by giovanni.pacifico -

03 – Community based storytelling – Lore & Creepypasta

Introduction

Exit Reality is a book written by Valentina Tanni, Digital Art Historian and associated professor at Politecnico di Milano as well as my Master’s Thesis mentor. The book talks about internet aesthetics, trends and phenomena that are born online, create community and sense of belonging for those that spend time watching or creating that content. In this blogpost I’m going to analyze the 4th chapter of the book called Lore – Vertigini procedurali: creepypasta, Backrooms e liminal spaces and draw inspiration from these concept for my ARG project, its shape and content.

The Slender Man, SCP Foundation, Backrooms

Creepypastas are horror stories that start, spread and get famous through internet and its communities. They are then expanded, modified and spread into mainstream media through the generation of fan made content that creates a web of connected narrative pieces that paint a hidden lore in the intangible internet canvas. One of the most famous examples is The Slender man a creepy pasta that starts from a blurry photoshopped photo and a post on the famous forum website 4chan then, spreading as if it was a virus, the story took form in the mind of the online userbase through more forum posts, videogames, videos, books and movies. All of them generated by community memeber

First image of the Slenderman by Eric Knudsen on Something Awful forum

The SCP Foundation project starts from /x/paranormal, a famous 4chan thread and uses a storytelling method that is slightly different from the previous example. In fact, if Slender man was the subject of many users ideas that would create and post to anyone online, the SCP Foundation it’s a collaborative narrative, users of the forum are welcome to submit their stories and after a check by the head members of the website they can be accepted if they adhere to the tone of the main story, creating a complex and detailed lore.

The Backrooms is a more recent example of creepypasta turned ARG. A photo of an empty room with yellow floor and walls, and bright neon lights on the ceiling, the uncanny sensation of familiarity spark in the 4chan users a sense of mistery. Story bits and pieces are created by community members, speculating on what that strange building could be, until the youtube channel by the name Kane Pixels starts uploading a series of videos on his channel depicting people entering this “backrooms” and this is were the ARG starts. An clear example of the “This is not a game” concept, online communities start theorising where this place can be found, what are they and who created them. This ARG is still on and many of them are trying to piece the story together to understand not only what is being shown but why, what’s the message that the author, or Puppet Master in ARG terms, wants to convey.

Differences between the Traditional Storytelling Model and The Transmedia Model according to media artist Jeff Watson

Insights and conclusions

I personally find extremely interesting how these different storytelling methods were born as a byproduct of the internet decentralised structure. Both user generated content, like the Slenderman and its lore, and collaborative narratives like the SCP Foundation are, in my opinion, extremely interesting and effective ways to tell a compelling and engaging story, the work done by Kane Pixel demonstrates that starting from that and then evolving it into an ARG is a very coherent process, that’s why for my project it could be useful to start from an existing fan base or internet subject and adding a piece of the narrative myself.

Reference