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Decided to explore more this idea of fan re/creations in virtual worlds. So I created a sock puppet on the Switch to develop a new #ACNH resident that reflects the most impactful fandom in my life: Mara Jade from #StarWars. Going to autoeth reflect on the experience. #VWFandom
Interesting to play as her so far because: 1. she is just a resident and doesn't have to work, whereas I feel like "me" is the owner and has to work to make the island good; and 2. she is definitely a woman but is more adventurous than me, if that makes sense.
Thinking I should create a Luke Skywalker puppet and then have them send love notes to each other. Have them live side by side, getting something like domestic bliss which they never got to have. Like an embodied fanfic, where I get to AU and give them happiness.
With Mara, I feel like she would only want to wear black and green, or have those be her primary colors. For her house, it has to be pretty Spartan, and dark colors, but that she would love to do wood and iron working in her domestic bliss.
Once her house is going, then I can start Luke, and I think he wants a comfy house and a lot of greenery and water works around him, given where he grew up.
I go back and forth on calling them puppets and skins. I guess it depends on how I see them in the moment.
I go back and forth on calling them puppets and skins. I guess it depends on how I see them in the moment.
Also finding it interesting to think through their favorite clothes, food, décor.
So far I just have Mara running around my island, but what does she like to wear? No skirts, I figure, and a lot of black and green colors, because that's I remember reading her wearing.
So far I just have Mara running around my island, but what does she like to wear? No skirts, I figure, and a lot of black and green colors, because that's I remember reading her wearing.
I figure she would be more Spartan in her décor, more focused on wood and iron, which she likes to build with. Indeed, her pastime is more about woodworking and DIY than mine, as I like gardening more. She also doesn't care much about critters, or the other residents.
She really likes the idea of a self-reliant lifestyle -- far more than me, as I am trying to get as many creature comforts as I can.
And it's weird, because of course this is all coming from me, but she does feel different from me at the same time.
And it's weird, because of course this is all coming from me, but she does feel different from me at the same time.
Got Luke started now. Set him up by some water. I figure he'd really be into water, fishing, swimming, and growing things. And just plain exploring. He also has to be nice to everyone and try to help them whenever he can.
And it is so much harder shopping for him! I don't think he would be extravagant and would like low-key, comfy furniture and clothing. And red and black clothing, I feel. But I have no idea! I have never seen him clad in colors, and he seems as Spartan as Mara, but more fun?
It also feels weird to receive packages from Mother. Mara was taken from her parents, and Luke's mom, well...
I think Luke's appearance turned out very well, and I like Mara's except for her eyes. I don't know how to capture her eyes, whereas I have a lot of experience with Luke's eyes...and staring into them dreamily...
Got Mara's eyes better now, and Luke should have his home tomorrow. Going to try playing dolls with them and take some pictures. Use them like action figures, in a way, in dioramas. So they can be characters, avatars, puppets, dolls...all real in my imaginary #ACNH world.
I have also decided that they shall never attend any #acnhfireworks because as war veterans they have PTSD. So during these shows they seek comfort in each others arms. This shipping has hurt/comfort elements. Which, in a sense, lines up with the original EU, that's now an AU...
Also thinking about identification while playing. Growing up, I both identified with and aspired to be them in various ways. I wanted to get out of my rural life like Luke. I wanted to be as strong as Mara. I wanted to find someone to love like they found each other.
I saw myself in both of them. I wanted to be more like them. I wanted to be Mara and have Luke, but I felt like the awkward farmboy Luke more than the extremely skilled Mara -- yet I felt I had Mara's stunted emotionality.
My parasocial relationship with each character, and their relationship, revealed and involved different aspects of myself. I see this as demonstrating the complex nature of both identification and fandom, how simultaneously contrasting characteristics can be highlighted.
Now, playing as them, controlling their self-presentation and actions, I find I am again extending and performing different aspects of myself through them. Would have to be. The reason I identified with them in the first place was a perception of similarity and a desire for more.
I perform based on who I am. I write/perform/puppeteer what I know. They are parts of me because I have chosen to perceive them as such. They are my interpetations, as they can't be anything but, given my subjective experience of them. That interpretation fuels my identification.
So Luke likes the water, gardening, and exploring because I do. I know from the stories that objectively the last is true (same with liking hot cocoa). But the first two -- who knows? I just figure someone who grew up in a desert would love those things he couldn't have.
Mara is harder. The main thing I connected with for her was her independence and self-reliance. So I figure she'd be more into DIY, and am building her island experience around that idea. And more pants than skirts. She always seemed to wear jumpsuits in the books.
And it's weird because I look at this Luke I made and he really looks like Luke, but I don't know how much that's me convincing myself or if he objectively does, or which matters most.
Okay, images and vids to start the fanfic part of this. Here's what they look like: https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1290406153701138432?s=19
And here is the start of their story: https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1290406755445309440?s=19
Mara responds -- trying to follow the books where her goal is to kill Luke per the Emperor's orders. https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1291397550814068738?s=19
I am thinking of having them meet next week, but only so Mara can confirm that her neighbor is indeed that Luke Skywalker.
Of course, there is no killing in #ACNH, and the game is all about kindness.
So Luke will have to help her shed her guilt over letting the Emperor die.
Of course, there is no killing in #ACNH, and the game is all about kindness.
So Luke will have to help her shed her guilt over letting the Emperor die.
Which, I mean, didn't happen, really, because of all the damn clones Palpatine had, both in the original EU and now in this mangled Abrams trilogy.
One reason I created them is because I wanted more friends to play with. #ACNH has been out long enough that many people have moved on. Which has me reflecting on my long struggle with making and keeping friends, people that I do things with.
And on how I had an imaginary friend named -- I kid you not -- 7-up to play with until my brothers go old enough.
And given my penchant for parasocial relationships with fictional characters and celebrities, I wonder how much being a first child in a rural area with fewer opportunities to play with kids my own age impacted my imaginary literacy. Do I make up friends to fill that need?
Which then makes me think about uses and gratifications theory, and the common finding that people usr media for socializing purposes. My imaginary friends and parasocial relationships definitely seem intended to gratify that need.
Also, how much can autoethnography devolve into self-therapy or, worse, navel-gazing? I will have to watch out for that.
Mara will not take this well... https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1293336185029267456?s=19
Yeah...this is not going to go well... https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1293553560513212416?s=19
Also, I swear, Mara runs faster than I do. So now I am jealous of her and myself in this game.
It's hard buying presents for them. I feel I know Luke enough to get him a writing desk. He seems like the kinda fellow who like writing letters. I got Mara a Nintendo Switch. I could see her as a gamer, and a very competitive one.
Been away from this for a couple weeks because /motionsateverything, but starting to get back -- and Mara is freaking out: https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1301360836934418434?s=20
So, yeah, gotta have them meet soon: https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1301711803290804224?s=20
Mara managed to be the first on our island to catch the sturgeon. It was hilarious! And it wasn't me. I haven't caught one yet. I also run slower than both Luke and Mara. I now cannot see it any other way. It's mind over reality: I have come to believe it, and so it is real.
That ability to perceive reality based on what we wish to see, or what we are told to see -- potentially very dangerous, when it comes to populist manipulation or fanatical cults, but also very helpful as a coping mechanism, such as having a hopeful disposition.
Like, my therapist wants me to see myself and the world differently. It's a common approach in cognitive-behavioral therapy: change how you perceive to change how you act. So it's not necessarily a bad thing.
But it does drive home the power of subjectivity and its relation to objective reality. How we will never truly be able to know objective reality because of our subjective experiences and appraisals of it.
But I digress. What I thought of yesterday, in writing Luke's return message to Mara, was how asynchronous this fanfic writing experience is. When I've written fanfic in the past, it would usually be me sitting down and letting it pour out -- and sure, that might be in spurts --
But it wasn't like writing one line of dialogue at a time. It would be dialogue, description, exposition, all of it just flowing out until I hit a wall.
Here, it's like I don't have to write any of the description, because I have already created that through gameplay.
Here, it's like I don't have to write any of the description, because I have already created that through gameplay.
And I don't have to write any exposition or inner monologue -- the former because that's all been done for me in the original EU, and the latter because, well, I can't. There's no place for it. It's just in my head, and there isn't much that isn't in the dialogue.
So that flow in writing is missing. And I always found that flow to be enjoyable. Just sitting down with myself, telling myself a story, and getting into that story. I haven't had that here because of how #ACNH postal works. And I haven't tried to bring them both on at once.
That is coming, where I actually bring them "face-to-face" but I'm not sure how to do it yet. Login as me and bring them to the place where I can pose them, like puppets, for pictures? And add dialogue after that? Like actually script out what to have them say and film that?
Or do I login as one of them, bring the other on to play together, and then try to control them both -- still a puppetmaster, but unseen?
I guess I'll have to do both to truly experience this #VWFandom.
I guess I'll have to do both to truly experience this #VWFandom.
I'm wrapping up the #VWFandom experiment/autoethnography in #ACNH today and will migrate this thread, and my thoughts, to my blog. I'm finding it just too time consuming, compared to my other fanfic experiences.
So here's an older post to wrap things up: https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1314987427803459585?s=20
So here's an older post to wrap things up: https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1314987427803459585?s=20
Because I had legit forgotten what I wrote, as Luke, to Mara back on Oct 10. And with so much time passing between posts, and the inability to really "talk" to each other in ACNH when playing together, it's just hard to construct a story: https://twitter.com/MediaOracle/status/1322245670502162432?s=20
So I decided to use the Call Resident function and bring Luke into the game while playing as Mara. I wanted to see what was possible when they were on screen together -- and very happy Luke would just automatically teleport to Mara if she got too far away...
