@Bird_Posion
The point was there are ways people in power try to cover things up with various levels of success and it is dependent upon the tools available too them. How the masquerade covers up mishaps is important to world building and the cited examples show two very different outcomes from the real world, whether you believe in them or not.
Unfortunately, while those ways
do work (sometimes), they are becoming increasingly difficult to pull off, especially because, in any scenario, you WILL have idiots who either don't care about the masquerade, or who think that breaking it completely will somehow benefit them. In short, if you are going to use a masquerade for your story, you will have to cover not only how it works, but why it works, and, most importantly of all, why everybody goes along with it.
Why does Dracula--who can easily take any two humans alive--hide in his coffin, and try to conceal his presence? Why don't werewolves go hunting in suburban streets? Why don't wizards simply turn intruders into newts, and then flush them down the toilets? Why don't...well, you get the idea.
Usually, creating a world where there is a strong masquerade is something that will force the author to do more work when setting up the premise, not less. Although the masquerade has become a convenient trope, and is a useful device to create a sort of tension for characters that otherwise would be getting close to being all-powerful, it comes with a price, and that price is that you'll have to explain to people in the Information Age how all this information can be so restricted that nobody notices its absence. While doing this can provide an important device to allow authors to help create a deeper sense of reader immersion--a sense that this is the same world we live in, but simply digging a bit deeper, below the surface--it will have to be treated increasingly carefully as time marches on, and will mark a work as something that can become outdated by the passing of time to a greater and greater extent as information technology progresses.
What the original post was asking is simply this: at what point does having a masquerade begin to actually
detract from the reader's ability to immerse themselves in the story? At what point does the masquerade cease to become a convenient explanation for why the reader doesn't see this in their own life, and start to become something that has to actively be explained, and supported by narrative events? At what point does the author have to start doing serious research into how such a masquerade would be maintained, and start trying to make sure that their work matches up with the everyday experiences of the reader? Where, in other worlds, does reality end, and fantasy begin?
And, at the end of the day, what is the difference between the two?
I've read stories where the masquerade was used as an explanation without any kind of restraint or support, and the stories were basically so much garbage. Fun garbage, in some cases, but still garbage. In places where it is done well, it helps to provide a source of tension and constraint on characters that otherwise would have none.
Things you may want to look at, if you wish to use a masquerade in your own stories:
1. Why is the masquerade enforced, and by whom?
If it is enforced by the supernatural world, or by simple laws of the universe, this creates one type of constraint...but it might be interesting to posit that the masquerade is enforced by the
humans. How would that affect the pacing, the drama, or the itensity of the story? How would you convey that a massively ancient and powerful vampire/wizard/werewolf/whatever has good reason to be terrified of the G-Men in the sharp suits and the sunglasses?
2. Why is the masquerade necessary?
One of the primary failings of the Twilight novels is that the need for the vampires' masquerade is never really explained. This is something that should be addressed very, very early in the series--early in the first book, in fact--but is not. By contrast, the Dresdenverse does address the need for the Masquerade, repeatedly mentioning, and occasionally demonstrating, that the human mortals are the real power in that world. If a Chicago gangster can wield as much influence and raw power as John Marcone, think what would happen if an actual
government got involved...a point which the author makes on several occasions.
3. To what lengths will the enforcers go to make sure the masquerade remains unbroken?
If the enforcers will stoop to murder, mayhem, and burning down elementary schools to enforce the masquerade, you've got an ideal villain--perhaps not for this story, but certainly for the future. At the very least, you've got the Doom of Damocles hanging over all the characters, especially if the bad guys seem to be able to break the masquerade at will, but your main characters get jumped on for even coming close to skirting the boundaries of the masquerade. On the other hand, if breaches are handled more like how ordinary muggle crimes are handled, you've got another scenario. Think about this carefully--Harry Potter managed to work very well, despite there being few, if any, serious repercussions for breaking the masquerade.
4. What pressures are there against the masquerade, and from what direction do they come?
The masquerade is only important as long as there is pressure against it--otherwise, you do not need to, and should not bother mentioning it. But which direction the pressures come from will determine how your characters/creatures view themselves in relation to ordinary humans...and will determine how your portrayal of supernatural government is understood by your readers. If the masquerade is to be a major part of your story, this will need to be something you consider carefully.
5. What kind of economic impacts does this have on those who are being hidden by the masquerade?
One of the biggest single factors that most authors miss is the simple fact that, for most people who are caught in the cracks of society, money is...well...hard to come by. And anybody who is covered by the masquerade is, almost by definition, caught in society's cracks...or, at the very least, suffers from a major handicap when competing in our world. Harry Potter, again, deals with this by making the wizards have their own, parallel world, with its own quite powerful economy, and has the main characters operate primarily within that world. In most World of Darkness games I've seen, the implication conveyed is that money, and other resources, are seriously difficult to come by, especially if you take the time to try to develop your otherworldly abilities. The obvious solution--use your supernatural abilities to try to overcome other lacks--runs into the masquerade. Usually, another means will have to be found. You can sort of slide over this, mind you--but if you do, you will have to go into more detail elsewhere, so this may not be something you wish to do. Plus, the idea of a vampire trying to handle the stresses of a nine to five (at night) job is just...well...not something most people think about.
