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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

 
12:22 PM: what's going on [#] [0]

another go game yesterday, this one w/ mixed success. we were asked to meet almost an hour ahead of the game, which meant that after we were handed our assignments, we had about 45 minutes to kill before we could conceivably see the first teams. but the game must have started late, because i didn't see a team until 2 hours into the game. we ran over by almost an hour, which meant i was actively walking downtown for over 3 hours.

i was initially slated to be the "bride" like i was at the skamania game. it's a pretty fun role in a closed environment, but in the middle of downtown portland it would have been a little awkward. but more importantly, i don't fit into the dress they have at all; i can't zip up the back.

so instead i became "deadweight," a role which walks around looking for teams and then tries to misdirect, distract, and generally slow them down as they try to complete tasks. it's only for about 5 minutes, and if teams include me and are nice despite my flaws, i give them a clue to get bonus points at the end of the game.

out of 7 teams, only 2 were nice enough to give the clue. i was willing to give a clue to anyone who was even remotely willing to play along: i mean, it's only for 5 minutes, and i'm really about as harmless as "lose a turn" or "go back two spaces" on a game board. the teams are warned about me at the beginning: i was wearing sven's tiger-print hat and when teams would see me they'd often cry, "it's the tiger hat lady!" and i could see the panic in their eyes (and sometimes they'd make as if to run, though the go game doesn't want people to run in case they fall and sue).

i thought people would groan when they realized who i was, but not that they'd be actively hostile. deadweight has a lot of leeway for annoying techniques and filibustering, but i played the "killing them with kindness" card: i was ruthlessly cheerful and asked lots of questions and wanted to be very actively involved in everything they were doing. (heh: now that i think of it, i was probably channeling toby.) so i was surprised when, for example, one team i actually -helped- complete a task thanked me by leaving the amber necklace i loaned them right in the middle of pioneer courthouse square because they couldn't be bothered to give it back to me. most teams just tried to ignore me or shut me out or rules monger or control the situation by asking me questions as an actor rather than my character.

even teams that ultimately turned out nice enough to give a clue started off adversarily, but one team actually did answer all my questions kindly and took a picture of us together as a team, and one team went along with my "fear of heights" panic in the glass elevator and tried to take care of me.

by the way, in case it turns out useful later, i'm from the capital of connecticut. :)