If I had a time machine I’d get in right before QAnon and introduce the American right wing to the concept of an ARG. I’m pretty sure that’s what those guys wanted. A good ARG and maybe a local larp group could’ve saved so many of them. Instead they got caught up in something where they thought that the only way to get emotional fulfilment and catharsis indulging their little conspiracy brains was to believe it was actually real.
If you look at early QAnon stuff it is so so clearly a bunch of people desperate for an ARG but they weren’t provided an alternate reality and had to dump all their bullshit into this one.