Culture

Fandom, Culture, Economy, and The Future

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I'm an old school fan.  Yes, I still have early Star Wars figures.  I saw Tron in theaters.  I was planning an IT career before some friends of mine were out of elementary school.  I've forgotten more about coding than some people I know learned in class.

(OK I'm also apparently cranky, but I digress).

I'm also currently living through the worst economic downturn I've seen, and I've seen a few.  So as I turn my cranky, fannish eyes upon the world, I'm actually wondering what the meltdown has done to geek culture and to progeek culture.

So bear with me as I analyze.  Also, you may if you wish, get off my lawn and stop listening to that gosh darn bad music.  Or you can listen to the cranky guy.

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The Fluctuating Future of Free

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(Yes, I'm still analyzing Free, Freemium, et. al).

So as I've noted many times – and as can be noted elsewhere – giving things away for free builds trust and you can make money with Freemium.  Building trust with free items is an old technique that sadly seems to need to keep being relearned by people.

Free as is rather obvious, is common now with free game demos, free comics, free online books, Freemium games, etc.  We're awash in free things.

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Oh, All That Yummy Consumer Data . . .

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What do people want?  That's a big question in any business venture or job, and one that is often surprisingly hard to answer.  In many cases people just hope people want what they make, or hope to convince them they want it (that's what marketing departments are for).

Right now in the age of DLC, e-comics, and online purchases from stores with gigantic virtual inventories, we've got an incredible opportunity to find out what people want.  We'd better be ready, because the meandering-forward economy with its eBooks and virtual stores and fermium games is going to be a giant learning opportunity.

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