Just finished that James Paul Gee book, and there was a good quote towards the end from a Salon article: Triumph of the mod. They are talking about how game companies are distributing, and in some cases purchasing and distributing game modifications made by fans:
- “Which, when you think about it, is a little like HBO devoting its prime time schedule to action movies shot by high school kids in their back yard. And getting massive ratings as a result.
…Many of the best game companies now count on modders to show them the way creatively and to ensure their own survival in a savagely competitive market. This stands in marked contrast to the music and film industry, which vindictively discourages fans from tinkering with their content and clings to an outdated interpretation of copyright. By fostering the creativity of their fans, their more agile peers in the game industry have not only survived but prospered.”
They compare this briefly to the Star Wars Episode I, Phantom Edit, which was released by fans online, and supposedly made marked improvements to the original movie. This is a really interesting topic area to me, because it talks directly to people being able to take story-systems handed to them, and then to modify them into their own personal shape and format. I think that’s undoubtedly the direction that technology is going in, and all this file-sharing lawsuit crap is a last ditch effort to turn back the clock, and retain complete control over story-systems with the hands of the original distributor.
An essay I found online, but haven’t read yet: “We Media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information“. And another article from Salon called “Internet Liberation Theology“
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT @TMBCHR (Auto-Generated)
- MTV Video Mods
- Contemporary Apocryphal Culture
- The Phantom Edit & ClearPlay
- Canon + Fan-Fiction = Fanon
- Unfinished Business
