Sponsor |  Niccilope | Feb 17, 2006 2:11pm | The website that actually inspired me to create this group was "Who is Benjamin Stove". I believe that I found it through a Stumble. I read for a bit, and quickly realised that it was obviously a work of fiction - and not exactly a stellar example.
I was very drawn to the idea of blog-based fiction. I've only recently warmed to the whole blogosphere thing, and haven't spent an inordinate amount of time on blogs (SU is my first personal experience with blogs, and has won me over), so this was my first experience, and honestly the first time I'd ever thought about using blogs as a method of storytelling. I had spent a lot of time thinking about how the web could be used for creative writing, and so, the Digital Literature group was born.
In an effort to actually coax some life out of this forum I decided to go take a few minutes to go back and re-explore the Who is Benjamin Stove site, and to see what others thought of it.
I'm sticking with my original review.
The site is written in a way that strikes me as being intolerably amateur - and not as an expression of the character. The writing style aggravates me. The story is so completely implausible that I want to bang my head against the wall. Harder. And that's not the worst part: it seems like this is not just some well-meaning college kid who is honestly experimenting with a new medium and doing his/her best to put something interesting out there. I was sure that was the case. Alas, no, it appears that this is a professional viral marketing campaign. [Insert strangled cry here]
To say that I am appalled is an understatement. I have nothing against internet marketing: I am an internet marketer. I think that the concept of viral marketing is great, and if done properly this could be very entertaining, but the standards are about 2 km beneath the bottom of the barrel.
Here are some articles that I've found:
Article from the Desmoines Register
Forum discussion that leads into the topic of alternate reality games Wikipedia ARG Entry.
My comment: even if it is an ARG, my alternate reality includes a LITTLE plausibility. There is suspension of disbelief, and there is stupidity! |
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Digital Literature → Discussion