Comment by Frieren
7 hours ago
Big corporations have found the way to make us work for free in their own terms. The balance of power between the working class and capital is totally broken.
And for me it is not just the lack of transparency. It is the power balance. I should not need to work for free, give my data, and god knows what to play a game. I should not be living knowing that I am being exploited at each interaction with software. Transparency is good, but not enough. "Click here to accept" and thousands of lines of legalese do not create a fair society.
You don't need to work and if you do you get rewarded in the game. Money is not the only motivating factor for people. Even something like keeping Google Map up to date can bring value to people from helping others. Helping others is not zero sum. Just because a company benefits from helping others that doesn't mean it's bad.
It’s the lack of transparency that is the problem. There should be a clear labor exchange disclaimer: “we are asking you to do X minutes of AI training for one unit of in-game reward.” What people take issue with is Tom Sawyer tricking people into whitewashing a fence.
You're right in that money is not the only motivator for people. I would also argue that if you told them the _real_ reason, aka your own actual motivation behind the offer, the number of people who would actually be "playing" would be much lower.
I would be motivated to collect free data if it meant I was helping save lives, with that help not being behind a paywall.
I would be motivated to play a free game with ads just for the fun of it.
I would not be motivated to play a free game just for the fun of it if my playing of the game was furthering some faceless corporation's profit motives.
In fact, in that last scenario, I would feel tricked, and it would take a non-trivial amount of money for me to not feel that way.
Same thing with social media. If they clearly disclosed that the more time they spend glued to their apps the more money the company makes the majority would be turned off.
The americans who believed anti-communist propaganda might have been the dumbest generation in history: they gave up a decent democracy with actual democratic say in how society is run in order to fear the world comfortably from home.
You reckon subsequent generations improved? Hint: look around and see what's happening, and how that came about.
For Maga, democracy is too socialist.
LOL: Remember when they literally said the Pope wasn't Christian enough.
Maga, all butt hurt with the slow, creeping realization, that they are the baddies.
Before: "Freeeeeeddommm of Speech".
Now: "News outlets must follow admin talking points or be hung for treason" We'll solve that buy just buying them out.
> I should not need to work for free, give my data, and god knows what to play a game.
The game is free, with doing so being the price. If you don't like that price, you can always pay $80 for a traditional Pokemon game.
As such, I don't get the handwringing. There is no such thing as a free lunch and never will be.
Is there an $80 Pokémon game where walking outside is a core mechanic and that facilitates interaction with a huge network of users?
A long time ago they had the games that came with a "Pokéwalker", which was a pedometer that acted as a sort of mini-game, but that's the closest they got to a mainstream game where you have to get off the couch. It almost meets your specification (well, did, I'm sure the internet part is offline so you're not connected anymore), but it's obviously not exactly what you meant.
Take a walk while you play your switch
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