FoolsCap

My adoring public has beseiged me with wailing lamentations in response to my weeks long silence here.

Not really, but that’s what I tell myself in order to sleep at night.

Some thoughts in response to the Shaviro talk today in the FAB:

First, I really liked Steve.  In particular, I liked that he answered my poorly articulated question with (what seemed at least) to be genuine respect for the question (and the inquiring speaker behind it).  Unlike a speaker (who shall remain nameless here) who gave a talk last semester in the dep’t and made me feel a right ass when I asked what I thought was a question that could be of general interest, asking for clarification on some terms used in the speaker’s book.  (We haven’t all done the same reading, after all.)  More a note to myself for use in the classroom: people don’t like to made to feel like asses–treat all questions and comments respectfully, even if the people asking are not as informed as those they ask.

Moving on. . .I’m never really sure how to ask questions at these things.  (I imagine as I attend more and read more this might resolve itself a bit.)  I feel that such events are sort of the speaker’s show, not my place to ramble on, which I would have had to in order to frame my question in the way that I was really thinking about it.  Here, then, is the rambling-but-more-fleshed-out version of the question:

In the move between MMO environments and the traditional God-game, there is a marked diminuition of the player’s game-diegetic power and authority.  In the God-game (as the name implies) players are responsible for the creation and maintenance of their world/city/empire et cetera.  These games also feature some version of an asset/capital management aspect: you use money/magic/credit in order to enrich your world and make your subjects/creations happy.  The MMO environments, however, see the player reduced to an individual, free of godly responsibilities but also stripped of the power and authority.  As Shaviro describes the MMOs (since I’m not directly familiar with them), some of the MMOs still feature the "responsibility" motif though (it sounds like this might be more true of Second Life than Ultima Online or Warcraft).  So, I guess my question is one that calls for come conjecture: what does it indicate about the player-subject’s role that the MMOs (that in some cases seek to at least replicate if not duplicate real life) are far more popular than the traditional god-game?  Do people not want to be gods? 

Okay, so this is still not really what I’m thinking of, but it’s closer to it.

Other things that intrigued me in Shaviro’s lecture:

• the possible future of the Second Life engine as a replacement for the traditional Web interface
• Capitalism’s appeal to gut feeling.  Would commodity culture be possible without that "I’ve got to have it!" impulse?
• A phrase that Shaviro mentioned only in passing but that I’d like to do some reading/thinking about: real world persona. 
• the phenomenon of "gold farms"
• the notion that capital is itself a sort of virtual experience: money has value because we all consent to its value.  There might be some Marxist thing here that I don’t understand, but I’m intrigued by the notion of describing "real world" assumptions/illusions/conventions as virtual experiences.

Thinking back on Shaviro’s response to my question. . .I find it interesting that once the MMO experience becomes feasible–that is, once players can network and commune in the MMO environ–only then does it seem that the need for rules and regulations come into play to govern the interaction of players.  I’m nowhere near well read enough in social theories to make any authoritative claim on the matter, but maybe that’s true of all social organizations.  Perhaps they can grow and expand without codification of social norms/mores only to a certain point, a critical mass after which regulation is necessary for the continued well-being of the social body.

I’ll have some more thoughts later on the aesthetics of the MMO experience, the uncanny valley, and I dunno, something else, in relation to the Shaviro lecture.