You’re playing a recently released video game. Directly in your avatar’s path, you see a shiny piece of paper, audio clip or DVD on the ground. Don’t bother picking it up.

Past years have spawned a new breed of games that try to toe the line between linear and non linear storytelling. The main story arc is linear, but the pieces you pick up, not so much. And for this reason, they don’t have much leverage on the outcome of the game.

Until now, I’ve always considered video games to be interactive narratives, narratives that rely on the reader as a participant in the story. But while playing Alan Wake, I’ve found that this role can be utterly artificial.

If you’re not familiar with the game, here’s the premise: you must pick up pages of a manuscript you have no memory of writing, and these pages then predict upcoming events in the game. Some of the pages are laid out directly in the avatar’s path. However, others can be easily overlooked and must be hunted for.

It’s true that if you pick up a lot of pages, and can use them to prepare for what happens next, you have a clear edge over somebody who doesn’t pick up as many or any at all. However, it’s not essential that you pick up the pages; the game will keep going even if you don’t retrieve a single one.

The video game itself follows tropes of traditional, linear narrative. By this, I mean that there is a beginning, middle and end (and in that order) and events mainly occur in chronological order. First causes occur, then effects. As for the manuscript, the game intends for it to be linear as it doesn’t allow for much backtracking. But it is possible to pick up pages out of order, whether by exploring the map in a nontraditional way or by playing the game repeatedly, picking up more pages each replay. It’s a non-linear element in an otherwise linear story.

This causes a problem when I try to refer to games like Alan Wake as interactive narratives – whether or not I pick up the pages, it doesn’t affect the plot of the game. The only gauge is mental — how much or how little I grasp of the plot at which time. My participation in the story falls to its lowest possible form.

The Bioshock duo of games follows the same pattern. As your avatar moves through the game, he must pick up tape recordings to listen to in order to piece together the story. Missing a well hidden tape does not change anything but the player’s mental grasp.

What could be the purpose of installing non-linear elements in a linear game? Replay value comes to mind. In both games, the reward for picking up the pieces of the story is all in your head. You don’t affect the ending of the game just by knowing a few more tidbits. It’s no Heavy Rain, where the consequences to not picking up the pieces are dire to the plot. In that game, finding enough pieces of evidence can be the difference between the good and bad ending, between the life or permanent death of a character. But in Alan Wake, what’s the worst that can happen? You start scratching your head when a guy with a chainsaw pops out of nowhere? Even if you lose, you can regenerate.

Purposeful or no, linear games with non linear story elements are picking up in popularity. Aside from the games I already mentioned, Resident Evil 5 and Dead Space 2 follow the same path. I have a few theories:

1. Artificial sense of purpose. A true interactive narrative takes a LOT of work to build. Well done, it would take the form of a sandbox game, where any narrative path the player chooses is possible. Obviously, this isn’t usually feasible so video games rely on players believing they have far more choices than they actually do. By having players hunt for pieces of the plot, they feel like they’re affecting the game even when the outcome does not change.

2. Breaks up monotony. All of the games described are single player. Picking up plot elements can enhance the mood of the game and introduce new voices without slowing down the gameplay with actual new characters. It adds a lot of interest to the game for very little effort.

3. Achievements unlocked. In recent years, nearly all video games have begun to offer achievements for basic things in games. One of the standard achievements is for collecting items, such as Kerotan Frogs in Metal Gear: Snake Eater or gemstones in Uncharted. Pieces of the plot are far more interesting to collect than frog dolls, making the achievement more interesting to go after.

All this said, I’m really enjoying my play-through of Alan Wake. Only thing is, I’m not going to waste my time hunting for the hardest to find manuscript pages.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk about this, but blogging is as much about your audience as yourself, and I think this is something you all would like to hear about.

The day I pissed off 4chan appears to be the thing I am currently most infamous for on the Internet. I had forgotten about the whole experience until I read an article on Geekosystem that alluded to my mistake. So here’s the whole story!

When I started my internship at Kotaku, my boyfriend John was especially worried about me. He made me change all my passwords online and make sure my domain information was secure. He was concerned that as an intern on one of the big geek sites, I’d be a public figure and therefore a target. I took his advice, but I didn’t believe him. I was going to be an intern, not an editor. I’ve lived my online life conservatively enough that strangers haven’t cared about this smalltime journalism graduate student in D.C.

However, I made a pretty bad decision. I wrote about something that mattered a lot to 4chan, especially /v/: the nicknames of the new starter Pokémon. When I was interning at Kotaku, I rarely got to write my own stories — that’s just not what interns do, anywhere really — so I did my best to pitch original story ideas. My Nobuo Uematsu scoop was an example of this; none of the editors had met him so it made sense for me to write that story. And when I heard my friends on twitter talking about their invented nicknames for the new starting Pokémon for Black and White — news to the editors — I was allowed to write that story, too.

On Kotaku, it’s policy to ask permission before reposting stories, but not images. When reposting images, Kotaku instead takes care to link back to the image producer so they can share in the traffic. So when writing the Smugleaf story, I reposted photos from Deviant Art authors with credit… except for one photo. I couldn’t find the artist, so I posted it creditless with a note to please help me find the artist. That artist turned out to be a 4chan poster. And it turned out the meme itself originated on 4chan. As one Kotaku commenter warned me, “/v/ is pissed.”

The ire of 4chan was suddenly upon me, complete with ad hominem attacks on the article and here, my personal site. Overnight, the top Google search for my website was “Lauren Orsini nude.” (Some 4chan posters had the idea to find naked photos of me and get me “fired” from Kotaku. Luckily, those don’t exist!) I followed the advice I’d heard about getting 4chan to move on, mainly not “feeding the trolls” or responding to any of it. Arguably, writing an article on the subject isn’t doing that at all, but I think it’s been long enough.

The hubbub died down in a few days. I was expecting my editors to yell at me for it, but on the flip side, they were psyched! Since my article was 1) original and 2) controversial, it got 70K hits in just a few days, making them a lot of money. They told me not to worry about what people said. I knew this already; in today’s online age, journalists become part of each story they write. I like to think that it’s helping me develop an even thicker skin.

In summary, I’ve learned that any subject can be controversial. I thought that since I don’t write about politics, I don’t touch on anything abrasive, but now I know better. We geeks are extremely passionate about our hobbies. Bobby Kotick at Activision realized this too late — treating video game fans flippantly earned the otherwise mild mannered man the title of the most hated person in the video game industry.

Also, I need to be careful about the word “meme.” People don’t like to hear that something is or isn’t a meme. They just like things to be left alone where they can grow on their own. (That’s just one buzzword I’ve gotten in trouble for using in my time at Kotaku — my most recent article involves the term “reverse sexism” which I never considered to be a point of debate before!)

Anonymity online has become the best and worst thing about the internet. People can say things without being persecuted for their beliefs, but on the other hand, they can also reveal the cruelest intentions of their humanity since they never have to stand behind their comments. 4chan is an incredible site, spotlighting and forwarding Internet trends faster than anyone else. I wouldn’t have even had a story without 4chan! However, it can also be a spiteful community, suspicious of anyone who purports to post their content elsewhere. I view the boards with awe and not a little trepidation.

I’m not going to ignore a topic from now on just because I think it’s controversial, but I’m certainly going to pick my battles wisely. As for another article about fan art and memes, it’s just not worth it.

This weeks’ links have a theme – all about video.

1) As a journalist, or maybe as somebody who is interested in documentary making, I am fascinated by the Vicon Revue, a device you wear that takes a picture of what’s in front of you every 30 seconds. Above is an image the gadget captured.

It was originally intended for people suffering from Alzheimer’s and other memory-debilitating conditions. Tests have shown that “reviewing SenseCam photos of a significant event every two days for three weeks, the person could remember it substantially better, even after months of not looking at the photos, compared with events that were not reviewed this way or were recorded only in a written diary.” (via Technabob).

2) One of my favorite parts of Toy Story 3 was watching the animated short that preceded the movie: Day and Night. It was simple in form but complex in concept and execution. Geekosystem has the story behind the short.

3) When I said video, I meant video games, too! Check out my piece with the other Kotaku interns about the controversial Internet game, Hey Baby.

4) NPR has a fascinating (and sweetly animated) video story about a writer who woke up one day unable to read. What happened reveals an interesting fact about how our brains work. (via Boing-Boing).

5) A short, emotionally stirring documentary about people and their video game avatars. Thanks to my friend, Anna Tauzin, for the link.

6) About a month old, but still hilarious. The people who expect us to fix their computers, a video by Jesse Brown.

7) And finally, the best thing I’ve seen all week: The Star Trek/Tik Tok music video (via kottke):

From Flickr user thatdjspider.

Short answer: because the fans do!

Sometimes I feel silly when I tell people that my passion is to report on and document fandom. It’s almost like my hobby is recording other people engaging in their hobbies. However, I’ve discovered that documenting fandom is important on levels far beyond my interest factor — following fandom is what keeps the commercial sector in touch with the fans.

I can think of two examples off the top of my head where ignoring the fans has led to bad publicity for a company. First is when fashion blogger Susie Bubble posted photos of herself trying on designer Pam Hogg’s catsuits in a dressing room. Hundreds of fashionista fans commented on Bubble’s blog post and shared the photos. The Pam Hogg company, threatened to sue her for copyright violation. Naturally, this caused a huge uproar from fashion lovers everywhere. Eventually the company realized they were out of touch (can you believe this happened in 2009?) and that, just maybe, being featured on a widely read blog might be a good thing.

Second is when the rapper Timbaland became popular. Timberland, the shoe brand, decided to sue the rapper for copyright violation — they were concerned that people would associate their shoes with hip hop culture — and were shocked to watch their sales plummet almost overnight. Timberland had to acknowledge that the very hip hop fandom they wanted to distance themselves from was the driving factor in their business, and had to come to terms with their new audience. They quickly reached a settlement with the rapper and have designed with their new audience in mind ever since. (I do not have a link for this claim; it was related to me by my law professor in our survey of copyright law. Anyone have a link?)

Luckily, group associated with geekier fandoms have been doing a good job listening to what the fans want and following suit with their offerings. Films that choose to include popular fan-made phrases in the actual flick (“I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!” comes to mind) show a close connection with their audience. Anime-subbing companies that monitor which fansubs are most popular with fans when deciding which shows to bring to America next also deserve kudos (How else would a show like Hetalia get licensed?)

Photo by Flickr user natsuki★girl.

If it sounds like I’m promoting the importance of the work I do, it’s because I am. The commercial sector needs to take notes in order to sell products that fans actually want. Listen to what fans are talking about — maybe they’ve developed a joke around a particular character or are creating handmade drawings and plush toys based on her — those things can be included in the final product. And realize what it is that makes something popular. If a particular blogger is extolling a show’s virtues, don’t sue her for copyright; suggest a partnership. If fans of Hetalia are more interested in the attractiveness of the characters than the (negligible) plot, give them the fan service they want by also translating the accompanying artbooks.

As for fans, this should serve as a reminder that your voice does matter, and each time you blog, tweet, or post on a forum about your fandom, you are helping to drive the market. Keep talking.

Related articles I found helpful:

Otaku’s Influence on Anime Companies

Do The Japanese Value Fandom More Than America?

How Japan’s Otaku are changing the way we do business

Who owns fandom?

Also known as my half birthday. At 23, I’m a little old to still celebrate half birthdays, but when your birthday is the shortest day of the year, you can always use a little more celebrating.

I did want to put up a real post today regardless, but I am absolutely useless. Without school, an internship, or even part time employment, my life is unstructured. I am working on fixing that and getting into a routine, but it’s difficult. I’ve done little else but apply for as many jobs as possible. If you know anyone hiring in the D.C. area, please let me know.

I am also having a bit of a crisis with what this blog is about. Purely work? More critical analyses of fandom? Should I take a local angle? Are personal posts (like this one) too boring? Stuff like that. I’d appreciate any feedback you may have.

In the meantime, check out my Tumblr. I needed a place to stick all the images in my head while I sort things out. See you Wednesday!

photo from Sweet Lolita Fashion.

1) Ever since my Lolita adventure, I’ve been researching Lolita culture. I especially loved Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm‘s essays on the subject, including Lolita Nation Vol I., Anime, Lolita, and You, and Is Lolita Selfish?

2) John and I are playing Alan Wake, and the story relies on your character learning what to do next by picking up pages of a book he doesn’t remember writing. It can get a little silly, so I loved Magical Wasteland’s satirical take.

3) I love the feel of a typewriter, but I’ve always been too reliant on its higher tech offspring to use one. Until maybe now. (via Geekosystem.)

4) YouTube gets a built-in video editor! Maybe now I won’t have to eat up my RAM with Premiere Pro every time I want to make a tiny change.

5) Speaking of video, I couldn’t believe OK Go’s new video. (via Urlesque.)

“The new vid, for the song ‘End Love,’ was filmed over a period of days and then sped way, way, way up, making the band members look like kick-ass action figures.”

6) I’ve always admired Alex Leavitt, and after you read The Problems with the Problem of Online Manga and witness his ability to break down a complex issue into understandable terms, you’ll see why.

7) And finally… Book titles, if they were written today.

As of today, i am finished with my Master’s degree, my internship at Kotaku, and my part-time job as a TA. Let the summer [of job hunting] begin!

This is part two of my Geek Origin Stories series. Last week, I wrote about Magic. This time, I want to write about one of my oldest and most treasured fandoms — anime. I actually still have my diary entry from the first time I watched anime. At the risk of embarrassing myself, I will post it in full right here:

12/10/1999

Wow – 11 days ’till my 13th birthday. Cool. Today was a good day, but I’m remembering it backwards. I was just over at Sharon’s and since her sister was not there, we watched some Japanese animated cartoons – “The Slayers.” It was translated to American [sic] only in the print at the bottom, so we tried to listen to Japanese words and make up phrases. I learned how to say, “That is a secret” because one character, Xello [again, sic] said it. He said [illegible attempt at spelling Japanese]. Sharon is a lot more obsessed with anime than I will ever be. I guess it’s because I don’t have a sister who owns those anime video tapes, and where else could I get them from?

Er yeah… embarrassing. But I wanted to post this in full since it shows how far anime has come since I was first initiated. For Sharon and I, the only source of anime was Sharon’s older sister or the video store at the mall, which sometimes had anime VHS tapes for $40 each. I cringe to think I spent once spent a year saving $120 of my allowance to buy Evangelion tapes!

This also explains why I didn’t have a lot of friends who liked anime back then. Today, the proliferation of anime on Hulu, Crunchy Roll, and other streaming websites has made the barrier for getting into anime less imposing than ever. But back then, you had to have a bottomless wallet or a benefactor. And even then, we had it easy compared to fans from the 80′s! In college, I interviewed Stan Sagan, a dealer at Katsucon, about his start in the fandom:

Sagan, 56, discovered anime while he was a theater major in college.

“One day somebody brought an anime tape into the studio, and as I watched it I thought, this is way better than what’s coming out of Hollywood!” he said.

Sagan was hooked, but back in the 1980’s, he said, getting anime wasn’t easy.

“There weren’t stores that sold anime, and you couldn’t download it from the internet. We watched it on VHS tapes that were copies of copies of copies that friends passed around. That’s why it was so great to go to a convention,” he said.

Back to my origin story, it’s clear that I wasn’t very good at predictions. I’m pretty sure Sharon hasn’t watched anime in years. (Another brilliant prediction from my diary: “I spend a lot of time on the Internet now. I will grow out of it soon.”) From there I watched whatever my friends and I could get our hands on. Gundam Wing was a big one, since it was dubbed on Cartoon Network. Same with Tenchi Muyo. I am sure it involved a lot of money pooling, but we also watched the entirety of Magic Knights Rayearth. I attempted Evangelion, but I never could afford to watch it — not until college, when I was able to buy it on DVD!

I didn’t hit the anime convention scene until college, either. My parents, understandably, were confused by why their daughter wanted to watch foreign cartoons and discuss them with strangers. They weren’t comfortable with what an anime convention was or could be. Usually, I indulged my interest by printing pictures of my favorite characters and pasting them in my diary. I also drew pictures as often as possible! But as interesting as THAT would be to see, let’s save a tiny bit of my dignity for the next post.

Next in this series: video games!

Share your own anime origin story in the comments.

It’s been too long since I’ve left my computer to go out into the world of fandom, so on Saturday, I did just that. I went to a meet-up for local girls who like to dress Lolita, a type of Japanese street fashion known for big hair, bigger petticoats, and sweet Victorian style.

I went to film and find out more about the culture, but that didn’t keep me from joining in the fun. I wore a Lolita outfit that my friend Bune was kind enough to lend me. It’s lucky that we were the same dress size and even shoe size. I doubt I’ve had hair or skirts this poufy since my last time Civil War reenacting (but that’s another story).

The meetup consisted of us picnicking on the Mall as passersby took photos of or with us, and then a trip through the gemstone exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. It seems that half the fun of Lolita are the questions you get from other people, asking if you’re in a play. Little girls seemed to be the biggest fans of the look.

With Bune and Stephanie on the Mall.

I came to the event thinking that Lolita was a type of cosplay, like when anime and video game fans dress up as their favorite characters or in the style of those characters. However, the girls let me know that Lolita is truly its own fashion, just like goth or preppy. Many of the girls wear Lolita clothing to work and school, something cosplayers wouldn’t do! I also found out they invest a lot in this hobby, often as much as $150 per dress. (Edit: That’s for used dresses. Bune says girls may spend as much as $300 on one Lolita dress!)

For the other half of my filming, I assumed my Anime USA marketing role and asked about how the Lolita fandom enjoyed last year’s AUSA and what they’d like to see this year. John and I are trying to reach out to as much of the AUSA audience as we can, just like when we talked to Magic players a few weeks back. I got some excellent feedback, which I will soon be posting here or on the Anime USA blog.

The more I learn about fandom in all its various forms, the more I want to learn. I can’t wait to find out which subculture I’ll end up meeting with next!

1. I already have a Twitter shirt and Twitter tights, so I am naturally crazy about Daniel Reese’s Twitter Shoes. (via Mashable.)

2. In related news, the Twitter logo font has been revealed! You can download it for free right here.

3. Why you should ditch your company business card. I design all my own business cards, so I couldn’t agree more.

4. A fascinating article on Fanboyism and Brand Loyalty from an awesome new blog, You Are Not So Smart.

Branding builds on this by giving you the option to create the person you think you are through choosing to align yourself with the mystique of certain products.

Apple advertising, for instance, doesn’t mention how good their computers are. Instead, they give you examples of the sort of people who purchase those computers. The idea is to encourage you to say, “Yeah, I’m not some stuffy, conservative nerd. I have taste and talent and took art classes in college.”

5. This gorgeous time-lapse film of Japan had me wondering if it’s possible to be nostalgic for a place I’ve never been. (via Japanator.)

6. Stunning futuristic “mega-projects” by Japanese architecture firm Shimizu Corporation. I especially like the space hotel!

7. The Seventeen Magazine Project. I skimmed the whole thing in one sitting!

8. I’ve been incredibly stressed with the end of grad school and my 25-page-paper and overall sweating the small stuff, but reading NoTitle’s reminder post was so inspirational and helped me get my priorities back in order.

9. Inspired by my Magic The Gathering geek origin story, both John B. and The Ginachu put up their own geek origin stories! I’m flattered.

My readers know that I’m on the geeky side, but I’ve never shared exactly how I ended up that way. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing my geek origin story: aka how I got into anime, video games, Magic: The Gathering, etc. Today, I’m starting with Magic.

My first ever deck of Magic cards. It’s really beat up.

The first time I ever saw a Magic card was when I was in fifth grade. At recess, one of my friends said he had something really cool to show me. It was a card in a plastic baggy — I guess he hadn’t heard of deck protectors yet — Black Lotus.

I wasn’t much impressed. To me it was just a thin piece of cardboard. (And honestly, it’s taken me a while to grasp just how valuable these cards can be. I remember how surprised I was to find a high school friend getting mad at me after I played 52-pickup with his elf deck.) I forgot about cards for the rest of the school year.

That summer, my then best friend, Sharon, told me that she had heard about a fun game from her dad called Magic. It hadn’t seemed that cool to me, despite my classmate’s zeal, but I wasn’t one to question my assertive friend. So we rode our bikes to the dollar store and each picked out a pack. At that time, M:TG was in its fifth edition and I had the choice of buying a beginner pack, a regular pack, or an expert pack. I chose beginner. If I had gotten expert, I can only imagine how valuable those cards would be now.

Sharon’s dad was something of a mythical figure at that point. Sharon told me that his occupation was “Wizard” and she wrote as much on her standardized tests. Technically, he was a computer programmer. But his brooding demeanor and his sudden, mercurial passions made me almost afraid of him. This time, his caprice had turned to Magic, and he was going to teach Sharon and I how to play.

I was awful. I couldn’t get past basic enchantments and creature spells. I sat helplessly as Sharon’s father played her older sister in what seemed to me to be exceedingly complex plays. Sharon seemed to pick it up much more quickly than me, and I felt like I was disappointing them. I was eleven, and I guess this is why they put 12+ on the side of the box. However, eventually Sharon’s father moved on to another project (helping us build a koi pond in the backyard) and we all moved on. I haven’t seen her in years, but I’d love to ask her if she still plays.

In high school, I dug out my old cards and a new friend helped me make a “bruise” deck, which was what we called a black and blue mana deck. I never liked using it and to this day, I’m far more likely to use red, white, and green decks. In high school, I learned to love Magic. I played with single color decks and rainbow decks, one-on-one and in groups. The group I played with most in high school breaks all of today’s Magic norms: we were mostly female with some gay and lesbian members. I especially adored an Arcbound Crusher deck my friend made, but also a green and white healing deck. I rarely made my own decks, but admired my friends who did. I think Memnarch was the most powerful card I’d played against at this point.

In college and beyond, I played off and on, forgetting the game and then remembering it when my workload is light, especially in summer, when I’d go back to visit my high school friends and play with them (as I still do). I started playing casually (which is one step up from kitchen-table Magic which I played in high school) with my boyfriend John, first at our local college card shop, and then at Ri-Ra bar in Bethesda with our meetup group, which if you’re local, you should consider joining. Everyone is extremely accepting even if you’re just starting out or, in my case, ultra casual. I learned how to draft and to identify the difference between common and uncommon cards. Today, I make all my own decks.

What does the future hold? Well, I plan to learn to play Elder Dragon Highlander this summer. I don’t see myself playing competitively anytime soon (I’ll leave that to folks like the talented Lauren Lee), but I definitely plan to keep playing in my meetup group. Craig, one of the most talented members of the group and a PTQ finalist, told me that “you’re only as good as the best player in your group.” For me that means that if I keep playing opponents who are better than I, I will keep learning and stay interested in the game.

Readers, do you have a Magic: The Gathering origin story?