Every Group Chat Has an Assa

My friend Rachel had this cat Assa… pet, pet, BITE. Do nothing BITE. Some say Assa was misunderstood but I was scared, everyone was scared (Assa was not misunderstood).

I hadn’t thought of Assa in years. Rachel decided one day our Alts (AI images of each other) needed Assa – suddenly Assa was there again attacking everyone: Assa coming for us at our 70s aspic dinner party, Assa going for the gelatinized aspic, Assa going after our plushie Alts, Assa chasing my mime Alt.

Suddenly our group chat was full of Assa terrorizing our poor poor Alts, it was beautiful.

Every group chat has an Assa: dormant lore, retired bit. It doesn’t stay dormant because people forgot (no one could forget Assa), but because “remember Assa??” is just a statement and statements die in one reply.

What was missing was a way to play. Rachel didn’t say, awww I was thinking of Assa, she brought him into our game. Assa was here and terrorizing us again. A memory became a game. Group chats come alive when their own history becomes playable.

This is what Alt is built around – not generating content, but giving a group’s own lore a form everyone can build on.