Future Loot Box
SI17 Productive Play
One-sentence loot boxes
- Loot box with ideas to subvert the loot box
- A loot box that brings out a random theory/ideology connected to gamification and explains it in a fun way
- A loot box that brings out a random statement/s (from those we created, as each of us can add as many as they want) about loot boxes & productive play we wrote/illustrated and explains it; and points to a collected reader
- Loot box with lyrics inside, each box brings one song and when you open it you can go at a karaoke webpage and sing it
Ideas
Temporality of the loot box
The loot box implies a specific temporal dimension: the one with instant rewarding. When a player opens the loot box she receives immediate feedback. Sometimes it is dressed up with an aesthetic of suspense, but this is just cosmetics and the built-up climax often becomes just something undesired that the user wants (and even pay) to skip.
In order to work with the idea of the loot box without re-enacting its toxic behavior and mechanics it could be interesting to hijack its temporality. By inflating the time between the purchasing and the result, we could create space for dig deeper in this complex and delicate topic.
note:
This reminds me of Reciprocity that I bumped into the other day filling out the glossary for our SI17.
It would be interesting to play with time for this SI 17, the question is how?
Loot box
pay ●-->○ get
SI17 Loot Box
pay ●---------things could happen here--------->○ get
This approach could help us in filling the loot box (tempo) without falling for the same addictive schemes that the industry is implementing for exploiting the players.
Inflating the loot box means that the player could reclaim her own leisure time. If we focus on the temporal fruition of the l~b we can imagine to produce not only an object, but a time slot that the person from the public can reserve for herself. If we define this time slot as leisure time then we could create a sacred and safe space to take a rest and to arrest the acceleration of capital. Something like a checkpoint, speaking from a gaming point of view.
An approach to deal with the temporal aspect in a way that doesn't feel forced could be to rely on real-yet-slow-time processes for the material production of the special issue.
More about this on the Soupboat
LOOT—BOX—SEALING—DEVICE
imagine the loot box being 3D printed, and especially 3D printed on demand when the player want to buy it at Page Not Found or Varia or any other place we are going to distribute our work. 3D printing is a slow process, and in order to create a small piece you need to wait let's say an hour. When someone want to buy our loot box goes to PNF and ask for it, the 3d print begin and during the waiting time the player can access and navigate through the contents of our special issue. These contents are contained inside the temporality of the l~b, but they are not consumed instantaneously.
How do we want to deliver these contents? It could be related to the way of production of the physical l~b, for instance each player could contribute and shape the 3d model for the next player during the waiting time, and we can aggregate and collect narrations within and around the tools used in order to do so.
In order to cover the expenses of a similar process part of the SI17 budget could cover the cost for some small 3D printers and printing material. The term of services of our special issue could allocate a certain amount of money from each purchase to self sustain the process (buying new printing material, etc)
(I would like to elaborate more on this!) (I'm sorry I'm such a living stereotype white cis male talkin about 3d printers forgive me)
more about this on the SOupbpat
examples of lootboxes
- Ida Choi(South Korea)'s work
(Chae asked Ida for a nice picture, will put some pic and description soon)
- Kibrit gift box (Bulgarian small business): a gift box that you can buy without knowing the content; each month it has new contents (bio cosmetics selection).