Pinocchio is often portrayed as a morality tale used to admonish young children to keep them from lying,and to highlight the consequences of being less than completely honest. However,at it’s core,it’s the story of a wooden puppet (a fictional construct),brought to life by a magical fairy,who strives to become a “real boy”. If you focus on this aspect of the story you could make several analogous comparisons to what’s happening with the Rachael Webster and,more recently,Martin Aggett characters. I understand that the parallels between Alternate Reality Gaming and the story of Pinocchio have been discussed numerous times,perhaps most notably by Jane McGonigal in her research paper entitled A Real Little Game:The Performance of Belief in Pervasive Play (a work that is as insightful today as when it was written). I’d like to use this analogy once again to try and extend the dialog on realism and ethics in Alternate Reality Gaming.
During the course of Pinocchio’s adventures he joins a marionette show and sings “I’ve Got No Strings” for a live audience who show their approval by throwing coins onto the stage at the end of the performance. Even though Pinocchio is not a live actor his contribution to the enjoyment of the theater patrons was still very much real and acknowledged. It’s been said that despite Rachael Webster’s now apparent fictional condition her commentary on video games is refreshing,insightful,and adds value to the game blogger community. Daniel Purvis from the Graffiti Gamer had this to say about the incident in a comment on the Brainy Gamer blog:
However,the substance of the work posted on the blog is still true. The thoughts posted regarding Far Cry 2,Fracture and others are still legitimate critique and,though this might be rather stupid now considering circumstances,I’d hope that the author of the blog,whoever that may be,continues to provide similar conversation further down the line.
Many share the opinion that this fictional character makes a significant contribution to the game-blog community while others argue that her fictional status voids any value that would have been achieved had she been a “real girl”. A corollary argument could be made for Martin Aggett’s attempt to contribute to the photography community. Martin has written several articles for the iPhoneography website providing reviews and commentary on iPhone photography applications. When not writing feature articles he comments on articles written by others. He even entered an Easter-themed photography contest and won one of the top prizes. Does his fictional condition invalidate his contribution to this site? Should the other participants in the Easter contest protest his entry and “demand a recount”?
This creates yet another philosophical dilemma. Can fictional characters be trusted to become productive and contributing members of society – assuming your definition of society extends to the online space. Some dismiss this possibility with a simple “No. Not at all.” while others expand on the argument by addressing the very nature of social interaction in real life and online.
What I’ve learned in building the online persona of Martin Aggett over the past year is that this whole debate can be summarized in two words – Free Will. As is the nature of most analogies and metaphors used to describe this genre,under close scrutiny they tend to fall apart quickly.
The fairy who grants Geppetto’s wish by giving his wooden puppet the gift of life explains to Pinocchio that “to make Geppetto’s wish come true will be entirely up to you.” You see,along with animating the inanimate wooden puppet the blue fairy also gave Pinocchio the gift of free will. The Blue Fairy also provided a way for Pinocchio to improve his current condition by saying “Prove yourself brave,truthful and unselfish and someday you will be a real boy.” This is where the analogy begins to unravel.
No matter how brave,truthful,or unselfish Martin proves himself to be he can never become a “real boy” because he can’t cut the strings of the puppetmaster and make decisions of his own free will. The debate would then shift and be better framed as;Can the people controlling fictional characters be trusted to make a productive contribution to society through their fictional constructs? For now,we’ll save that debate for another time so that I can address what I think is a much bigger concern.
The creation of fictional online personas and concealing their true origins is not only irresponsible game design,but borders on the unethical. It creates an imbalance in the power that is shared between game producers and players,and ignores the fundamental tenant that game play must be voluntary.
Sean Stewart describes this concept best during the ARGFest 2007 keynote address (starts at 21:02) on trust in alternate reality game design. Sean uses a dance metaphor saying [explaining the concept of leading in a couple's dance] “The man proposes the step,the lady decides whether she will accept the step. We will propose the step,we will never accept the step for you.” In Martin’s case,the people he came in contact with during his online activities did not even know they were dancing.
As Martin began interacting with real people and acting as though he were a real person (which is his job as a character – to believe himself a “real boy”) I negated the free will of actual real people to voluntarily invest effort in their relationship with him. This fact should stand as the fundamental argument when trying to dissuade future game publishers from adopting this method of creating deep and complex characters in online communities. This practice takes the immersive and fun experience you’ve intended to create and turns it into a hoax that can engender feelings of betrayal,anger,and mistrust.
So Martin will forever be stuck in purgatory between the fictional world and the real one,and never become a “real boy”. My analogy started out strong but quickly fell apart when looking at it through the lens of free will. Perhaps the lesson to learn from the mistakes that have been made comes down to a simple song from Jiminy Cricket “Give a little whistle,and always let your conscience be your guide”
