#is wildly irresponsible for having those kids without knowing they're gonna like it or be good at it and hoping it'll just work out. lmao

[nekropsii]

[In reference to your second Hostilestuck post] If it were just someone's random creepypasta that'd be perfectly fine and harmless fun but sending graphic descriptions to complete randos honestly speaks to some kind of clear irresponsibility, is the problem. Especially when an argument can be made that the descriptions are more graphic than the images themself, because with that amount of detail your brain is likely to start filling it in more. You can't really make an argument that those descriptions work as any kind of litmus test for the content in question when that's the case (I was substantially more nauseated by the description of what happened to Eridan than I was by any of the revealed panels, which have substantially more warnings surrounding them). It's as easy as giving a vague 1-2 word description of what the content contains and then saying "I can go into more detail if you're interested / you can handle it" because if someone says no to that then they probably won't be interested at all anyways. It feels more like the users being sent these asks are being used as a platform in general and while that's not a new idea for ARGs it is without any warning or consideration as to who it's being sent to. A good ARG isn't something you just shove in peoples' hands, the audience actively pursues it after the lead is out there (whether that's solving puzzles or actively choosing to watch when it posts) and thereby is much more prepared to face the content when they find it because they're already going to be cautious. I don't think it's damned to be bad or anything if the person doing it wises up a little but as it stands you're right there is absolutely problem with its marketing. I do kinda hope it's just some kid and they learn from this. (sorry for such a long ask I was gonna put it in the tags but I didn't want to nuke you from there, you don't have to post/reply to this I just needed to get it out)

Don’t apologize, I genuinely agree with you, and sometimes you can only properly get your thoughts out with a lot of words. If you’ve been here long enough, you’d know that I understand the need for wordiness completely, lol. You guys are gonna be getting new Nekro lore here, because I’m gonna start speaking from experience.

Content Warning: Long.

I definitely agree that the image descriptions are significantly more graphic than… The images themselves. Honestly, when I saw the supposed “Resurfaced Panels,” I was kind of… Disappointed? Like… Really, really disappointed, actually. I thought that, considering how hyped up this was, how the alleged comic itself was described, and how people were calling it “super gory,” it’d be, well… Actually gory. The actual images themselves aren’t that bad at all- the blood isn’t convincing, the trauma isn’t convincing, the images don’t have much of a sense of carnality.

It’s very stiff, very impersonal, and it doesn’t seem to understand itself or what it’s going for very well. It’s just kind of… There. It’s a little amateur- not that there’s anything wrong with that at all, I actually fucking love amateur art, it just kind of shows that whoever is making this doesn’t really “get” what they’re going for, and they don’t know how to actually deliver the same intensity that they’re writing about. At least, not in drawn form. No shame in that- everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and this can arise even in the depiction of the same idea by the same person. Some are simply better at writing out their ideas than drawing them. There’s a reason why some things are Books, some are Comics, some are TV Shows, some are Movies, some are Songs, and some are a Painting Collection.

Sending such graphic, visceral descriptions to random people- people who aren’t even known to be horror fans or gorehounds!- totally unprompted and without any warning is, as you said, wildly irresponsible… At best. It’s genuinely a pretty shitty thing to do. My honest assumption is that this is someone who is either still in their teens, has zero sense of boundaries, or both.

None of these things spell out good things for any potential ARG, and this is me speaking as someone who has literally worked as a writer and team manager for one for an entire existing company!! How are you going to act as a proper GM if you have no boundaries? How are you supposed to maintain the curtain? How are you supposed to cultivate a good, healthy audience if your advertisement consists of shoving very unsavory content into unconsenting people’s faces en masse?! Jesus!! I really do hope that, if this is some kind of ARG pitch, whoever is running the game matures a little and/or backs out. From what I can see of this, this is way out of their scope.

You know how an ARG works well, that’s exactly how it’s supposed to function. Again, consent. I don’t think anything is truly “damned to be bad,” especially with regards to art, but the way the current trajectory looks, this seems like it’s going to spiral, and it’s going to spiral hard. The Players for this (alleged) ARG- the “Sleuths”- definitely seem to also be taking this too far, and those who aren’t in the active Player Base kind of… Really aren’t taking this seriously, because everything about this situation so far has been astronomically ridiculous. It’s going to lose most of its spotlight very quickly, I think- this audience really isn’t built to last.

I’m gonna cautiously keep an eye on this thing. Again, as an ex-GM for a corporate ARG, this absolutely doesn’t look like it’s going to end well. Not to be that pretentious, egotistical asshole who thinks he’s uniquely qualified to read these kinds of situations, but I think I’m uniquely qualified to read this kind of situation. If I’m wrong, then hell fucking yes, I love a good underdog victory… But I don’t think that’ll happen.

This marketing fucking sucks. Everyone behind it needs to go in the Time-Out Corner and remember that people on the internet are, in fact, real people, and that they have boundaries, too. If you cultivate this kind of audience with no sense of boundaries, you’re in for an absolutely fucking hellish time. Trust me, I’ve been there. Hell to pay, if you’re gathering a crowd of that kind of person on purpose, man. Hell to fuckin’ pay.

#sorry if this is rambly I am writing this at #[checks clock] #5 in the morning. so #apologies! #my insomnia meds started kicking in as I typed this. #homestuck #hostilestuck #nekro.pdf #nekro.sms