New And Exciting Ways For Upper Middle Class White People To Ignore The World Around Them

Submitted by michael on June 8, 2009 - 9:13am

Church Social

I look at the below video and while I experience admiration for the technical proficiency and the cleverness of the concept, bile rises up. I see a smug diorama of upper-middle class, burbclave-living, isolated, white-skin-privileged, commodity-fetishizing shopping.

I'd like to go out on a limb and say that some video game platforms are more populist than others. Portables, like the PSP and Nintendo DS come to mind. Price point, not needing a gargantuan living room, and a flat screen tv the size of my bedroom wall seem like relevant factors. Yes it's all part of the Spectacle, but there are degrees.

I love technology and the Internet when it helps us connect to the world outside. The simulation of a pizza parlor makes no sense to me. I want to visit an *actual* pizza parlor and immediately access a community-maintained database of its labor history, food purchases, carbon footprint, and of course testimonials about the quality of their Sicilian-style crust.

Shaking my fist at new technology will not lead very far. What we are perhaps looking at is the feed-stock for future culture jammers. If the Xbox wants to provide "realistic" simulations then let's create some scenarios that depict the conditions that support consumerism! Little Suzie can mime working at a sewing machine in a sweatshop all day. Bobby can spend a Sunday afternoon trudging toward potable water because the transnational oil operation near his village poisoned the watershed.

Or better yet, Mom and Dad can dodge swinging police truncheons because they exercised free speech, either under an American-supported dictatorship or in New York City!

Subvert the spectacle! Let's comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

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Virtual I-Pods

Submitted by SeaQ on June 18, 2009 - 3:22am.

The interface doesnt matter. Right now, in Thailand, or maybe in a factory in Mexico City, is the next TS Elliot, the next Ghandi, the next Einstein. It doesn't matter if they are making shirts for 10 cents an hour, or burning tires for 13 hours a day; their potential is lost. The same danger exists for people who choose to play video games all day.
Why simulate real life when you can experience it directly? The suburbanite who buys a sweatshop simulator for the device described in your video is simply engaging in a type of masochistic voyeurism. They can stop the 'game' at any time without the fear of being beaten or starved, and therefore the essential lesson is lost. However, a sweatshop simulator would be interesting for the social commentary its existence would provide. I could see someone doing a story or article about it.
Here is another idea for a 'video game of cruelty': a semi-open world game where one rises through the business world. The characters age, and each game has a 40 year time limit. The implied goal/reward is riches etc. In fact the game constantly hints at all kinds of rewards- for example, one of the AI characters tells you flat out you can unlock a helicopter if you do A B and C, but it never happens. The most a character can ever achieve is a sort of middling status. No helicopters, but you can unlock a low end BMW at some point. This game would be so disingenuous that the packaging it comes in would show the players character flying around in a helicopter, racing in speedboats, and doing multi- million dollar business deals.None of this ever happens (the options don't exist in the game) and this is where the 'cruelty' comes in: the player is left frustrated and angry. They feel cheated and insulted by the games constant false promises, its smarmy dialogue and a plot line that belittles every effort you make to win. Hopefully, the player will become so frustrated and so angry (after several attempts to 'beat' the game) that they will pick up their game console, smash it against the wall, and go outside to interact with the real world.

machines without buttons?

Submitted by michael on June 17, 2009 - 11:18am.

So SeaQ, just to tease some ideas along here...the game system in the video markets itself as "without controllers" or rather "you become the controller"...so would an interface that scans your whole body movements and interprets your actions be more humane?

I have long been interested in (if somewhat skeptical of) the hypothesis that video games replicate industrial work or sweatshop work: repetive actions and motions in a strict environment for a numerical reward.

But don't many types of play replicate this? Many card games, for example. I suppose most kinds of play are more akin to hunting or a craft (or war), but still mimic production.

But assuming that the family above is being absorbed into a life of button-pushing, monotonous consumption, there is still an asymmetry between them and the communities that are exploited to produce commodities.

I suppose that's the real motivation behind my proposal of creating a "video game of cruelty" or video games of the oppressed, because that helps the player realize that both sides of the equation are suffering (even if asymmetrically).

Little Suzy

Submitted by SeaQ on June 15, 2009 - 3:01pm.

Little Suzy is learning how to operate buttons in a sequence and is being adapted to machine logic; there is no need for a sweatshop simulation, the key lessons are being taught regardless of what is shown on the screen.
Some peoples vision of the future consists of a society of specialized button pushers. Unfortunately, machines can condition their users to treat the people around them as machines. If this goes too far, it leads to a breakdown of the social order as the concept of 'the value of human life' becomes more and more of an abstraction. However, nature will not be subverted; a society that tries to adopt a machine-philosophy will run headlong into a wall of rage, indignation, and subversion. It's doomed to fail.
All this being said, I am not anti-technology; I support tech that improves the quality of life on earth and expands our knowledge of the world around us. However, our scientific progress has been hijacked by profiteers and warmongers; even the best ideas are subject to the bottom line.