As we have been watching some of the movies in our seminars a particular thought crossed my mind: “How did these directors envision the future and how have some of them got it so wrong?”
These questions helped me formulate my idea of exploring how these radical ideas of the future in film have shaped the way we live, even gotten our hopes up and where filmmakers now see the future going. I think the fact that movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Bladerunner (1982) showcase a society that has already come and gone and as being more technologically advanced is a super interesting idea to dive into. It begs the question that if these were the thoughts of filmmakers as to how life would actually be in the years in which they take place, where are filmmakers of the present headed artistically in their idea of the future.
It seems that since the beginning of the early 20th century and the start of filmmaking, authors, intellects and directors have had grand visions of the future, but they have sometimes overestimated how far the human reach will go in terms of technology and way of life. In my Digital Artefact I want to understand this notion of why such overestimation of our society in the future leads to a society that has undoubtedly technologically advanced, but not to the extent those in the past thought it would.
This is where analysing the future from films from the past, whilst also understanding more recent movies that are more grounded like Ex Machina, and then sharing these comparisons to an audience could help to understand why these predictions of the future were wrong and what the actual future may hold. The use of instagram will ultimately help me to reach an audience who value these movies and hopefully draw upon their own experiences to help me better understand how the future will be portrayed in films to come.
Critique was initially supposed to be a platform in which the gaming community could all come together to voice concerns, provide and receive feedback and all in all share their love for gaming. The platform would be presented in a way in which all concerns could be voiced and the feeling of individuals’ concerns never being addressed can be avoided. This idea though has been challenging to accomplish. What I have discovered through my interactions as an audience member in specific gaming communities is that a platform like Critique is definitely needed, but to what extent would a platform like it function and would it ultimately change the way gamers and developers interact?
Here we can see a prime example of community feedback on Discord. This group is called Evaluation Station and I was added to it after expressing interest on Reddit about places to give and receive critical game feedback. The posts in this group reflect that there is a community that has utilised a platform for this role, but what are the limitations? This is a relatively small group of a few hundred people, with mainly indie game developers. If there was a universal platform where forums could be subcategories by genre, developers status or feedback type, a more critical role could be played from everyone to ensure adequate feedback is seen and utilised.
Now onto the most challenging part of mainstream developer feedback; from sender to receiver. From my own observations as a gamer and watching these communities I believe that concept of feedback is a lot more challenging than players believe. You can’t just change one thing in a game; doing so almost always makes something go wrong somewhere else, and so you want to find and fix those issues before they reach the players themselves.(Polygon, 2020) One singular piece of feedback will go through community managers, developer interpretation and community representation of feedback and then producer assessment of what it might take to change something in reaction to the complaint or note. All of these steps are necessary, but the process takes way too long and there’s no communication during the process, leaving players to wonder if their feedback will make it to the next patch update.
This leads into a new issue of gamers being heard and listened to. It has come to a point where even developer’s web forums for specific games are still not a great way of reaching the change-makers of the game. These forums almost certainly create a melting pot of mostly disjointed complaints and a lack of structure in which small or bottom threads with really pressing issues may not even be seen. What this has resulted in is players giving mainly negative feedback in order to get the attention of that specific game’s developers. This highlights the need for a system in which negative feedback is still prioritised, but small complaints and individual questions can still make it to those who need to see them. In my original idea I spoke about a filtration system that could determine the seriousness of complaints, while still managing niche questions or even positive feedback/tweaks. I’m not entirely sure how this would work, but if done correctly could really change the way gamers voice their concerns and receive quick and productive fixes. What could be done is what a few companies are starting to do independently with machine learning and natural language processing to analyze the reviews. It filters unhelpful reviews or spam, showing only constructive feedback through its artificial intelligence program. As well as removing unhelpful feedback, the platform categorizes the data via date published or ratings, so more in-depth analysis can be done (Player XP, 2016). It would be extremely helpful if more developers integrated systems like this on their websites.
Lastly, the way in which players give feedback and developers implement changes needs to be reformulated or transparency within the community needs to be clearer. The flaw with gamers giving feedback to developers is that everyone thinks that they are the game’s target demographic and that their needs constitute immediate change compared to others’ needs. Not every one who is on a forum and has an opinion of the game is in the target demographic, nor do they represent the majority opinion. This is where a platform in which needs can be directly addressed with gamer-developer communication is vital. Developers need to be transparent with their audience and let them know what is in the realm of possibility and what isn’t. Certain requests can be juvenile or just not functional in terms of looking at the big picture. Not all opinions carry the same weight and this is the reason why gamers feel left out when they never receive fixes for complaints they have; these issues may seem big to them but are relatively minor for other players. This is why transparency and communication on a new platform is essential for more productive community engagement.
Overall, my experiences navigating these communities and trying to understand how others interact with each other on the topic of feedback has allowed me to understand the sides of both gamers and developers. There is a clear need for a new platform that ultimately fixes many of the problems associated with game feedback; community size, player recognition, problem recognition and transparency. Someone equipped to make a platform like “Critique” needs to take some of the points I considered into account, plus many more, in order to effectively tackle the needs of this large and expanding community of like minded people. If that can be done, the gaming world will be better for it.
Conceptual Report
My Digital Artefact is designed to make the task of relaying grievances, feedback and general communication to game developers easier through different channels of communication. This can be extremely frustrating for gamers who would like to see certain implementations added into a game, simple fixes to a personal account or even widespread concerns throughout a singular gaming community, but can’t effectively engage with those creating the games.
The overall design of my DA has gone through a number of iterations. Mainly because I didn’t really have any idea where to start. This has definitely set me back in terms of where I want to be with the final project and whether I can pull it off.
The idea originally, was to create various pages on social media under the name “Critique” in which users’ most pressing concerns are shifted to top and this information can then be relayed to developers. Once the concept was better established a website with many different forums could be set up, sub categorised by game titles and issues or critiques. The platform would be presented in a way in which all concerns can be voiced and the feeling of individuals’ concerns never being addressed can be avoided.
After receiving feedback it was clear that this would work best as a more conversational project that takes place on places like Reddit, Discord etc. Rather than thinking of accounts that people follow, thinking in terms of playing a role as a part of a community would more effectively convey my idea. This was also challenging as the communities that I was a part of didn’t ever really reach out to me or answer my questions. This is where in the final part of my Digital Artefact, I had to strictly keep my project as a consumer, not a participator. That being said, I think I raise some questions as to why the idea of feedback in the community is so challenging and potential fixes for the issue. My objective now was to create a compilation of the community based experiences I have and the challenges the developers and gamers face in all aspects of the feedback process. This means understanding how developers try to make feedback easier and more engaging for the community, whilst gamers navigate ways in which to effectively receive help or provide criticism for the developers.
This task struck me with many learning moments throughout. Not so much relating to the actual content I’m focusing on, but more so regarding community engagement, participatory vs consumer interaction and overall ideation. Community engagement was extremely difficult here but not for a lack of trying. It was hard to know what questions to ask with an end goal/answer in mind and it seemed as if what I was trying to accomplish could not be achieved by help from these feedback communities. I did gain some great insight observing these communities though and through these observations I was able to ideate potential solutions for my original problem with gaming feedback. Travis reminded me to clarify the role I was playing in this project; Participatory or Consumption. This has been one of the hardest parts of the ideation process as it has seemingly gone from consumption to participatory and then back to a consumption standpoint. This has been challenging to navigate as conversation based projects need a bit of structure when you’re showing what you’ve done, so organizing things in terms of aim (what I have intended to do), action (what I’ve posted) and then if I think it worked was difficult. The best aspect of going down this path was the engagement with these communities from an audience standpoint. Although not much interaction has taken place, it is still quite meaningful. Communities on Reddit signal the need for better feedback platforms and conversations already have allowed me to enter Discord Communities exclusively for developers. Navigating my way through analysing these communities has been vital for ideation in the future and how I now look at interactivity.
The reality of this DA is that it is not complete. It may have been the topic I chose or the execution, but what I had in mind at the very beginning ideation stages, is still not the final product after many iterations. This project has turned more into a blog that ultimately highlights the need for a platform in which everyone in the gaming community can give and receive feedback that will actually be seen. It is essentially my take on the discussions that I have observed and what the future of the community should look like. I really wish I was able to do more with this DA but due to a variety of factors going on this semester, I wasn’t able to fully realise it. With all of this being said, I hope in the future I can analyse the need for a platform like “Critique” in more depth and help solve a pressing issue in the gaming community that many of us have had experience with.
What I discovered through observations in the community and through playing the game Red Dead Redemption 2, was the idea that Mythic America, Appalachian Horror and the Environmental climate of the game all come together to create mystical aspects of the game that may not imitate genuine terror but more of a “climate horror”. More importantly though, while these aspects are definitely present and have their own value, the real “Climate Horror” comes from the change or lack thereof, of the world passing the frontier by. With these changes taking place and players using their own knowledge to dissect and analyse the real world against fiction, does the real introspection and perspective take place.
The game represents a future of inclusive environmental morality. RDR2 highlights the problematic nature of environmental destruction, the abuse America was built on, and, sadly, the fact that these issues are left unresolved today. This is the idea of climate horror that I speak of; the idea that although there are side quests and locations in the game that can be genuinely creepy, observing the aspects of environmental destruction, the remaining remnants of a civil war not yet forgotten and the eeriness of land untamed ultimately remain scarier. Delving deeper into this I discovered a whole community of Red Dead fans who were interested in this idea and how these ideas may shape the game (before release) and continuing these ideas after playing the game. This was the main focus of my research as focusing on various aspects of simply “the wild west” would be too straightforward, both RDR1 and 2 draw heavily upon spaghetti western influences and folklore.
Firstly, when discussing Climate Horror in relation to both the game and real history, one of the most pressing issues deals with confronting the US’s racist past in the deep south. RedDead Redemption 2 doesn’t merely depict the brutal racial realities of the 19th-century U.S. At several moments, Rockstar uses the game as a platform to actively condemn white supremacy. (Jones, 2019) This doesn’t necessarily mean that the player can single handedly free the slaves and cure the southern regions of the map from their racist tendencies though. This is where the idea of Climate Horror ties into the abuse America was built on as well as the remnants of a Civil War still fresh in mind. The fact that the player cannot ultimately change that the southern regions in the game still carry heavy racist undertones is what makes travelling through the area so bittersweet. The sunny weather, big mansions and bright lights of Saint Denis can help distract the player, but cannot hide the sight of cotton picking, servantry and disbanded Confederate soldiers preying on African Americans at night, under the protection of the Ku Klux Klan. These southern areas of the map and the Climate Horror they give off could possibly be a design decision that reflects the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, a landmark ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court that constitutionalised racial segregation and came to be known as the “separate but equal” doctrine. (Donald & Reid, n.d.)
Interacting with communities on Reddit and researching real historical timelines has shown both a strong level of engagement with the developers input as well as players who find these historical components of the game interesting. These communities feel strongly about these topics and understand, in essence, the idea of a Climate Horror without necessarily saying it: “Slavery was abolished 34 years before the game takes place, Arthur would have been a very young child I believe. However racism was deeply ingrained, especially further south, the KKK was on the rise, and there was still a black market for slaves. Rockstar has done a very good job, better than most would have, at drawing attention to what was going on at the time.” (Reddit, 2018) Comments like this highlight that the subtlety of these themes can be missed, but with historical hindsight in mind and an eagerness to understand the underlying development of the world, the game has been crafted in a way that exacerbates real world terror.
Cornwall Oil Fields – RDR2
Through the taming of the Wild West, come the early twentieth century, the exploration of land and exploitation of that land carries over into Red Dead Redemption 2’s environment and directly relates to a Climate Horror theme. From vast oil fields cutting through pristine heartland to railroads being carved out through nature, the game paints a picture of the vast industrialization that occurred to increase accessibility, technological advancement and population of the frontier. This idea of a quickly industraliasing frontier makes for some beautiful contrast in relation to the beauty of the land but again, negative undertones are there to be explored. Taking a look at the history of the oil industry in the midwest during the time period the game is set in, we get a better understanding of how this exploitation of the land is connected: As Standard Oil grew in wealth and power, it encountered great hostility not only from its competitors but from a vast segment of the public. Standard fought competition by securing preferential railroad rates and rebates on its shipments (Oil Industry, 2018). Historically we can see that, although these advancements greatly helped the public, there are underlying negative connotations to such advancement.
In Red Dead Redemption 2, these advancements look like technical marvels at first glance. When analysing them though, the idea of Climate Horror is at full display. For example, the Central Union Railroad Camp located near Roanoke Ridge; a small camp where a new railroad is being built and eventually is completed over the course of the game. Here, the player can firstly take a look around and marvel at just how far the track has come and how much longer it needs to go to be fully completed. At second glance though, this track is cutting right through pristine wilderness where rare animals and plant species specifically grow. The labour group of the camp are mostly all of Asian descent and under guard. This is presumably due to the large Asian immigration to the U.S for the gold rush and they are being forced to work on this railroad. (The Guardian, 2019)
Appleseed Timber Co. after deforestation – RDR2
These factors turn the image of a revolutionising frontier into something bitter and unnatural. The idea of industry meeting nature in itself is something we are still fighting for today, where the threat of climate change is nearing closer and closer. In the game, the set time period is at the very beginning of drastic environmental and climate change, yet just one unfinished piece of railroad can alter the players perception of this scenery. Again, the labour at the camp highlights Industrial employers who were eager for this new and cheap labor. This resulted in many white people losing their jobs and were stirred to anger by the “yellow peril” (Strochlic, 2020). Players in the community commented their thoughts on similar instances in which industrialisation of the frontier has ultimately left them with mixed feelings about this Climate Horror; “I was playing through the game again, and I realised that the appleseed timber company is a really sad example of industrialization. In chapter one, it’s in the middle of a bright forest teeming with life. I went back to chapter six on a cloudy day. When I went over the hill, the entire forest was gone. Pathetic and abandoned. I found that depressing” (Reddit, 2020). Interaction here shows that on first glance the scenery is and the emotions it evokes are drastically different opposed to coming back later in the game and seeing the effects of what occurred, showcasing this theory of “Climate Horror.”
Touching upon the themes of Mythic America and Appalachian horror, my final research has concluded that these themes may play a lesser role than previously thought. The true Climate Horror comes from the death of the frontier or the Wild West. Perspective is everything and with hindsight in mind, witnessing some of the scenarios mentioned above helps to enlighten the player as we try to experience the world of Red Dead Redemption through the perspective of someone who’s living in that world. It seems that this idea of Climate Horror and what others have related it to, is that we know what has worked and what hasn’t in the 20th-21st Century; so, seeing the destruction of untouched wilderness and the labour building it or the racial divide that is still taking place today, despite a civil war, is what really evokes emotion in players. Is it all worth it? There is a beauty to the simplicity of the world in Red Dead and seeing it change, for the better or worse, is something scary.
Contextual Report
RDR2 highlights the problematic nature of environmental destruction, the abuse America was built on, and, sadly, the fact that these issues are left unresolved today. This is the idea of climate horror that I speak of; the idea that although there are side quests and locations in the game that can be genuinely creepy, observing the aspects of environmental destruction, the remaining remnants of a civil war not yet forgotten and the eeriness of land untamed, this is what I think was really important to focus on and in a way something I did originally want to explore.
In my Project Pitch I wanted to focus on two themes which I believed were the most captivating for me when I played the game Red Dead Redemption 2; This was the contrast of Beauty and Mystery. Taking advice from the feedback I was given, I changed the direction of my DA to get out of the Explicit World of Red Dead Redemption and rather, focus on getting outside of my own experiences of the game. Though those experiences may be valuable, I should link them to a wider cultural context.
As for the mystery aspects of the game, I wanted to analyse in depth some of the more mysterious side quests in contrast to the beauty of the land. The contrasting nature of beauty juxtaposed by mystery is something that I would have liked to explore and I believe is a story worth telling. To do this I explored some of the ideas of Mythic America and Appalachian Horror that Pete recommended to me in my pitch feedback. This idea has basically changed all through the ideation of this project but it is still important to note this was the idea right up until the end. I could have covered the mythic ideas more but I think what I ended up doing wouldn’t have really flowed cohesively together. That being said, there are definitely links to be made and it could be a discussion for another time.
Delving deeper into this I discovered a whole community of Red Dead fans who were interested in this idea and how these ideas may have shaped the game. What I discovered through observations in the community and through playing the game was the idea that the Environmental climate of the game all come together to create mystical aspects of the game that may not imitate genuine terror but more of a “climate horror”. Through observing these communities and analysing them I realised this wasn’t necessarily the case. Perspective seemed to be more important as to the reason why these ideas of Climate Horror evoke such emotion in players, including myself.
As for limitations, community engagement could have been better, but I did get some great perspective from communities that I didn’t even know existed in the context of Red Dead. The essay was supposed to be a lot more visual, but in all honesty, I wasn’t really sure how to make that happen. Overall, I’m happy with what I produced but due to many things going on this semester I wish I could’ve done a bit more with this DA and covered all of my ideas.
I’ve sat down with David numerous times over the course of the last two years and every time I feel as if I walk away with new knowledge. Though this specific interview consisted of questions all about David’s personal experiences inside the industry, we also explored how he has developed his professional values in his working life and what he expects from the future of work; a topic that I hadn’t really discussed with him in our prior meetings which was refreshing.
Integrating some of the concepts we have learnt in this course while conducting the interview has ultimately made me a better interviewer and a better listener. Holding onto specific pieces of information while the conversation was free flowing and not in the traditional interview format was challenging but also extremely rewarding. I spoke a little bit about this after I finished my presentation. A traditional interview is fine for many occasions and I have definitely learnt a lot from David during those sessions, but free flowing conversation goes in many different directions where a normal interview may not. This is where the really interesting information comes out and more personable characteristics can be seen from the interviewee.
Delivering the presentation was great as I was able to share with the class someone who has helped me greatly with University and future work endeavours. I felt I did David justice with my reflection of his professional values, overall conversation and analysis of his thoughts in relation to some of the concepts we have touched on (Absent but Implicit) in BCM313. I felt as if Dakota and I also shared a great reflective conversation after I finished my presentation and I tried to answer everyone else’s questions to the best of my ability.
Overall, I find online presentations tricky in the sense that it can be hard to convey certain emotions and especially the emotions of someone you have interviewed. That being said, I think I did a pretty good job at doing this and I think this presentation is definitely one of my better ones at University.
DCA Digital. 2021. DCA Digital – Australia’s choice for the best SEO. [online] Available at: <https://dcadigital.com.au/> [Accessed 16 October 2021].
The overall design of my DA has gone through a number of iterations. Mainly because I didn’t really have any idea where to start. This has definitely set me back in terms of where I want to be with the final project and whether I can pull it off.
As said previously, my Digital Artefact is designed to make the task of relaying grievances, feedback and general communication to game developers easier through different channels of communication. The idea was to create various pages on social media under the name “Critique” in which users’ most pressing concerns are shifted to top and this information can then be relayed to developers. Once the concept was better established a website with many different forums could be set up, sub categorised by game titles and issues or critiques.
Common Question on Reddit – Interaction with community spawns from here
This was going to be challenging from the beginning and that was confirmed in the feedback I received from the pitch. After that feedback, I was concerned about the scope of my project and whether or not I should scale the project back to simply focus on gamers or developers. This wasn’t something I was completely interested in. This led me to where I’m at now, although confidence still isn’t at an all time high. My objective now is to create a compilation of the community based experiences I have and the challenges the developers and gamers face in all aspects of the feedback process. This means understanding how developers try to make feedback easier and more engaging for the community, whilst gamers navigate ways in which to effectively receive help or provide criticism for the developers.
Example of feedback in Developer Chat – Evaluation Station
The best aspect of going down this path is the engagement with this community. Although not much interaction has taken place, it is still quite meaningful. Communities on Reddit signal the need for something like this and conversations already have allowed me to enter Discord Communities exclusively for developers. This will allow me to poke and prod a little bit further into the minds of both sides of this issue. I think there are many more conversations to be had in these platforms and I’m especially keen to see developers’ thoughts on the idea of feedback or a lack of it.
Overall, I’m still not sure if I chose the right topic or my iterations have progressed in the right direction but I’m still going to see this through. Hopefully the end result is fully realised and actually serves some sort of purpose to the gaming community.
I wanted to analyse in depth some of the more mysterious side quests of Red Dead Redemption 2 in contrast to the beauty of the land and the contrasting nature of beauty juxtaposed by mystery is something that I really liked to explore and I believe was a story worth telling. My Analytical Framework had changed Drastically from my Pitch to my Beta, but I think analysing both is important to understand where and why changes were made.
My initial Analytical Framework detailed overall emotion through the experiences of Beauty and Mystery. This idea reflected upon how players interacted with eerie, sometimes scary situations in a backdrop of beautiful nature and how those experiences affected the player. Describing how mystery is manifested differently in different video games genres is key to understanding influences attributed to them. Additionally, this can tell us about the impact of mystery on player motivation (Alkhafaji, 2018). The goal of this framework was to examine mystery as a videogame attribute from the perspectives of both game designers and players and compare them, discovering the influences that lead to their creation and to draw comparisons from other media to discover why it was so successful.
Having renewed this framework after feedback and careful consideration, I decided to change the themes of my Analytical Framework to focus on specific influences that helped to create these themes in the game, but outside of my own experiences of Red Dead Redemption. This new framework would revolve around Environmental Morality and particular themes of Frontier America that helped to shine a light on the mystical occurrences in the game. To do this, engaging with communities that could relate to what I wanted to achieve was of paramount importance as insights from the like minded and crucial to a better understanding. More importantly though, analysing historical importance from Wild West Americana Culture from the early 20th century was also Crucial. Huhtamo elaborates upon this idea, “Seeking new insights into the specific nature of cinema (Gaming) by introducing extended cultural, social and economic contextualisation, through the basis of consultation of varied first hand source material and emphasizing upon those intermedial relationships” (Huhtamo & Parrika, 2011).
Analysing these two frameworks and the insight provided from scholars who have used both techniques not only shows I am on the right track, but have also refined them in a way that best suits my overarching goals.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a hugely successful game released in 2018 by Rockstar Games. The game has received critical acclaim and to many is the golden standard for story driven, open world gaming. Though there is a main quest and thousands of other things to do, the player can choose to do anything but them. Participation in this game is all or none, but that doesn’t make the game any less rewarding. You can sit back and watch the beautifully crafted world function without you. Animals hunt and kill prey, storeowners wake up, walk to their shop and open up for the day and people will set up camp, make a fire or sleep in the wilderness – all regardless if you are paying attention or not.
“Play is an activity connected with no material interest, and no profit can be gained by it. It proceeds within its own proper boundaries of time and space according to fixed rules and in an orderly manner”, (Raessens, 2006) This definition of play perfectly encapsulates the idea of participation in RDR2, except the game does not care where you are, what you are doing or how you “play” it, the game still proceeds in its own proper boundaries of time and space, irrelevant of what the player is doing.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Gameplay Features Trailer
Raessen’s multiple analytical framework of participation (multimediality, virtuality, interactivity, and connectivity) and the types of participation (interpretation, reconfiguration, construction) can be found when analysing the players role in the game (Raessens, 2015). Due to the nature of Red Dead Redemption’s participatory or non participatory gameplay, this framework can be easily applied. Virtuality and Interactivity rely upon the player to input commands in order for the game to function, and although every game relies upon this, what’s great about RDR2 is that in such a living, breathing world, the game doesn’t care about your input. It just works. (Rockstar Games, 2018) Regardless of whether you aren’t paying attention or step away from the screen for a moment, there are no guarantees that a Grizzly Bear might stumble upon you, or a group of bandits rob your campsite. These elements make up the multimediality of the game where, in turn, connectivity of the player to the media is full of engagement.
In regards to interpretation, reconfiguration, construction, the game has a set story and set activities to complete. The developers created these aspects of the game to be played a certain way, but the sandbox style of the game leaves interpretation up to the players. Reconfiguration and Construction refers to the content players react to, create and explore in their own ways. In relation to Red Dead Redemption, this could be through challenging the games supposed direction or the implementation of game modifications.
Sources
Raessens, J (2005) Computer games as participatory media culture, Handbook of computer games studies, pp. 373-388, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Raessens, J., 2006. Playful Identities, or the Ludification of Culture. Games and Culture, [online] 1(1), pp.52-57. Available at: <https://d-nb.info/1234468034/34> [Accessed 13 October 2021].
I gave feedback to three students and believed they all had really good ideas, Because I submitted a little bit late I figured I could give some feedback to those who didn’t receive much of it.
The first Feedback I gave was to Victoria, who’s idea was creating a podcast around the Sims. As someone who has never played the sims but has heard a lot about it, I found this was quite a different take. I advised them that addressing various topics might be the best route to go.
The second feedback I gave was to Steff. Her idea for the DA focused on streaming which I thought was a great idea. As someone who watches many Twitch streams myself, I could relate to a lot of what she was saying. Seeing the Progression of her audience and confidence in streaming was awesome and I told her it must feel super rewarding.
The last piece of feedback I gave was to Richard. I really related to this DA because I am doing something similar for BCM206, but in relation to video game feedback. I urged Richard not to get discouraged by a lack of interaction or feedback because we are all in the same boat. I also complemented Richard on his Analytical Framework and how he elaborated upon it.
I really had some setbacks with this beta. I really knew I wanted to cover Red Dead Redemption 2 but I wasn’t sure where exactly to go with it. Because I’m in love with the game, my DA was basically going to be just a straightforward analysis that many others have done before me, to a level of detail that I’m not sure I could match. This led me to the idea of analysing in depth some of the more mysterious side quests in contrast to the beauty of the land, the contrasting nature of beauty juxtaposed by mystery. Still though, I think my head was still too much in the game world and not the ideas that helped to craft it. Pete picked up on this in my feedback and urged me to take a look into the ideas that helped shape the Wild West and some other ideas that may have inspired some of the mysterious elements of gameplay.
Through this research, I was able to find various sub-communities on Reddit who actually are quite invested in these aspects of the game. From Americana culture to horror inspired creepy-pastas that help elaborate upon and explain the world of Red Dead Redemption. The communities for these aspects of the game were quite large and I believe if I can effectively communicate that to a wider range of Red Dead fans, I may be able to evoke more thought into the production of the game and the ideas explored that have shaped modern day America.
Sources
Crowley, E., Silk, M. and Crowley, S., 2021. The educational value of virtual ecologies in Red Dead Redemption 2. People and Nature,.
The Attention Economy, defined by Lexi Kane as an economy centred around the amount of attention presented in the context of engagement with online media, where attention is a limited factor (Kane, 2019) – Is an idea that has become extremely relevant, especially in the last few years where the growth of influencers and celebrity endorsement has almost reached a level that is manic. Engagement with online media, as well as the influencers that practically run these platforms has garnered the attention of many, but is it attention that is warranted and thought provoking? Or, is our attention (a limited resource) better focused elsewhere?
This blog will touch upon the growth of influencer platforms, social media and how interactivity/attention amongst these platforms directly relates to the core ideas behind The Attention Economy (AE). I will also discuss how the growth of the celebrity persona has invariably changed the way we interact with online media, as well as the future of the Attention Economy in regards to how these influencers and their platforms will adapt in order to continue capitalising upon our attention.
Every 60 Seconds infograpgh
It is no surprise that celebrities have been utilising the attention of their audience through various online platforms in order to push certain political, social and career-enhancing motives; “Apart from the overall decentring of information and knowledge, a striking feature of the current period is the capacity of a wide spectrum of figures – ranging from Donald Trump to a panoply of self-branders, micro celebrities , social media ‘influencers’ and the ‘Instafamous’ – to convert their existing public profile – in fact their celebrity – into various types of economic, cultural, social and political capital” (Van Krieken, 2018). In this environment, it seems that attention isn’t just necessary to remain relevant or attract new followers, but is rather the rare commodity that ensures market survivability.
🎥| A behind the scenes look at @Olivia_Rodrigo’s trip at the White House via People!
Taking a look at the United States, Covid-19 and the Biden Administration, it is clear the culmination of influencers and social media drastically affect the AE. The fact that arguably the most powerful man in the world, Joe Biden, The President of the United States, needed to use Olivia Rodrigo to help push people to get the vaccine, ultimately highlights the power of the AE and the understanding of the power it holds; ” ‘Research shows that people assume celebrities have insider information that we don’t have,’ she said. And celebrities tend to hold the greatest sway over young people, meaning Rodrigo is the perfect person to relay this message” (BBC, 2021). Biden’s use of Olivia to promote the message through TikTok and live streams of her press conference on the Administration’s social media accounts highlights not only an advantage in terms of promoting a cause most people can get behind, but also drawing attention to their respective platforms. Biden and Rodrigo have both now drawn attention to their platforms under the illusion, albeit a good one, of a moral/political cause.
As for the general public, it has never been easier to garner such personal levels of attention through means like social media. When we go on the internet, we typically have a goal in mind, like finding an answer to a question or conducting research. Once we obtain what we want, we leave the site. However, social media keeps us on the platform longer and wanting more (Berkeley Economic review, 2020). Through my own personal experience I have noticed this on TikTok. TikTok’s engagement is so high that the company actually puts in ads to your feed that tell you to rest your eyes. Inadvertently, these ads actually are actually contributing to the AE by promoting TikTok’s “You’re in Control” content creation strategy – “TikTok’s “You’re in Control” content series, which pairs popular creators with important messages about health and safety” is actually creating engagement and drawing attention to not only the company, but also the creators that are promoting the strategy (Burke, 2020). In a way, this is ironic as the ads telling people to rest their eyes is actually attributing to more interaction between consumers and the brand, creating an attention vacuum.
‘You’re in Control’ content series.
Implications of AE in the future may be varied. I think the Attention Economy will continue to grow in ways that are more and more versatile and with that comes a distinct and concerted effort on the part of society in order to really focus on what matters. In the future, with companies, brands and platforms all becoming more lucrative, so will the ways in which marketing and design will advance to keep people more engaged than they’ve ever been. In the new economy, the most valuable asset you can accumulate may not be money, may not be wealth, may not even be knowledge, but rather, the ability to control your own attention, and to focus (Manson, n.d). The ability to limit one’s attention in the future will get harder and harder and therefore, the ability to actively choose how you invest the time you spend online will be the determining factor as to how prone you are to this new economy.
The core factors of the Attention Economy have been in circulation long before the exponential growth of the cyberspace we know today. These foundations have created a cyberspace which is pushing and pulling us in many directions, all vying for our full, undivided attention. As these markets, platforms and celebrities take advantage of this space to fulfil various self interests and motivations that in turn equal profit, there is no doubt that in the future our attention will only be capitalised upon further. In a global media economy swamped by attractive stimuli always trying to grab our attention; I think we need to start paying more attention as to who and what exactly we are giving away this scarce resource to.
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