Posted October 23, 2017
Hey,
The point of this post is to discuss a potential problem with digital stores and how it may have a negative impact on society as a whole (far fetch, I know... And it also sounds pretentious). I think the way we shop in digital stores may be something the free market wasn't build for, but I don't know anything about economics, so even mentioning the free market feels like I am trying to bite more than I can chew. Basically, I want to be told how wrong I am because I want to be optimistic about the future, and I feel like there are lots of gaps in my thinking right now that I'd like to fill.
Anyway, here's a scenario that I want to compare in both the traditional physical setting vs the new digital setting to illustrate the problem:
Let's say it's the early or mid 90s. You've just bought a new monitor for your computer, but you don't have the right cable, so you decide to go to the local electronics store. You are going there with the intent of ONLY buying this cable. You enter the store, and as you make your way to the 'isle of cables', you pass the software section where you spot a game you've never seen before that has a cool cover. Let's say you just got a badass paycheck as well, and you haven't had a new game in a while, and man, a new game would look real awesome on your new monitor. It's a strategy game though, you don't like those... But the cover is real awesome, what if this is going to change your mind about strategy games?! If you're like me, you think about it for about ten minutes, then grab the game, get the cable, pay for them and leave the store with a huge smile on your face.
The key thing here is that you've just bought one more unexpected item, just because you saw something in the corner of your eye that caught your attention for some reason. What you just did (besides spending money on a game before checking video game reviews) is that you got roped into purchasing something because that thing was in some way alluring to you. More importantly, by buying the game, you just handed in a vote for that product and told the free market "I like things like these, these are cool, I would potentially buy more of these". The invisible hand shifts oh-so very slightly, and companies will note that shift...
Fast forward to 2045... Okay, 2017. Same idea, you got a 144hz G-Sync monitor but you don't have a DisplayPort cable. Dammit, you should've known. But that's alright, you log into your Amazon account, you type in 'DisplayPort' in the search bar, you find a cable with five star reviews and order it. And you know what? You just got a fat paycheck too, so you can even order it for 1-day delivery so you won't have to wait 3-5 days to get it! Awesome. So you order the cable..... Aaaaand you're done.
You purchased one item - the item you intended to buy... Nothing else. Why? There could be many reasons, but in this hypothetical scenario you had the potential of buying a game, but since you didn't run past a video game isle by chance you didn't realize that potential. You just came with one purpose and you did what you came to do, which is as it should be... Right?
Here's my question... Isn't that a huge problem? To me, what that means is that (in the modern world) people are able to filter out everything that they don't intend to purchase. You can't just stumble onto something in a digital store, since all you do is click on the search bar, type in what you need, and just get that one thing. Basically, everything else is filtered out, especially with the way stores try to only recommend you things you've already proven to like.
Furthermore, that means you won't be voting (with your wallet) for new things that got you curious, but instead just continue voting for the same things you've already voted for before. Doesn't that mean companies will just not make new things, because they think this new thing won't sell because there seems to be no demand. In reality, it's just not selling because people have no way of 'stumbling' on it... So basically, the modern video game industry in a nutshell, no?
So, as a result of this change from physical retail stores to digital distribution, will society become more and more closed minded and only purchase what they're searching for? Will we all make our personal bubbles even smaller and smaller where we won't try out new things at all, which would result in not giving new products and ideas that could have a positive impact on our lives a chance in the free market?
I know there's lots more to this, there are lots of things to consider like the effect of marketing (Effect of watching TV, which is declining, replaced by YouTube, and how YouTubers now change our 'filters'), but this post is too long already so I'll leave it at that. I think the way most video game distribution is going (GOG is the only one who seems to try and be like a retail store in some ways, imo) is a good marker of how the future of society might look like. In my pessimistic view, we'll end up only knowing what we already know without expanding our horizons the way this is going.
The point of this post is to discuss a potential problem with digital stores and how it may have a negative impact on society as a whole (far fetch, I know... And it also sounds pretentious). I think the way we shop in digital stores may be something the free market wasn't build for, but I don't know anything about economics, so even mentioning the free market feels like I am trying to bite more than I can chew. Basically, I want to be told how wrong I am because I want to be optimistic about the future, and I feel like there are lots of gaps in my thinking right now that I'd like to fill.
Anyway, here's a scenario that I want to compare in both the traditional physical setting vs the new digital setting to illustrate the problem:
Let's say it's the early or mid 90s. You've just bought a new monitor for your computer, but you don't have the right cable, so you decide to go to the local electronics store. You are going there with the intent of ONLY buying this cable. You enter the store, and as you make your way to the 'isle of cables', you pass the software section where you spot a game you've never seen before that has a cool cover. Let's say you just got a badass paycheck as well, and you haven't had a new game in a while, and man, a new game would look real awesome on your new monitor. It's a strategy game though, you don't like those... But the cover is real awesome, what if this is going to change your mind about strategy games?! If you're like me, you think about it for about ten minutes, then grab the game, get the cable, pay for them and leave the store with a huge smile on your face.
The key thing here is that you've just bought one more unexpected item, just because you saw something in the corner of your eye that caught your attention for some reason. What you just did (besides spending money on a game before checking video game reviews) is that you got roped into purchasing something because that thing was in some way alluring to you. More importantly, by buying the game, you just handed in a vote for that product and told the free market "I like things like these, these are cool, I would potentially buy more of these". The invisible hand shifts oh-so very slightly, and companies will note that shift...
Fast forward to 2045... Okay, 2017. Same idea, you got a 144hz G-Sync monitor but you don't have a DisplayPort cable. Dammit, you should've known. But that's alright, you log into your Amazon account, you type in 'DisplayPort' in the search bar, you find a cable with five star reviews and order it. And you know what? You just got a fat paycheck too, so you can even order it for 1-day delivery so you won't have to wait 3-5 days to get it! Awesome. So you order the cable..... Aaaaand you're done.
You purchased one item - the item you intended to buy... Nothing else. Why? There could be many reasons, but in this hypothetical scenario you had the potential of buying a game, but since you didn't run past a video game isle by chance you didn't realize that potential. You just came with one purpose and you did what you came to do, which is as it should be... Right?
Here's my question... Isn't that a huge problem? To me, what that means is that (in the modern world) people are able to filter out everything that they don't intend to purchase. You can't just stumble onto something in a digital store, since all you do is click on the search bar, type in what you need, and just get that one thing. Basically, everything else is filtered out, especially with the way stores try to only recommend you things you've already proven to like.
Furthermore, that means you won't be voting (with your wallet) for new things that got you curious, but instead just continue voting for the same things you've already voted for before. Doesn't that mean companies will just not make new things, because they think this new thing won't sell because there seems to be no demand. In reality, it's just not selling because people have no way of 'stumbling' on it... So basically, the modern video game industry in a nutshell, no?
So, as a result of this change from physical retail stores to digital distribution, will society become more and more closed minded and only purchase what they're searching for? Will we all make our personal bubbles even smaller and smaller where we won't try out new things at all, which would result in not giving new products and ideas that could have a positive impact on our lives a chance in the free market?
I know there's lots more to this, there are lots of things to consider like the effect of marketing (Effect of watching TV, which is declining, replaced by YouTube, and how YouTubers now change our 'filters'), but this post is too long already so I'll leave it at that. I think the way most video game distribution is going (GOG is the only one who seems to try and be like a retail store in some ways, imo) is a good marker of how the future of society might look like. In my pessimistic view, we'll end up only knowing what we already know without expanding our horizons the way this is going.