Only the Lonely(girl15)

I don't really understand Alternate Reality Games, but I've always the idea was pretty cool. Usually they're used by a company as an alternate way to market something - the biggest one probably was "I Love Bees," which was used to promote Halo 2. My friend was so into one of them that he got something involving it onto TV during the presidential debates that were at ASU. Basically they're like role playing games, but instead of playing with pieces or books or paper, it's integrated into real life, and you have to go to Web sites, call phone numbers, receive stuff in the mail and so on. And it's not a self aware thing - you sort of have to figure out it's a game, it doesn't tell you. Yeah, I don't really understand them. "Lost" did one over the summer to bridge the gap between seasons 2 and 3, although they were pretty upfront about that one.

Which brings us to this lass - lonelygirl15. She's been posting video blogs (or "vlogs" as annoying people insist on calling them) on YouTube
for a couple of weeks, which have quickly become an Internet phenomenon, despite the fact that the videos aren't very interesting to watch. But there's something about them that seem too perfectly rehearsed, and have led people into thinking this is the next alternate reality game, or some sort of viral marketing for a new TV show, movie or video game. Plus she looks way older than she's supposed to be, another, more obvious, clue. And I gues the biggest indicator is that she has the vibe of a really bad actor and not like, a person. It is obvious that she's not an actual bored teenager - the professional(ish) editing and hip tunes used for a soundtrack are just part of the evidence.

Today, the plot thickened a little bit - on the official site's forum, people claiming to be the creators stated: "the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is "who is she?" We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us."

Of course, now, not only is the post down, so is the entire forum. Also, none of that makes any sense, but we'll just call that a coincidence.

The UK's Guardian has some info that makes a bit more sense: "But internet sleuths have established that emails sent by lonelygirl15 came from the powerful Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood, and that lonelygirl15 was registered as a trademark by a California lawyer two weeks ago."

Internet fame is weird - you can be anonymous, a fat kid with a lightsaber or a fake person, and still get more recognition that distinguished, contributing members of society. You can even be dead, like Scottsdale-area softcore porn star Angela Devi, and have no one know for sure. "YouTube star" Brooke Brodack even got a job with NBC out of it.

The Internet is awesome.