Culture

Thoughts On The Psychology of Crowdfunding

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We’re no strangers to Kickstarter here. Hell, Rob is writing his own series on the experience (which you should be seriously reading just for the resources). Our friends are using Kickstarter. I interview people using Kickstarter.

There’s also other sources of fundraising. There’s Indiegogo. There’s Rockethub. There’s specialist sites from Gambitious for games to – and I’m serious – Offbeatr for adult (and no, no link sorry).

Even tightwads like me get into the act. I got my Ouya fully knowing it was more of a lab experiment than anything else, but it was worth participating. I’m waiting on several projects to move forward now and really enjoyed being a part of them.

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Competence Porn In Fiction Versus Gaming

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I loved the article io9 did about the loss of Competence Porn (watching competent people do competent things) in SF. It noted how many SF stories had lost that element, leaving us with assorted “average” guys, non-scientists, and the like facing SF situations. I had to agree, at least on an intuitive level.

I miss tales of scientists and engineers solving stuff. I grew up with Dick Seaton (real name) of the Skylark stories. I, like many, wanted to be Spock or Scotty. I loved the idea of Iron Man and engineers making cool stuff.

I wasn’t into the idea that someone someone who lacks knowledge and skill (and doesn’t acquire them) is going to solve things. Wasn’t believable. Wasn’t a good story really. Didn’t give me anything to aim for.

(I could go into this as part of anti-intellectualism or “My ignorance is the same of your knowledge” trend or whatever, but that’s for later).

This got me thinking about gaming, another form of storytelling.

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Cool Futurism: The Future Arrives In Ski Masks and Leather Jackets Bearing a Cross

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Some time ago Serdar and I were discussing the revival of Omni and the loss of Cool Futurism. I had noted that Cool futurism’s ideas of unity were lost (or not practical), we missed the need for ourselves to evolve, and of course consumerism which made it easy to seem to buy the future. Of course there are other issues I still want to address because I feel there are distinct patterns we should study.

Another factor in the decline of Cool Fururism is it’s dark sibling, a form of Apocalyptic Futurism.

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