Please ask any questions below and I will do my best to answer them.

Edit: I have shot and uploaded a video explaining this, please watch the entire thing, it includes more insight than even this post has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f04-JpyJbNM

Hello all, with all that is going on with Reddit, people crossing boundaries and blurring lines while investigating, something has been on my heart. Though it's a bit complicated, so bear with me. For a while, a lot of this story's fun was people's theories, investigations, and discoveries inside the videos that spurred more of the same. It was a blast to be a part of the community, and I felt like we were all on the same page. Part of the fun was speculating whether everything was written or reality and what it all meant.

Then I noticed a tiny minority of people crossing those boundaries and feeling really worried for the team. So we started doing 'LAST TIME', THIS TIME, NEXT TIME, started calling it a series. I also put a disclaimer to quell those issues.

"The following content may not be suitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised".

That didn't sit right with me after one video, so I changed 'content' to 'story' to better communicate the story we're creating.

At this time I still really didn't believe that people didn't assume it was fiction. I thought the fact that we’re an entertainment studio, that we edited, added custom music, posted fan art, laughed and joked, clearly staged thumbnails that weren’t screenshots of the actual content within the video, made other content that was untouched by this fictional world, made comedy and thriller trailers, and the fact that I've made a great amount of other fiction over the past decade of being a content creator was evident enough that this was fiction. I was wrong about that because my words inside the story didn’t match what you saw going into the story. It’s important to note though that anytime you see an edit, on anything, you’re watching an illusion. It doesn’t matter who it is, your favorite creator is creating an illusion. This doesn’t mean you can’t trust them per se, but it does mean you don’t have the full picture, you never can through a screen I suppose.

Then, not surprisingly, the unexpected happened, we hit a tipping point; When we revealed Syphus's first name recently, there was a small number of viewers that took things way too far and crossed a lot of boundaries in their 'investigations'. Like I said, I just never expect people to violate other people; it is always a surprise to me when people take things too far, and honestly, I feel foolish that I didn't expect it and set better boundaries up to prevent this.

Starting with the next video, the new disclaimer will read:

"The following story was created for entertainment purposes only and may not be suitable for all audiences. Viewer discretion is advised. This story and it's characters are fictitious. Certain long-standing institutions, agencies, and public offices are mentioned, but the characters involved are wholly imaginary. Do not contact, engage with, or approach anyone or any company not directly linked in the description or confirmed to be a part of the story."

I'm sure this leaves you with more questions than answers. So how did it get this far? Because it didn't start out 'fake'. It started out as an escape room type video, a story to bring Hi5 staff into imagination and fun. For the first couple of years, it was literally only me that knew it was a fun story. I was a game master, if you will, all the reactions from the staff up to the stalker stuff were real, genuine reactions. A lot of the investigations were genuine on camera, guided by me.

I hope you can see how 'fake' isn't an accurate word for what was happening or even what still happens; scripted isn't either, possibly staged, but a lot of what happened wasn't staged. When we acquired the new unit, a Lab did previously occupy that space and they even offered us some of that lab equipment. Even the emotions we go through on camera are 100% real, even if we stage an event. Though admittedly, we benefit from psychologically distancing after the cameras stop rolling, a benefit I discovered the viewers did not have. I will address this later in the post. I honestly didn't know precisely how to address this issue while being accurate and not breaking the magic of the story people desired, which is see now is a poor excuse.

That is until recently. Very patient viewers educated me on the term ARG (Alternate Reality Game). I suppose that is what this is, an alternate reality game. One that evolves and changes based on the audience's discoveries. The best way to describe this isn't fake, scripted, written, staged, improv; it's a guided 'Alternate Reality', it is 'Unfiction'. A viewer just enlightened me of this word, its definition is very fitting; Unfiction is an umbrella term for a fiction which insists that it is real, existing within the same world that You or I exist in. The way to officially describe this is “fiction”, not fake, because it’s not “fake”.

But these viewers also educated me on perspectives I did not have. They helped me see the potential damage not being more forthright would do, regardless of my intentions. It might push a distrust in law enforcement, inspiration for risky behavior, or like what we've seen, a gross violation of privacy during these investigations. As far as I know, the only thing that’s happened so far is boundary-crossing, people bringing those into the story that didn’t belong.

I didn't realize the impact that purporting it to be our 'reality' had on those actions because I saw it as most of our community had a willing disbelief, which is what I was going for, 'A Suspension of Disbelief.' They helped me understand that some people actually believe the story, causing them unnecessary stress because they care for the team. I apologize for that. It's tough to get these varying insights through simple comments, especially when there are 5-15 thousand comments per video. People expect that since I am the creator, that I know every little bit of everything that goes on in the community. This is absolutely not the case, I see a filtered top view (usually YouTube or Reddit’s filters) because there is so much. What rises to the top is not indicative of the whole.

A lot of people say: You should have just been upfront from the start. Maybe, but It’s not that simple. If I was upfront from the start this wouldn’t have even existed, it would have been a single video, not a complex twisting narrative. Being upfront would have made it impossible to get genuine reactions from the staff and it would have neutered the series early. I don’t know of a lot of fiction that works on YouTube, actually I don’t know any fiction thats worked on YouTube. Regardless, I definitely should have made a more clear boundary before elements of danger started to be incorporated into the story. That is a mistake I’ll own, when I brought the staff in, I should have brought you in. I still think even with clear “fiction” disclaimers, people will still have problems with this series well into the future.

I know there will be a small fraction of people that think I had ill intent all along as if I wanted to deceive to get views. All I have is my word and actions, and I suppose you can draw that story from them. But I ask you to look closer; I have been on the platform for years, I have done projects and channels that got far more views with a lot less work. Look closer at the vision statement we developed in July of last year;

"Hi5 Studios creates worlds so immersive that people can find themselves in them through their compelling stories and shared creations."

That is precisely what our intent always has been.

Then there will be another group of people hurt by this, left feeling foolish for believing this story. Honestly, until last week, I didn't understand this viewpoint or why it would hurt someone. I didn't realize this would be a reaction until recently; this exact thing happened to me. I read a book I thought was something but turned out to be something else, though I don't believe deceit was the intent. I felt stupid, betrayed when I realized what I wanted to be true wasn't true at all. Then I feel like it was a wake-up moment for me "I am doing this exact thing to my viewers that put their trust in me." I feel like such an idiot for not seeing how the reveal would make people feel like this. I thought the reveal would bring a 'No way!" moment, but I was so wrong. Vulnerable people, people who trusted me, people who enjoyed the content would be left feeling stupid. For that too, I am deeply sorry. It was not the intent of the story. Also, having believed this doesn't make you foolish, stupid, dense, gullible, or anything else, it means you are vulnerable, it means you choose to trust first, it means you want the world to be a magical place, these are not bad things. However, I think that my heart didn't believe that existed, and that tells me I can learn a lot from you about being more vulnerable and what it means to extend yourself and believe something. Thank you for that lesson.

To bring that point home, I wanted a community of vulnerable creatives, but I wasn't vulnerable myself. A viewer u/-Niddhogg- in the comments below stated something I think I deeply missed;

Now we can stop arguing whether it's real or staged and we know the boundaries. We can start pretending it's real and we know when to stop playing. Yay for roleplaying.

Then there’s the last group of people, the majority, and the viewpoint I saw through this entire thing; They didn’t want the spell broken. Most people found this story fun because they didn’t know if this was real or fiction. It’s what makes it magical and mysterious, the actual not knowing. I’m sorry to you for breaking this spell and ruining the fun and I know most of you will wish you never read this. I feel it was necessary at this point to avoid any real harm to anyone. Please, go on pretending it’s real if you will, it doesn’t hurt anyone, and I’m right there pretending with you.

Another viewer u/jennachesh420 expressed this to me;

"Truthfully, I felt kind of like an a**hole for enjoying something that could be endangering their lives. But now people can just enjoy the story for what it is - a story."

This was another perspective I did not have.

They went on;

"It was never the content that was the problem, because the story has captured so many fans. The content itself is great, it was more so the community that was the problem because of that uncertainty. Because we didn't know for sure, some bad behaviours were able to slip through the cracks. But now that we're all on the same page, no matter what you believed before, we can all move forward as fans enjoying a fantastic story!"

To be honest, the plan was to never raise the curtain, but at the time I didn't take into consideration the emotional investment of the audience or how this 'reality' might affect our reality. Thats why I am speaking on this now.

I'm sure there is one last question; 'Why did you keep insisting that it's real even when putting a disclaimer?' This is because of all the oversights above, but also it is story-breaking to do anything other than that. I know that's odd, but let me explain. There is a natural discrepancy between what we say inside the story and outside the story. The disclaimer is outside of the story we're creating, the content is inside the story. Communicating it’s “guided” content needs to happen outside the story, not inside it, as it would completely break the story. That being said, on camera (in the story) we will stop addressing the validity of the story as real or guided entirely. I think this is where a lot of the confusion stems from as well. This is something I didn't even realize until writing this post.

I hope you see I am a man focused on transformation and admitting when he's made a mistake and doing what I can to correct it, and learning from it.

First and foremost, I want to apologize to my staff for trusting me and putting you through this potential backlash. Everyone on the team has done such incredible work and made some genuinely great magic; I would hate to have my poor choices as a leader reflect poorly on their fantastic work.

Secondly, I'd like to apologize to all of you, I know this won't sit well with a lot of you, I understand that, but I hope you can understand where I was coming from and how I would like to grow from this.

Moving forward, I would like to continue telling the story that my staff has spent such a great deal of time, effort, and energy in. I don't believe making a video on this is the right move because historically, people don't believe creators read the comments and devolves into chaos quickly. Like I said, I will update the disclaimer to be far more direct and we will also stop arguing the validity of the story inside the story. I also removed the 'Debunking' video we uploaded last year. It's definitely a strange situation to be in, and I am open to your feedback.

If you continue with us, please stick to the story; whatever is in the videos or video description is fair game to theorize, investigate, and play with. Please do not contact similar people, businesses, or companies that do not have a direct link to this story. This is a new Reddit rule that will be enforced. Please be civil and patient with each other during this adjustment. I appreciate all of you.

We will continue telling the story we set out to tell, with the help of those who choose to stay and help tell it. I hope you stay and experience the fun and imagination of what I always intended it to be, a truly immersive story that brings you into a magical world with a fantastic community. I sincerely apologize and take full responsibility for everything else it ended up being.