Master of Puppets

[Kyriakos]

Here's a scenario:

For some reason, you had created a puppet-theatre and were so focused on moving the puppets and acting out the play that at some point you forgot those were puppets. Naturally, you originally identified (at any one time) with one of the puppets, and the rest got powered by you - but when you stopped being conscious of this being a puppet theatre, you also lost the ability to tell that the other puppets were also animated by yourself.
Here's the question:

How would you expect this person to stumble across the fact that he is surrounded by puppets and thus break through the delusion?

Options:

-Speed up the play (in the hope that past some level the illusion that the other players are autonomous will be weakened)
-Stop the play indefinitely (in the hope that when you will start it again, things will be different and easier to notice the illusion)
-Overload the play with more plots(similar aspirations to speeding it up, but different in that the added complexity is of a creatively expansive type)
-Focus on a plot that is about someone who was entangled in this type of puppetry (in hopes that self-reference will cause a breakthrough)
-Give up (we all have strings attached, so why not this rarer kind of string )

I'd personally go with either 1 or 3, and likely a combination. 4 would be the most dangerous, imo.

 

[Hygro]

What dispels a game of toys? Definitely not added plot complexity so 3 is dead out. You have to make it boring. Become aware of your physical sensations say sitting on the rug in the sun, smelling the floor. The game seems stupid, all of the sudden, like work.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Obligatory

 

[amadeus]

I’m not already the puppet? Am I aware? I gave up. I don’t know.

The game seems stupid

We are playing the game whether it is stupid or not.

 

[Kyriakos]

What dispels a game of toys? Definitely not added plot complexity so 3 is dead out. You have to make it boring. Become aware of your physical sensations say sitting on the rug in the sun, smelling the floor. The game seems stupid, all of the sudden, like work.

Nice, but that might also be dangerous - assuming it's not so easy to have access to non-game sensation.
While over-complication can get one even more sunk in the game, the same can apply for adding dullness (as long as its still picked up as part of the game).

I’m not already the puppet? Am I aware? I gave up. I don’t know.

Technically you can't be a puppet, since you are (without being aware of it anymore) the puppeteer. But in the world of the game, you think you are the same as everyone else (and they are puppets, despite you not yet realizing it).

 

[Zardnaar]

Obligatory

Come crawling faster
Obey your master

 

[Gori the Grey]

Who is putting into effect the options? The puppet-master's puppet-master?

 

[warpus]

you also lost the ability to tell that the other puppets were also animated by yourself

IMO anybody who ends up in this state has mental problems and as such it would make it tough to predict their next move.

My best prediction: they flip over a table

 

[Kyriakos]

Who is putting into effect the options? The puppet-master's puppet-master?

It's a game scenario. If you can think of more options, I am interested

IMO anybody who ends up in this state has mental problems and as such it would make it tough to predict their next move.

My best prediction: they flip over a table

It's just a game, and thus not strictly realistic. But yes, the premise is influenced by mental disorder states, as well as the general idea of disorientation. If you were swimming for hours, and couldn't see the coast anymore but were now extremely tired, you'd have to choose a direction despite losing sense of where you came from due to various circling moves. To make things worse, this body of water has low salinity.

 

[Hygro]

Nice, but that might also be dangerous - assuming it's not so easy to have access to non-game sensation.
While over-complication can get one even more sunk in the game, the same can apply for adding dullness (as long as its still picked up as part of the game).



Technically you can't be a puppet, since you are (without being aware of it anymore) the puppeteer. But in the world of the game, you think you are the same as everyone else (and they are puppets, despite you not yet realizing it).

Ah. Hm, I think you need to stop playing long enough to observe that all stops when you stop. With no simulation set to run, or some ballistic sequence underway, a long enough pause should start raising suspicion. Why don't the other puppets interact when you freeze to observe? Eventually, that should crack the spell.

 

[Kyriakos]

Ah. Hm, I think you need to stop playing long enough to observe that all stops when you stop. With no simulation set to run, or some ballistic sequence underway, a long enough pause should start raising suspicion. Why don't the other puppets interact when you freeze to observe? Eventually, that should crack the spell.

While a potential noticeable freeze isn't out of the question, in this scenario it's not the more natural of developments either, since the person has been unwittingly playing for an extended time. So if they could so easily notice they pull the strings, the game would have stopped already
Basically my idea was that this is an approximation (not perfect, obviously) of someone who has internalized everything and keeps living with vivid thoughts/impressions of others. But in the actual scenario this is all literal (they are in a puppetry game).

 

[Hygro]

It's just a game, and thus not strictly realistic. But yes, the premise is influenced by mental disorder states, as well as the general idea of disorientation.

I will pivot from the original exercise and say here, it helps to recognize your own self-feeding markov chain of echoing thoughts/voices/ideas, and recognize the difference between paranoia and subconscious intelligence. A huge benefit of being a big stoner is eventually you realize that while a lot of things are little real, and that we are mammals and act in weird non rational, but predictable ways, by and large those resonant thoughts are paranoia (positive or negative) masking as inspiration.

Bringing it back to the exercise: in this case, I would say you want to combine options 1, 2, and 3. 1, take on experiences and party. 2, find ways to be chill and observe the actual goings on. And 3, get jaded to your own genius so you can leave behind the madness and discover your true potential. I would recommend against being the main character in your own movie, because then you are forcing your surroundings to contend with you, so while you can learn from the feedback they are giving you, you are distorting things too much to learn what truths are valuable and needed.

 

[Kyriakos]

The idea is roughly that while in more normal circumstances you are aware that you are creating and examining some function (such as a plan, as you alluded to in your post, @Hygro ), in this case the person has pushed himself inside the function. It's not straightforward to exit since such functions aren't meant to provide an exit within their own self (otherwise you couldn't control them from the outside).

 

[Kyriakos]

Since I might actually try to create a game out of this - but I am not sure - I think that the goal in-game should be to increase the player's ability to decide stuff without being tied to variations of the puppetry's plot. Since in theory any in-puppetry development should draw its elements from previous plots there, a solution might be to try (one way or another) to move to more independent behaviors.
It's what I intended option 3 to potentially lead to, although currently it's not very fleshed out at all.

 

[Gori the Grey]

So, in your game, the puppet master has fallen into the condition you describe and I can do things to his world to try to help him realize the fact?

And my objective is to get him to realize the fact?

 

[Kyriakos]

So, in your game, the puppet master has fallen into the condition you describe and I can do things to his world to try to help him realize the fact?

And my objective is to get him to realize the fact?

Sort of. You can do things within what is realized by the puppet-master. It won't be obvious from the start just what is going on (maybe I will go full Lynch and never make it obvious).