the attention economy

BCM206 | Week 6

Social Media Influencers are some of the most wealthy and well known people in our society today. What is it they do for a living? They produce online content – they earn millions by simply starting a free social media account and attracting a following.

Tim O’Reilly stated that only a small percentage of user of these “Web 2.0” companies will go to extra lengths to contribute to these companies – for examples when YouTubers create merchandise only a portion of viewers will actually purchase the merchandise, and others will continue to like and subscribe to the influencers without believing they are “giving money to them” – but the truth of the matter is they’re dealing with the currency of attention – the attention economy.

There is value in participating online, without the participators knowing how much they are giving. The aggregation of participation becomes a side effect of using social media. We think we’re benefitting ourselves, when really it’s for someone else’s favour.

References:
– O’ Rielly, T, 2005, What is Web 2.0, https://oreilly.janrainsso.com/static/server.html?origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oreilly.com%2Fpub%2Fa%2Fweb2%2Farchive%2Fwhat-is-web-20.html

self-reflection of comments

Chelsea-Lee Bastable | Breathing in the Wind – Zelda
Chelseas is project is taking for of gameplay with a designers perspective. Chelsea will be playing Zelda, Breathing in the Wind from a designers point of view. She will analyse the visual elements of the game. Whats interesting for Chelsea to look at too is the evolution of the design of Zelda throughout the years of game development. How the designers have been given the opportunity to build on the main character and landscape design with the ever changing technologies available to them. The development of console operating systems and their Internet and network connectivity is parallel to the already compromised design of always-already closed hardware necessarily lagging in connect and design. (Moore C, Mitew, T 2017) The console allows the game to change aswell. Chelsea’s game will be played on a Switch – What would be interesting to know is how past console’s have changed the design of Zelda itself.

Emma Jenkins | Reaction Videos
Emma’s project is going to take the form of weekly vlogs of her reaction to different games online – as in watching other people play. She hopes to look at a variety of games as well as gamers (I presume). This “non-gamer” approach to the task is different to mine but so fascinating- I think this project is so interesting because it captures a whole other element of game culture – game viewing. I think its become is own sub-genre and it’ll be interesting for her to look at this project in the analytical frame work of the history of gaming.

I think it would be interesting for Emma’s project as she’s looking from a whole new perspective – to think about the readings about the history of the gaming industry and the evolution. She’s chosen to look at online gaming and streaming of the 21st century. But what if she were to watch someone play the Atari for 3 hours straight? Video games compete for consumers free time, its created an opportunity for regular videos of these videos to profit and gain growth on social media from this notion. Life outside actual 9-5 work has been blurred with this evolving industry. (Ernkvist, M 2008)

Dayle Beazley | Game Illustation
For Dayle’s Project Pitch she will be creating illustrations and illustration videos on social media platforms, like Instagram and Tiktok, that have been based on gaming characters. She will be creating these illusrations in her own specific style of art and she eventually wants to sell these illustrations on etsy or Redbubble. I think she has such a wonderful idea as a designer because there is not real limit to what she can do with this project – she can create images in the likeness of these character in her own style and for the benefit of other people – and shes able to capitalize on that. She didnt mention that she would be looking at game design for obvious reasons but i think itll be interesting for her to look at the original designers thoughts when creating these characters. “Cognitive flexibility, a key component of creative behaviour when creating, has also been argued to be increased through players gameplay, with findings suggesting that certain types of game genres such as Real-Time Strategy can increase cognitive flexibility” – So it’ll be intersting to know how Dayle will capture these characters in one drawing. Maybe it’ll be beneficial for her to look at concept design and artworks.

References:
– Ernkvist, M., 2008. Down many times, but still playing the game: Creative destruction and industry crashes in the early video game industry 1971-1986.


-Hall, J, Stickler, U, Herodotou, C & Iacovides, I 2020, ‘Expressivity of creativity and creative design considerations in digital games’, Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 105, <https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselp&AN=S0747563219304261&gt;


– Teodor Mitew and Christopher Moore (2017) ‘Histories of Internet Games and Play: Space, Technique and Modality’. Global Internet Histories. Goggin, G. & McLelland, M. J., Eds. Routledge: London.

disney bootleg games

BCM215

My digital artefact will be a seperate WordPress site where I will document my experience. For my Game media studies project, I’ll be looking at online bootleg browser games that have been copied off the established Walt Disney brand. The text I’ll be using is specifically online games on various websites that are clearly not authorised by Disney Pty Ltd. 

I decided to take on this project not only as a connoisseur of browser games but as someone who is interested in the branding and copyright aspects of the existence of these games. I will be looking through the analytical frameworks of Disney’s own marketing strategy as well as the content analysis surrounding these “fake” games. For example, are they meant to be satirical and parody? Thereby creating a special exception from copyright infringement, or as part of a general exception from copyright infringement, such as fair use or fair dealing. – But do Disney characters exist in fair dealing?

These cheaply made games use Disney characters likeness, names and even some story lines to reproduce a whole new game that has never been recognised by Disney. What are the repercussions? All these identifiable components mean Disney could pull the plug or take to court.. But they don’t? Disney threatens lawsuits for Mickey Mouse graffiti – so why not Elsa’s dress up games. Probably because these minuscule games may not decrease the intellectual property of Disney or take away from the ideas of the company itself. The work of the creation of the character is different from the character itself (Jagorda, GS 1999) These are things I hope to uncover through my Digital Artefact.

References:

-Coenraad Visser 2005, ‘The location of the parody defence in copyright law: some comparative perspectives’, The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, vol. 38, no. 3, p. 321, <https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.23252621&gt;.

-Jagorda, GS 1999, ‘The Mouse that Roars: Character Protection Strategies of Disney and Others’, Thomas Jefferson Law Review, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 235–252, <https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.uow.edu.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.tjeflr21.17&gt;.