Some stuff I’ve been meaning to post about for awhile has come into slightly sharper mental focus recently, so I thought I’d make an attempt at it. I’m going to post in a few segments, because it’s coming out pretty long. Perhaps when I’m done I’ll edit it down and repost a slightly less rambling version. =)
So, as I mentioned previously, a lot of the talk at GDC this week was about the various aspects of Online Game economies. There was also quite a bit of discussion on the related topic of user-created content and players’ rights / responsibilities / etc.
The thing I find really fascinating about all these issues is how much they parallel a wider set of concerns now facing the internet and society in general. Since day one, the web has existed as a largely user-driven medium. Unlike television, radio and almost every form of communication technology preceding it, the web was designed to make publishing content as cheap and easy as accessing it.
Of course, the reality of things has not always lived up to this goal. As recently as 3 or 4 years ago, publishing even the most basic text pages to the web required at least some level of expertise with things like FTP, HTML and UNIX file permissions. In spite of all this, new web pages began appearing at an increasing rate. Of course, many of the earliest examples of personal web publishing were of the “Welcome to my Homepage. Here is a list of William Shatner jokes!” variety, but this was unsurprising. As with many new technologies, the question of *what* to use it for lagged far behind that of *how* to do it. The situation was somewhat unique however, since many people’s experience with the web was in fact their first with any form of publishing.
From the perspective of the traditional mass media, this must have seemed like a recipe for disaster. After all, it was through their hard work as a filter for talent and quality that the most deserving and entertaining films, literature and music were brought to the attention of consumers, dammit! And even if a talented author were to self-publish on the web, how the hell would anyone be able to find them, amongst all the various other crap (e.g. the thousands of aforementioned Shatner Jokes) out there?! Clearly these “inter-nets” had a thing or two to learn from Big Content!
Except… Oops. It didn’t quite work out that way, did it? And I’m not saying this in a snarky “Ha ha! Napster broke your distribution model!” either. Oh no, this is no time to boast! =) Because any sales lost to illegal downloads of the latest 50 Cent track or DivX copies of the new Harry Potter from Napster and it’s successors are only symptoms of much larger (and more interesting) problems facing film studios and record labels today. By fixing their gaze on the finger instead of where it is pointing, the MPAA and RIAA are missing all the heavenly glory of peer-to-peer networking. And why? I think it has something to do with simple terminology.
For as long as anyone my age (and probably much older, too) can remember, Americans (and people in most other industrialized nations) have been continually reminded what role they are expected to play in their country’s politics and economy. We are reminded by the term used more frequently than any other when referring to members of the general public. Are we “residents?” Or maybe even “citizens?” Nope… We are just “consumers.”
…okay, more to come on this over the next day or two. If I haven’t posted anything by Wednesday, send a search party!
