tag+: […] I insist would be very interesting to know the point of view of the rest of the publishers on GOG about the bestselling & user raitings boards […]
scientiae: Is the game playing you?
The unplanned organism is a question asked by Nature and answered by death.
scientiae: Morpheus†
Unlike earlier generations, modern Info Tech provides sophisticated analytics to capture market participation, and the younger gamers (under forty years of age) are completely inured to micro-invasions of privacy, both of which combine for egregious exploitation.
There is a congenital primal drive engendered in the process to become adept with a symbolic language Weltanschuuang; the drive to solve more and more complex patterns from the mass of data has driven--and will continue to drive--the human-sociotical organism to greater and more sophisticated levels of organization, and hence evolve into organisms with a cohesive interaction of specialized multiple individuals that can be regarded as similar to the omeba and corresponding specialized components of multi-cell organisms.
scientiae: Morpheus† observed the epiphenomenal libido: humanity’s definitive
espirit d'escalier and the unquenchable desire for greater integrated layers of meaning (What Ray Kurzweil¹ mapped in six epochs, as we traverse from the fourth to the fifth on the journey to wake the dumb universe).
First we build the tools, then they build us.
scientiae: Marshall McLuhan¹
The Matrix is a system […]. That system is our enemy. But when you’re inside, you look around. What do you see? Business people, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it. […]
scientiae: Morpheus‡
Modern gamers are training artificial systems to establish the boundaries of commercial viability; just how much loot must be dropped before a player will no longer follow the bait, and how much loot will create the desired dopaminergic payoff for the player, which grants the game sufficient allure to continue the dance. (Or should that be
danse macrabre? :)
Even traditional game developers can exploit these mechanics, which most people dismiss as trivial, as a fillip for their revenues that can then be spent on core IP. Last year, ¾ of all revenue came from microtransactions,² and 18 of the top twenty games of the Australian market had microtransactions.
These revenues are new markets that have been added to the core market (us old gamers, who buy a game rather than rent it). The original market is still here, though now it is niche; it is just a quarter of this new, expanded market, and shrinking.
[…] And standing there, facing the pure horrifying precision, I came to realize the obviousness of the truth. What is the Matrix? Control. The Matrix is a computer generated dream world built to keep us under control in order to change a human being into this. […]
scientiae: Morpheus‡
Problem gamers, like problem gamblers, are a small minority (estimate 2%) but they are suckers for the
loot-box mechanic and rarely monitor their (electronic) purchases. Companies are less than helpful in itemizing their charges, too.
The game developers use
misinformation to further their profit; itemized billing is difficult to obtain. For instance, Apple, like the Vatican had for centuries, debits a charge for everything with the one line item —— whether it is Netflix or
Fortnite —— which can only be in order to conceal exactly how much a person has spent, and on what they have spent.
Silicon parasites are infesting your mind. I don't give my data away. I do not barter it. It has a
veblen value, inviolate, intrinsic and inalienable.
________
† Warren Spector,
et al. (2000)
Deus Ex artificially sentient
dramatis persona Morpheus, the elder silicon sibling of Daedelus.
‡ Wachowski & Wachowski (1999),
The Matrix, Morpheus explained transhuman society to Neo.
¹ Kurzweil (2005),
The Singularity is Near.
² These figures are from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Four Corners current affairs programme
Are You Being Played? which aired 4th May this year.
________
edit: gorram hyperlink
Hi scientiae, thanks a lot for your extensive reply. Appreciate your time & sharing will.
I am not sure about the "cohesive interaction of specialized multiple individuals"
Today's world demands expert specialists but I have the opinion
society is running behind providing them.
My guess: Our incapacity to keep the pace of the vertiginous rhythm the technology advances.
Take software development as an example:
While hardware broke the Moore's Law years ago (,,experts finally,, accept it publicly)
software is on its lowest quality and worst moment:
poor performance and plagued of bugs (which are exploited causing the current security cyberwar) and so on.
The situation has arrived to the point the best hope the computing world has is AI
as if it will magically solve all the mess due the lack on the human talent area.
(The lazy nature of humanity on its greatest expression!)
It is not too much to say that I am personally skeptic and do not share the optimism and disengagement.
I see the advancement more like Dumb intelligence than Smart (Garbage In = Garbage Out)
If it is set to a limited scope with clear defined boundaries
with verifiable processes & reversible-results-if-needed, I welcome it (some automation, not all)
but letting AI rule the decisions after its black box processes
and us following blindly the results just ,,because,, it's madness if you allow me.
Before achieving real AI, science needs first to understand what the human intelligence is & how it works.
A quote about AI I found some days ago that deserves some consideration:
"Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time" - Terry Pratchett
I like this other one:
"humanity’s definitive espirit d'escalier and the unquenchable desire for greater integrated layers of meaning"
Without a doubt to me humans are by nature a political animal (Aristotle)
with affiliation needs (sorry, citation pending)
The way I personally refer to the "layers of meaning" is "pulverization"
but in my definition is not creating greater & new layers:
Provide only to the working class the false sense of ascension (progress)
while at the same time this "artificially expanded diversity" (steps on the staircase)
pushes the human behavior to:
-A mere savage survival (precarious work, economic inequality)
-An increasing difficulty to assess the reality under an anxious stressful rhythm of life
(urge of excessive consumerism & waste generation, middle finger to the nature)
-Docility (blind obedience to the social contract [Rousseau])
to those artificial pulverizing methods we are under the influence;
directed by whom? well, the very few in the top.
I don't see the -matrix- (society, the staircase) as the enemy neither.
What I see as the enemy is the wrong direction and perverse will of those on the top
in pursuit to perpetually keep themselves there (control & power).
The Dalai Lama has an interesting point of view on some of his books regarding compassion & empathy.
About the rest of your post: commercial viability, microtransactions,
lose the concept of ownership, loot boxes, lack of itemized charges,
the veblen value of personal data (inviolate, intrinsic and inalienable).
I totally agree
About "don't give my data away", well, its really difficult to achieve it to be honest.
A glimpse on it: This article series on Life Hacker
https://gizmodo.com/tech/goodbye-big-five Now thanks to you, I feel the urge to buy & play "Deus Ex" :)
I hope you kept reading this far and find something useful on it.
A very nice talk and thoughts! Cheers!