Jason Rohrer

[bicilotti]

He is best known for Passage. He's one curious little fellow.

Even though I don't agree with some of what he says I remained fascinated by his views on gaming distribution and on simple life.

[ambientcoffeecup]

What.

Man everyone who knows me knows that I pretty much agree with a lot of the free distribution stuff but in a different sense. I've worked on a lot of game projects where I have composed full soundtracks completely free of charge, because if I believe in something I am willing to put my time and effort into it, to make it see the light of day. This is also because I am really passionate about what I do and the music I make and I don't NEED a paycheck to keep the motivation up.

In the same respect however I can't continue to do this forever and time is quickly running out. I need some kind of income and at the moment it is coming from nowhere. But also all these charity projects I have done, have almost never seen the light of day which has left me with 1000's of wasted hours and no portfolio work to really show for it. I'm a sitting duck bashing my face off the brick wall thanks to my kindhearted CHARITY NATURE WAYS.

It's alright for some who can pull these projects together and actually release them but for the lowly composer I'm left at the mercy of the creator of the game and for the most part, game creators are shitheads who can't finish they damn projects.

Since the recent copyright debate has focused on the medium of recorded music, only one solution has been widely discussed. Musicians will make money the way they currently make most of their money anyway: they will play live shows. Since it is impossible to make a copy of a live experience, let alone distribute copies of that experience in a free fashion, musicians will be able to make adequate livings without copyright. And, if you place this means of making a living on the reliability and productivity spectrums discussed earlier, it measures quite well: musicians are paid ahead of time (at the ticket booth) for doing immediate, productive work (rendering a live performance on stage). Also, the amount of money made from a live performance is tightly correlated with how many people benefit from that performance (in other words, how many people are in the audience).

Also this is kind of bullshit because "musicians" is a general term and in an idealistic world sure we will all do LIVE SHOWS but what about those of us musicians who are still musicians but don't aspire to be a ROCK BAND. My GOAL in life is to create soundtracks for games/films. Where is my money going to come from in the post-copyright world when I don't perform live shows of my game soundtracks. See the above CHARITY WORK paragraph.

However, this particular post-copyright "solution" leaves most other creators out in the cold. Programmers and book writers cannot give live performances, at least not performances that will sell many tickets. The same goes, in general, for painters, sculptors, photographers, and graphic artists. During the recent copyright debate, a catch-all solution has been proposed for non-musicians: donations. These creators will supposedly eke out livings post-copyright with the online equivalent of the tip jars commonly used by bar and street performers. Of course, the online equivalents will work better, since an online audience can be so much bigger than a bar or street audience (if just 1% of 1,000,000 visitors give a $1 donation, we have already started approaching a livable income for a year).

Again, in ideal world sure but people are cheap and don't like to give out what little money they have. Sure there are those of us who will pay for things that we use and enjoy. In a world where pirating movies is free and easy I am the guy who still goes out and buys DVD's but it's not going to last for long and when everything is free nobody will think to "donate" or over time, as copyright is dying, the donation rule of thumb will die out too.

If we do not depend on selling copies to survive, then all of our efforts at copy control become pointless. This means no more "All rights reserved" or even "Some rights reserved." This means no more FBI warnings. This means no more DRM or hardware dongles. This means no more "Please insert the original CD-ROM to continue." On the other side of the fence, this means no more cracking and no more warez. This means no more hiding in P2P networks and no more RIAA lawsuits. So much effort and energy has been wasted---one side trying to enforce copy controls, and the other side trying to work around those controls.

We can leave all of this behind us when we move to free distribution. And, using the schemes that I have described, or countless other schemes that others may propose, it is possible to make a living as a creator in a world of free distribution.

So in the way this sounds fantastic and makes a lot of sense, it is also completely idealistic and would not function well at all. Not to mention that a lot of companies whole existance is based off copyright and the current amount of money they make from this shit.

Companies are not going to be so willing to just say SURE FUCK MONEY LET'S GIVE SHIT AWAY FOR FREE AND STRUGGLE BY ON AN AMBLE LIVING, when the current system rakes them in millions/billions each year.

In an ideal world though...

EDIT:

Just adding in, in regards to the simple life. I don't drive a car myself, and I feel pretty strongly about this but I would never be so obnoxious and arrogant as to tell other people that they should not drive cars. I understand that people need to travel long distances for their work and even family life and that cars make this a lot easier. You can't blame PEOPLE for that. I personally don't need to drive a car so I don't and I feel good about myself for doing this but I wont be that guy that walks around feeling smug about himself trying to make other people bad for contributing to the oil crisis.

I'm also, slowly trying to make the change to vegetarianism as a personal choice. I've eaten meat for years and although disagreeing with it, have pawned it off as "well they're gonna cut the meat and shelf it anyway... may as well not waste it." I don't think this is so acceptable anymore so I'm trying to make the change FOR MYSELF.

But yeah FUCK I would never be this guy. I hate those fuckers who make their kids grow up the same way they do. Force their kids to be vegetarian and bike everywhere. That guy is gonna give his kid issues and his kid will turn out like some prudent fag and hate him for it the rest of his like. (maybe?)

On a lighter note, it is really cool that this guy has taken the necessary steps to do this and actually be a good human being, not fucking up the planet like the rest of us. If only I had the willpower right. I'm working on it.

[passer-by]

which has left me with 1000's of wasted hours and no portfolio work to really show for it.

It may sound silly, but one thing business people fail to recognize is the value of a long list of early freebies and constant experimenting.

It is what famous people struggle to have in their CVs instead of "was born in an artistic family" to conceal the fact that their only encounter with arts was by proxy.

Look at how people like politicians or big managers try to "sweeten" their profiles with a human touch of charitable acts they're supposed to have done at young age.


Do you really, really consider experimenting, long practice, trial and error, long hours of researching creative strategies and fighting "musicians' block" as wasted time? Without the pressure of an low-paying employer waiting for immediate, flawless results?

:

[ambientcoffeecup]

I don't consider it wasted time, I learnt a lot from it, but I also don't feel comfortable showcasing incomplete project work as part of a portfolio.

[Makeout Patrol]

I've only just started reading this, but I've got to say that so far it seems like me and this guy are pretty much on the same page. "Money doesn't buy happiness" has been reduced to a trite cliché in our modern capitalist consumerist society, and people don't seem to realize that it is absolutely, scientifically, demonstrably true. This isn't the first time that I've come across the concept of voluntary simplicity, and I certainly liked the sound of it last time. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the way through this.

[ambientcoffeecup]

Money can buy happiness. Seriously I would be pretty happy with a shitload of money because it would provide me with the ability to do the things I love in life. I wouldn't blow it all on cocaine and whores (just a little bit!) I would buy myself a recording studio and run my own recording studio business. I would still do the things that make me happy and I love and enjoy but I would be able to do it comfortably without the overwhelmingly stressful struggle to survive lifestyle I have right now.

So yeah I really think money would buy me happiness!

Ho, this topic is absolutely fascinating and I feel quite borderline on it right now. I mean I'm feeling quite contrary to most points that anyone else has brought up but at the same time I definitely understand the concept of "the simple life" it's just the whole article is totally idealised.

On the one hand I agree because of the reasons I stated above, I definitely don't agree with driving a car if you don't have to and if I had the willpower I would be a vegetarian. But in the same respect a lot of the points he brings up, especially to do with the free distribution which is on paper a fantastic idea, would just not hold up practically and could never do so due to the nature of the human race.

[Stupot]

My view is that if you create something of commercial quality and realise that people are willing to pay for it then you should be forgiven for wanting to earn a few bucks from it.

And if it is only your first game (and therefore you don't have a backlog of freeware trial-and-error early experiments) then surely that looks just as good on one's CV as a long list of amateur efforts... that you managed to create an awesome commercial-quality game on first attempt... wow... I'd certainly be impressed.

Nobody should be frowned upon for wanting to make a bit of extra money... it is only the players who moan because they want to play the game without forking out the moolah... (This includes me; I still haven't played Blackwell, yet.)