circa Mon Dec 22 18:10:45 EST 2014, mgd wrote:
As I see it, the significant attention in that case in that example is putting
together the joke. For True Blood or Walking Dead, it's the screenwriters,
actors, directors, consultants, and other creative individuals involved in
making the shows. For a video game, it's the artists and coders.
I suppose I could say by paying my cable bill, I'm somehow a participant.
But that would be like saying because I voted I'm a leader. I think that is
absurd. Maybe in the gaming example, there is a more overlap because
experienced players would be able to give useful feedback to the game
developers.
If there is any point to our consumer culture, it's as a clumsy and inefficient
tax to sustain the people that create.
Ahh, but you're forgetting that your payment includes not only your
money but also your eyeballs. Thankfully, we're evolving away from the
more one-way transactions of content. Network shows, including
nonalacart cable services, rely on more than how much money you pay for
each individual episode. The continued existence of True Blood depends
on extrapolations into eyeballs. By watching it you are participating.
Even further, if you talk about it at the water cooler... if you
reference it in mailing list posts, if you wear costumes at halloween
parties based on it, etc, you are participating. The same is true for
most video games, now, which track interest via varous "trophies" as
well as tracking social games (where people play together over the
internet), not to mention MMO games where the boundary between real
assets and game assets is blurred.
Even your oversimplification to "I voted, therefore I'm a leader" isn't
as absurd as you intend. Voting isn't merely a purely private ink mark
on an anonymous ballot. It's an identity for many people. Do you split
your ticket? Do you vote for candidates? Do you talk about voting...
even in the abstract? Hell, even non-voters like Russell Brand are
participants in our voting system.
--
⇔ glen
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