Ahri's unqualified thoughts #67

Easy to consume content: 1 quote, 1 tweet/storm and 1 article/video.

In this edition, our focus is twofold: first, we take a look at the rebranding for Spellborne, a game I am advising, and secondly, an article about the metaverse, and Silicon Valley.

1 quote

“Dudududududud dududu dududum” Darude - Sandstorm

1 tweet/storm

The reception to this new name, branding, and trailer was tremendously good. Twitter was all over it, and we had a massive influx of followers and people joining discord.

We worked with a solid agency, but also had our talented art team create the trailer, and the music. For the first time in a long time, I did some storyboarding for an asset - felt good :).

We still have a lot to show, and we are gearing for it.

1 article/video

In this insightful article, columnist Andrew Thompson guides us through the historical path of Silicon Valley investments (spoiler: tons of focus on productivity and efficiency apps rather than entertainment over the last decade). He explores how this trend probably have influenced the construction of "the metaverse" by tech giants.

One specific sentence from the piece summarizes the essence of his argument, highlighting both its painful truth and inherent irony: “Its inability to understand fun, and how to meaningfully waste time.”

His analysis also uses how the French writer and philosopher George Bataille defined “value and economics”. In his book “The Accursed Share” he talks about a concept I was vaguely familiar with, but couldn’t name: “general economy” vs. “restricted economy”

• Restricted economy is the rationalist sphere of utilitarian exchange and activity, of food purchases and house purchases and stock appreciation.

• General economy was Bataille’s term of art for that arena of surplus expenditure—”general” in the sense its purview extends beyond the restrictive perspective of 20th century economists—and he considered the various ways that cultures have spent it throughout time, including on “games, spectacles, arts, and perverse [non-reproductive] sexual activity,” as well as war, human sacrifice, and the ritualistic gift-giving and wealth destruction of potlatch.

The piece goes further by explaining how Silicon Valley looks at games from a pure investment perspective and profit-making for both VCs/investors, and players, rather than a “fun vehicle”.

While I don’t agree with everything; please read it, good thoughts-provoking piece.