Quote: "
Seriously, it's not hard to read. As humans we're supposed to be able to handle a margin of error. That post is within my acceptable threshold (as well as TheComet's). Look for the meaning, don't analyze the individual words."
Well, OK, so a game is it a game.. yes! The journalists who are depressed should try prozac, or something. The obscurity, of whatever sounds like a good thing. I like obscure games. If you're not remarkable then try to improve your talents.
Quote: " Ideally game makers would all love to be talked about for their design, technology or aesthetics, but those attributes are often unreliable. A splashy, gory, over-the-top video though? Money in the bank, or so they think."
I think that it means gore is money in the bank. Well lot's of games have individual attributes that make them popular, so I disagree with that.
Quote: "The problem is that that kind of extremity eventually gives way to apathy, and from there it's a short hop to commoditisation. The approach of being bigger/better/faster/harder than the other guy ultimately results in a bland white noise where even the most shocking act is no longer really that shocking. In this, the E3 games industry may find itself traveling down the same sorry path as the adult entertainment industry. "
No idea what that is about. Erm, I doubt I could even guess. Something to do with better faster, harder, and porn I think.
Quote: "Ethical debates about adult entertainment aside, one of the most interesting things about it as an industry is how often it has been at the forefront of trends that affect all other digital media. Its producers were among the first to figure out how to deliver video content online, how to monetise content, outsource and market it. The industry has proved endlessly inventive in how, where and by what means its content is delivered, and it tends to have a very bottom-line approach. In adult film it's all about user acquisition, retention and conversion to customers at every opportunity. "
Porn was the first to deliver video online? So what's that got to do with games?
Quote: "So in these times of analytics and measurement you would think that it's boom times. Not so. According to Louis Theroux, the adult industry is in dire straits, with many performers unable to find work and sales in many genres having collapsed. The problems seem to stem from three main areas: Over-supply (it doesn't cost much to produce a film), a lack of sociality (not many people really want to share their proclivities with their Facebook friends), and the proliferation of free sites."
Porn stars can't find work? Is it over-supply? Games are far more individual than porn films. Each film is almost identical to the last. These are not very intelligent people working on the films, they have no creativity.
Quote: "This last in particular is often blamed because it commoditised the product into a free video, which - when combined with oversupply - means that there is so much product available that nobody ever needs to pay. And they have no reasons to share. (This is also why many musicians are terrified of Spotify)."
Seems like 3 references to the same thing. Free leads to free, leads to free? OK?
Quote: "What always happens in any market where there is a glut of over-supplied average content is that some producers decide to try and differentiate. They look for an angle that will get them talked about, regardless of the tone of that coverage, so that they won't be invisible. That can take many forms, from the slow building of a tribe and a marketing story to the over-the-top push to extremity to try and create shock and awe. And this is largely where porn went."
Almost makes sense. Free leads to shock angle to make money. OK so that is true at last.
Quote: "Adult content today is much harder than it used to be, according to many former performers. It's meaner, more violent and brutal. It's also much more functional, with many of the pretenses of story (such as in the Boogie Nights era) washed away in favour of identifying the product by genre, act, performer and so on. The various genres have diversified and diversified some more, to the point that the product is thoroughly atomised. "
He took the red pill again. No idea. Functional, pretences.. err.. no I can't get the gist of that at all.
Quote: "And yet even despite all of that pushing to the edges and forking of content into sub-divisions, the industry continued to hollow out from within. In the end of the day even the most extreme content became freely available (legitimately and illegitimately) and the places where extremity could go ran out. And so the industry as a whole shrank. Porn (like games, music, books, movies etc) has never been more widely available, and yet has never been less valuable."
Makes sense, extreme porn became free too. Yeah, I thought that was Free, Free, Free in the first place.
Like I said, this will take ages. I give up with the rest.
