TV, movies, music, video games, the internet, what’s next to carve out and ruin?
My one “the kids are wrong” take is when I was a kid, selling out was bad, but now it seems that it’s celebrated.
The fans are happy that their favourite creators are getting the bag in a world where that’s impossible with just an average salary, I think it’s sweet. I do this too though I don’t really have any creators I like
No doubt getting the bag is nice, but when millennials were kids the selling out part was considered bad not because getting the bag is bad in itself but because getting the bag usually means changing the nature of the art to make it more marketable. It means answering to the rich guys handing you the bag. I just miss that acknowledgement, that the art would be inevitably watered down by appeal to larger markets.
See also the flowchart next to this one, where artists want to make something as a passion project, but there is no market for it and they have rent to pay, so they have to go with the safe, soulless option instead, slowly dying inside as their dreams are crushed.
Bring back the patronage system. That court musician life sounded pretty sweet.
Patreon is like that, except that instead of a single patron, you get dozens or hundreds and they all expect to monopolise your time each month for $3 each.
One thing I like pointing out to gamer types who believe there would be no innovation without capitalism is that many of the most successful games on the market are derived from free mods.
The most popular game ever was made as a side project by a Soviet scientist
Comrade Mojang really turned his life around after the Soviet Union collapsed
if the admins ever get an offer for VC funding, they better post that shit straight to the dunk tank or we riot
Someone offered to buy the site a while back and the Twitter DMs were indeed posted
Fuck. Ain’t that the truth.
