Journal of Possible Paradigms - Spring 2001
Majestic Art of Electronic Disinformation
http://www.elfis.net/mkc/mkcx/majesticarts.htm
"A character in the game might ask me the name of my wife. A few months later I might get a call saying, "'Neil, if you don't stop snooping, you might find Laurie in a pool of blood'."
-Neil Young, Game Designer at Anim-X
Back in February I learned of a new "game" which threatens to further blur the lines between fact and fiction within the ufo community and its relevant parapolitical / conspiracy sub-communities. It's called Majestic and it is being billed as "The game that plays you." This new online interactive experience uses the player's own mind as the gaming environment with the world wide web and telecommunications networks as its intravenous feed straight into that player's paranoia prone imagination. The international software developer, Electronic Arts, is banking on the popularity of paranoia as a sort of mental thrill ride. Depending upon what level of interactivity a player desires, players can be contacted by the game via web sites, email, online instant messaging, phone, fax, and even cellular phone messaging systems. With "reality" television shows like Mtv's Fear and the Fox Family Channel's World's Most Haunted Places already pushing the envelope of ethical entertainment, the inherant dangers of such a paranoic "game" are quite apparent.
Among the many ethical ambiguities implied by the very premise of the game is its use of real and fake web sites to promote real and hoax news stories. The game designers have gone so far as to create front companies for several of these web sites. They are actively urging fans of the game to create web sites to act as fronts for the game.
http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2655645,00.html
http://www.majestic-alliance.com/alliance.html
The disinformation is already spreading... I'm already receiving emails from experiencers and researchers who are forwarding links to web pages which turn out to be among the growing list of hoax sites. One experiencer sent me a link to an online image of a supposed reptoid alien. The link was to one of the top two Majestic related fan sites, www.abovetopsecret.com.
One of the likely hoax sites is www.chemtrail.com. If you do a whois lookup on this site you get the name of a company called Octopus Interactive - these web developers really know their conspiracy theory... Anyone familiar with the majority of conspiracy theory from the 1980s and 1990s should recognize the Octopus conspiracy as one of the (allegedly) farthest reaching and most convoluted. Most important is the Octopus theory's linking of continuing news reports about software known variously as the Inslaw and Promis programs that were designed with "back doors" for in-the-know agencies.
But perhaps one of the most direct potential dangers to this game's contamination of the UFO scene can be found within one of our communities most prolific contributors: Filers Files. Since July of last year, each issue of Filers Files has contained the important message "Sponsored by Electronic Arts" within its header. To date, Mr. Filer has not responded to my repeated sincere requests for more information on the nature of this sponsorship.
http://www.filersfiles.com/files/2000/FilersFiles26.htm
http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/updates/2000/jul/m03-033.shtml
Meanwhile, high quality parapolitical sites such as www.disinfo.com have officially announced their open participation in this new gaming experience.
Of course, many will see this game as a part of the conspiracy itself; ie- the Majestic game is simply a pretext for the very type of data gathering / backdoor access to your privacy engendered in the original claims of Octopus conspiracy researchers and NSA Echelon devotees.
From Disinfo.com - Majestic: The Welcome Intruders by Jeff Halpin
http://www.disinfo.com/pages/dossier/id830/pg1/
EA's new game "Majestic" (www.majesticthegame.com / www.majestic.ea.com) captures the experience of surfing the dissipative edge of reality and meta-fiction. Could it really be a social experiment to soften up host populations for the rumored "MJ-12" group and "Majestic" technology taken from a crashed saucer at Roswell? Or, more likely, is EA cashing in on the late 1990s "X-Files" phenomenon, using "Live Action Roleplaying" techniques? Jeff Halpin investigates, but decide for yourself.
More Majestic Fact ? Fiction Sites
EA.com and Anim-X have created a number of shell companies, which they used to register strange websites full of info about Majestic.
http://www.MajesticAlliance.com/
http://www.majestic-alliance.com/
http://www.sirnemisis.com/
http://www.majesticnetwork.com/
http://www.majestictheory.com/
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/
http://www.darkdata.org/
http://www.conspiracy-net.com/majestic/
Majestic
http://pc.ign.com/previews/8565.html
This IGN article (November 16, 2000), by Vincent Lopez, features commentary by EA's VP and Executive in Charge of Production of Majestic, Neil Young, about realtime experiences and reinventing the adventure game genre.
Majestic trailer (big) 10100K
http://pcmovies.ign.com/media/news/video/majestictrailerbig.mov
Majestic trailer (small) 2420K
http://pcmovies.ign.com/media/news/video/majestictrailersmall.mov
Majestic
http://www.gamecenter.com/Pc/Previews/Majestic/
This Gamecenter.com article (January 5, 2001), by Jason Ocampo, asks the salient question, "how long it will take before an innocent outsider stumbles into the game. Should a third party unknowingly intercept one of the game's death threats and turn it over to law enforcement, we imagine that there will be a whole lot of explaining to do."
Preview: Majestic
http://www.dailyradar.com/previews/game_preview_1155.html
This DailyRadar.com article (November 16, 2000), by Matt Sammons, examines EA's use of multistrand narrative (David Lynch, Robert Altman) and interactive technology (AOL Instant Message ID, fax, phone) in Majestic. "EA is setting some lofty goals here, and it is more than willing to throw around terms like "paradigm shift" and "the next generation of entertainment." For once, game fans may be in for more than vaporspeak."
ZDNet Gamespot: Majestic
http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/stories/previews/0,10869,2655645,00.html
This ZDNet Gamespot review of Majestic (November 17, 2000), by Amer Ajami, explains how AOL Instant Messaging and the different interactivity settings work. Ajami also explains why Majestic was inspired by MJ-12. ScreenShots | ChemtrailCon
http://www.zdnet.com/gamespot/filters/products/screens/0,11105,445181-4,00.html
Majestic: The Truth Out There
http://www.gamersrepublic.com/allformat/CrossPlatform/News/112000/majestic.asp
In this Gamers' Republic News article (November 20, 2000), by Shola Akinnuso, Anim-X president Neil Young warns that Majestic will have multiple endings, depending on how the game plays you. "Called a L.A.R.P (Live Action Role Player), Electronic Arts is the dungeon master, and the gamers are the inhabitants of a very intelligensia-oriented, very engaging exercise in human interaction."
EA's Majestic AIMs to Shake Things Up
http://www.happypuppy.com/news/articles/001117-n-1.html
This Happy Puppy review (November 17, 2000), by Raymond M. Padilla, likens an EA press conference to Discordian theater.
Something Wicked This Way Comes
http://pc.hotgames.com/features/180/features_1.htm
This HotGames.com editorial (November 27, 2000), by Dustin H. Chin, suggests that EA is playing "cat and mouse with the digital generation."
Preview: 'Majestic' Online Game Blurs Reality
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/computing/01/08/majestic.idg/index.html
This CNN article (January 8, 2001), by Dan Elektro, examines how Majestic fits with The Blair Witch Project (1999) and other cultural detritus that blurs the line between meta-fiction and reality.
FGN Online
http://www.fgnonline.com/pc/news/15080.html
This FGN Online article (August 24, 2000), by Anthony Hicks, features an interview with John Ricotello, EA's Preasident and COO. Ricotello: "Majestic will be the first PC game I've seen that will fax you or phone you."
EA's Majestic: The Online Game that Plays You
http://www.gamepro.com/index.html?/computer/pc/games/news/7391.shtml
This GamePro.com article (November 16, 2000), by Dan Elektro, briefly considers
how Majestic will affect the online gaming industry.
Dark Matter in Alternity - Role playing game with ParaUFO content
http://www.wizards.com/darkmatter/
Mtv's FEAR -
http://www.mtv.com/mtv/tubescan/fear/
