There’s so much that we share
that its time we’re aware
it’s a small world after all

Robert and Richard Sherman wrote the song for which Disney has become known, andwhich personally grates on my nerves like a dozen dying cats simultaneously scrapping their claws across a blackboard.   About the same time the words to the song were being written, Marshall McLuhan was writing about the global village.  Back in 1962 and 1964 he wrote about print being brought to an end by “electronic interdependence”.  Back then it was only debated.

Now it’s reality.

We haven’t quite reached the concept of “Cyberspace” created by author William Gibson in 1982 in his novel Burning Chrome . We certainly haven’t reached the zenith of virtual reality described by Neil Stephenson in Snow Crash .  In fact some people, like Mike Sellers in an article entitled Death to Snow Crash, over at Tera Nova  have heaped disdain for the concept  of a global virtual world depicted in Snow Crash, calling it “the equivalent of the “flying cars” view of the today as seen from 1935.”   The Metaverse of Gibson and Stephenson has not, and mostly likely will never come to pass.  What we have seen is a reloaded version of the same thing.  We do not plug a cable into the back of our heads like Keanu Reaves in the Matrix movies, but we do plug into the thoughts of others around the world – I think of it as a virtual back porch.

While the global consensual virtual reality of William Gibson and Neil Stephenson has not come to pass, Marshall McLuhan’s global village has….

With a vengeance.

Just ask Garrison Keiller, who, distraught that no one needed to ask permission to write any more (especially his apparently), decided to heap a bit of distain on our corner of the global village while he was at it:

“18 million authors in America, each with an average of 14 readers, eight of whom are blood relatives. Average annual earnings: $1.75” – Garrison Keiller

What may be the burr that stuck under Garrison Keiller’s particular tail are events described in the May 31, 2010 issue of Time Magazine:

“Your industry may have been in recession the past few years, but mine was in free fall. Lee Kravitz, editor of Parade was fired on a Monday morning during a one-minute hallway conversation,  Dominique Browning who ran House & Garden for Conde’ Nast, magazinedom’s most glamorous company, was also a Monday morning casualty.” – Andrea Sachs, Layoff Lit: In publishing sudden unemployment begets a fashionable genre, Time Magazine, May 31, 2010

As Andrea Sachs tells us later in the same article, “No time for niceties when 400 magazines a year are doing dark.” We spoke about the reason why this is happening with Mr. Colin Campbell (former editor of Edge Online) back in Show 31 available here and here. We have discussed part of it in All the News that’s Fit to Pay for .  While a quote from the movie Ghostbusters by the character Dr. Egon Spengler “Print is dead” may be a bit blunt, it is starting to seem like yet another prophetic statement.

One of the major outcomes of the reality of the global village is the simple fact that by time even a daily newspaper can set the news in print, the Internet has already discussed it thoroughly and moved on to the next issue. By the time a PC Gamer, or a Beckett Massively Online magazine can discuss “new happenings” in the gaming industry it has already been around the global village several times.

More than ever, however, the issue of “time to press” seems an effect rather than the central issue.

What struck a chord with me was something I found later on in the same issue of Time Magazine.  This issue featured an article about the Hollywood’s Special Effects houses and how they are changing the industry. About half way through the article there is a quote by Scott Ross, the former CEO of Digital Domain (2012, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, G.I. Joe, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The day after tomorrow):

“It’s no longer about Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise, says Ross. “It’s about flooding New York or creating blue people.” – Rebecca Keegan, Hollywood’s VFX Sweatshops, Time Magazine, May 31, 2010

The first time I read that quote I simply took it to mean that the major draw in movies is the special effects. Indeed, throughout the article it described the slim profit margins on which the special effects houses operate, often breaking even at best, and usually taking the lucrative jobs for the prestige. But the more I thought about the words, the more “It’s no longer about Tom Hanks or Tom Cruise” rang true.

When mass media meant reading a newspaper or a book, the only authors that really mattered to us were those whose works saw print by companies like Simon and Schuster and Double Day.  With the advent of the global village made real all that has changed.  No longer is quality journalism the purview of those authors whose works come to us from the lofty heights of printed media. When authors like Tipa from Mystic Worlds and Saylah from West Karana  have access to as wide an audience as PC Gamer and Becket Massive Online Gamer, words printed on paper in magazines and newspapers no longer guarantee an audience, or a respected opinion.  In fact I am more likely to value the opinion of my neighbor in the global village, who I talk to from time to time, than those individuals upon whom society once heaped so much prestige. Certainly there will always be authors whose creativity we value – authors with names like Stephen King, William Gibson, and Agatha Christie.  Now the creative works we come to value can just as easily be those individuals whose names we might never have heard before the global village made real.

In the end, those upon whom society once placed such high prestige may be finding it suddenly missing.  To draw the analogy back to the words of Mr. Scott Ross, perhaps the Tom Cruise’s and the Tom Hanks’ find themselves at a bit of a loss when the more valued efforts are those of the many artists who find themselves listed at the end of the movie credits “after the taco vendor” as Mr. Ross puts it. When it comes to prestige those best quote I have ever read are the words recently written by the mother superior of a Carmelite Convent:

“Prestige is living in other people’s minds, valuing what people think of you rather than who you really are.” – Mother Mary Elizabeth, St. Therese Monastery of Discalced Carmelites

And the truth of the matter, more now than ever, is that the space in many people’s minds once occupied solely by the words of the few and the famed,  is no longer for rent.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Coming up next on the No Prisoners, No Mercy Show

Coming up next on the No Prisoners, No Mercy Show

One show 62 author Dedra Stevenson comes to us all the way from the United Arab Emirates to talk to us about The Hakima’s Tale Trilogy (now in print in the UAE and being released here).  On show 63 Fran and Julie take a break from all of the guests and just sit down and talk about the events going on in the gaming industry around us.  On show 64 (being recorded today) Tipa from West Karana, Saylah from Mystic Worlds, and Ravious from Kill Ten Rats get together with Fran and I to have a go at round 2 in a discussion of Lord of the Rings Online.

Let's open the news to the back page...

“Flattr is a new thing, now in beta, from one of the founders of Pirate Bay, which would allow readers to pay for content on the Internet. It is a word play on both “to flatter”, and “flatrate”: Users pay a flat rate to Flattr every month….I do not think this will work. From the side of the content creators, this is basically the equivalent of them going round with a tin can to collect alms.” – Tobold,  My Un-Flattr-ing Opinion

Tobold’s complete thoughts on the matter (which you can read at the link) started me thinking about some of our former guests, and one in particular, Mr. Colin Campbell who was the editor for Edge Online Magazine.  One thought leads to another, as they say, and whenever I think about online magazines I also think of the exchange from the Ghostbusters movie:

 Janine Melnitz: You’re very handy, I can tell. I bet you like to read a lot, too.
Dr. Egon Spengler: Print is dead.
Janine Melnitz: Oh, that’s very fascinating to me. I read a lot myself. Some people think I’m too intellectual but I think it’s a fabulous way to spend your spare time. I also play raquetball. Do you have any hobbies?
Dr. Egon Spengler: I collect spores, molds, and fungus.

All the news that’s fit to pay for…

One of the subjects that Mr. Campbell spoke of is the trend for news coming from the internet rather than print.   In the show we talked about what is sometimes a much contested subject - whether or not quality only comes from professional news sources.   In short, quality news, editorial and reviews don’t limit themselves to places where authors are paid in some fashion.  The trend that we can all see is for magazines and newspapers to make their way to the internet from the hard copy presses.  Some, like the New York Times, are moving toward charging for their online content.

But the purview of quality journalism is not limited to the lofty heights wherein reside paid authors.  As we discussed previously on this web site, some of the best authors through history never received a nickle for their work. Big names in publishing that used to grace the streets and bookshelves across the globe, are deciding the place where all the cool kids hang out is the internet.  The fly in the ointment, as grandmother used to say, is that when the kid with the big bankroll hits the internet, they will no doubt find that size doesn’t always count – especially in the area of gaming related journalism.   The problem with gaming journalism is, of course, that by the time the print hits the shelves, it’s already old news  on the internet.  Add into the mix the opinion of the professional developers we talk to who tell us that the people they pay attention to are the bloggers, the community who spends the most time with their product, and I think most of the big kids coming to the internet, who are also the new kids, will find that charging for content will go over like a lead balloon.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather

Operator Error

Gamer X: “I speak for the entire world…”

Julie: “For the entire world, really? And is this an elected position?

Gamer X: “Well…I speak for all the gamers in the world.”

Julie: “That’s quite a trick – All at once or individually? I mean, if it’s one at a time that could take awhile. How do you accomplish such a miraculous feat? Ventriloquism?”

Gamer X: “I speak for all the gamers in the world by divine right.”

Julie: “Oh, so this is sort of an ‘insane Roman Emperor Caligula’ sort of thing. Since you are the ‘Oracle at Doofai’ maybe you can answer a question.”

Gamer X: “The answer is ‘no’”

Julie: “I haven’t even asked the question yet. So in addition to speaking for all the gamers in the world I am guessing you are omniscient as well?”

Gamer X: “Certainly – how else could I speak for all gamers?”

Julie: “I guess you do have a point there. Perhaps in some insanely twisted, mind boggling way it makes sense. Still I would like to actually ask the question anyway.”

Gamer X:” You may continue lowly creature.”

Julie: “Thank you. Oh great and mighty Oracle at Doofai. I am going to go out and buy Fallen Earth this week. Will I like the game?”

Gamer X: “No – it sucks.”

Julie: “Really?”

Gamer X: “Really. I played the game.”

Julie: “How long did you play it?”

Gamer X: “I played it twice. Once for three minutes, a second time for an hour.”

Julie: “Wow. I am impressed. It took Icarus Studios years to make the game and you have managed to succinctly summarize the entire game with your well thought out three word review.  What can I say, I am flabbergasted. I do have one more question oh Oracle at Doofai.”

Gamer X: “Yes?”

Julie: “By any chance do you work at Eurogamer?”

Back in “grad” school I took what should have been an easy course – but it wasn’t.  Nothing odd about that I suppose, except for the reason why it wasn’t easy.  You see the course was an introductory course in accounting, and what was odd about it was that the Certified Public Accountants who took the course for an easy A were all failing the course. Odder still was the fact that the teacher of the course never questioned his own abilities as an instructor.

It seems that the same problem often holds true in the world of game journalism.

Whether it be columnists, bloggers or any other form of journalism, writers (especially those involved in any form of games journalism) rarely seem to call their own abilities in to question.  I know I do – and hence the recent apology to Doctor Bartle on this site.  Too often it becomes a case of the famous quote by Mark Twain:

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished by how much he’d learned in seven years.” – Mark Twain

As my co-host and I discussed with Keen from Keen and Graeves on a previous No Prisoners, No Mercy (NPNM) show a blog is an opinion. There is no guarantee of perceived journalistic integrity. Still, it only takes one match to start a forest fire, and a few well read (and uninformed) articles or blogs to damage a game’s reputation.  Mind you I would rather have someone admit they only played the game for an hour before pronouncing two word reviews (“It sucked”), instead of writers who hide the fact that they spent less time with the game than they do on a toilet bowl in any given day.

Odder still, are those writers, seemingly thinking themselves omniscient, who cannot perceive of the possibility that their maggot ridden garbage is someone else’s treasure.  And perhaps, just perhaps, the game in question wasn’t maggot ridden garbage to begin with. Perhaps it is they who have a problem grasping the game mechanics used by the developers. Perhaps, just perhaps, the problems some writers have with games is a case of…

 …Operator error.

After all, pity the poor developer who has to not only make their product fit the myriad, and often conflicting, demands of the market but keep the corporate bean counters happy at the same time.  Consider that for any length of time and you will perhaps find yourself wondering why there aren’t more developers kept behind locked doors, in padded rooms.

See you online,

Julie Whitefeather