I was very pleased to hear that the YouTube superstar lonelygirl15 was a fake. Her eyebrows tipped me off; they were too well-coiffed.
However, beyond the simple catty pleasures enjoyed and perfected by the female sex, I was also pleased to hear that she was part of a larger Something that messes around with the use of internet technologies, and formulates them as play.
Joystiq (and Alternate Reality Games) proposed a couple of weeks ago that Ms. Girl was part of an ARG. While this has been refuted (she and her peeps are artistes), as Joystiq says:
this whole episode shows how powerful storytelling and internet video might be interwoven to create compelling new forms of gaming that entertain millions of people who don't normally consider themselves gamers. The interaction between whoever's producing these videos (the game master) and the millions of players is intricate, exciting, and very game-like at heart.
This is something that doesn't involve shooting, collecting coins or other items (unless you count watching videos and searching for clues as collecting), jumping across chasms, or perfecting twitch responses.
Notably, it's had a bigger audience than any game ever published.
Similarly, the ever-intriguing Lost ARG has managed a record number of gamers and non-gamers, doing game-like things.
Come on people, aren't you sick of doing the same things with interactive entertainment? Let's play with the other things that are on offer, and create new forms of computerised gaming that enhance current paradigms, rather than replace them.
