Tension Appreciation Thread

[TheBuzParticipant]

I just wanted to say how much I love this “game.” It’s infuriating, mind boggling, and down right ridiculous at times and I love all of it. I’ve never done anything like this before so it’s been fascinating these past few weeks really trying to solve this whole thing.

And putting on an immersive game experience like this is near impossible to pull off, nor is it monetarily feasible. From what I understand the last few ARG things haven’t exactly been financially successful.

So I wanted to throw some positivity towards The Tension Experience for pulling off some what of a small miracle bringing this many people to an unhealthy and beautiful level of obsession. The clues, puzzles, social media posts… maddening and fantastic, all of it.

I look forward to seeing what happens next and I appreciate any and all help they may bestow upon myself or any of my other participants in hope that it will help all of us.

[Andrew KaschParticipant]

Here! Here!

A hearty thanks to all the people behind the scenes who are making this the most enjoyable immersive experience I’ve ever been a part of! We appreciate everything you’ve been doing.

[Neil KingParticipant]

This experience has changed my life already and I cannot even begin to show my appreciation. It has given me something to look forward to every day regardless of interactions. I love thinking outside the box and meeting people who I now call friends and have been there for me through the roughest year of my life thus far. A few months back moving out of Los Angeles was an option, now because of Tension – that option has quickly disappeared. I have to see this through and I love everything they are doing. Great job to everyone behind the scenes, you have saved me.

Glory Be!

[MichelleParticipant]

Agree 100%…

I never realized things like this existed. It’s brought me into a whole new world. A few years ago I found Blackout and it changed my life. Becoming a part of this, it’s introduced to so much more… immersive theater, escape rooms. It’s been life changing socially and mentally. I’m not a puzzle person. They throw me the fuck off. I can look at a puzzle 10x longer than some of you and still say “I don’t get it.” But, this whole thing is teaching me to think outside the box and look at everything as a clue.

But, I had the chance to meet a few of you. Being shy and introverted most of the time, the hours leading up mixer was very stressful for me. Everyone was so welcoming and nice even to a newbie and outsider like myself. The Tension Experience came at a perfect moment in my life from a personal standpoint. This last year has been tremendously trying, divorce does that to you, and it’s breathed new life in me.

I hope the future is bright for The Tension Experience and this is just the beginning.

Glory Be!

[111_errorParticipant]

It’s been quite a week, huh?

Tension is .. well who knows. I can’t define it, nor do I necessarily want to, but it’s brought together some of the most wonderful people I know.
I have never seen this much passion for something like this, the closest I can think of might be I Love Bees, but even those fans weren’t as enthused as the people here. Considering that Tension is not an established brand, or carrying a history of events that people are drawn to, this is an incredible success, and one that I hope they are very proud of. Can anyone think of something we cared about this much, before it had even started? Me neither.

Sometimes, tense people say and do stupid things. We’re humans; Most of us are stupid animals, myself very very much included. That some of our passion was misdirected is not something we should be ashamed of, but I’d like to help redirect it.
I doubt the tension is going to let up as the following months play out, and I want to help us not eat each other alive. I also want to do my part to help us be more welcoming to newcomers, help them get a handle on what’s happening – or at the very least, let’s stop accusing every new account without a profile pic of being a plant. I also hope we will be less accusatory towards each other, and continue building something here that in years to come, we’ll look back and talk about one of the greatest stories we were ever a part of.

Because, that’s already what it is, and it’s up to us to foster and protect it if we want it to last.

If you have a social media account, FaceSpam or Twitwank or whatever your favorite poison is, talking about Tension and your experiences in it, and especially if you have experiences at events, is really important, and *is* noticed. I’m going to do what I can to help this take another step forward.

Buz, you still have the best jacket in the room and one day I am going to win it in a game of poker. Andrew, you’re still more handsome than you have any natural right to be. Michelle, Neil, I don’t have any decent one liners for you, but you were both very warm and weird people when I met you, and that’s my kind of person.

I have far more close friends now than I did when I turned up and started posting stupid cryptic nonsense, and I hope we can carry on this ridiculous adventure together with yet more friends we don’t yet know.

|||

[edit] Unintentional 3x 1’s in the time I posted this. Glory be.

[Neil KingParticipant]

Very well said! Thanks for the kind words you were weird as well – my kind of people also. I’m sure we speak for all and say we’d love to see you again but understand the time and financial commitment it takes for you to get here.

[MichelleParticipant]

xoxo… you know many of my secrets my friend. Weird puts it mildly;) I adore you as well!

[Jake OParticipant]

It was great to finally meet you! I’m not gonna lie, I did think you may have been part of tension at first with your cryptic posts.
That’s partially due to the paranoia they infused into the experience, but mostly because your persona was so fully formed and well executed!
I too hope to get to hang out again at some point in the future, but understand if you can’t make it down here.

[Sean (@TheGilded)Moderator]

You’ve all touched on what I want to touch on… Tension is something unlike what most of us have ever seen before. I know through speaking with many of you that this has extraordinarily exciting since moment one.

It’s made us tense, and many of us reacted publicly not because we hate Tension, but because we love it so damn much.

And I do. We do.

[Anonymous]

I APPRECIATE TENSION A LOT.

More later, when I’m not in a $600 class.

[Susie JParticipant]

I love not only the mechanism of the experience but the multilayered environment it provides. I talk to you guys every day and have become attached to how well everyone is doing. This is truly a unique place that we have all built.

[MikeParticipant]

This is unlike anything else I’ve ever been a part of and it’s AMAZING. I’ve made friends and share amazing experiences with them. Everything I’m personally into (horror, haunts, arg’s, immersive theater, etc) has been a part of this experience for me. I love this thing and can’t wait to see where else it goes and where else it explores.

I’m glad you’re back on board @111error (even though you’re a limey wanker..I mean wankah) <3

[_Michael GrayParticipant]

Since day 1 I have fallen in love with Tension and it is a daily part of my life. I love the community that they have provided for us to build. I’ve made truly new friends and discovered a whole new subculture in the process. One of my enjoyments is the daily “Cult Talk” at work with my guys. They truly love hearing about it and live vicariously through me. In all, I’m completely amazed that this is being all put together for us, as well by us. Thank you Tension for all of this!!

[Jake OParticipant]

I appreciate tension for the massive undertaking it is to create this ever evolving story and mix it with a real world experience.

I love that they have given us the ability to build this community. Like @halfbloodfangirl I haven’t been this excited about a show/movie/theater since going through Blackout Haunted House for the first time. Which, believe or not, ultimately led me to find this experience and a lot of friends both new and old.

I’ve never been a part of an online community in this way, and I think that’s been the most difficult part of this. Keeping up with everything has definitely been difficult while trying to work, as many of us are painfully aware! But I’m rewarded by every new interaction I have, person I meet, and live experience they create.

I can’t wait to see where this goes and what these damn tickets are for(if I’m lucky enough to get one)!

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by  Jake O.

[Addison BornParticipant]

I love you guys.

I love what we’ve built here. I love this community.

I love that I’ve been given close friendships through this experience.

I love that we’ve been a part of this experience for fucking months and still don’t know what it is.

I love the bravery of whoever or whatever is behind this to make this such an immersive experience. The scale of this thing is unprecedented and just keeps building.

I love that I answer every “unknown caller” with equal parts excitement and dread, and that I’ve gotten to freak out telemarketers with demands that they tell me what they’ve done with Addison.

I love that we’ve been given something so personal, something that affects us all daily, something that has given us multiple avenues of introspection and inspired deep conversations about previously unexperienced ethical dilemmas.

I love that I can continue being a part of this.

I love that it’s given me a reason to ramble on about something on the ol’ blog after months of dormancy.

I love that something as simple as an OOA account disappearing can send us all into a panic.

I love that this is an experience about US, put on for US, and directly influenced by US.

I love Tension.

[Anonymous]

I really do love Tension and I have a lot more to say, I’m just stuck in this class until 3:30 (another hour fifteen).
And it’s basically a CAD class if you or someone you know has ever had to take one. It’s easier than CAD but it’s still CAD.
Anyways, I LOVE TENSION. MORE ON THIS LATER.
ALSO I LOVE ALEISTER.

[Anonymous]

OK here’s my full I APPRECIATE TENSION post.

What first caught my eye about The Tension Experience was their Facebook page description of “performance art.” This bears so much resemblance to an ARG to me but most of the biggest ARGs have been marketing stunts for movies, games, etc. I’m interested in the performance aspect of ARGs from a research/academic standpoint. I’m primarily a professional theatre designer – lighting & video/media/projections – but I also study games, video games, and gamification, I write sometimes on this for Howlround (I wrote this) and hope to be creating my own ARG when I go on my junior sabbatical in 2018, as part of my “ARGs are also performance!” research.

I have talked about Tension to other performance studies faculty in my department and they are ENTHRALLED. I don’t want to get too into why, that will happen sometime down the road, but as an art form this is something that is NOT written about, NOT studied, and is essentially “new” in many ways. And not knowing where it’s going only adds to that – I have no idea if this is an ARG or if it’s theatre. It has had many aspects of both thus far, and more live performance elements than other ARGs I’ve been aware of, but it’s ultimately exciting because it feels like it could be groundbreaking. And I get to be here, experiencing it. That makes me incredibly grateful and lucky. I haven’t felt this way since my days as a Cloudmaker.

In addition to all of that, holy shit, I have made some amazing friends here. THAT was not something I expected. I have real emotional investment in these people and this community. You’ve made me cry, and you’ve made me angry, and you’ve made me joyful. You’ve inspired me to paint, which is NOT something that I do as part of my “normal” artistic practice so it’s kind of “new” to me, and helps balance my days and make me feel connected creatively. This is my first summer as a college professor, so it’s my first summer of not working every day. It’s weird. If I didn’t have this, it would be even weirder.

That all being said, I try to not invest too much in it because I don’t know what kind of experience can be created for someone who lives in the frozen hellhole that is Minnesota. I also fear disappointment because (as I’ve said before) I have a difficult time pinning down what “fear” means and what “scares” me. Whatever it is, it’s NOT the traditional scary stuff. It’s weirder, and more personal, and probably a lot more work. I don’t know that anyone is going to go to that trouble for a girl in Minnesota for zero dollars. I hope that I will be as much a part as anyone else, but mostly I sit here and take notes on this experience in order to create my own later on. I would also love to hook up the Twin Cities Horror Community to The Tension Experience to see if any collaboration could be had there, but I don’t know either group personally of course.

One thing for which I do NOT appreciate Tension: it has screwed up my sleep schedule. I’m old-ish. Not getting regular sleep is a serious problem for me. But I’m in a different time zone, and things tend to happen for Tension when I should be in bed! I need to fix that, so please don’t think I’m not participating if I’m not around late at night, I’m just trying to take care of myself.

[Michael RizzoParticipant]

Yea, as been said tension truly is its own beast, never have I experienced something as immersive and captivating as tension. I’m not part of forums anywhere or anything like a digital community that have become legit friends until tension, the story sucked me in and the community made it clear this was down thing to stick with. Ups and downs and all that, tension will stay being full of tension… But what really have me smiling is that they still reach out to people and they still try to do right and make sure everyone is enjoying the experience. I’ve had my ups and downs and the only reason I’m still in this is LITERALLY community, with out community I wouldn’t have ever been voted back in! Thanks to everyone (participants, admins, gatekeepers, guides), you have all made an amazing community and it truly is something special.

[DaelaParticipant]

[Anonymous]

So far everything I’ve seen a with it is really cool.

[Author]

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