So video games, having flirted with the status of art, are now retreating from it. There’s no narrative, and the sounds and images are looped and repetitive, designed to look as designless and generic as possible. Instead of standing aside from the production-line tedium of commerce, they imitate it. Yet millions plough this exhausting virtual furrow.
How will we escape? Well, look what has happened with multiplayer games such as World of Warcraft, calibrated to reward players who spend the most time in-game. Can’t be bothered to invest hundreds of hours slaying boars and digging for gold? For a few bucks on your credit card, workers at a virtual Chinese gold farm will do the work for you, showering your character with unearned gold coins and magic swords.
My prediction is that FarmVille’s crew of dungareed cartoon yokels will end up doing the same — which is, amusingly, what farmers do in the real world: contract out the dreary tasks of reaping and sowing to scandalously underpaid migrant labor. Eventually, we will pay virtual Chinese farmers real money to grow our imaginary pineapples. And what will we do with all the time that this frees up?
I know it sounds silly, but we could always try working.
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