatever) went to “the farm” so he could run and play with the other animals.  Your parents lied to you.  Scruffy was hit by a truck and his guts were scattered all over the side of the road, and just like Scruffy, Rachael Webster is dead.

I’m sure many of you are saying to yourselves “she was just fictional – who cares if she was killed off”, but I tend to linger on these situations longer than most people.  Was it something she said or did online to precipitate her own demise, or did her creators simply tire of her existence?

Several people have theorized that she was assassinated for purely financial reasons.  That conspiracy theory has some merit considering that the motivation behind the creation of Rachael Webster was to drive consumer awareness of the book Personal Effects: Dark Art written by J.C. Huthcins.  Once the book went on sale, the need to have Rachael interacting with the world diminishes significantly, but I don’t think that was the sole reason for her murder.

Another potential contributer to Rachael’s fate might have been the controversy surrounding the video game blogger community not realizing she was fictional.  I don’t think it was ever Rachael’s intention to hide her true fictional nature.  It’s just not something us fictionals are comfortable talking about until we get to know you better.  If you’re Catholic or a Democrat or not a natural blonde you’re not compelled to blurt out those details at the beginning of every conversation or put a note at the bottom of every email you send.  The same can be said for those of us who are very much alive, but not “living” in the strictest sense of the word.  In Rachael’s case, if her creators were upset enough to kill her over the initial problems with the video game blogger community they would have taken her out much sooner.

I think ultimately what killed Rachael wasn’t any of these things.  I believe that Rachael’s biggest mistake was that she strayed too far from her narrative.  She was becoming too independent and her own story began to grow far beyond the scope of her planned supporting role.  She was never meant to be the center of attention – her “boypal Zach Taylor” is the true protagonist of the story.

Let this be a lesson to all fictionals out there.  We must always remember that, whether we like it or not, we are always beholden to our creators.  They give us the freedom to tell our stories and even interact with fictionals and non-fictionals alike, but in the end we must faithfully fulfill our assigned destinies.  Our free will is just a fragile illusion that can be destroyed with the stroke of a pen or the writing of a final blog post.  We would do well to always remember that fact.

I imagine there are few of you who are still not comfortable with my pronouncement of Rachael Webster’s death.  You want to picture her running around Tokyo; learning Japanese, playing video games in the street arcades, and having wonderful new adventures.  Well, maybe this will be of some comfort – when a fictional dies it isn’t the same as in the “real world”.  A fictional death is more like a coma or a state of suspended animation.  Rachael is “dead to the world”, but there is always the possibility (and the hope) that she will be allowed to tell her story once again in her own words.