When Multiplayer Went Mainstream

Inexpensive and user-friendly digital tools for manipulating text, images and sounds — think Photoshop or GarageBand — have dramatically broadened access to the means of cultural production and blurred the lines between amateurs and professionals. But the question is not just how many people engage in cultural production — it’s how people engage.&

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We're entering the Third Wave of Digital Media. Wave 1 ➱ Monolithic Media Wave 2 ➱ UGC Wave 3 ➱ Multiplayer Media A (scruffy) theory ⇓

Fortnite had a number of rare attributes. It was the first mainstream AAA game that could be played on any nearly major gaming device globally, including two generations of PlayStations and Xboxes, the Nintendo Switch, Mac, PC, iPhone, and Android. The title was also free, which meant players didn’t have to buy multiple copies to be able to play on... See more

If the 20th century represented the victory of individualism against the commune, it is hard not to notice the ways that in the conquest of China, the domination of conspiracy groups in politics, the rise of DAOs and worker-collectives, and the acceptance of open-source even among the most gated corporations, the internet is slowly but surely shift... See more