Roleplay

There are many reasons for us for consciously creating multiple, fake, anonymous or pseudonymous identities online (without becoming the petty tyrants we fight):

• Engaging in the present with no need for past or future references.
• Being who you are naturally and freeing your speech.
• Dreaming another you into being for gaming, hobbies, (online) roleplay, trolling the trolls, defense from mass surveillance, confusing surveillance, etc. in a way that it doesn’t automatically become a part of your finger- and footprint.
• Being more resilient online.
• Career actualisation, increased individuality, autonomy and freedom by separating professional and private information.
• Exploring abandonment of being, and gaining recognition on how your "usual identity" can be a trap.
• Challenging yourself and engaging at the edge.
• Feeding (r)evolution and self-authority.

Love it or hate it, the Anonymous mask has morphed under many guises. Starting life as the face of an audacious revolutionary, it has become a political disguise turned corporate nightmare. But it’s future as a potent image remains in the balance.

Because I am here.

Simulation games

Games and simulations can be powerful tools for exposing the nature of problems and exploring scenario planning paths, communication and are a structured approach to instruction, not necessarily excluding each other.

The advantages gaming and simulations offer over traditional "teaching" are:

• putting emphasis is on questioning over answering on the part of players
• providing opportunities to examine assumptions and implications underlying decisions.

Some simulations and plays can be done individually, others are a group activity where players cooperate or compete, some are run to explore in what ways we can get to a desired state, some to observe the effects of start and boundary condition changes.

Some rules are explicit, others are implicit and to be discovered. Debriefing or retrospectives after play is a usual and valuable component, particularly if it's an educational game/simulation. For this reason many multi-purpose simulations include observer roles.

When a scenario is added to the game, it becomes a simulation. For an example of that see Scenario planning Simulation: The Alpha Complex.

Resources

Presentations

• DEFCON 14: Beyond Social Engineering: Tools for Reinventing Yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-FPJ6lpRYU

Related

• Psychological warfare
• Scenario planning
• Self-dox
• Installing linux
• Trolling