::fibreculture:: Games industry discussion

Wed Jan 23 10:26:35 EST 2008

Melissa, 

Re your concerns about the need for an ongoing conversation in Fibreculture
and the winding down of Fibreculture as a space of  active discussion,
debate and learning. But you  have put your finger on a general problem.

I'm outside the gaming culture.  Though I have been blogging for several
years, I'm also new to the Fibreculture list and so I have no idea of the
flame wars of yesterday, nor what is missing or lacking in the Fibreculture
dialogue. 

Can you not have multiple levels or threads of conversation? Thus I   used
yesterdays email  list conversation to post an entry on my junk for code
weblog
(http://www.sauer-thompson.com/junkforcode/archives/2008/01/egames.html),
which I am feeding  back into the email list discussion. The  forthcoming
conference can be seen in the context of the list discussion with ideas and
concerns weaving throughout the discussions  of the various papers. Why
cannot the email list discuss, explore and evaluate  the ideas presented in
that conference? 

If  we are working in a network model, then there are going to be different
nodal points and different flows in  the  continuing dialogue.  And
splinterings and fracturings.  It comes with the territory, as I have learnt
from  political blogging on public opinion (http://www.sauer-thompson.com
<http://www.sauer-thompson.com/> ). The political blogs are their own little
universes with little debate happening between them or the journalists in
the mainstream media.  Various attempts are being made to create
linkages---Online Opinion is one---but  it is going to take time, lots of
nurturing, and increased maturity  for this ongoing dialogue across the
different nodal points to happen. 

Maybe something similar is happening here in the Fibreculture? 

 Gary Sauer-Thompson

  _____  

From: list-bounces at fibreculture.org [mailto:list-bounces at fibreculture.org]
On Behalf Of Melissa Gregg
Sent: Tuesday, 22 January 2008 3:31 PM
To: fibreculture; stefan.schutt at vu.edu.au
Subject: Re: ::fibreculture:: Games industry discussion

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
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www.homecookedtheory.com

  _____  

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