An alternate reality game played in public

A conversation of agreement...

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Not even an alternate fact...

Sergey: Some people live in alternate realities. They inhabit alternate worlds.

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Mark: Like the "so-called" leader of a certain country?

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Sergey: He’s playing an alternate reality game. An ARG. One in which he mixes reality and fiction, tweets false stories. He exists but his talk is false.

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Mark: No harm if it were a game played by a private individual. But when a person who lives their life based on fake news and conspiracies enters public office, in a democratic society, that person is on a collision course with people who live in a more reasoned and evidential universe. Chaos.

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__________

Voice-over

Where the alternate beliefs of an individual impact on other people disturbance occurs.
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At a private level, infantilism and indulgence, lying and anger is a pebble dropped in a pond. At the public level, winds blow and the ocean roils.

...

Zero-Sum Game Opposite?

ZERO-SUM GAME

As the economist said to the student...

Economist: Noughts and Crosses is a zero sum game, a ZSG.

Student: Meaning?

Economist: Means one player wins, the other loses.

Student: What do you call it when both players win?

Economist: A game where everyone wins? A win-win game. A positive sum game.

Student: What about a game where everyone loses?

Economist: Like nuclear war? A negative sum game I guess.

_____________

Voice-over

Is there an opposite to a zero-sum game? Here’s an interesting discussion.

Video games are almost all zero sum games. In a very difficult game, if you give up, the game wins. I’m hard put to suggest a video game where everyone wins. For a short introduction to video games go here. 

http://youtu.be/l0bQK8I5-K8

Games and Movies

Tina is not a gamer, but Thor keeps tabs on them all.
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Tina: The graphics are spiffy and all, but all that bang, bang and noise?

Thor: Some are non-violent. SimCity…

Tina: They’re only a minority. And what’s this about violent games causing antisocial behavior? The boy who went beserk after two days playing… what was it?

Thor: Grand Theft Auto?

Tina: And he went mad in a supermarket and jumped on a turtle. A defenceless turtle. What did the turtle ever do to him?

Thor: Media frenzy making simplistic links. Sloppy research. Ask more questions. What kind of parents would let a ten year old play a computer game for two straight days? Look elsewhere for the causal factors.

Tina: Anyway, Games demand too much in the way of decisions and clicking. I like to sit and watch and have a narrator tell me the story.

Thor: There is such a game, Metal Gear Solid 4. Part game but slows down and becomes a movie in places. Nice graphics. Japanese designer Hideo Kojima. Cinematic.

Tina: Will it make me want to go and jump on turtles?


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Voiceover
Not all gamers communicate in monosyllables and have no eye contact. Reviewers of gamers often write eloquently. And doing justice to a visual experience can be a pretty daunting challenge using only text.


MGS4 raises an interesting question. Are games and movies mutually unintelligible narrative dialects?