#playbor | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nghiazet · 2 months

Text

WEEK 9: GAMING COMMUNITIES, SOCIAL GAMING AND LIVE-STREAMING.

DEVELOPMENT OF GAMING COMMUNITIES

Playing games alone is mostly a product of the computer era, with just a few deviations. Prior to this, the majority of "games," whether they were played on a tabletop or in an outdoor setting, required the participation of other individuals. With the advancement of technology, modern gamers are now able to revisit the nostalgic era of communal gaming after spending many decades in isolation. During the 1990s, the growing interest among users in Internet-based multiplayer PC games like as Meridian 59 and Ultima Online indicated the significant financial and societal influence that the Massively Multiplayer (MMP) genre may have.

With the progression of technology, social media platforms and specialized gaming forums emerged as platforms for gamers to share ideas, methods, and experiences, promoting a feeling of camaraderie among persons with similar interests like Reddit, Discord, along with the emergence of streaming services with various platforms like Youtube Gaming, Facebook Live and Twitch has significantly transformed gaming communities by enabling players to live-stream their games to a global audience, fostering the growth of fan bases and the formation of communities centered on common interests.

STREAMER PHENOMENON

The primary players in the streaming phenomena are the individuals known as 'streamers'. The labor required for streaming may be compared to Kücklich's (2005) concept of 'playbor', which also incorporates aspects of 'free labor' (Terranova, 2004) that are more similar to play than work. However, these activities can still be transformed into financial profit. The act of broadcasting video game play has resemblance to the 'modding' communities associated with games (Postigo, 2007; Sotamaa, 2010) - including the modification of game material by enthusiasts.

Presently, gaming communities consist of a wide range of demographics and interests, spanning from casual smartphone players to professional eSports teams. Discord servers, subreddits, and gaming-focused social networks provide communication and cooperation, while events like as conventions and eSports competitions provide chances for face-to-face connection.

The ramifications of having such a substantial gaming community for the game business are many. Nevertheless, it is evident that there are several correlations between the expansion of live streaming and other prevailing patterns in the gaming business. For instance, the increase in funding and labor expenses in the popular and highly successful 'triple-A' or 'AAA' games sector has resulted in many changes in games production. The growing influence of publishers in the value chain has heightened the significance of digital marketplaces and the intermediaries that regulate the positioning of items inside them (Toivonen & Sotamaa, 2010). As a consequence, there have been imbalances in power, especially due to increased market demands for cost reduction and adaptability (Thompson et al., 2015: 7). The pressures mentioned have led to significant changes, as shown by a statement from a Ubisoft official who said that their "business model has shifted" towards using sequels instead of creating fresh intellectual property (quoted in Martin, 2010). On the other hand, independent game creators have used crowdfunding to finance their development and connect with audiences, a process that may be enhanced via advertising on sites such as Twitch.

To conclude, gaming communities have not only improved the gaming experience but also fostered connections, honed skills, and promoted worldwide cultural exchange. As technology advances, gaming communities will also progress, opening up new opportunities for interaction and cooperation inside the dynamic gaming world.

Reference:

Johnson, M. R., & Woodcock, J. (2018). The impacts of live streaming and Twitch.tv on the video game industry. Media, Culture & Society, 41(5), 670-688. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443718818363

Kücklich J (2005) Precarious playbor: modders and the digital game industry. The Fibreculture Journal 5.

Terranova T (2004) Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age. London: Pluto Press.

Postigo H (2007) Of mods and modders chasing down the value of fan-based digital game modification. Games and Culture 2(4): 300–313. Crossref.

Sotamaa O (2010) When the game is not enough: motivations and practices among computer game modding culture. Games and Culture 5(3): 239–255. Crossref. ISI.

#mda20009 #gaming #gaming communities

0 notes

kenyatta · 5 years

Quote

Game-play—the work of working a game—is fundamentally irritating, at least in comparison with other media forms. It’s easy to pass the eyes over the pages of a book, or to bathe in the waves of image and sound at the cinema or in your living room. Moreover, these forms skip over the boring parts by editing them out: You don’t have to watch a character traverse the stairs, sidewalk, subway, and elevator to get from home to work. But in games, you are the character, and thus you must pilot him (or her, but usually him) through every detail that the simulated world demands. Role-playing gamers sometimes talk about “grinding”— completing boring, repetitive tasks to advance their character’s abilities in order to make progress—a term that exactly mirrors the drudgery and toil of labor. The game theorist Julian Kücklich even coined a portmanteau, playbor, to describe the fusion of work and leisure in contemporary life. In FarmVille, for example, players exploit their network of friends and acquaintances to advance their progress in the game, and thereby the material benefit of Zynga, the company that publishes the game. In Super Mario Maker, players pay for a software product that invites labor: making Super Mario Bros. levels for other owners of the software to play. Playbor isn’t for just games either: It also describes the digital economy more broadly. When you post to Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, for example, your leisure (sharing with friends) doubles as unpaid work for social-network services, which use the results to sow others’ leisure. Likewise, when you feel obliged to check work email or Slack at all hours, you confuse work with leisure until no boundary exists between the two. But email is undeniably work, at least, and social media can be construed as interpersonal communication. Games, by contrast, are supposed to be entertainment—and yet they demand toil in leisure’s pursuit. The game designer Paolo Pedercini sees that contradiction as a fundamental feature of the medium. Games, he argues, are the aesthetic form of instrumental reason—that is, order, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness as art. Tetris aspires for the rule of order over disarray; civilization presents natural resources as a means to global domination. Solutions, control, metrics, and outcomes rule. Even when a game does not literally exploit its players’ leisure for its creator’s gain, it orients the player toward formal, often numerical goals that structure progress and, by extension, define enjoyment. The fact that consultants and entrepreneurs have applied game metrics such as points, levels, and badges in institutional settings, dubbing the effort “gamification,” only further entrenches the connection between games and work.

Video Games Are Better Without Gameplay - The Atlantic

#playbor #gaming #ian bogost

17 notes · View notes

noir-trampy · 2 years

Text

Есть особые злодеи в популярной культуре - юристы Дисней и юристы Роулинг.

Если повесил изображение Микки в кафе или делаешь леденцы, по форме напоминающие Золушку, то велика вероятность, что тайные агенты корпорации найдут и пожурят со словами: «Где деньги, Лебовски?». Роулинговские рыцари тоже не дремлют. Шарфик в цвета Гриффиндора или Хафлпафа не пораспространяешь без последствий, фанфик с Драко и Гермионой не опубликуешь. До истерик легко доводили двенадцатилеток, тыча в нос законом. Тем сразу вместо Хогвартса начинал сниться Азкабан.

И конца да края нет, так как права на персонажей, истории, на всю интеллектуальную собственность в руках автора и компании. Вокруг Микки, например, танцы с бубнами устраиваются периодически, чтобы не дать ему стать «public domain». Потому что тогда зарабатывать на мышонке смогут буквально все, не спрашивая разрешения у сюзерена. А это сколько денег…

С Роулинг не лучше. Там как у нас с произведениями — жизнь автора + n-количество лет после смерти. В России знаю, что n = 70. По США данные разнятся в источниках, но называют близкие числа. То есть лет через 100 можно бу��ет ставить в графе профессия 👉 «креатор фанартов по вселенной Гарри Поттера». Пока же творим безвозмездно (занимаемся паратворчеством), принося латентно прибыль старой тётеньке (и в перспективе её детям) и старым дяденькам.

Мысли по поводу возникли после книг:

📚«Exploiting Fandom: How the media industry seeks to manipulate fans» (Mel Stanfill);

📚«Understanding fandom: an introduction to the study of media fan culture» (Mark Duffett);

📚«Digital Labor. The internet as playground and factory» (edited by Trebor Scholz).

В последней выведено понятие «playbor». Playbor (play + labor) означает, что пока играем в интернете (создаём тематический контент, косплеим, перепеваем, рисуем и тому подобное), нас незаметно эксплуатируют, так как фанаты - если не бесплатная, то очень дешёвая рабочая сила и реклама. Фанаты обеспечивают вирустность, тиражируемость, трудолюбивы, эффективны, талантливы. Идеальные теневые сотрудники без договоров. Однако если, вдруг, захотят каким-то образом монетизировать умения, то получат по голове от Фемиды.

Конечно, Роулинг и Дисней не единственные в мире короли. Просто масштаб их империй поражает. «Гарри Поттер» до сих пор успешно разрастается — от побочных книг до спектакля, от видеоигр до новой франшизы, съезды, реюнионы, Wizarding World of Harry Potter во Флориде и другое. Не считая переизданий книг, оригинальных фильмов и бесконечного мерча. Детищу Уолта, в свою очередь, принадлежит — собственный канал, Disney+, Диснейленд (естественно), принцессы Дисней (да-да, отдельный бренд), Pixar, Marvel (в представлении не нуждается), Lucasfilm (Звёздные войны), 21st Century Fox (Симпсоны, Футурама и не только). Получается, очень скоро, приходя в кинотеатр, включая телевизор и лазая по интернету, будем потреблять исключительно продукцию данного медиаконгломерата.

#дисней #гарри поттер #фильмы #фильм #блог о кино #киноблог #киношка #маркетинг #впечатления #мысли вслух #мысли #по русски

3 notes · View notes

additivebloodcurse · 5 years

Link

Playbor is a neologism that gets us to look at how the boundaries between work and leisure, production and consumption, increasingly overlap.

#IFTTT #Pocket #ifttt #newsblur #playbor

0 notes

gamereporter · 7 years

Text

Playbor: Maratona de desenvolvimento de jogos eletrônicos será realiza em Belo Horizonte

Mais uma boa oportunidade de se destacar no cenário de desenvolvimento de games no Brasil: O Sebrae Minas e a pré-aceleradora de games Playbor lançam desafio para programadores, artistas, designers e empreendedores desenvolverem games. A Game Jam, como é conhecida a maratona de desenvolvimento de jogos eletrônicos, será realizada no dia 7 de setembro, feriado da Independência, na sede do Sebrae…

View On WordPress

#Belo Horizonte #Game Jam #indie #MG #minas gerais #Playbor #Sebrae

0 notes

dzeikobb · 4 years

Text

19.10.2020

Pokrótce: W Linii Oporu Dukaja praca stała się niekonieczna poprzez automatyzację, tzw technologiczne bezrobocie, rozwój nanotechnologii i drukowania 3D, a także tzw. "gospodarkę radosną" (playbor, graca, grając - pracujesz). Do tego dochód podstawowy i pełne zabezpieczenie socjalne (mieszkanie, jedzenie, ubrania, zdrowie - wszystko jest dostępne, tanie i luksusowe) gospodarka nadmiaru (tzw drexlerowska), cały świat jest już rozwinięty (łącznie z Afryką). Zatem większość ludzi nie musi pracować, zatem większość ludzi nie ma sensu życia, większość ludzi pochłania tzw. "nolensum" (brak woli, brak chcenia). Ludzie zatapiają się więc w plajach (oddziałujące na wszystkie zmysły, 100%-immersywne narracje) oraz szlajach (100%-immersywne gry). Sensy życia są PRODUKOWANE przez jedyną grupę ludzi, która pracuje - kreatywów. Oni to tworzą nastroje, emocje, uczucia, style życia i sensy życia, które następnie są sprzedawane w pakietach i dystrybuowane przez pochodne korporacji - królestwa. Dzięki kreatywom ludzie niepracujący mają co robić, mają w co grać, mają w co się angażować (mają na co się gejdżować, mówiąc językiem powieści). Główny bohater, kreatyw Paweł Kostrzewa, sam doznaje kryzysu egzystencjalnego i próbuje znaleźć rozwiązanie w próbie przedefiniowania na nowo pojęcia człowieka (robi to używając Wittgensteinowskich gier językowych), a także odwraca, za Nietzschem, znaki wartości prawdy i fałszu - uznaje, że to rzeczywistość fizyczna jest fałszem i grą, a rozszerzona rzeczywistość wirtualna (w powieści - duch) jest prawdziwą, podstawową, wyjściową rzeczywistością. Dzięki temu życie człowieka staje się grą swobodną, w której linie oporu (reguły gry) tworzą się i zanikają, co sprawia, że ludzkość wchodzi w epokę posthumanistyczną suchą stopą, bez zatracenia się w nolensum.

Quote: "I read the Researches and actually appreciated most of them. Second Wittgenstein's vision of language does a good Job destroying the platonic-modern one. I think that even today, many people talk as if they're putting objects together, as if the words they use are directly connected to a single signified, and that book would help them understanding that it's not that simple.

That said I hated Wittgenstein's "clarifying" approach about linguistic confusion: according to him, language is still a normative system, even if the functions of meaning are relativized to the particular linguistic game. There's still a bad and a good way to use words, and I can accept that, but fuck him when he says philosophy is linguistic confusion cause:

1- philosophy doesn't have to get lost in objectification of meanings and, in '900 it mostly doesn't.

2- normativity is an important part of language, but it's not the essential one: if it was, all languages would be fixed and impossible to change. The "error" is exactly what changes the rules, and wittgenstein doesn't really say this, while putting emphasis on normativity when he talks about the 'private language' etc..

3- therefore linguistic confusion is not something to be clarified, putting a connection of meanings and signifiers back to the normal scheme. Wittgenstein is a linguistic cop and I get why Deleuze hated him."

"Świat według Heraklita nie został przez nikogo zrobiony, ale był, jest i będzie zawsze żyjącym ogniem, w miarę gasnącym i w miarę się rozogniającym. (...) W ten sposób ugruntowuje się u Heraklita absolutny monizm ontologiczny i dynamiczny, który wyklucza wszelką różnicę między materią i duchem, w istnieniu nie mającym nigdy absolutnego początku ani absolutnego końca, ale będącym tylko wiecznie dokonującą się przemianą".

"Nie da się policzyć do nieskończoności, a takie zadanie stawia przed nami kapitalizm. Poprzez ten nieskończony wzrost gospodarczy, o który ciągle walczymy w pocie czoła, wytwarza się złudzenie, absurdalne zupełnie, gdy się temu przyjrzeć z bliska, że tam jest jakiś cel, jakaś meta, jakieś ostateczne spełnienie. Ale u kresu drogi wzrostu żadnego spełnienia oczywiście nie ma. Nieskończoność nie ma końca. Tam nie ma żadnego tam.

Ideał wzrostu PKB bez końca ma sens tylko wtedy, kiedy przyjmiemy, że on nie jest dla człowieka jako jednostki, tylko dla czegoś, co nadejdzie po nas. Jakiegoś posthumanistycznego podmiotu, który jest nie wiadomo czym, ale czymś więcej niż my sami. I wtedy ta opowieść jest spójna, domyka się. Wszystkie te paradoksy, które na co dzień widzimy, nagle stają się zrozumiałe.

Dążenie do nieskończonego wzrostu PKB powoduje, że ta krzywa układa się w literę "J". Zasadniczy problem ze wzrostem polega na tym, że jeżeli dociśniemy gaz do dechy i dalej pójdziemy drogą gnającą w nieskończoność, doprowadzimy do demontażu natury ludzkiej. Takiej, jaką znamy.

Po prostu w którymś momencie człowiek jako istota stanie się nieadekwatny. Będziemy zbyt ułomni - głównie nasze ciała - i wzrost nas wyrzuci za burtę.

Problemy najbardziej ludzkie stoją w miejscu, Platona można poczytać, żeby mieć bieżący tekst o naszych dylematach, a z drugiej strony ten świat przedmiotów i artefaktów technicznych po pięciu-siedmiu latach wygląda zupełnie inaczej. Więc my obecnie rozwijamy wszystko, tylko nie samych siebie. Postęp, o którym tak chętnie mówimy, nie dotyczy człowieka. I mam wrażenie, że powoli zaczyna człowieka demontować." (Bartosz Kuźniarz)

"15. Najlepszym sposobem, by panować i posuwać się naprzód bez ograniczeń, jest sianie rozpaczy i budzenie ciągłej nieufności, nawet jeśli jest to zakamuflowane pod maską bronienia pewnych wartości. Dzisiaj w wielu krajach stosowany jest polityczny mechanizm jątrzenia, rozdrażniania i polaryzacji. Na różne sposoby odmawia się innym prawa do istnienia i wyrażania swoich opinii. W tym celu stosowane są strategie ośmieszania ich, posądzania, osaczania. Nie bierze się pod uwagę prawdy i wartości prezentowanych z ich strony, a w ten sposób społeczeństwo staje się uboższe i podległe despotyzmowi najsilniejszych. Polityka prowadzona w ten sposób nie jest już zdrową dyskusją na temat projektów długofalowych na rzecz rozwoju wszystkich i dobra wspólnego, lecz jedynie doraźnymi rozwiązaniami marketingowymi, które znajdują największe korzyści w zniszczeniu drugiego. W tej nikczemnej grze dyskwalifikacji, debata jest manipulowana, tak aby nieustannie podlegała kontrowersji i konfrontacji.

16. W tym konflikcie interesów, który stawia nas wszystkich przeciw wszystkim, w którym zwycięstwo staje się synonimem zniszczenia, jak można podnieść głowę, by rozpoznać bliźniego lub stanąć obok tego, kto upadł w drodze? Projekt o wielkich celach na rzecz rozwoju całej ludzkości brzmi dziś jak majaczenie. Dystanse między nami rosną, a ciężka i powolna wędrówka w kierunku zjednoczonego i bardziej sprawiedliwego świata doznaje nowego i drastycznego cofnięcia.

95. Miłość sprawia, że ostatecznie dążymy do powszechnej komunii. Nikt nie dojrzewa ani nie osiąga swej pełni izolując się. Ze względu na swoją dynamikę, miłość wymaga coraz większej otwartości, większej zdolności do akceptowania innych, w niekończącym się procesie, który jednoczy wszystkie peryferie na drodze do pełnego poczucia wzajemnej przynależności. Jezus nam powiedział: „wy wszyscy jesteście braćmi” (Mt 23, 8).

96. Ta potrzeba wyjścia poza własne granice dotyczy również różnych regionów i krajów. Istotnie „nieustannie rosnąca liczba połączeń i komunikacji na naszej planecie, sprawia, że wśród krajów świata umacnia się świadomość jedności i dzielenia wspólnego losu. W ten sposób w dynamice historii, pomimo różnorodności grup etnicznych, kultur i społeczeństw, dostrzegamy ziarna powołania do tworzenia jednej wspólnoty, składającej się z braci, którzy się akceptują, troszcząc się o siebie nawzajem”[75].

Chęć uznania drugiego

218. Oznacza ona nawyk uznawania prawa drugiej osoby do bycia sobą i do bycia odmienną. Wychodząc z takiego uznania, stającego się kulturą, możliwe jest powstanie ugody społecznej. Bez takiego uznania pojawiają się subtelne metody sprawiające, że drugi człowiek traci wszelkie znaczenie, staje się nieistotny i nie przyznaje mu się żadnej wartości w społeczeństwie. Za odrzuceniem pewnych widocznych form przemocy, często kryje się inna, bardziej wyrafinowana forma przemocy: tych, którzy gardzą człowiekiem odmiennym, zwłaszcza gdy jego roszczenia są w jakiś sposób szkodliwe dla ich własnych interesów.

Mój związek z osobą, którą cenię, nie może pomijać faktu, że osoba ta nie żyje tylko dla swej relacji ze mną, ani też ja nie żyję tylko moim odniesieniem do niej. Nasza relacja, jeśli jest zdrowa i prawdziwa, otwiera nas na innych, którzy powodują nasz wzrost i nas ubogacają. Najszlachetniejszy zmysł społeczny jest dziś łatwo niweczony w obrębie przeżyć egoistycznych, jawiących się pozornie jako głębokie relacje. Natomiast miłość, która jest autentyczna, która pomaga się rozwijać, i najszlachetniejsze formy przyjaźni, mieszkają w sercach, które pozwalają się dopełniać. Więź oblubieńcza i więź przyjacielska nakierowane są na otwarcie serc wokół siebie, na uczynienie nas zdolnymi do wyjścia z własnych ograniczeń, aż po akceptację wszystkich. Grupy zamknięte i pary skupione na sobie, stanowiące jakby „my” przeciwstawione całemu światu, są zazwyczaj wyidealizowanymi formami egoizmu i zwykłego chronienia siebie."

(Papież Franciszek, encyklika Fratelli Tutti)

#2020 #dzeikobb #philosophy #filozofia #dukaj #linia oporu #wittgenstein #fratelli tutti #kapitalizm #posthumanizm #transhumanizm

0 notes

roadtorisveglio · 4 years

Text

Google’s True Nature-

Christian Fuchs discusses several aspects of the massive platform that is google in his book: Social media : a critical introduction. Google who for yeara had “dont be evil” as their motto, might be indeed an unethical company. Google which is usually thought to be a user friendly and helpful search engine has great issue underneath their positive facade. In fact, billions of people use google without ever thinking on what is truly happening inside the company. Fuch reveals these secrets as he touches topics such google’s political economy, playbour, and privacy issues. For starters, Fuch brings up the issue of how profit is distributed in Google, as 70% of the company is completely owned by only three people that claim to have a modest salary. Throughout the chapter we learn that there is a huge power gap between high ranked workers, ceos, and other workers. In the video created by Andrew Norman Wilson, he talks about how depending on the color of your badge you get to access certain benefits in the Googleplex offices. He also explains how certain workers have very little benefits in the company. Moreover, he notices how the people with the less benefits and lowest ranked jobs are mostly minorities. It is evident that Google is not as egalitarian as we might think. Google has worked extremely hard on portraying itself as a fun company, even the Googleplex seems like a dream office. in 2005 Kucklich used the word “playbor” to define a type of work that doesn't fit the traditional idea of work nor leisure, this term can be easily applied to the googleplex. For example, google had a policy where they provide their workers with 20% of free time for them to create and invent new things. Workers might think that google cares about their free time and hobbies however this is not the true motive for the policy. Indeed, the issue is that whatever idea comes up out of this is then monetized by google.Therefore, they pretend to be encouraging creativity when the final end is always money. Lastly, another issue to consider is google’s privacy policies. Google has become a data saving machine. Everything you look for is later conserved to provide you with targeted advertisement. This privacy infringements have caused great problems for the company. The european union has already passed new policies to regulate it.

Recently I saw in the news how the software company “vital” came up with an app to deal with the COVID19 virus. They have made the app a symptom-checker and it has mainly been used in Oregon. The company has stated that apart from providing the service they can also sell information regarding locations and personal info. This information would be specifically used for personalized advertisements. This is a great example of how when you get a free service users are usually being commodified. Moreover, it showcases how technology has become completely capitalistic. This new app was supposed to be helping people identify their symptoms in order to see if they need medical help. However, the motives behind the company are to use the info provided to then bombard users with advertisement. Lastly, this app is a great example of technological solutionism as they find a technological way to manage a real life crisis. The creators of the app were convinced that their app could help hospitals manage the number of patients they had in a better manner. However, they did so while searching for other ways to monetize the crisis.

0 notes

ss-peiting · 4 years

Text

Week 7

Digital Labor Studies Go Global: Toward a Digital Decolonial Turn

In this reading, Casilli emphasizes the emergence of a new kind of labour that includes the harvest and commodification of personal data, as well as the emergence of unrecognized and unskilled work that often lead to unpaid or micropaid tasks. He highlights how the rise of ICT technologies has led to digital labour which is often indistinguishable from our consumption, interaction and socialization through technology. Casilli then goes on to provide a summary on four sociotechnical platform in which digital labour manifests today. With these, traditional labour standards are rendered irrelevant as technology introduces new paradigms of work into our lives.

1. On-Demand Platforms

Such platforms serve as a form of middle ground that connects customers and service or goods providers, with prime examples including Airbnb and Uber. Such platforms challenge traditional notions of labour rights as customers assume the status of ‘independent contractors, self-entrepreneurs, or freelancers’ instead of the company itself, leading to a lack of guarantee of secure working conditions and income volatility of those providing the service such as drivers. However, even though such companies claim that power is handed over to the consumers, it is evident how these companies exploit algorithms to monopolise the market. For example, Uber has been shown to use its algorithms to manipulate the allocation of drivers, a process which is hidden from many. Finn mentions the advent of an “Interface Economy”, which perhaps allow companies like Uber to use the metaphor of a “transparent” interface to mask its more sinister monopolisation of users on the platform. Furthermore, Casilli also notes how such platforms capitalise on the “immaterial labour” of data supplied by users, which influences one’s ability and experience of using the service.

2. Microwork Platforms

These are crowdsourcing services that allow recruiters to “hire” workers for minute, repetitive and often unskilled tasks. Such platforms like Amazon Mechanical Turk raises tensions around remuneration and labor standards, given that a majority of workers on this platform earn far less than the minimum wage in the U.S. Not only that, some platforms like Google too conduct microtasks like translation services or reCAPTCHA words or images, but these are unpaid and therefore seemingly exploits users in this regard.

3. Online Social Platforms

Social media and networking sites operate based on the exchange of cultural goods between producers and consumers. Digital labour here takes the form of unpaid activities done by users, which allow platforms to extract profits. I think one interesting point brought up is the notion of “playbor”. I believe many users (including me) are often ignorant of how spending time on social media also constitute a form of labour for these platforms, as we often regard social media as a form of entertainment. The further gamification of such platforms (E.g. Facebook ‘likes’, Instagram’s Insta-story features that disappear after 24 hours), as also mentioned by Finn, entices us to continually log on to our accounts. Often unbeknownst to us, this simultaneously means more clicks and data for companies to capitalise on.

4. “Smart” Platforms

With the proliferation of smart technology and the Internet of Things, this form of digital labour takes the form of behavioural data collected via such mediums. The key rhetoric surrounding this form of digital labour is one of frictionless data extraction and “automatic” production which obscures users’ contribution. Often, users have little control over the collection of their data in such cases, which could potentially raise ethical issues relating to surveillance.

Coding Cow Clicker. The Work of Algorithms

Finn referenced Bogost’s reframing of gamification as “exploitationware” due to the exploitation of our psychological shortcomings by marketers. Finn highlights the accuracy of the term as it accentuates the fundamentally commercial aspect of social gaming, in which the complex networks of connections and social interactions are distilled and quantified, and further resold as a commodity.

As gamification gains popularity, Finn also notes the blurring of boundaries between real and virtual, as games can “render social realities into playable form”. Primarily, an aspect of what makes games so compelling is the creation of “algorithmically ordered universes”, which many companies adopt in their businesses.

This brings us to the “Interface Economy”, in which companies adopt the interface layer to rationalise and simplify the chaotic aspects of social and cultural life. Through interfaces, companies structure users’ access to platforms, reframing labor as entertainment through a framework of the “sharing economy”. Not surprisingly, this “sharing economy” is based on the notion of technological collaboration and just-in-time services. As mentioned above, companies like Uber purposefully design their interfaces to obfuscate the underlying socioeconomic infrastructure of their business models, and users are forced to belie their trust on the algorithms that run beneath. We are thus left in the dark in terms of understanding the precise financial models and workings, as well as any regulatory schemes relating to the service. However, perhaps a more pertinent question is what is being shared in this sharing economy? Although on the surface level, this may seem to refer to a remobilisation of underused resources, Finn suggests that this refers to the sharing of our (consumers) time and therefore, companionship. Specifically, this refer to our encounters with strangers that are mediated by the interface itself such that they are rendered less “awkward”.

Finn’s subsequent examples on cloud warehouses and artificial artificial intelligence reminds of Casilli’s examples, particularly microwork platforms. In such cases, human labor is entirely masked behind the guise of computation. Many workers, such as those in physical warehouses and factories are subjected to inhumane working conditions. While this seemingly violates humane standards, our algorithmic culture renders it invisible such that it “makes sense” to us. Such processes, including the way MTurk anonymise workers via the assignment of IDs raises serious ethical issues in the treatment of workers. All these examples show that evidently, algorithms have the capacity to strip us of our sense of humanity through the careful abstraction and obfuscation of details.

0 notes

livelaughandlovebooks · 7 years

Text

Review ~ Her Wish by Sophie H. Morgan

#Review #4Stars #Fantasy #Romance ~ Her Wish @SophieHMorgan https://goo.gl/bstXt9

Title: Her Wish Author: Sophie H. Morgan Series: Playboy Genie #1 Release date: May 2nd, 2017 Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance

Book Description:

This playboy has finally met his match…

Charlie’s sick of Genies. Too beautiful, too sure of themselves, too “celebrity”. And way too eager to grant wishes in the worldwide Lottery that entices mortals into buying tickets in the hope of winning their…

View On WordPress

#4 Stars #Fantasy #Her Wish #May 2017 #Netgalley #Paranormal #Playbor Genie #Review #Romance #Series #Sophie H. Morgan

0 notes

trendspop-blog · 7 years

Text

Playboy recria fotos de suas capas 30 anos depois

A maior revista masculina do mundo decidiu recriar as fotos de 7 de suas capas antigas, e os resultados são impressionantes. Apresentando Kimberley Conrad Hefner (1988), Charlotte Kemp (1982), Cathy St. George (1982), Monique St. Pierre (1978), Renee Tenison (1989), Candace Collins (1979) e Lisa Matthews (1990). As capas foram recriadas pelos fotógrafos Ben Miller e Ryan Lowry para a Playboy,…

View On WordPress

#capa da playboy #coelhinha da playboy #coroas #fotográfo da playboy #fotos antigas #gringas #idade da playboy #recriação da playboy 30 anos depois #revista playbor

0 notes

ethnolocitiktok · 3 years

Text

7) Espace “Playbor” Tik Tok

Au début, les créateurs sur TikTok ne recevaient aucune somme d’argent directement de l’application. Les formes de monnaie étaient le montant des likes et des vues sur chaque post.

Mais il n’y a pas trop longtemps que TikTok a commencé ce qu’ils appellent un ´creator’s fund’.

Les créateurs reçoivent maintenant un montant d’argent dépendant de leur popularité s’ils s’inscrivent pour ce fonds de créateur.

Ils étaient tous excités au début mais ont tout de suite réalisé que lorsqu’ils s’y inscrivent, ils perdent énormément un montant grossier de leurs likes et de leurs vues. L’Algorithme ne montre pas leurs posts aux utilisateurs. Et la plupart abandonnent leur subscription car ils recevaient par exemple entre 30$ et 50$ par mois tout en ayant moins en moins de vues et de likes. Donc, ces créateurs préfèrent avoir plus de likes et de vues car ils peuvent amasser ce niveau de ´likability’ et le transférer ailleurs et autrement.

Ceci fait référence au concept: ‘Playbor’ (Citton, 2013). Il y a un grand travail indissociable de plaisir ludique et de travail productif.

Terrain de jeu et d’usine.

Car oui ça a commencé avec une application où tout le monde s’amusait mais maintenant que TikTok est plus populaire, le capitalisme s’y est faufilé. Les créateurs et utilisateurs se font exploités.

#tiktok #anthro #capitalisme #monetary #algorithme #espace #space #ant3531

0 notes

dolemes · 5 years

Text

Abertas as inscrições do Programa Launch 2019 da Playbor https://t.co/Y5lW12UUyz https://t.co/1HYU5aaTH0

Abertas as inscrições do Programa Launch 2019 da Playbor https://t.co/Y5lW12UUyz pic.twitter.com/1HYU5aaTH0

— David de Oliveira Lemes, Ph.D. (@dolemes) March 18, 2019

from Twitter https://twitter.com/dolemes March 18, 2019 at 12:28AM via IFTTT

0 notes

nm4238normanlee-blog · 5 years

Text

W5 Readings

Digital Labor Studies Go Global:Toward a Digital Decolonial Turn (Casilli, 2016) Types of Digital Labor: 1) On-Demand Platforms - Connect customers with independent goods or service providers using mobile apps and portals to allocate material and informational resources in real time. - Direct (performing physical tasks: driving, delivering, cleaning, cooking) or indirect (affording an asset to be put to use: apartments, cars, equipments) - Extremely reliant on material human labor - High degree of conflictuality over the implementation of labor standards and rights: insecure working conditions, lack of guarantees, and income volatility. 2) Microwork Platforms - Crowdsourcing services that match recruiters and workers to perform small, repetitive, and often unskilled tasks - Microworkers’ remuneration can be as low $.01 (“penny tasks”) - Efforts to organize and ensure protection of their rights: software to screen recruiters, quasiunions online services aimed to raise awareness of exploitation of platform workers

3) Online Social Platforms - Based on communities of producers and consumers exchanging cultural goods: texts, videos, music as well as advice, support, and knowledge. - Manifests itself as unpaid activities performed by users, allowing platforms to extract profits. - Relies on a distinctive blend of entertainment and work, thus conjuring up the notion of “playbor”

4) “Smart” Platforms - Behavioural data produced by connected objects and smart environments. - Extraction and monetization of data produced by sensors, home appliances, energy meters, office utilities, stores, and vehicles = IOT - Infiltrating everyday life, turning every location into a “personal data factory.”

Question: Could government bodies govern and regulate the production of digital labour services? What are the possible implications that might arise out it?

Coding Cow Clicker: The Work of Algorithms (Finn, 2017) Finn first touches on the psychology behind behaviours, positing that “persuasive design” can be used to pushing us into taking particular actions using specific triggers. To Finn, this is what inspired the gamification phenomenon, where key game mechanics, such as points, badges, levels, challenges, leader boards, rewards and onboarding, are used as cause and effect mechanisms inspired by gameplay to encourage particular behaviours. Finn is particularly cynical of gamification, referring to them as “exploitationware”, as he claims that games have the potency to motivate behaviours, as they contain the power to captivate us, encourage us to repeat certain actions and to spend money on arbitrary things. To Finn, social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn have gamified social interactions into a set of explicitly structured games, where the scores are tallied by algorithmic architectures tracking behaviours, interactions, and other forms of feedback. “We might as well play a stupid game that has a point”, right? That’s where the “interface economy” comes in, where traditional social and commercial interactions are gamified through apps and screens that depend on sophisticated, tightly designed forms of abstraction and simplification. An example given is Uber, where we see an entire platform that is designed to abstract away the regulatory and biopolitical aspects of hired drivers, such as the awkwardness of payment and tipping, the racial context which becomes muted or removed from the ride-hailing equation.

Question: What constitutes as ethical gamification? Could gamification be inherently ‘unethical’ in nature due to its persuasive design that could be contrary to human volition and free will?

Game Modding, Prosumerism and Neoliberal Labor Practices (Hong, 2013) Game modders generally fit into the mold of Casilli’s definition of digital labor on online social platforms, as we see both the personal entertainment / fulfilment side of it as well as the career / industry / work side of it. Just like Casilli’s definition, game mod manifests itself as unpaid activities performed by “prosumers” and are vulnerable to industry exploitation as modders constitute a source of free work upon which gaming companies can capitalise on. The first way in which modders develop resistance is to use modding as an entry point for job in the gaming industry, expanding the scope of modding to include marketing and customer relations management to get gamers to play their mods, and through keeping a professional image as like a big name designer would by knowing how to react and respond to different forms of feedback.

Question: All the forms of resistance that Hong has researched on showed ways of getting around the industry’s capitalistic ways, but not taking it head on and resolving the industry’s exploitation explicitly. Has there been any cases whereby modders take the fight to them directly and try to unionise modders and attempt to set up a regulation of sorts?

0 notes