What is this, 1999?

Games of Nonchalance

ernie:

glenda:

So when I lived in SF among the many fun things I did was THIS.  I loved it so much that I recommended it to everyone, and when people came to visit me, I would even make them go while I went off and did something.  It’s a really eye-opening and interesting way to see San Francisco, and it sure as hell beats being a tourist in San Francisco (in one of those hokey sweatshirts that you bought at the Wharf).

So, I’m saying.  You need good walking shoes, $1.10, and 2-5 hours.  And you need to get to 580 California, Suite 1607.  I suggest getting there on the days specified between noon and 1PM to start.

Seriously.  If you have not done this, you are missing one of the coolest things to do in SF.  And it’s practically free.  Seriously.

You’re an unemployed web worker, what else are you going to do anyway?

I absolutely agree, and while I’m more of a passive player myself, I totally recommend this, especially to people who have just moved to SF who just wanna take in something cool about their new city.

Let me just go off once more about this awesome thing I’ve been lucky enough to participate in…

One thing I found interesting, if perhaps self-defeating, about the project is that it started on the down-low, so that you either had to be invited to play (by cryptic email from a fictional party), or you saw a flier on the street about some crazy invention, or a post on Craigslist, and it was up to you to figure out what this thing might really be. Despite it being fairly easy (at least I thought) to figure out that the self-actualization cult was fictional through some basic Googling (they say they’ve been around since 1972, but there’s nothing on them anywhere online until 2008?), I’ve been asked by more than one person, “how do you know they’re not a real cult?” And even then, I have to admit, they did such a good job on constructing the facade’s verisimilitude, that when I went down to start the game, and the intro video mentioned connections to EST and Scientology, I almost bolted, and I had to remind myself that I was sitting in a fiction. A different flavor of fiction from Scientology, anyway.

So now they have a website that tries to tell you what it is, without blowing any of the mystery that makes it fun to interact with as you piece the narrative together.