"If Lovecraft," I said, "developed a peculiar power in his writing by grafting his dreams onto something real -- why don't we reverse the process?"

"Start with something imaginary," asked Maya, "and graft something real onto it?"

"Exactly," I said.
~~ Don Webb, "The Sound of a Door Opening"

Stories with multiple plot strands, hybrid forms of games embedded in movies and movies embedded in games are already appearing. There will be more
~~ McKenzie Wark [1]

New Media Game

The film adaptation of Tomb Raider is a shadow of the popular game, but the logical fusion of New Media economics, digital film technology and game industry marketing. This trend implies that the creative visions of David Lynch and Robert Altman, which rely on multi-strand/non-linear narrative structures and elliptical editing will be adapted by entertainment conglomerates in more palatable forms. This intellectual capital is readily assimilated into synergistic computer games and other products.

When Electronic Arts announced Majestic: The Game, it promised to combine New Media production with conspiriology subcultures (the game's plot has knowing references to Danny Casolaro, and other pivotal researchers). Like The X-Files, only more interactive. Chris Carter had employed Alex Constantine as a consultant, and 'stolen' plot ideas and motifs from Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen, Kenn Thomas and William Cooper. The Electronic Arts execs had a better idea: harness the reader-driven Slashdot Effect by creating the Majestic Alliance and get the conspiriologists to embed their own research into the game's unfolding plot. At least, that's what the rogue Anim-X programmer leaked to me, before she was 'disappeared' . . .

Deus Ex Majestica

"There is a big scene," Thomas says, "but there are little scenes within it. There's the UFO community. There's right-wing militia groups. There's the Left. There are beatnik scenes. I've made an attempt to stay connected with as many as possible."
~~ Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen, "The Story George Magazine Didn't Want You To See"

Although it infiltrated the mass consciousness briefly in the mid-1990s, the conspiriology community has never been a unified subculture. There was no academic-style 'peer-review' mechanism as a check-and-balance mechanism (save Jim Keith's caustic wit); material was published by maverick publishers like the late Ron Bonds (IllumiNet Press) and Adam Parfrey (Feral House). The equivalent to research mentors were Val Valerian, Mae Brussell and Col. L. Fletcher Prouty (who passed away on June 5th, 2001).

There were private feuds and schisms: Jeff Rense versus Art Bell, Robin Ramsey's publishing operation infiltrated by MI6 operatives, David Icke battling his own overblown imagination, or our own Lee Hoffman thwarting Project Echelon. Who needs 'Denial-of-Service' attacks when you must contend with No Such Agency?

Paranoia took a serious hit when Y2K failed to materialise, the Space Aliens didn't land, and The Lone Gummen tanked. But the New Media juggernaut rolled on, with conspiriology themes turning up in films from Fight Club to Swordfish (2001).

It was only a matter of time before a gaming company caught the scent. And Majestic does for conspiracy theorizing what Tanner '88 (1988) did for political campaigns.

A Changeling's Tale

Meanwhile, high quality parapolitical sites such as www.disinfo.com have officially announced their open participation in this new gaming experience.
~~ SMiles Lewis, "Majestic Art of Electronic Disinformation"

It wasn't quite Men in Black, but the way first contact was made really stunned me.

One morning I received a sudden call from a researcher claiming to represent the Brotherhood of Yesevi (you may know of the Yezedis). Within minutes, my Netscape browser had morphed into the Marimba Castanet utility, and my computer began downloading a text file through some kind of remote satellite com-link. I didn’t think of the obvious: voice synthesis utilities can do wonders, and Marimba has some very interesting strategic alliances.

In this document, outlining the Great Game, there were some interesting aeonic correspondences between Aleister Crowley and George Gurdjieff, and suggestion of a connection between the Younghusband Expedition and what is often regarded as the most important event of the Aeon of Horus (no, not this legal dispute). I'd remember what it was all about (something to do with the cultural memepool), but I'm a busy journalist, after all.

The document was interesting, but the Web sites mentioned (one on chemtrails, and another on UFOs were probably fakes (I had faith in that). For one thing, they were actually well-designed and easy to navigate, unlike the typical conspiracy site. And the ominous line that it was the "game that played you" recalled Soren Kierkegaard's line that "a good book reads you."