A Noteworthy Trip to the Museum of Jurassic Technology
You know how I said there was a post I wanted to write but it was challenging? This is it. There are a few different challenges, and I'll mention them as they become relevant.
The first challenge is in providing background information. Of those of who are likely to read this, I've already talked some of your ears off about The Wall Will Fall, though you probably know it not by its name but as "that alternate reality game I was involved in." However, I've only mentioned it twice on this blog, and didn't go into details or explanations. Figuring out how to provide enough background information so that you won't be confused while not going into unnecessary and boring details is a challenge.
Related is the challenge of writing for an audience who will have varying levels of familiarity with what I'm talking about. It's possible that other players from The Wall Will Fall might read this. I'll feel somewhat pompous and self-congratulatory linking them to it, but some of them are probably interested. So! Just figuring out how to start the introduction so that people have a general idea of what I'm talking about when those people are starting out from positions ranging from "what the hell is this" to "I know ALL ABOUT this" is a challenge.
Last Saturday, I met two people who ran a game that changed my life.
(I think that's a pretty good start.)
Now, the next few paragraphs are going to be rather introductory. Feel free to skip ahead if you just want to go to an account of the meeting.
On September 17th (four months ago today...wow!), a banner appeared on TVTropes. It was a link to a video, and the start of the alternate reality game that came to be known as The Wall Will Fall. If you're reading this and you don't know what TVTropes is... I don't have time to explain it to you; you can go to the website and read the introduction. And if you've been reading my blog and you still don't know about TVTropes... I don't know how you've managed that.
Anyway, I watched the video, followed the Twitter account it was connected to, and really did very little regarding the game for the next few days. I was busy, and the game was just getting started.
September 17th was a Monday. That Friday, I was reading the TVTropes forum thread about the game, and someone or someones on that thread were suggesting that people watch Echo Chamber, at least the last episode, as it had some relevance. I'm the kind of person who goes through things from start to finish, if I can, so I started Echo Chamber with episode one. And I loved it.
I watched the entire first season right then (run time: about an hour) and would have watched the second season immediately but it was time to leave for Game Night. (If you're reading this and are not familiar with my habits, well, every Friday night my friends have a get-together where we play games. I rarely spend Friday nights anywhere else.) That night my computer died, and the next day I got a new computer and the very first thing I wanted to do with it was watch season two of Echo Chamber. reall like Echo Chamber.
The lead actors in Echo Chamber are Tom Pike, who created the series, and Dana Shaw, who also writes for it. They were also, along with other important team members, responsible for The Wall Will Fall. By the time I got really involved in The Wall Will Fall, it's safe to say I was a fan. These were awesome people who'd made an awesome webseries and were making an awesome game.
The Wall Will Fall lasted three-and-a-bit months, and it was an incredible experience and an important part of my life. But this post isn't about The Wall Will Fall per se. It's about meeting Tom and Dana.
You see, after the game ended, those who had ran it (the "Puppetmasters") held a forum Q&A. One thread (started by the Puppetmasters... well, specifically, by Tom) suggested the idea of organizing meet-ups, so that players and Puppetmasters who had been interacting with each other online for a significant amount of time now could actually interact face-to-face. People posted their general locations. We already had a map where people could add themselves so that we could have a picture of roughly how we were spread out.
It turns out that Tom and Dana are reasonably close to me, geographically speaking. It also turned out that no one else who is nearby was involved at that point, or at least not responsive to meet-up suggestions. Since I'm more familiar with this area, I provided some recommendations for places to meet. From my recommendations, the Museum of Jurassic Technology was selected. An excellent choice.
This is probably where people who are already familiar with The Wall Will Fall and/or Echo Chamber should pick up reading again. If you've never heard of The Museum of Jurassic Technology (and relatively few people have--it's small and strange) then I should probably explain it a bit, but this is another challenge because I don't want to give too much away in case you ever manage to go there. It's a place that must be experienced.
And, some of my friends who read this blog are very familiar with the museum, so I'm again running into the challenge of writing for an audience with varying levels of knowledge regarding the subject matter.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology is more a work of art than a repository of knowledge. It contains exhibits that are elaborate both in their execution and in the ideas behind them. You can't assume that anything there is accurate, nor can you assume that anything there is false. Some of the most improbable-sounding things are DEMONSTRABLY REAL, though the information provided about them may not be entirely reliable. It's complicated and dark and confusing and amazing. It's not for everyone, but I suspected Tom and Dana would appreciate it.
The meet-up was announced on the forum, because it would have been great to meet other players as well, but it wound up being just Tom, Dana, and me.
I'm a fan of these people. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Echo Chamber since September. (It's a lot.) And here I was, meeting them in a context that was mostly a social visit, outside the fan-creator dynamic, but also brought about because of the fan-creator relationship. I was excited, but I was also nervous.
The way to handle situations like that is not to act like a fan. I don't mean denying a knowledge of or appreciation for the creators' work, I mean not driving the conversation towards it, not bombarding them with questions, and generally not squeeing. It's possible to go too far in the other direction, but I feel like holding back the fannishness keeps the situation from being too awkward, and it's easier to come back to middle ground from an apparent position of relative disinterest than it is to retreat from an apparent overinterest. I'm not claiming that I walked this line well, but it's the line I tried to walk.
...And now we get to the REAL difficulty in writing this post, because, that line? It's much more difficult to walk in textual communication. Especially considering that the people I'm talking about might READ this at some point, I'm having a hard time striking the right tone. I know I linked Dana to this blog weeks ago, and if you're reading this, Hi Dana! You may wonder why I remember giving you-as-Dragonfly this link, (or maybe it doesn't seem remarkable to you that I remember, I don't know) and it's because I saved all of my private correspondence from that night, because there was such an outpouring of support for me that I wanted to keep a record of it. But for all I know, maybe you've forgotten that. I know you had a hell of a lot to keep track of.
Okay, re-rail. Even if Dana hasn't been stalking my blog, I'm probably going to put the link to this entry in a place where it will be reasonably visible for those who are curious about the meet-up, and that means putting the link in a place where Tom and/or Dana might see it. Obviously I wouldn't say anything nasty about them, but...
Well, if, say, I met John Hodgman in a context where I could have a nice, long, friendly conversation with him, I would not expect him to at any point go, "Oh! You're the person who wrote that blog post that started and ended with 'I love John Hodgman'!" There are enough people writing blog posts about John Hodgman, and there's enough distance (physically and socially) between me and John Hodgman that I doubt he'd have any awareness of me in connection with that post, though for all I know he might have seen it. (Though I'm assuming he hasn't.)
Tom and Dana, however, are not John Hodgman. For one thing they're not nearly as famous as he is. For another, not only is it conceivable that I could meet them and spend a good deal of time with them in a social context, I have already done so. The things I say here could have social consequences. Coming on too strong as a fan might be off-putting. Or it might be flattering, but either way it's reinforcing the fan/creator relationship, and that relationship may not be strictly applicable anymore.
But I'm not writing this post for Tom and Dana. I'm writing it for... well, for me, because I AM a fan, dammit, and I want to write about this cool experience I had meeting these creators, and also for people who are curious about the meet-up, whether they be my friends who have heard me go on and on about The Wall Will Fall or other players who are wondering what Tom and Dana are like in real life.
So here I go.
I met Tom and Dana outside the entrance to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I recognized them, which I was worried I wouldn't be able to, what with my prosopagnosia, but I'd seen them so much in Echo Chamber that I guess I have a pretty clear picture of them, and they appeared together, which helped a lot. I MIGHT not have been able to recognize either of them alone, but as a pair they're pretty iconic. Tom is somewhat taller than I'd expected, but then I'm super short so my perspective is skewed.
We entered the museum, and I started by showing them things, and they fairly quickly started looking around and finding things of interest on their own, which is really the most fun way to explore the museum. At first their comments were along the lines of "This is weird!" but it wasn't too long before they found things they really liked or found particularly amusing. (The coyote was out of order. D: I really think people should see the coyote as part of their introduction to the museum.)
After they'd seen much of the front-and-left part of the museum, we went upstairs to the tea room. We got tea and sat down at a table and had a long and fascinating conversation. We talked about school, and dogs (they're smaller in California than on the East Coast, apparently), and the museum we were in. We talked a LOT about The Wall Will Fall, which had taken over my life four ~3-4 months, and which had encroached on their lives for significantly longer than that. I told them about my experience with the Jejune Institute, the alternate reality game in San Francisco I'd spend a day on a couple of years ago. I nearly complained about how cold it had been lately, but refrained because I was speaking to East Coasters, but then Dana (I think) commented that it was chilly outside and I felt vindicated.
At one point Tom got a call from Zack, which he ignored. I felt like asking if it was Zack Wallnau, the cameraman and a character in Echo Chamber, but that's one of those points where I decided to come down on the disaffected side of the fannish/disaffected line. I somewhat regret that. After a bit, Tom did speak briefly to Zack, and told me that it was Zack Wallnau, so it turns out I didn't have to ask. I admitted that I'd wondered if he was the one calling.
Our conversation lasted much longer than the tea. They were extremely encouraging to me, about writing and about college and about my dream of being an Imagineer. Looking back, I wish I'd asked more questions. One reason I didn't really ask them questions was because I didn't want to start in on things that had been answered or should have been answered in the forum Q&A. After all, it wouldn't be particularly fair to wait until I had Tom and Dana to myself to ask things that would definitely be of interest to the other players. Still, there are things I might have asked if I'd thought things through a little differently, or if I'd been a little less nervous.
Though I was definitely nervous, I nevertheless had a great time and felt very comfortable. Tom and Dana are both friendly and fun, and meeting them was really enjoyable. After we'd had tea, we explored the rest of the museum. Tom liked the butterfly scale mosaics, though I think the creepy room with the bells (if you've been to the museum you know the one I mean, if not there's no way I can describe it to you) was his favorite thing once he'd seen every room... unless it was Dana who said that that was her favorite room, but I think it was Tom.
It was a really nice day, and I met really nice people, and I got to spend time at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which I don't do nearly often enough. So there you are.
The first challenge is in providing background information. Of those of who are likely to read this, I've already talked some of your ears off about The Wall Will Fall, though you probably know it not by its name but as "that alternate reality game I was involved in." However, I've only mentioned it twice on this blog, and didn't go into details or explanations. Figuring out how to provide enough background information so that you won't be confused while not going into unnecessary and boring details is a challenge.
Related is the challenge of writing for an audience who will have varying levels of familiarity with what I'm talking about. It's possible that other players from The Wall Will Fall might read this. I'll feel somewhat pompous and self-congratulatory linking them to it, but some of them are probably interested. So! Just figuring out how to start the introduction so that people have a general idea of what I'm talking about when those people are starting out from positions ranging from "what the hell is this" to "I know ALL ABOUT this" is a challenge.
Last Saturday, I met two people who ran a game that changed my life.
(I think that's a pretty good start.)
Now, the next few paragraphs are going to be rather introductory. Feel free to skip ahead if you just want to go to an account of the meeting.
On September 17th (four months ago today...wow!), a banner appeared on TVTropes. It was a link to a video, and the start of the alternate reality game that came to be known as The Wall Will Fall. If you're reading this and you don't know what TVTropes is... I don't have time to explain it to you; you can go to the website and read the introduction. And if you've been reading my blog and you still don't know about TVTropes... I don't know how you've managed that.
Anyway, I watched the video, followed the Twitter account it was connected to, and really did very little regarding the game for the next few days. I was busy, and the game was just getting started.
September 17th was a Monday. That Friday, I was reading the TVTropes forum thread about the game, and someone or someones on that thread were suggesting that people watch Echo Chamber, at least the last episode, as it had some relevance. I'm the kind of person who goes through things from start to finish, if I can, so I started Echo Chamber with episode one. And I loved it.
I watched the entire first season right then (run time: about an hour) and would have watched the second season immediately but it was time to leave for Game Night. (If you're reading this and are not familiar with my habits, well, every Friday night my friends have a get-together where we play games. I rarely spend Friday nights anywhere else.) That night my computer died, and the next day I got a new computer and the very first thing I wanted to do with it was watch season two of Echo Chamber. reall like Echo Chamber.
The lead actors in Echo Chamber are Tom Pike, who created the series, and Dana Shaw, who also writes for it. They were also, along with other important team members, responsible for The Wall Will Fall. By the time I got really involved in The Wall Will Fall, it's safe to say I was a fan. These were awesome people who'd made an awesome webseries and were making an awesome game.
The Wall Will Fall lasted three-and-a-bit months, and it was an incredible experience and an important part of my life. But this post isn't about The Wall Will Fall per se. It's about meeting Tom and Dana.
You see, after the game ended, those who had ran it (the "Puppetmasters") held a forum Q&A. One thread (started by the Puppetmasters... well, specifically, by Tom) suggested the idea of organizing meet-ups, so that players and Puppetmasters who had been interacting with each other online for a significant amount of time now could actually interact face-to-face. People posted their general locations. We already had a map where people could add themselves so that we could have a picture of roughly how we were spread out.
It turns out that Tom and Dana are reasonably close to me, geographically speaking. It also turned out that no one else who is nearby was involved at that point, or at least not responsive to meet-up suggestions. Since I'm more familiar with this area, I provided some recommendations for places to meet. From my recommendations, the Museum of Jurassic Technology was selected. An excellent choice.
This is probably where people who are already familiar with The Wall Will Fall and/or Echo Chamber should pick up reading again. If you've never heard of The Museum of Jurassic Technology (and relatively few people have--it's small and strange) then I should probably explain it a bit, but this is another challenge because I don't want to give too much away in case you ever manage to go there. It's a place that must be experienced.
And, some of my friends who read this blog are very familiar with the museum, so I'm again running into the challenge of writing for an audience with varying levels of knowledge regarding the subject matter.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology is more a work of art than a repository of knowledge. It contains exhibits that are elaborate both in their execution and in the ideas behind them. You can't assume that anything there is accurate, nor can you assume that anything there is false. Some of the most improbable-sounding things are DEMONSTRABLY REAL, though the information provided about them may not be entirely reliable. It's complicated and dark and confusing and amazing. It's not for everyone, but I suspected Tom and Dana would appreciate it.
The meet-up was announced on the forum, because it would have been great to meet other players as well, but it wound up being just Tom, Dana, and me.
I'm a fan of these people. I can't tell you how many times I've watched Echo Chamber since September. (It's a lot.) And here I was, meeting them in a context that was mostly a social visit, outside the fan-creator dynamic, but also brought about because of the fan-creator relationship. I was excited, but I was also nervous.
The way to handle situations like that is not to act like a fan. I don't mean denying a knowledge of or appreciation for the creators' work, I mean not driving the conversation towards it, not bombarding them with questions, and generally not squeeing. It's possible to go too far in the other direction, but I feel like holding back the fannishness keeps the situation from being too awkward, and it's easier to come back to middle ground from an apparent position of relative disinterest than it is to retreat from an apparent overinterest. I'm not claiming that I walked this line well, but it's the line I tried to walk.
...And now we get to the REAL difficulty in writing this post, because, that line? It's much more difficult to walk in textual communication. Especially considering that the people I'm talking about might READ this at some point, I'm having a hard time striking the right tone. I know I linked Dana to this blog weeks ago, and if you're reading this, Hi Dana! You may wonder why I remember giving you-as-Dragonfly this link, (or maybe it doesn't seem remarkable to you that I remember, I don't know) and it's because I saved all of my private correspondence from that night, because there was such an outpouring of support for me that I wanted to keep a record of it. But for all I know, maybe you've forgotten that. I know you had a hell of a lot to keep track of.
Okay, re-rail. Even if Dana hasn't been stalking my blog, I'm probably going to put the link to this entry in a place where it will be reasonably visible for those who are curious about the meet-up, and that means putting the link in a place where Tom and/or Dana might see it. Obviously I wouldn't say anything nasty about them, but...
Well, if, say, I met John Hodgman in a context where I could have a nice, long, friendly conversation with him, I would not expect him to at any point go, "Oh! You're the person who wrote that blog post that started and ended with 'I love John Hodgman'!" There are enough people writing blog posts about John Hodgman, and there's enough distance (physically and socially) between me and John Hodgman that I doubt he'd have any awareness of me in connection with that post, though for all I know he might have seen it. (Though I'm assuming he hasn't.)
Tom and Dana, however, are not John Hodgman. For one thing they're not nearly as famous as he is. For another, not only is it conceivable that I could meet them and spend a good deal of time with them in a social context, I have already done so. The things I say here could have social consequences. Coming on too strong as a fan might be off-putting. Or it might be flattering, but either way it's reinforcing the fan/creator relationship, and that relationship may not be strictly applicable anymore.
But I'm not writing this post for Tom and Dana. I'm writing it for... well, for me, because I AM a fan, dammit, and I want to write about this cool experience I had meeting these creators, and also for people who are curious about the meet-up, whether they be my friends who have heard me go on and on about The Wall Will Fall or other players who are wondering what Tom and Dana are like in real life.
So here I go.
I met Tom and Dana outside the entrance to the Museum of Jurassic Technology. I recognized them, which I was worried I wouldn't be able to, what with my prosopagnosia, but I'd seen them so much in Echo Chamber that I guess I have a pretty clear picture of them, and they appeared together, which helped a lot. I MIGHT not have been able to recognize either of them alone, but as a pair they're pretty iconic. Tom is somewhat taller than I'd expected, but then I'm super short so my perspective is skewed.
We entered the museum, and I started by showing them things, and they fairly quickly started looking around and finding things of interest on their own, which is really the most fun way to explore the museum. At first their comments were along the lines of "This is weird!" but it wasn't too long before they found things they really liked or found particularly amusing. (The coyote was out of order. D: I really think people should see the coyote as part of their introduction to the museum.)
After they'd seen much of the front-and-left part of the museum, we went upstairs to the tea room. We got tea and sat down at a table and had a long and fascinating conversation. We talked about school, and dogs (they're smaller in California than on the East Coast, apparently), and the museum we were in. We talked a LOT about The Wall Will Fall, which had taken over my life four ~3-4 months, and which had encroached on their lives for significantly longer than that. I told them about my experience with the Jejune Institute, the alternate reality game in San Francisco I'd spend a day on a couple of years ago. I nearly complained about how cold it had been lately, but refrained because I was speaking to East Coasters, but then Dana (I think) commented that it was chilly outside and I felt vindicated.
At one point Tom got a call from Zack, which he ignored. I felt like asking if it was Zack Wallnau, the cameraman and a character in Echo Chamber, but that's one of those points where I decided to come down on the disaffected side of the fannish/disaffected line. I somewhat regret that. After a bit, Tom did speak briefly to Zack, and told me that it was Zack Wallnau, so it turns out I didn't have to ask. I admitted that I'd wondered if he was the one calling.
Our conversation lasted much longer than the tea. They were extremely encouraging to me, about writing and about college and about my dream of being an Imagineer. Looking back, I wish I'd asked more questions. One reason I didn't really ask them questions was because I didn't want to start in on things that had been answered or should have been answered in the forum Q&A. After all, it wouldn't be particularly fair to wait until I had Tom and Dana to myself to ask things that would definitely be of interest to the other players. Still, there are things I might have asked if I'd thought things through a little differently, or if I'd been a little less nervous.
Though I was definitely nervous, I nevertheless had a great time and felt very comfortable. Tom and Dana are both friendly and fun, and meeting them was really enjoyable. After we'd had tea, we explored the rest of the museum. Tom liked the butterfly scale mosaics, though I think the creepy room with the bells (if you've been to the museum you know the one I mean, if not there's no way I can describe it to you) was his favorite thing once he'd seen every room... unless it was Dana who said that that was her favorite room, but I think it was Tom.
It was a really nice day, and I met really nice people, and I got to spend time at the Museum of Jurassic Technology, which I don't do nearly often enough. So there you are.