1 hr 1 min

Reed Berkowitz: a game designer’s analysis of QAnon Podsongs

    • Music Interviews

"I am a game designer with experience in a very small niche. I create and research games designed to be played in reality. I’ve worked in Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), LARPs, experience fiction, interactive theater, and “serious games”. Stories and games that can start on a computer, and finish in the real world. Fictions designed to feel as real as possible. Games that teach you. Puzzles that come to life all around the players. Games where the deeper you dig, the more you find. Games with rabbit holes that invite you into wonderland and entice you through the looking glass. When I saw QAnon, I knew exactly what it was and what it was doing. I had seen it before. I had almost built it before. It was gaming’s evil twin. A game that plays people. (cue ominous music) QAnon has often been compared to ARGs and LARPs and rightly so. It uses many of the same gaming mechanisms and rewards. It has a game-like feel to it that is evident to anyone who has ever played an ARG, online role-play (RP) or LARP before. The similarities are so striking that it has often been referred to as a LARP or ARG. However this beast is very very different from a game..." Reed Berkowitz. Read the rest

LYRICS:

In unrelated things, you perceive a commonality
Building a breadcrumb trail, away from reality

The players create it
All looking to spot

The journey is the point
There's no bigger plot

Apophenia is leading you
To join the dots and build the pictures

Seems there are some scenes for you
Interpretations of the scriptures

Leading you and deceiving you
Seeing what you want to believe in

The correct answers are the ones, that resonate with most
That boost the group's objectives, they get the most kudos

The longer you play
The greater your role

The further we all go
Down the white rabbit hole

Apophenia is leading you
To join the dots and build the pictures

Seems there are some scenes for you
Interpretations of the scriptures

leading you and deceiving you
Seeing what you want to believe in

The stage must be set, for a new reality
Crumbs are easy to swallow, but will lead you astray

IF you fall in with the rest, following the hordes
Don't believe all you see, on the message boards

Apophenia is leading you
To join the dots and build the pictures

Seems there are some scenes for you
Interpretations of the scriptures

leading you and deceiving you
Seeing what you want to believe in


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/podsongs/message

"I am a game designer with experience in a very small niche. I create and research games designed to be played in reality. I’ve worked in Alternate Reality Games (ARGs), LARPs, experience fiction, interactive theater, and “serious games”. Stories and games that can start on a computer, and finish in the real world. Fictions designed to feel as real as possible. Games that teach you. Puzzles that come to life all around the players. Games where the deeper you dig, the more you find. Games with rabbit holes that invite you into wonderland and entice you through the looking glass. When I saw QAnon, I knew exactly what it was and what it was doing. I had seen it before. I had almost built it before. It was gaming’s evil twin. A game that plays people. (cue ominous music) QAnon has often been compared to ARGs and LARPs and rightly so. It uses many of the same gaming mechanisms and rewards. It has a game-like feel to it that is evident to anyone who has ever played an ARG, online role-play (RP) or LARP before. The similarities are so striking that it has often been referred to as a LARP or ARG. However this beast is very very different from a game..." Reed Berkowitz. Read the rest

LYRICS:

In unrelated things, you perceive a commonality
Building a breadcrumb trail, away from reality

The players create it
All looking to spot

The journey is the point
There's no bigger plot

Apophenia is leading you
To join the dots and build the pictures

Seems there are some scenes for you
Interpretations of the scriptures

Leading you and deceiving you
Seeing what you want to believe in

The correct answers are the ones, that resonate with most
That boost the group's objectives, they get the most kudos

The longer you play
The greater your role

The further we all go
Down the white rabbit hole

Apophenia is leading you
To join the dots and build the pictures

Seems there are some scenes for you
Interpretations of the scriptures

leading you and deceiving you
Seeing what you want to believe in

The stage must be set, for a new reality
Crumbs are easy to swallow, but will lead you astray

IF you fall in with the rest, following the hordes
Don't believe all you see, on the message boards

Apophenia is leading you
To join the dots and build the pictures

Seems there are some scenes for you
Interpretations of the scriptures

leading you and deceiving you
Seeing what you want to believe in


---

Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/podsongs/message

1 hr 1 min