Gamification

Goddamn, I hate gamification. I'll admit, part of it is because every time somebody tries to shove Jane McGonigal down my throat (which has happened a lot over the past 15 months), I feel pandered to and underestimated as both a person who plays games and as a rational human being who expects people to actually back up their arguments (Malcolm Gladwell: not a credible source, even when you're not misrepresenting him). Mostly, though, the whole thing just takes an ugly view of humanity.

Gamification presupposes that the only thing we care about is our own sense of achievement. It suggests that the best way to get people to do things is to promise them immediate reward and recognition. It basically works to eliminate language of servitude from our lexicon in favor of personal growth.

Personal growth is bullshit -- at least when it occurs in a vacuum. If we abstract away the actual purpose of our efforts, replacing it with an augmented reality veneer that puts ourselves at the center of every action, then we won't actually learn the lessons that make us more Godly. Instead of coming to grips with our own fundamental insignificance, with the incredible value of the people around us and of creation as a whole, we will only grow and grow in our own sense of self-importance.

So, yeah, fuck gamification.

Hacking, Piracy, and "Freedom"

Warning, strong language ahead.

This shit has got to stop.

As an advocate of Free Software and the uninterrupted flow of information between individuals, I'm all for more open standards and practices. As a fan of the creative process and human advancement in general, though, I'm increasingly of the opinion assholes who think that they should be able to do whatever they want with technology deserve to be put in jail.

Yes, patent law is a mess -- especially in regard to software patents. Yes, Copyright has been bloated to an extent that unrestricted use of creative products is now nearly non-existent. Yes the DMCA is an overly-restrictive piece of legislation that often keeps us from being true owners of our possessions. That doesn't mean vigilantism is acceptable, and that's exactly what this shit is.

All the rhetoric about the initial hack being in response to Sony's removal of the option to install Linux on the PS3 is BS. People wanted to have more complete ways of accessing unpaid content on the system, and they would have gone about doing it even if they could still run a secondary OS. It's juvenile and fueled by an absurd sense of entitlement that seeks to actively deny the existence of anything remotely like a commodity in the digital world. After all, if it's all just infinitely reproducible ones and zeros, why should there be a cost?

You see, boys and girls, if you had even the most basic economic background (or a hint of common sense and self-awareness), you'd know that there's this thing called "profit motive". The only reason Sony has any reason to make PS3s is because they can make money off of it, and since they don't make a whole lot of money on the system itself, they rely on licensing fees for the games that are available on it. The only reason companies have incentive to make the games that Sony pulls most of its profit off of is because they know that they can still pull a reasonable profit for themselves.

If somebody finds a flaw in the system that makes it trivial to play games or consume content you don't actually own, then the companies that make those games have less incentive to do so, Sony has less incentive to make new systems, and none of us actually get any new content to enjoy on our newly "freed" piece of technology. So, when you go about trying to spread your exploit and the accompanying gospel of economic non-participation as loud and fast as you can instead of making Sony aware of the flaw, they are going to use their entirely legal (if not entirely reasonable) rights to try to not only stop you but to pump you dry in the process.

The response to this is not to say, "Oh, Sony is an evil megacorporation that wants to force us to actually pay to enjoy the material they produce!" and call them names while maliciously attacking their servers with your illegally acquired bot-nets. The response is to go, "Wow, that guy really should have seen that coming" and go on buying or not buying things based on your sense of the reasonableness of their market value.

So, all of you little script kiddies out there, go to hell and get a job. If you think things are too expensive, go without for a change. There are so many cheap ways to consume all of the media you could possibly want that you really have no excuse. If you think that the systems are broken and favor corporations too strongly, get involved in the political process like a goddamn adult.