The Other Side of the Looking Glass - March 9, 2007

I really hope the smith virus like the flame virus spreads on contact, but the carrier would need the smith virus luggable. I can imagine a lot of fun with this.

Looking forward to the event.

what im wondering is will the smith virus be the chapter 7 archive reward.....

I really hope the smith virus like the flame virus spreads on contact, but the carrier would need the smith virus luggable. I can imagine a lot of fun with this.

Looking forward to the event.

Canon, the ultimate debate/discussion. Heh.

But aye, i've discussed it so many times in the past i canne be arsed to re-write all my views.

But i will bring up some of the more important points. ^.^

A) The Matrix Online, and heck a lot of the matrix universe itself, is a HUGELY multi-layered, collaborative and shared storyline experience, what creates it is a symbosis of mass amounts of creativity and talent, personality and subjection. From a variety of minds, it's the brothers, the comic writers, the actors, paul chadwick, rarebit, lesig, the old pre-release story and an infinuem of other influences. What The Matrix Story is is one big example of emergence.

B) This game is the official continuation - it was marked by the brothers and the franchise as the continuation - the official story. Now, being what it is as described in point a, that also means it's material is massively subjective. but thats what makes it so interesting, thats whats made the films so interesting, what makes story mediums as a whole interesting. From The Matrix to Evangelion the thing i like about a good story, and feel makes them so special, is the fact that people experience them in varying degrees. When i take in from the infinuem of material and creativity i subsequently create my own experience is completely unique - when another person does the same and comes out with their own completely unique experience is when you know it's something beyond the norm.

C) My guess over why this event being "canon" to the players and the story has been brought into question is that this may not have been overseen and reviewed by the brothers themselves, POBS was likely the same. Year 1 of the main story was, and so has year 2. Bear in mind the relation to point A here as to review and clasification of 'canon'.

D) People need to remember this is NOT the return of Smith - this is the return of The Smith Virus - a story element which has been in the continuation since pre-launch in the Agent Gray background description - no doubt such a detail was overviewed by the brothers. Since then it has manifested in various others forms - their canonical weight being fully open for debate of course but still,  its undenyably there and just another point in the unique experience described in point B.

E) One may argue The Matrix Story is what the brothers say it is - they could disregard all of MxO if they wanted (what would be very surprising considering they themselves wanted to, and did, hand the evolution of the universe to other creatives as well the players themselves, an honourable and unprecidented decision in conventional creative works.) but if one thinks about it, what makes that fact mean that MxO is any less canonical than say the movies of the comics? They could just as easily disregard Matrix 2 and 3, or the Second Reno. Would they make them any less a part of the universe in the eyes of the fans?

F) I'm sure i had other points but after however long this has taken to write and concentrate on i've forgotton them.

COLORS DON'T WORK!!!

Edit: Colors do work, I'm just a noob.



A) The Matrix Online, and heck a lot of the matrix universe itself, is a HUGELY multi-layered, collaborative and shared storyline experience, what creates it is a symbosis of mass amounts of creativity and talent, personality and subjection. From a variety of minds, it's the brothers, the comic writers, the actors, paul chadwick, rarebit, lesig, the old pre-release story and an infinuem of other influences. What The Matrix Story is is one big example of emergence.

I think a differentiation has to be made between the question "who has written it", and "did he write it as canon"?

Yes, you can question the canon level of MxO because you don't have to consider something that Rarebit writes canon if you only accept material written or approved by the brothers as canon. To an outsider Matrix fan, it might matter if the Wachowskis write it, or a new game designer. That's also what I mean by "multiple levels of canon".

But I think most of us accept MxO's entire story content, whether written by the brothers, Chadwick, Rarebit or earlier writers as "MxO canon", the story/universe shaped by different people - but only as long as they write is as canon.

If the same people decide to organize some fun event, clearly labeled as "non-canon", it's not considered canon. So when uncertainty in this area comes up, it annoys me.

B) This game is the official continuation - it was marked by the brothers and the franchise as the continuation - the official story. Now, being what it is as described in point a, that also means it's material is massively subjective. but thats what makes it so interesting, thats whats made the films so interesting, what makes story mediums as a whole interesting. From The Matrix to Evangelion the thing i like about a good story, and feel makes them so special, is the fact that people experience them in varying degrees. When i take in from the infinuem of material and creativity i subsequently create my own experience is completely unique - when another person does the same and comes out with their own completely unique experience is when you know it's something beyond the norm.

If we are the receiving audience of a story, we aren't the ones to judge about the canon factor, it's the writers.
And I don't mean interpretations or other degrees of perception (or how much you believe the events in the Bible actually happened), I really mean the bare question of what is a part of the story, and what is not.

Can I just say "ok, I consider the General canon because it's the kewl Sentinels from the movies, but Anome with his laser pew-pew and mama issues I don't"? Of course, but that's nothing but self-delusion.

C) My guess over why this event being "canon" to the players and the story has been brought into question is that this may not have been overseen and reviewed by the brothers themselves, POBS was likely the same. Year 1 of the main story was, and so has year 2. Bear in mind the relation to point A here as to review and clasification of 'canon'.

I think much of Rarebit's subplots have not been approved by the Wachowskis, as he didn't know anything about their influence up until very recently.

We still consider them canon, because we consider the dev team's or LET's contributions canon, and the team wrote it as canon.

D) People need to remember this is NOT the return of Smith - this is the return of The Smith Virus - a story element which has been in the continuation since pre-launch in the Agent Gray background description - no doubt such a detail was overviewed by the brothers. Since then it has manifested in various others forms - their canonical weight being fully open for debate of course but still,  its undenyably there and just another point in the unique experience described in point B.

The fact that it's not his return makes the question at least a bit less critical.
The fact that it deals with a theme that was overviewed with the Wachowskis (in case if) makes it more canon.

But the question if what happens there is canon still stands.

E) One may argue The Matrix Story is what the brothers say it is - they could disregard all of MxO if they wanted (what would be very surprising considering they themselves wanted to, and did, hand the evolution of the universe to other creatives as well the players themselves, an honourable and unprecidented decision in conventional creative works.) but if one thinks about it, what makes that fact mean that MxO is any less canonical than say the movies of the comics? They could just as easily disregard Matrix 2 and 3, or the Second Reno. Would they make them any less a part of the universe in the eyes of the fans?

Disregarding something you don't like without an objective reason is, as I said, wrong.

Alternate writers at least is a considerable reason, but it's an ambiguous reason, you can view it this and the other way.

If the writer says: "okay, this is not canon", it is a definite reason to disregard it as canon, and if you still do, it's your right, but in the essence, wrong.

And when this line gets crossed by the writers themselves, you're getting confused, and annoyed.

''And, as many suspected, luggables will make their second in-game appearance. They'll be playing a major role in this event and hopefully give us the data we need to make them a permanent part of the game. Stay tuned for more on that one.''

This is going to be fantastic.

I wonder what the major role will be?  And that the luggables will be?  And if at the end of this event, the smith virus will have infected someone enough to rebuild Smith himself.... not likely, but I can hope.

"You can choose to make it part of your own Matrix "canon" for your activities if you'd like. Otherwise, consider it an anomaly that will be resolved on April 10."

Does this mean that it will have little or no effect on the overall storyline?  In A Peice of Blue Sky, I thought the worst part of an otherwise very good event was that it had very little effect on the following storyline.  A friend of mine actually left the game because of it.  I think the question of "canon" is irrelevant.  It's a peice of fiction, not some sort of literal text (as if anything truely is), so the question of "canon" seems irrelevant to me.  What is relevent, is the experience the peice of fiction induces, and that is dependend upon supsension of disbeleif, which requires events to happen in certain way.  As the Merovengian says, it's all about cause and effect.  The human mind establishes meaning by defining past, present, and future.  That's why we don't remember so many of our dreams.  So ultimately, if the event has no effect on the storyline, regrettably, it will be forgettable, though I won't deny it could be great when it happens, and I will keep hoping that it will have some sort of long-lasting effect.

Aquatium. wrote:

I really hope the smith virus like the flame virus spreads on contact, but the carrier would need the smith virus luggable. I can imagine a lot of fun with this.

Looking forward to the event.

Well luggables drop when you kill the person, and apparently you can't kill the smith virus out of someone. Or I read that somewhere and believed it.

I was hoping it would spread in a similar vein to the Zombie virus - you get stuck with the hand in your chest and get turned into a Smith, then you get an ability to change other people into Smiths.

Only this time there's no cure. <.<

phaydren wrote:

what im wondering is will the smith virus be the chapter 7 archive reward.....

It's not part of the chapter 7 storyline but you never know.