Da Game Is to Be Sold, Not to Be Told

  • Posted by yanglu
  • on April 02, 2009 16:07
Here is just one quick example of this kind of disposition in action: Billmonk, which Constance posted about hereThe site promises to help you keep track of your obligations throughout your social network precisely (using any of a number of imaginable currencies)It is double-entry bookeeping for your friendships, and thereby prompts you to conceive of these obligations in exact termsThis is a perfect example of a code-based solution to a code-defined problem: People's moral obligations are essentially precise and monetary, and they therefore need a precise tool to manage them. 

(And this approach is not just applied externally; within software companies one frequently sees similar efforts to address organizational issues with precise and enumerated systems that can be, above all, measured.) Heather Kelly, one of the developers on a panel on Monday asked a great question about game development that she hoped researchers could help answer: Why does money trump everything? The answer lies in the remarkably good 'fit' between the market and code, and in the existence of a lot of well-trained people who can find ways to exploit it

I submit for your comments the idea that the reason many developers have a hard time finding anything of value not only from researchers, but often from their own players, is that they are, in effect, seeing a different world, all the timeAn optimistic disposition -- a faith, even -- in technology and code-based problem solving runs deep in the technology and software development community (see, for example, Gary Lee Downey's ethnography of CAD/CAM engineering, The Machine in Me), and it hampers developers' ability to recognize the range of content and community creation (very broadly defined) by users as well as the fruits of the well-established but different methodologies and concepts of researchers




Amazon.com

The first voice you hear on the new Snoop record is that of Master P, introducing the latest recruit to the No Limit armyIt's a message, albeit a subtle one: in the team game of hip-hop, there's been a trade, and our man P gained the advantageDa Game... is Snoop's first release on the label, and it is a No Limit release through and through--in spite of the fact that, in the context of No Limit's marketing megalopoly, Snoop's Merlot mixes poorly with the rest of the crew's Asti SpumantiFortunately, his flow has always been blessed with a Southern swing, and the Beats by the Pound gumbo funk is a natural for the Doggfather, even if there's little on the album that pushes the creative envelopeAs for Snoop himself, he spends ample time attempting to evoke previous glories with the uninspired "Gin & Juice II" and "Still a G Thang," though his strongest moments come with Mia X on "Slow Down" and with Mystikal and C-Murder on "See Ya When I Get There," both classic No Limit material--Jon Caramanica