Not one, but two thefts, leverages, and negotiations, uses of false names/identities/personas. University of Aesthematics style

1) Steal sensitive information: two pieces of sensitive information acquired

1a) One of the other T.o.D. groups is focused on what might be described as--well, they'll do a better job than I will, so just wait and see--I think of it as affectionate naughtiness. Some overly dogmatic people would interpret this as evil, but whatever. But it might make sense to associate it with, if not evil, then villainy. I asked TAFKATV to "infiltrate" the other working T.o.D. group and get information. He did so, under cover of doing evil to our group. He got some exquisite details, including the entire text of their work in progress, their membership, and their tasks list.

1b) I had also come into possession of other information, sensitive for its potential impact on the game. There are people who might interpret it negatively, with sentiments already varied and dynamic about groups. My source was a well-informed player who said the SF0 creators liked C.E., and that they wanted to include it if we could get done by reset.

2) Territory swap: Two swaps took place. 2a) Know your roots: "I still believe it's all an Aesthematic plot" It is in our lineage, especially as MNZero players, to keep this sort of in-game plotting alive and inside the UofA family. I took a determined aesthematic approach to seizing ground. First I needed to "out-snide the other side" so to speak. They were going to be the masters of naughty creative activities, and to me it seemed they developed in their plans a reflection of their existing style of play, including a pointedly poking reminder not to take ourselves so seriously. So this serious, reasonable, analytical (long winded gasbag), pro-groups, reformation-minded senator leapt into a persona of the cynical, nihilistic power playing jerk, whose flirtation with darkness risked going too far.

The goal in that vein was, from the beginning, to make a claim that their group was THIS and not THAT, and to spread that claim until they demanded it BACK. I claimed the interior ground that I somehow knew with authority their real intentions and that they would be harmful to "our game".

I crafted two videos, attached below. The first is complete, unvarnished bullshit. I totally made it up as I went along, raving about things and calling attention to specific details of their proof-in-progress, intended to demonstrate that I was aware of the details. I willfully misinterpreted their methods and statements of intent, spinning them in the worst light. TAFKATV had discovered the members list of the snide group, and it was different than the friends of IDOL. First I acquired as many mailing addresses as I could, through a request I sent to Door Installation participants, partly under cover of a promised "super vote" (that may still materialize, just wait). A number of them were also on the IDOL/SNIDE friends list, so if I could get some, I'd send my physical message to them. I got a bunch of addresses, including one that proved to be the key. When the Villain came through with his deep info, I realized that one name who wasn't on the IDOL friends list was Anna One. I put the video on a DVD and fedexed it to Anna One, along with a torn section of underwear waistband, like a toe removed in a ransom note.

I set up a plan for a player photo flash mob, which was to use two different images--one of group-colored SNIDE logos, and one of me administering a power-wedgie to group-colored snide-heads. The plan was sent to players as a kind of crazy diversion, a confusing and loony "attack." An invitation to participate in the logo-only plan was sent to two SNIDE players. I wanted to throw them off the scent, to provide cover for my villainous accomplice and to make them think the worst I had planned was a lame-ass flash mob. I like to think it put them on notice that something was going down, but I gave them false information about the timeline and didn't show the wedgie photo, obviously.

By casting myself as the heavy in the piece, and playing it really hard, suddenly this gaggle of merry pranksters looked serious, dedicated and well-meaning by comparison.

If you doubt how villainous I was aiming to be, the second video is possibly the most shamelessly crude thing I have yet done on film, and goes way out of bounds. I even took it epic by trying to get some footage from the other side of the world, as if wedgie-ing from Minneapolis caused a great upheaval in Honolulu. I think if katotoro had known why I was asking for it, she would have said "no!" My plan was to reserve it and show at a later date. I suppose there was a chance they really were intending to deliver a proof antagonistic to my hopes for the task and then disrupt the game, in which case I might have posted my second video as my proof for "(nearly) pointless." It would have been really and truly antagonistic and downright mean. Unless they'd really said fuck you, I don't know if I'd had the guts. When you watch it, you'll see. Please know: I repudiate the contents of this video.

There was still another thing they could do, too: they could have said "fuck you" to me and meant it--what right did I have to try to mess with their praxis? Instead of a vicious middle finger to the world, I got what I was after: a firm statement from several of their members to back off and that they stood behind their plans.

See, I sent them an extremely wrought message, full of backhanded sniping, big promises, and dire predictions like "do you want pages full of half dicked bullshit praxis?" and "If you insist that it's about nihilism though, man...why? and if you do, I must be your foe." Almost as over the top as my videos, imho.

Observe what one of their members said to me.

We stand by our mission statement in its entirety, it is how we have been playing all along and we feel that there is a need for the kind of energy we will bring. (...) I also had no plans to publicly attack or subvert your completion. You are taking it in that direction. It seems to me that you are needlessly threatened (...) Our completion, even though at times does poke at you, is very complementary and all in fun. Once we post you will see what I mean. I hope you can see that you have taken a rather aggressive stance and we will not cow to it. You assume, incorrectly, that we have different desires. We do have different methodology and I'm not sure that I can agree that yours is better. I was not concerned about a rift before today. Once we have posted I will do what I was planning all along which is encourage votes for both groups.

I completely swapped with this troupe of prank monkeys the goody goody, serious sincerity reputation I have made my m.o. this whole era. Exchanged for the undiscovered country of jacknapery, sass, and villainy. Yeah, I got called out for being aggressive, because my behavior was that of an asshole. By extending the theme to ridiculous extremes, I got a bunch of supposed nihilists to say how sincere they actually are. (we in the business call that leverage.) But I got what I wanted, too and traded it all away in a trice. I intend to make interest payments as well.

2b) Remember: In the absence of information, people go bonkers. I wanted some kind of information swap, exchanging bad for good, rumor for fact. This territory was controlled by Sean, Sam, and Ian.

Knowing that there were plans for C.E. in the next era, and deeply concerned that the task itself--and any groups that proved it--might become flashpoints of factional disunity and back people into dogmatic stances that led to less freedom, I wanted to give people something akin to assurances. I could have asked for it explicitly, I believe. But since I was already in the midst of one layer of doing this task, I reckoned I could get more style and substance points.

So, in my first layer of this onion, I had acquired the sensitive information that SNIDE was for real, and got them to say they were as sincere as I'll ever hope to be. I had the information that group changes were coming. I crafted an 8 point, extra-pained email to the SF0 creators. I said how awesome I though the group was (I do) and then I held out the only thing I had, really:

7) If there's only room for one "new official" group in Insatiability, then I kind of don't want any to happen. I think there would be an unintended consequence of making C.E. this new thing and then other(s) from the Trajectory task don't make it. (...) SNIDE is easily as good as C.E. from an idea and execution standpoint. I don't know what'll come of any other attempts, but I'm pretty confident about that at least

8) Right now, one of their members & I have been talking, and he probably thinks a) I'm an asshole, b) I'm all "threatened" by snide, and c) promoting what we've termed together a voting rift, not to mention the paranoia and who knows what all. But I am just aching to support them!

What I'm threatened by is the prospect that January 1 will roll around and the game will reset with some scenario where C.E. replaces Equivalenz and that's it. Players left thinking about how unfair or lame it is.

Now, I could have just asked for this information. But framing it in my existing deeds of villainy made it much more aligned with my intentions to complete this task. I also think my concerns about getting it right as far as groups go are justified, as evidenced by comments and experiences I've had throughout this era (documents below include email exchanges, dating back to the Bubblesort period, for heaven's sake).

My concern, and the other activities, must have worked, because Sean delivered public comments on the T.o.D. page, excerpted here,my emphases added:

OK, this is getting a bit too tense. (...) the total number of groups is not fixed at five. This task - wisely - doesn't describe a group "trade", a vote-based competition for new groups, (...) some visible changes Insatiability will bring concern groups, because we want to make them a better part of SFZero. (...) While one purpose of the groups is to encourage collaboration (...) there's a clear space for something that lets players describe affiliations which may have little to do with the ideological framing of Groups. Anyway, it's going to be fantastic, I promise!

---- Painted Villain on Oct 31 3:50 pm----

I've gotta run, but please see my comment here:

http://sf0.org/tasks/Trajectory-of-Desire/

and let me know if you think this leaves something important unaddressed.