Reed Berkowitz: a game designer’s analysis of QAnon

"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