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Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

democracyjournal.org

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Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#11

Post by digi_owl »

Andrex wrote: post #9

This is a good read, but I question this line: > Video games, at their best, offer everyone an equal chance to overcome the same challenges on an equal playing field. “Pac-Man,” after all, didn’t let you add extra quarters to purchase immunity from the ghosts. I mean, in a way they did. If you had more quarters to spare in Pac-Man, you'd be more likely to make it further than your cash-strapped compatriot. But then a…

But it also allowed skill with the game to shine by getting further on a single quarter.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#12

Post by dfxm12 »

Andrex wrote: post #9

This is a good read, but I question this line: > Video games, at their best, offer everyone an equal chance to overcome the same challenges on an equal playing field. “Pac-Man,” after all, didn’t let you add extra quarters to purchase immunity from the ghosts. I mean, in a way they did. If you had more quarters to spare in Pac-Man, you'd be more likely to make it further than your cash-strapped compatriot. But then a…

You don't get to enter your initials into the machine based on how far you get. Only your score matters, and your score resets when you continue.

You don't "beat" Pac-Man when you get to the kill screen, you beat Pac-Man when you get a perfect score.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#13

Post by GunwaleHamilton »

Andrex wrote: post #9

This is a good read, but I question this line: > Video games, at their best, offer everyone an equal chance to overcome the same challenges on an equal playing field. “Pac-Man,” after all, didn’t let you add extra quarters to purchase immunity from the ghosts. I mean, in a way they did. If you had more quarters to spare in Pac-Man, you'd be more likely to make it further than your cash-strapped compatriot. But then a…

Remind me, I don't remember if you could continue or if you had to Start again from the beginning when you died in Pac-Man. I know later Arcade Games allowed you to continue but I'm not sure about Pac-Man

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#15

Post by colemannugent »

>how can the market exploitation of civic, social, and leisure spaces possibly be averted

What? The ominous "market" isn't forcing its way into any of these spaces. You let it in. You bought that game with micro-transactions, you signed up for that "free" social media app that was "secretly stealing your data".

What shall we do? Our economic system isn't doing what we think it should! Could it be that we don't understand it and we should educate people so that they can't be taken advantage of? No! It's the system that's wrong!

Towards the end of the article the author starts talking about UBI and just after that mentioning a scheme for the government to employ all workers. I should have guessed that would be the endgame. Two completely unproven ideas suggested as the panacea to market forces the author doesn't understand.

Why does it that every time I see someone refer to something as "Social Democracy" they are merely using it as a euphemism for Socialism or Communism?

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#16

Post by vernie »

gimmeDatCheddar wrote: post #10
andrepd wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why, is it immune from criticism? Instead of this worthless comment, why didn't you read the piece yourself? Then you could make your own judgement.

Reading it myself would require wasting precious time, when I can instead offload that responsibility to someone who has already read it and can comment on whether or not it is a shitpiece.

Your time doesn't seem that precious.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#17

Post by Andrex »

dfxm12 wrote: post #12
Andrex wrote: post #9

This is a good read, but I question this line: > Video games, at their best, offer everyone an equal chance to overcome the same challenges on an equal playing field. “Pac-Man,” after all, didn’t let you add extra quarters to purchase immunity from the ghosts. I mean, in a way they did. If you had more quarters to spare in Pac-Man, you'd be more likely to make it further than your cash-strapped compatriot. But then a…

You don't get to enter your initials into the machine based on how far you get. Only your score matters, and your score resets when you continue. You don't "beat" Pac-Man when you get to the kill screen, you beat Pac-Man when you get a perfect score.

True! And I forgot that aspect of the scoring system.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#18

Post by [deleted] »

dfxm12 wrote: post #12
Andrex wrote: post #9

This is a good read, but I question this line: > Video games, at their best, offer everyone an equal chance to overcome the same challenges on an equal playing field. “Pac-Man,” after all, didn’t let you add extra quarters to purchase immunity from the ghosts. I mean, in a way they did. If you had more quarters to spare in Pac-Man, you'd be more likely to make it further than your cash-strapped compatriot. But then a…

You don't get to enter your initials into the machine based on how far you get. Only your score matters, and your score resets when you continue. You don't "beat" Pac-Man when you get to the kill screen, you beat Pac-Man when you get a perfect score.

[deleted]

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#19

Post by germinalphrase »

colemannugent wrote: post #15

> how can the market exploitation of civic, social, and leisure spaces possibly be averted What? The ominous "market" isn't forcing its way into any of these spaces. You let it in . You bought that game with micro-transactions, you signed up for that "free" social media app that was "secretly stealing your data". What shall we do? Our economic system isn't doing what we think it should! Could it be that we don't unde…

Are you not concerned that while some of these costs may not be entirely hidden - they are very often intentionally obfuscated?

It's not exactly analogous to "people should know to avoid credit cards with 20% interest rates" as that interest rate must be openly communicated to the consumer while the collection and sale of my personal data has no such requirement.

Re: Digital Capitalism’s War on Leisure

#20

Post by RandomInteger4 »

nailer wrote: post #14
gimmeDatCheddar wrote: post #2

[flagged]

Yes it is, but see the HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it.

This story seems on topic considering y combinator is a startup focused enterprise, so monetization discussions, in whatever direction, are relevant.
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