is "drama" a kind of ARG?

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

This is going to sound weird, but it's a thought that occurred to me today and I want to write it down before I lose it.

So, I watch a lot of youtube. I have several interests that keep me watching there pretty much daily, and one of the things I enjoy watching is drama channels. These are channels that talk about the goings on between other youtubers. I never watch the dramatis personae themselves, but I do enjoy listening to other people's commentary on them.

But today I was thinking about Gabbie Hana and Trisha Paytas and Jeffree Star and all the rest and how it seems like they're always in some form of drama or another with each other. (I'm not talking about the serious stuff here, just the interpersonal stuff)

And lots of people have pointed out that drama seems to bubble up when someone has a product to sell or when their views have dipped, and I think that's definitely part of it. But also, watching the drama is kind of like watching a reality TV show.

But today I was thinking about how fans aren't just watching the drama, they're participating in it. Liking and retweeting and commenting and flaming etc. are all things that fans do to insert themselves into the narrative and try to give the creator of their choice a "win" in whatever the situation is.

And that just kind of reminded me of computer games, specifically ARGs (alternate reality games). In those kinds of games, the real world is the platform and the network is the way the story unfolds. Kind of like how youtubers lives' are the platform and social media is the place where the story unfolds.

Both drama and ARGs require users to go to multiple locations (like sites and videos and tweets etc) to gather up all of the information. They also rely on large groups of people sharing information between themselves to get the full picture together. They're a type of collaborative storytelling with the player both watching and participating in the drama and the more they participate, the more invested they become.

I'm still obviously at an early stage with this thought, but I think it might be how people like Trisha Paytas and Gabbie Hana are still relevant so long after you assume people would be bored of them. They're masters of the ARG format, whether they know it or not.

Comments

[touchingaheart]

From the other side, it's pretty how much drama and/or commentary channels keep afloat, too! It's pretty rare that a YTber come up with the 'initial story' (I can only think of Keemstar and DAngelloWallace off the top of my head, big and small yikes respectively) but for the most part they do bounce off each other, generating that thrumming web of interest snatching them lil flies who happened to catch a thumbnail. Unless you're explicitly following a creator, and maybe still rare even then, you generally wouldn't glance at a YT drama video unless it's got views, and views are created when similar videos already exist.


So I'm not saying the drama channels are IN in on it but I'm also not NOT saying that xD

Jefree Starr tho, is a whole 'nother beast on his own. I'll never forget that time when he not really but kinda maybe pretty much definitely faked a 2.3MIL robbery ahshskasj something like that to promote a shade or whatever, and the ones who went viral were actual news outlets instead of drama channels. The world never ceases to amaze me.

[memorizingthedigitsofpi]

oh, they for sure benefit from it! remember dramaggeddon 1? it was about 3 influencers flipping off another influencer and it dragged on forever. that was my introduction to drama commentary channels because I heard someone reference it and I didn't have any idea what was going on. from that outside perspective, it really did seem like a nothing story that they were all fanning the flames on to get views

and yeah, that JS thing with the concealers was insane XD