The Terrible Wave of the Game.
Posted 18th May 2009 at 12:30 AM by Revenant Threshold
Internet memes are one thing, but there's a lesser-seen version of the idea. A fancy internet meme that sweeps the world comes from a new idea, but just as something can be picked up and shared around quickly and to a vast audience so can old ideas, or ideas small enough to not get a Big Name for themselves.
Small example; one person, somewhere, uses the expression "Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn". Into reader's minds it goes, and they themselves bring it up at a later time, whether on the internet itself or in person. Just as with a larger meme, the more readers of the initial use, the more repeats there'll be.
The big casualty in all this is those of us playing the Game. Someone, somewhere, will be reminded of the game, and so mention so, causing yet others to lose the game. And they in turn pass it on, being primed to recall it or even deliberately choosing to pass it on. A person losing the Game in the U.K. could mean hundreds of people around the world lose, too. But that's not all, because the bouncing back and forth doesn't stop; it carries on, like a wave, as more people continue to come across it, until the people further back near the beginning of the cycle are reminded again, having forgotten in the meantime. What's more, if you hang around on sites with similar focuses, chances are others do too, so if you lose the Game on Politics-Message-Board A, then it's pretty much guranteed that at some point it'll also arrive at your Politics-Message-Board B.
In the end, this basically means the internet has provided a constant, never-ending Game-losing wave, traversing the Internet Sea back and forth for... well, forever. But the interesting is that because the continuance of the wave relies on active people, you can gauge the general activity of a site by how long it takes for the wave to reach it from a similar site. If it's busy, with lots of people, there's a higher chance that people will move it from PMB-A to -B, and quicker. To continue the metaphor, busier sites act as Game waterfalls, quickly filling perhaps many basins and rivers with waves, while quieter ones may simply serve to "end" the wave, giving it time for people to forget before starting the cycle anew.
The problem with following a wave is that there's lots at once. How can we know what site (or person) a particular instance came from? What would be interesting would be a specific Game variant, started at a particular time with a specific format, that requires posting of previous location. Let's say the Quoppa Game (name chosen somewhat randomly) starts at one site - the person informing others that they've lost it should post also from where they lost that specific version of the Game. Then we'd have a chain, showing how many seperate waves run off the first, how many end and how quickly, and whether they'll repeat back on themselves over time.
Well, I thought it was interesting, anyway.
Small example; one person, somewhere, uses the expression "Couldn't hit the broad side of a barn". Into reader's minds it goes, and they themselves bring it up at a later time, whether on the internet itself or in person. Just as with a larger meme, the more readers of the initial use, the more repeats there'll be.
The big casualty in all this is those of us playing the Game. Someone, somewhere, will be reminded of the game, and so mention so, causing yet others to lose the game. And they in turn pass it on, being primed to recall it or even deliberately choosing to pass it on. A person losing the Game in the U.K. could mean hundreds of people around the world lose, too. But that's not all, because the bouncing back and forth doesn't stop; it carries on, like a wave, as more people continue to come across it, until the people further back near the beginning of the cycle are reminded again, having forgotten in the meantime. What's more, if you hang around on sites with similar focuses, chances are others do too, so if you lose the Game on Politics-Message-Board A, then it's pretty much guranteed that at some point it'll also arrive at your Politics-Message-Board B.
In the end, this basically means the internet has provided a constant, never-ending Game-losing wave, traversing the Internet Sea back and forth for... well, forever. But the interesting is that because the continuance of the wave relies on active people, you can gauge the general activity of a site by how long it takes for the wave to reach it from a similar site. If it's busy, with lots of people, there's a higher chance that people will move it from PMB-A to -B, and quicker. To continue the metaphor, busier sites act as Game waterfalls, quickly filling perhaps many basins and rivers with waves, while quieter ones may simply serve to "end" the wave, giving it time for people to forget before starting the cycle anew.
The problem with following a wave is that there's lots at once. How can we know what site (or person) a particular instance came from? What would be interesting would be a specific Game variant, started at a particular time with a specific format, that requires posting of previous location. Let's say the Quoppa Game (name chosen somewhat randomly) starts at one site - the person informing others that they've lost it should post also from where they lost that specific version of the Game. Then we'd have a chain, showing how many seperate waves run off the first, how many end and how quickly, and whether they'll repeat back on themselves over time.
Well, I thought it was interesting, anyway.
Total Comments 0
