Update on the Mission Day project I mentioned earlier.
Lots more detail at that link, but to summarize the main points:
- Back in 2016, there was a line in a TRON game which said that May 14 was “Mission Day.”
- Some fans got excited that maybe something cool was gonna happen that day
- akin to the Flynn Lives ARG starting in 2009, where fans were led on a whole fun adventure, following clues through a network of webpages
- but no, this time it turned out nothing happened, and people were disappointed.
and when I heard about that, my own rebellious side went:
- Let’s make our own interactive Mission Day fan ARG!
- Like, what if next May 14 you start seeing fanfics posted on AO3 with mysterious clues in them…
- leading to a webring of fan pages and fan blogs, all connected in their own cryptic ways… easter eggs and sneaky links on them all…
- Separated by rating, sure, with proper warnings and everything, so people can see the stuff they want, and avoid what they don’t…
- but NOT restricted by the rigid and sorta LGBTphobic censorship of canon.
- so potentially offering a LOT more diversity in fanmade art, writing, comics, animations, games… anything we wanna make.
…And as I got started on this brainstorming, a few things occurred to me.
First:
- The main focus of this should be celebration of the great variety of fans and the different ideas they have
- and a declaration of our freedom from the “official” owners of canon
- Since fans have such a wonderful abundance of different headcanons and AUs, many of which are not compatible with each other in the same storyline…
- this will have to be a multiverse.
So.
- I’m working on a framing device (one of the entry points to this ARG; perhaps not the only one) which is a webpage featuring text chats between characters, in one of the timelines
- It will show their communication as they test a new adaptation to the laser technology, which opens up connections to alternate universes
- Then the links to participating fan pages will be listed at the bottom… framed as a record of “different timeline branches” opened by the laser
aaaaand from that point out, the exploration is free.
Anyone who wants their page of fan content included can get in touch, and links can be added anywhere.
So anyway that’s my concept. Dunno how long it will take– maybe the whole year til next May 14, maybe more. Maybe the whole thing’s way too ambitious for me to bite off at this point in my life, LOL…
But, anyone who wants to get in on a private chat planning this, or at least talking about it? Feel free to DM me. I’m doing stuff already, with or without y'all, and I’d love to swap ideas.
I’ve got a Discord server set up for this now– message me if you want a link!
I’m interested in ideas from anyone else who knows more about ARGs than I do.
I’ve never really made an ARG before, and I’m going into this kind of blindly with my own idiosyncratic ideas of what would be fun…
which is mainly just “it would be cool if there was a multiverse of different fan pages and stories, all connected to each other in interesting ways that you could find by exploring semi-hidden links and clues on each page”
But all I really have planned out for this so far is that one entry point… (the html page featuring a chat between Encom characters starting up the interdimensional laser to access all the different AUs)
(and a vague idea that various fan pages can be accessed from links on that page)
I think a lot can be done through just linking different relevant materials– which I’ve already done a bit of, in just that chat page, where the links to “Event 00000922” and “Gibson” lead to video files and the link to “ROLLO_3.77” leads to a fic I wrote
But I envision this as a very free sort of fan collaboration, where each person can make the experience fun in their own way
so… what other sorts of paths/discoveries/activities would you like to see or create? Feel free to comment or DM or whatever <3