Play_Along

Play along! Astonish us!
Welcome to the Fantasy Automated Investors League (#fail12), a netprov in conjunction with the 2012 Twitter Fiction Festival (#twitterfiction).

We invite you to join in the writing and play a special role in the story.

So far. . .
Since Wednesday (11.28.12) old business-school buddies Consuela (@Consualtants), Dan (@Dans_dataminers) and Lisa (@Lisas_lions) have been dealing with a crisis in their ongoing, 5-year fantasy league. Not a fantasy football league, but a fantasy business league, where they combine their hand-picked, dream management team with a dream portfolio to try to out-earn the competition, trashtalking each other all the way.

Wednesday
First, Consuela and her Consualtants made a shocking bid to buy out Dan’s Dataminers. Dan was embarrassed at his team’s poor performance. Lisa worried that this would mean the end of the friendly game.

Thursday
Then it turned out that Consuela had designs not only on Dan’s company, but on Dan himself, as a romantic partner and the father of her children. Lisa objected and confessed that she has been in love with Dan for years. At the end of the evening, Dan said he needs until Sunday to make any decision on Consuela’s offer(s).

THIS IS WHERE YOU COME IN
Starting Friday (11.30.12) a new wrinkle emerges as it becomes clear that the companies everyone thought were virtual are actual real-life companies with actual real-life employees! Connie, Lisa and Dan are stunned! They thought it was just a game! And the employees are hopping mad.

Your mission is to play one of those employees.

STEP ONE
Choose an identity. You can play from your own Twitter account, or set up a new one especially for this netprov.

STEP TWO
Choose which company you work for: The rich and successful Consualtants, the steadily-growing Lisa’s Lions, or the disastrously struggling Dan’s Dataminers.

STEP THREE
Put yourself in the employee’s shoes.

  • If you work for Dan’s Dataminers and the Consualtants take over your company, estimates are that there will be up to 70% layoffs due to redundancies. You could be out of a job by Monday.
  • If you work for the Consualtants you have worries, too; like they always do, the Consualtants will fire many of their own executives and hand-pick replacements from Dan’s Dataminers.
  • If you work for Lisas Lions you are now facing competition with a brand-new super-company, the giant Consultants/Dataminers conglomerate. Can your company survive?

STEP FOUR
Use Twitter to take action. Always include the #fail12 hashtag.

You have found out who your company’s owners are, and that you’re part of somebody’s game. How do you feel about that? You can share the information and your feelings with other employees.

Now what do you do? You can:

  • use Twitter to organize the employees of your company, and possibly take some kind of collective action.
  • use Twitter to communicate directly with your company owners. You can use Twitter to change opinions . . . and perhaps even save your jobs.
  • change the situation with your words and your imagination!

How to Follow F.A.I.L. on Twitter
Follow the hashtag #fail12 in your Twitter account
Follow: @Consualtants, @Dans_dataminers, @Lisas_lions