::fibreculture:: Games industry discussion

Tue Jan 22 16:00:43 EST 2008

Thanks for that Stefan, glad to hear I haven't imagined this completely.

And thanks to others for the further references and reflections. I'm
still not sure we've had a 'discussion' tho, Sal! 

To me the point remains to be made, in light of the conference too: it
is wonderful for those of us who can make it to Brisbane to hear about
these issues in person, but to limit our conversations to specific
events or blogs takes away the potential for a cross-fertilisation of
ideas - in a location that already exists for that very purpose. This
space is an always available international forum of expertise that will
never physically assemble in one place, and that's better than any
conference.

An email list also allows a much more varied register of interest than
will I or won't I pay for registration, or take the day off to go hear
something. If I'm not interested in a list thread, or I'm busy, I always
have the choice of deleting or unsubscribing - as lots of us have
probably did from time to time in the past.

I guess what I miss in the last couple of years is the ambient quality
of casual and generous connectedness that came with this list, along
with the more feisty and entertaining flame wars (and the facs suffered
a lot for our benefit in this regard). Even when I disagreed strongly
with people, and vice versa, there was a residual sense that we always
had more to learn from each other as part of a continuing dialogue, that
we tried to live up to the hope that we weren't just another
distribution point for the events and achievements of particular
splinter groups.

The other irony of fibreculture is the way that its own network model
has become hegemonic - it's a victim of its own success. Is this so
obvious as to go without saying? I wonder. And I'm sure others are
better able to theorise this than me.

I started another email list - the csaa-forum
<http://lists.cdu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/csaa-forum>  - inspired by
fibreculture. Like the field it represents, it has its own problems.
It's not as simple as careerism, or white-collar email overload
(although that's something I'm currently studying). More like people
staying content remembering what was, or hedging their bets, while
waiting for something better. 

I just wrote in case I wasn't the only one who didn't want to wait any
more.

M

________________________________

From: Stefan Schutt [mailto:stefan.schutt at vu.edu.au] 
Sent: Tuesday, 22 January 2008 1:36 PM
To: Melissa Gregg; list at fibreculture.org
Subject: Re: ::fibreculture:: Games industry discussion

Hi Melissa and others.

I've also wondered about the winding down of Fibreculture as an active
place of discussion and debate. 

I'm tending to think it might be partly due to the decline of 'list
culture'  and partly the result of a kind of weariness; of years
battling state-promoted antagonism towards anything that might suggest
or promote values other than the puritanically economic; of the endless
tide of data that keeps assaulting us; of the realisation that the
Internet has not saved us from ourselves.  I remember the excitement,
passion and at times outrage generated on and by this list. I was new to
the field and, though I sometimes felt intimidated by the theoretical
language deployed in the discussions on fibreculture, felt that here was
a group of people for whom the web and new media mattered. It felt like
the discussions were important, that they somehow had consequence and
import. 

Since then it seems we've all become lurkers. Do we still think these
things matter? Is the Internet so woven into our lives that it's morphed
into just another work tool? Are we so concerned about paying our
mortgages, doing our admin and clearing our inboxes that we don't have
time for discussion? Or are we just doing the discussions elsewhere? 

Thanks for your post - it was a very interesting prod.

Stefan

-- 
::Stefan Schutt
::Project Manager/Teacher
::School of Creative Industries
::Victoria University
::stefan.schutt at vu.edu.au
::(03) 9919 1583/0410 387 622

________________________________

From: Melissa Gregg <m.gregg at uq.edu.au>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:22:20 +1000
To: <list at fibreculture.org>
Subject: ::fibreculture:: Games industry discussion

Dear fibreculture,

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6892

Reading this article today, I was thinking how valuable it would be for
this list to be re-activated as a place for informed discussion and
debate about net-related issues in this region. 

There are local conditions described here that I find difficult to hear
discussed in other places. It is also interesting to me that Online
Opinion is now sourcing articles like this -- from the Courier Mail no
less! What does this mean?

It makes me wonder, is it one of the great ironies of fibreculture that
just as its areas of expertise have become more mainstream, we are no
longer talking together? Do people no longer talk here because they have
finally achieved rewarding paid employment in the very areas and
specialisms that once brought us together as a politics? The article is
one example of how much economic clout the industries we work and train
in are said to deliver, but I worry that at the very time when
fibreculture could be useful as a defense against hyperbole of various
kinds, we don't stay in touch. 

Anyway, I would love to hear from some of you who are teaching - or
better, are graduates of - some of the courses discussed in the piece,
to understand your take on the industry's present and future. And also
where you are all hanging out to chat these days. It doesn't seem to be
Facebook (which is its own relief, but makes me so very conscious of
what was good about lists like this).

Best wishes
Melissa

Dr. Melissa Gregg
ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow
Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
Fourth Floor, Forgan Smith Tower
The University of Queensland
QLD Australia 4072
CRICOS provider number: 00025B

p  + 61 7 3346 9762
m + 61 4 0859 9359
f   + 61 7 3365 7184

http://cccs.uq.edu.au/index.htmlpage=16194&pid=16136
<http://cccs.uq.edu.au/index.htmlpage=16194&amp;pid=16136>
<http://cccs.uq.edu.au/index.htmlpage=16194&pid=16136>  
www.homecookedtheory.com

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