The future of content production on closed digital platforms has long created concerns about innovation (Jonathan Zittrain, 2007) and its effectiveness as civic action (Jay Blumler and Stephen Coleman, 2009). However, decades before Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit attempted to monetize crowd production, the tabletop gaming industry blazed a trail of paid amateur content, open license development, and DIY workshops intended to train users to not only produce content but to become professionalized as they produced content. This presentation will work through the history of these innovations and how they could disrupt current social media platforms as the next generation emerges.
In particular, the talk examines how producers of the Dungeon & Dragons roleplaying game implemented a process by which they first created a customer based and then transitioned key members of that user base into professional talent based upon these three pillars. The talk also directs this focus upon how these elements evolved with digital culture after 2000, including the creation of the Open Gaming License, paid freelance digital content, and creation of mini platforms within the broader closed platforms.
About the presenterMichael Trice
A lecturer at MIT interested in usability in digital civic systems.