The Game

ezzramj wrote:ah i see what ya mean, good work spanish, have u seen post of sighting in miami airport?? check it out

ForstAMoon wrote:Hello everybody!

That is my first post so let me start with some background info: I am 30+ and have never been MJ fan really, it does not mean I did not like his music but I would have problem calling myself a true fun.

It all started after his alleged death. I had to travel once for more than 20 hours on a plane by myself and therefore bought all of the magazines that they had at the airport. As it was beginning of August, MJ was in all of the papers: articles, special tribute editions, pictures etc. I read it all: how great he was, what a talent, gift from God, difficult life, brutal father, we lost an icon… and got absolutely sad and lost at the same time. Sad because he was dead but lost because of what I just had read about him. As I said, I have not been following MJ life, whatever I heard about him on TV or press I was just taking it and not thinking much about it, never really paid a lot of attention to it, but as far as I was able to remember, the info I was getting was very negative and unfavorable. So, they first made him laughing stock and ruined his life and now cherishing his legacy and memory? And I thought, it is such a pity that he cannot see it.

Then I started to look more into his live and works and started to follow the news and media coverage. I have to say that from the beginning I could not believe what I saw… Memorial? – I was not able to watch it as I could not understand it, then the family, doctor, the police investigation, the funeral – I was not able to understand any of it. At the beginning I felt even sorrier about him, thinking what kind of family or “friends” he had…Then I saw the O2 conference on YouTube and thought, OMG, what had happened to him? What has happened to this reserved guy, with charming but still guarded smile? And I felt even sadder about the whole thing.

I got really addicted to all of this, I was watching a lot of videos about him and on what have been happening after he died, and of course reached the entire hoax theories. I have to admit that the work that was done here is amazing and really breathtaking. I found it difficult to believe in many of the theories as I am more like “facts” than “’opinion” person although many of them make more sense than what is officially said and reported... until I saw the funeral film (from family) and the overhead film as recorded by some external camera. It is crystal clear to me, that the family film was not recorded in the same place as the “external” piece. It was as staged as I could imagine, nice try to all who worked on this but they apparently missed couple of key elements.

The moment I realized that I started to feel a bit like in The Game movie by David Fincher (if you have not seen it, do this asap!), and started to think – what if this is a game? I do not know who is playing this game and what is this all about, but what if? And then I started to dig into the game-type theory more and more and I hit on something called alternate reality games. I have never heard about this before, so started to see what it is. For those as me, who have never come across this, here is one sentence definition taken from one of the webs: (taken from: http://wapedia.mobi/en/Alternate_reality_game),

“An alternate reality game (ARG), is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants' ideas or actions”.

What is the most intriguing is the unique terminology that is apparently used in ARGs: any similarities????

• Puppetmaster - A puppetmaster or "PM" is an individual involved in designing and/or running an ARG. Puppetmasters are simultaneously allies and adversaries to the player base, creating obstacles and providing resources for overcoming them in the course of telling the game's story. Puppetmasters generally remain behind the curtain while a game is running. The real identity of puppet masters may or may not be known ahead of time.
  
• The Curtain - The curtain is generally a metaphor for the separation between the puppetmasters and the players. This can take the traditional form of absolute secrecy regarding the puppetmasters' identities and involvement with the production, or refer merely to the convention that puppetmasters do not communicate directly with players through the game, interacting instead through the characters and the game's design.
  
• Rabbithole - Also known as a Trailhead. A Rabbithole marks the first website, contact, or puzzle that starts off the ARG.
  
• Trailhead - A deliberate clue which enables a player to discover a way into the game. Most ARGs employ a number of trailheads in several media, to maximise the probability of people discovering the game. Some trailheads may be covert, others may be thinly-disguised adverts.
  
• This Is Not A Game (TINAG) - Setting the ARG form apart from other games is the This Is Not A Game aesthetic, which dictates that the game not behave like a game: phone numbers mentioned in the ARG, for example, should actually work, and the game should not provide an overtly-designated playspace or ruleset to the players.
  

This is of course “what if” question and I have no answers.

But: if there was someone who was able to came up with the idea of such game like in “The Game” movie – at least the writers of the movie have come up with such a story, and there is already something in entertainment world as ARG – what stops others to come up with such or even more incredible ideas in real life? btw – “The Game” movie director David Fincher worked with MJ on “Who is it” video.

The message ended up longer then I assumed, but I just wanted to share it, I am not able to talk to any of my family or friends about this because they say I am insane. I am sure some of you may have the same problem.

All the best.