GC2009: Project SEABIRD

[benlehman]

I am writing a game for Game Chef 2009. It's the sort of game which has spoilers, so if you don't want the game spoiled for you, don't read these posts.

In particular, Andy, don't read this post. Or, if you do, tell me, because then I won't play the game with you.



YOU

You are a star. Back before history, when the city shattered and the world was divided between sea and sky, you left a part of your heart behind with a human that you loved. You have aged through your own bloodline, not mixed, not spread, but purely and simply a star in the body of a human, on the wrong side of the empyreal divide.

And this is and is and has always been. But now you are hunted for it, and now you are imprisoned for it. Why?

SEABIRD

In January 2009, as his third act in office, President Obama commissioned Project SEABIRD, a top secret organization with unlimited funding, reporting only to the president, headed up by former VP Al Gore. SEABIRD's mission is simple: to stop global warming at any cost, with any method.

To this end, they have discovered you, captured you, and are performing painful and invasive tests on you to find a way to tap your nearly-infinite energy and replace all earthly power generation. If they succeed, mankind will have free energy forever, and for all that time you will be trapped in a sub-basement near Washington, starving and thrashing in agony.

YOUR FRIEND

But you have resources which SEABIRD does not expect. The exact capacities I don't know, you'll have to figure it out. But you have a way of reaching the outside world, probably via the internet, but the exact medium doesn't matter as long as it is text only. You have used this to contact a specific person and ask for their help.

You don't fully trust them to start. Work into it slowly.

Your friend is your only connection to the outside world. Don't waste them.

THE AGENT

Sometime after first contact, SEABIRD will realize that you have made a connection to your friend. They will either recruit someone close to them as an agent, or someone close to them is already an agent. This agent will try to get information out of them about you, and pursue the goals of the organization (which are, in order: Keep you imprisoned, learn more about you, learn more about the connection between your and your friend.)

The Agent will mark things with m-birds to tip their hand, when they want to.

HOW TO START PLAY

You, the first player, are you. Think of a friend of yours, anywhere in the world. They are Your Friend. Don't tell them you're playing the game.

Decide on the medium of communication (one or more of: SMS, blogs, twitter, e-mail, chat, social networking site). Create a new identity in this medium. You will use this identity throughout. Never tip them off that this is a game, or that you (the player) are you (the character.)

Contact them. Repeat it if necessary. Work your way in slowly, but within a short time begin to hint at your desperate situation.

After a few weeks, recruit another player, someone who knows them and lives close to them, to the agent. Show them the rules. Don't communicate with them further, until the climax.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

This seems both interesting and creepy. I feel that the morality of involving someone in a game without their consent is challenging and discomforting.

Sorry: Hungerer here.

[(Anonymous)]

Just realised it came up as anonymous.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you would only play it with someone who you know well enough to know that they would enjoy this sort of thing.

[hansotterson.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Wow. This is potentially rock. I will keep an eye on it.

[greedyalgorithm.livejournal.com]

Holy batman this idea looks sweet. I have a funny feeling you're gonna get plenty of playtesters. I'll totally be one.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

When I get a version finished I'll kick a copy your way.

I'm not sure I have the guts to actually pull this game off in play. I'm going to give it a shot, though.

[pseudonymusbosch.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Intriguing! I don't think I'd have the chutzpah to actually pull this off on any of my friends, but it's a fascinating concept.

Do you not tell the agent who your friend is? That adds an interesting extra wrinkle to the situation.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

I was thinking you do. Otherwise the agent has to be, like, paranoid and creepy to all their friends. Which is not really as much fun.

You have the best handle ever.

[pseudonymusbosch.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Thanks! The only real reason for my "anonymity" this year, I will admit, was entirely the excuse to break this handle out after having thought of it.

[keirgreeneyes.livejournal.com]

Ha! The game is Omelas Fights Back!

So they don't know they are participating, and you contact them anonymously? Wow! You do raise the bar here.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Yes. I think the spam filter is my biggest challenge.

[l-the-fangirl.livejournal.com]

GDUH.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is an "Alernative Reality Game." Those things are trippy, and this sounds like a great idea.

So does an ARG campaign to promote Bliss Stage awareness of Rapid Onset Hypersomniac Disorder, for that matter.

I wish you luck with this project, and will be paying attention.

Deleted and edited because of a botched HTML tag; sorry about that.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

It's an ARG for one. :D

yrs--
--Ben

[l-the-fangirl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, others tend to be Massively Multiplayer, if you will.

[pseudonymusbosch.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

There's also an important distinction in that most people join ARGs knowingly.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Not really.

Do you know the start of I Love Bees (the famous Halo 2 ARG)? The Game Master mailed a number of people jars of honey, with cut-out magazine pieces inside that spelled out "I love bees."

Now, she chose to mail them to people she thought would be receptive. And they chose to respond. But both are true in this game (you should choose a target you hope will be receptive, and the target chooses to respond, or not.)

[l-the-fangirl.livejournal.com]

Not always; remember the I Love Bees ad campaign?

[l-the-fangirl.livejournal.com]

NINJAED.

[redcrosse.livejournal.com]

This is a really neat idea with a fundamental problem.

A main focus of the game seems to be that the 'friend' player is unaware of the game. So... how is the game cool if the friend player does figure it out? And much more importantly, let's imagine a situation in which the friend player pulled a War of the Worlds and actually believed that the game was real: what's the worst case scenario, and what's the most likely scenario?

[misuba.livejournal.com]

So... how is the game cool if the friend player does figure it out?

That depends on how the friend reacts, yeah? Suppose she figures it out and decides to keep playing along. How rad is that?

That's the best of all possible ways to play, really.

[redcrosse.livejournal.com]

It is, I agree. That is the best case scenario for this game. But if that's the best case, what's served by the secrecy? And if the secrecy does make it cooler (and I think it well might, in some circumstances,) is that potential coolness worth the potential risks.

Basically, yes, it's innovative, and that's awesome, but is it innovative like sliced bread, or innovative like Tuskegee?

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Point.

I think that the key ethical concern is in target selection. I wouldn't want to choose anyone as a target where the game could be a trigger for their issues. But on the other hand, there are people who are explicitly into this sort of thing and would *love* to be a target of something like this.

Of course, you don't know their issues beforehand. So the question becomes "can I trust people who are not me to make good target selection?" And the answer is "I don't know." So then there is a question of morality and publishing it.

yrs--
--Ben

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

It's not the end of the world if he figures out it's a game. Actually, there's a note about that in the second draft: "It’s okay if they figure out it’s a game, but you should play it straight, so there’s a shadow of doubt."

If the Friend player starts getting too into the game, you can always call it off and explain yourself. I guess the worst case scenario would be that they don't believe you, even after you call it off. Not sure how to handle that.

yrs--
--Ben

[pseudonymusbosch.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

"Oh, man, she was worried about people getting to her and silencing her communications, and now she's just telling me that it was all a game, and she was Ben Lehman all along! Her worst fears must have come to pass! I'll have to go all Jack Bauer on Ben to get him to admit the truth!"

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

More like "this set off my PTSD and/or schizophrenia, and I ended up with another bout of hospitalization."

It's a serious concern and it's worth thinking about.

[hansotterson.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Uh oh, it's going to be The Wave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqdpNa-kR0w&feature=related

[hansotterson.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

This is the kind of game where all the people initiating play wish they were the people who aren't in on it. I keep thinking, "man, I wish someone would twitter me with THIS." Not that that's a bad thing. It'll be a challenge to go after your friend in such a way that they don't dismiss you as an internet annoyance/creep and immediately block you.