Social Stealth

[Baggywrinkle]

Social Stealth
While doing a little research on the net I can across this very interesting information and wanted to share and I hope we can get some Q & A going on about the subject. Social Stealth - Bullseyes Definition - Being able to go unnoticed or undetected as you move about from point A to point B in a crowded or at least heavily populated area while achieving your task. Well, that is what I define Social Stealth as being. OK, what the hell does that have to do with anything?? A hell of a lot !! When TSHF you will still need to be able to move from place to place to attain supplies or to reach loved ones or many other reasons that may arise from an ongoing event like such. You and I need to be able to travel in stealth mode as to not bring any unwanted attention to ourselves or our mission which could end in a failed attempt and could result either directly or indirectly in death or at least an ass whipping. I personally don't want either. Your appearance and your attitude are probably the biggest factors in this situation. Dressed head to toe in camouflage or military black with your fists clenched to your AK47 kicking anyone and every ones ass along the way will surely result in your becoming a target.
Scout the area in which you will be traveling if at all possible to see what is the 'norm'. Mask yourself as close to what you have seen as possible to achieve 'Social Stealth' and go about your business as quietly as possible. Speak to no one, make eye contact with no one, push or shove no one, ........become no one!
I will have more tips and tricks in the next post on achieving Social Stealth as it applies to Survivalists and Preppers alike in real life situations. I hope there will be readers that share some tips or tricks that they have found useful or think them to be so.
Social Stealth is a very important factor in the video game Assassin's Creed. And of course there's a Wiki to explain it to us all. Man, those wiki guys seem to know everything. LOL I'm not a gamer at all but this one has sure got my attention, if ya know what I mean. And you do.
Social stealth
From Wiki
A major theme in this game is social stealth. Other games have worked with the idea of stealth play while out in the open, notably the disguises in the Hitman series, but few if any have included the crowd dynamics found in Assassin's Creed.
The social stealth system keeps track of how much attention is being paid to you and your actions. Citizens and guards will react to the way you treat and interact with them. While walking around town, you can either shove people out of the way and to the ground or you can lightly push past them. The first will attract a lot of attention but get you through the crowd more quickly, and the person you knocked to the ground may get up and push you back. Lightly pushing past people will attract little attention but will take more time. Socially questionable actions will also increase the attention that people pay you. If you quickly climb the front of a building then you will attract a lot of attention, as will jumping from a rooftop and landing in a crowd. Slowly climbing a ladder or dropping quietly into the street will attract much less attention.
Avoiding attention is key in this game, since your investigation missions and assassinations require you to be anonymous. Remaining anonymous will also refill your synchronization bar. If you attract too much attention, the omnipresent guards will recognize you as an assassin and try to kill you, ruining your anonymity. The guards are implacable, if easily dispatched, foes who will follow you over rooftops and chase you through streets, often while gathering reinforcements.
With the social stealth system you won't find any shadows to hide in if you are being chased by soldiers. Instead you have to escape their sight and then hide or blend in with crowd, like joining a group of scholars. The scholars have the added benefit of being a mobile source of social camouflage. Other places to hide after losing the guards are bales of hay, rooftop gardens, and even benches (while sitting between two people).
http://codenamebullseye.blogspot.com/2008/12/social-stealth.html

[Dantheman62]

hmmm, reminds me of a movie called The Invasion, with Nicole Kidman, aliens took over peoples bodies and showed no emotions. So whomever wasn't affected had to act that way when they went out in public.Very stealthish,stealthy,stealthlike,...whatever, LOL!, They had to use stealth!!!

[raulduke]

Ok so here's the little bit that I know about being stealthy in a social setting.

I'm a bit of a hippie you could say and I attend several large (20-90,000 people) festivals every year. Occasionally a festival may be held on non-private grounds, allowing any law enforcement to attend and covertly mingle in the crowds. Normally at a large festival a "Shake Down st." will form somewhwere, which simply means a densely packed (w/ hippies) thoroughfare where "illegal" substances are often exchanged and sold. Sometimes cops will walk through in full force, and sometimes there will be u.c. narcs, normally pretty easy to spot and avoid, but not always.

It's important to keep your head on a swivel, but not so much as to appear paranoid, simply be aware of your surroundings and more importantly who is surrounding you. If something odd is happening near you that gives you a bad feeling, it's probably best to start moving away, rather than investigating curiously. I've stood by helplessly watching as friends were dragged away by police because they were unaware of what was happening right in front of them and I couldn't get their attention in time w/o making a big scene and drawing attention to myslef as well. I've always been very aware of what's going on around me, even when it seems unnecessary, I just can't help analyzing situations to try to predict what could possibly unfold from the current circumstances.

One of my closest calls at a festival was at one a few years ago called "summercamp". It was night and I was heading from the stages back to camp to grab my jacket. Along the way back to the stages some kid whispered "mushroom chocolates" so I stopped him and we peeled of the path into a semi wooded area. After the exchange, he was chatting about something and when I turned on my headlight to see what exactly was in my hand, he was like "are you crazy? the cops'll see that in a second". I thought he was paranoid but just before I switched it off, a big light from an IL. state police quad plunked us. This poor goofball I was w/ just froze, while I split toute suite. I heard one trooper take down my new acquaintance while the other was already hot on my tail. I made sure to stay in the darker woods until I saw a decent sized group of people out on the path. I had run probably 2 to 3 hundred yards (w/ trooper in tow) before I saw about thirty people walking in one direction and another thrty or so in the opposite. I zagged out into the crowd of people walking toward the stages, tore my jacket off, and that was that. I had no doubt that an out of breath state trooper would hardly be able to distingush one hippie from another:lol3:.

Anyway the moral of that little story is that hesitation kills!

Now about that Assassin's creed game. It was pretty interesting to say the least. Check out these screenshots of the end of the game. Not exactly related to the OP, but it's interesting to see this stuff in a video game. I'm not sure what the angle is though.

http://medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_188013_thumb300.jpg http://medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_188024_thumb300.jpg
http://www.assassinscreedhints.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/symbols2.JPG http://medialib.computerandvideogames.com/screens/screenshot_188015_thumb300.jpg

[Czymra]

(Just what's the last pic representing?)

[Egg]

You are sorely mistaken if you think that in a given survival situation, acting as if in a computer game will help you.

Social stealth? in times of deep upheaval and conflict? social stealth? no, you will need complete stealth. No amount of being the grey man will get you through inner city areas if your of a different race to the majority; in a time of lawlessness any difference is spotted right away, and you become a target.

Look at the LA riots for a prime example; no white could traverse a black area without immediate repercussions, and no black could approach the korean area without immediate repercussions.

Stealth? total avoidance would be my advice; move around, not through.

[Czymra]

You are sorely mistaken if you think that in a given survival situation, acting as if in a computer game will help you.

Social stealth? in times of deep upheaval and conflict? social stealth? no, you will need complete stealth. No amount of being the grey man will get you through inner city areas if your of a different race to the majority; in a time of lawlessness any difference is spotted right away, and you become a target.

Look at the LA riots for a prime example; no white could traverse a black area without immediate repercussions, and no black could approach the korean area without immediate repercussions.

Stealth? total avoidance would be my advice; move around, not through.

I agree that moving like in a computer game won't get you far. Assassin's Creed is ridiculously simplified. However I do think that social stealth is necessary and good at a certain time.
Then again, it's all about knowing when to shed your skin.

...and then hopefully stand without hiding, without fear.

[Egg]

Social stealth is only good for the times when the population is at ease, and not jumpy because of war, famine etc. In harsh times, people are more aware of everything around them, life takes on a new vibrance and vividness and what would normally be ignored is brought to the forefront.

Avoid that which is not your home territory is my advice. Or have the bigger gang.