Notes: Social Aspects of New Media Technologies

USES AND GRATIFICATIONS: It's interesting to run my chosen technology, video game consoles, through the different theoretical paradigms discussed in this article. I would say, especially in modern online games, that consumers clearly experience 3 of the 4 major gratifications: entertainment, personal relationships and personal identity. The fourth major gratification, surveillance, is less applicable with most games, except perhaps educational reference games. But that's sort of a stretch. Where surveillance IS available, though, is in the secondary uses of modern consoles -- email, web browsing, and dvd playback.

I think the "uses and gratifications" perspective is going to be extremely useful in discussing my research topic for T.Y.'s class: "Under what circumstances would a consumer pay a subscription fee for an online game?". Clearly, such a pricing model is comparable to cable television, as opposed to, say, a dvd movie sale. The dvd movie sale is more comparable to a traditional, non-subscription video game sale. Where, on page 467, the article specs out the typical demographics for cable subscribers as being young, middle class, having children and higher education, I immediately drew a like comparison to the demographics of the typical video game consumer.

The main difference between cable and video games is, of course, interactivity vs. passive experience. Again, though, uses and gratifications would probably draw the same conclusion -- most game or cable consumption is for entertainment. Games differ remarkably in their ability to also add personal relationships and personal identity gratifications.

CRITICAL MASS: The video game hardware industry is obsessively concerned with issues surrounding critical mass, mass market adoption, and standards. There is currently another "vhs/betamax" battle raging over the next generation of DVD media format, which will need to support HD. Again, Sony is a key player with their blu-ray disks, and Toshiba is offering the inferior but cheaper HD-DVD. Hollywood distributers and studios weigh in and choose sides, predictably, but I find it interesting that a key strategic maneuver involves which type of media the next generation game consoles will support. Sony's Playstation 3 will use blu-ray. Microsoft's X-Box 360 will use neither at first, then later adopt HD-DVD. Anyway, whoever wins this standards war will immediately see a virtuous cycle support mass adoption of the winning media because that media will be used for the largest variety of products ever: movies, games, massive data storage, encyclopedias, etc. The worst thing that could happen, from the perspective of the consumer, would be to see both formats gain some adoption, some market share, and try to co-exist.

As to the question of HD televisions, and when they will reach critical mass to become the new standards, I believe that the next generation game consoles will provide a very substantial forward push. The consoles will, of course, work fine on PAL or NTSC sets, but to realize the graphics potential of these machines, consumers will likely be inspired to invest in HD televisions in much greater numbers.

DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIONS: Compared to the way games were evaluated and adopted in the recent past, today's massively networked gaming experiences would seem certain to turbocharge the process, likely compressing the adoption rate into a much shorter timespan. The future of games is online. Player vs. player gameplay, especially when it will simultaneously support hundreds or thousands of players within a single arena, is going to drive console and game sales in a way that was not even considered 10 years ago. On page 474, where the author speculates about whether new media "may have some special social or psychological implications", I think the answer with regards to online games is that we haven't even begun to see how this will change society. Snow Crash appears more or less on target.

There is so little friction working against innovation in this technology that it's almost impossible to predict what will happen. The big questions facing game developers center around how best to support the development of communities, how to minimize or eliminate cheating or theft, and how long to expect each product cycle to last. Unintended side technologies, such as using a playstation as a phone or to pilot a cruise missile, will certainly occur, and it will be fascinating to watch.

MEDIA SYSTEM DEPENDENCY THEORY: Game consoles may not have been much of a factor to discussions of media dependency when they first arrived, but now they are key. The high definition DVD format war I refered to earlier is a perfect example. It is conceivable that, within 10 years, the game console will be the primary appliance for consuming digital media in a typical household, eclipsing the pc. In fact, all the major console manufacturers are aggressively pushing directly at that goal. If they succeed, the console will be the starting place for any discussion of media dependency within the residential environment. Console manufacturers will dictate format, copy protection, portability and usability.

SOCIAL INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY: Since the ipod set the standard for high concept branding, Sony and Microsoft have been extremely aware of the importance of design and image in the marketing of their next generation consoles. Microsoft even ripped off the ipod directly with the XBOX 360. If Sony were allowed to remain completely dominant, in other words, if XBOX had never existed, you can be reasonably sure that the Playstation 3 would be just as prosaic as the design for the Playstation 2. As it is, the pitch verbal warfare between the two camps borders on religious. I'm in the Sony sphere, and there are microsoft households I can only visit if I remain professionally anonymous. Clearly, the subjective affiliations people make to these competing brands is at an unprecedented level.