Yesterday I watched two things that tied together in my mind. One was Altman’s A Prairie Home Companion. The other was an episode of Handmade Music that was half about making a Cajun accordion, and half about the decades-running jam sessions held at Savoy Music, where the accordions are made.
And now I’m stuck thinking about online community as a result.
Now, I realize that my folkie upbringing is unusual. My kids cannot relate to a life where family and friends gathering on a regular basis to make and hear music is a normal part of life. Heck, for me it wasn’t normal — it was something that I touched on the periphery. I learned of it from the occasional musical event my dad took me to — New England hootenannies in barns and hippie singers on communes. I learned of it from seeing Peter, Paul & Mary multiple times in concert before the age of 18. My maternal grandfather would strum his cuatro on the porch. My paternal grandfather organized jam sessions outside his trailer in Key Largo, where dozens of retirees would gather to sing along to old swing and jazz classics.
Later in high school I passed it on by persuading two friends of mine to come to a PP&M concert with me. They thought it was desperately uncool, then the idea crossed over into kitsch and they came. They shushed me when I started singing along, until PP&M told everyone to quit shushing and sing along, it was folk music. I rediscovered it in song circles and jam sessions in grad school and at the Kerrville Folk Festival.
Most people’s experience of music is very different; it’s music as a utility, like electricity or plumbing. It’s just there. A show like Handmade Music reminds us that 500 parts go into an instrument like an accordion, and that claiming music out of the raw materials of every day life is damn hard work. Something that seems like a luxury, until it becomes necessity given the daily grind.
A Prairie Home Companion, of course, is about the passing of a somewhat different sort of music community. The folks who grew up in those song circles, and the folks who maybe vaguely remember it being there, all huddled around microphones and radios, trying to recapture the sensation of sitting on hay bales in a barn by putting on a flickering, fading live radio show. The actual show was an aberration in itself, a legacy of a very different time. In the movie, the teenager played by Lindsey Lohan (how nice to see her acting again), obsessed with death, makes her connection with the music by mangling “Frankie and Johnny” into something that resonates with her in a contemporary sense, but by the end drifts away into a world of mutual funds and smart suits and the marketing of packaged versions of the culture she grew up in.
A lot of folks do not like jam sessions. At Project Horseshoe, a famous designer said to me that he didn’t enjoy the music that was made there, because it was (paraphrasing) “a bunch of drunks banging on drums badly and barely able to sing.” To use a very different metaphor that made the rounds at AGC a while back, this listener is more Vegas than Burning Man.
When we all gather around the virtual fires of this blog, I get to pick the tune, but everyone else gets to riff along to the theme. Sometimes, somebody comes up with a better melody, and we all follow that for a while. The Internet is built off of jam sessions — just as improvisatory, and just as ephemeral. Rarely are jams captured and shaped into the packaged product that is palatable to outsiders; you “had to be there” to capture the ferment and excitement.
Many times I have compared my ideal online community vibe to the bandshell or gazebo in a public square in a small town. But watching this video on the evolution of games reveals just how far we have come from that sort of ideal. By the end, when you can see the sweat dripping from a texture-mapped forehead and the details reflected in the shiny chrome of a specular racing car, you realize that the video cheats — many of the “final stages” of evolution presented are movies, not games, cutscenes hidden behind a layer of glass, games you cannot actually touch.
Is the lack of an easy programming language, and listings available in magazines or online, akin to the experience of most kids today? They do not smell the scent of wood shavings, hear the twang of a string tuned up, and certainly few of them get itchy butts from hay bales. Do they know they can participate, or is their understanding of games, online worlds, computers, all shaped by untouchable gloss?
Today, it strikes me that even the worlds such as Second Life do not capture this, because in SL, there’s no one tune everyone is playing except perhaps the melody of money — not exactly a jam session standard. The common thread doesn’t run through things, the tune everyone can hum even as they embellish it, nor the old chestnut delivered as well as an amateur can — which is often better than the pro version you get at the store.
Maybe I’m just a dinosaur myself, grumpy and yearning for older days I never quite got to see. And I do love a good concert — but for me, often, the smaller the better, and it no one sings along, then it just won’t feel right. But my gold standard, I suppose, is that mix of shared goals and improvisation; that combination of tradition and affection for it, and the oddball new tune; the rough incompleteness that the active listener follows and aches to complete in his mind; the sense of togetherness that comes from each listening to other with respect; and the footstomping plain fun that comes, sometimes from enjoying letting loose.
10 Responses to “Virtuality: jams versus concerts”
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I hope this isn’t to complicated…haha
You know, there is another Robert Altman relationship here, more than just PHC’s nostalgia. Robert Altman used a distinctive technique of overlapping dialogue to create a certain “overall feeling”. There wasn’t specific dialogue one was supposed to listen to rather, the listener were supposed to very naturally absorb information as they would in everyday life rather than having a “scripted” absolute message to hear.
This is kind of what the sensation is like in a Virtual World.
Virtual Worlds should plunge you into a universe that is essentially an overlapping conversation (and btw what is a jam but a musical conversation?) The listener, depending on who they are should hear something different, depending who they are and what they like.
In Themepark games like WoW, much of it is very scripted, delivering a message to the player to take an obvious path. One single note. There might be some background noise (social relationships, crafting, economy), but it is mostly masked by “GET TO LEVEL 60. GET BETTER GEAR *cue overwhelming heroic music!!!*
Sometimes the most meaningful moments don’t incorporate sweeping John Williamsesque anthems, rather…
A little something that helps someone understand a little more about themselves.
Oh and by the way Raph…way to be a bard….haha.
I’ve always thought there were two ways virtual worlds differed from online games.
First, the players can have lasting impact on the world.
Second, the story depends on the players, not a script.
But this comment leads me to a third difference.
Third, the player is capable of creating content comparable to that created by the world’s developers, without external tools or distribution mechanisms.
Implied in this is an inherent inability for the developers to “cheat”; I once played on a MUSH where the invisibility system was massively broken, occasionally announcing the presence of an invisible character to the rest of the room, and I built a coded object inside my private game home to “fix” it. Those who used the invisibility system were initially pleased that in at least this one location, the system worked and properly concealed their presence, but it was only a few days before the light went on and they realised anyone could easily detect invisible characters with a line of code.
I’ll cogitate on this for a while and probably make a post later today.
Jam sessions as an analogy to community is an interesting idea. I have been playing music for close to 20 years. I have taught lessons, I have played studio gigs, stage gigs, festivals…and quite a few jam sessions. But the problem with the analogy is that a jam session does not require a level…a certain skill…or actually anything concrete.
You can walk into a Jam Session with a very rudimentary ability. You can sit down with your three chords and you can play. And since Jam Session by their nature are inclusive…the other musicians play songs that supprt your abilities.
There is really no other place in society where the less common denomenator is observed. Especially not in virtual worlds. MMOs are set to quantifiable objects. Level, skills, class…items. The are not inclusive…they are devisive. Experience is all that matters and in the end it is not about the journey. It is the destination. That is the problem. Jam Sessions are about the journey. No one cares what happens to the music that is played. No one cares if it is recorded…if it is produced…released as a single. All that matters is the players themselves enjoy the ride.
Nothing else comes close. Some of the best songs in the world are from happenstancely recorded jam sessions…the rest…they are marketed…formulaic…tailored…designed with a purpose. So are virtual worlds…and their quest. Its not the same thing.
If it was…it would nice. It would be wonderful to log into an MMO and just experience the world. But that is not what the players want. They are consumers of content. And that is what seperates them from the community of a Jam Session.
Musicians that play around the fire…or on the porch…or in the back yard in the smoke of a BBQ do not care about the content. The content is irrelevant to their persuits…
cl
“more Vegas than Burning Man”
And this is the fundamental differance, weather its conditioning, preferance, passive vs active, personality type, etc.
Some prefer the “consumer experiance” and some prefer the “gaming experiance” one is a experiance based on session, the other is an experiance based on immersion.
I think passives are happy with scripted cut-away shots, (give me vegas)
and session based play whereas actives are more into the immersive (even if its to enjoy merchantile/grinding activities) aspects. Is this the divide between online gamers and console gamers?
I understand its much harder to build a community site around console gamers than targetted specifically for online gamers, (this is changing with the “live” services obviously, but the community feel is less “connected” IMO).
The real question being is there a desire in the younger generation of gamers to “get behind the curtain and see the wizard” as it relates to games, (like learning BASIC and modifying “dungeon master”) or to just be “passive consumers of games”
Not sure I agree with this even for deep trough based games where the channel is not cut any more or less deeper by players passing through it and advancement is directional:
I have been guiding a business partner though being a noob in WOW, (she likes and is more experianced with console/casual games), she dosnt like the combat part, and the UI is a learning process, and she could almost care less about the rate at which she’s leveling, but if theres mobs between her and some herbs she wants to gather…..its just ultimate lowbie mage nuke spamming….she likes the “gathering” and “crafting” game
There are large segments who see this as primary game play not “background noise” You may have met them, and as a powergamer looked at thier green gear and wondered aloud “youve been 60 for 1 year and dont raid?”….thats where WOW gets it right, they have a game for everyone, it might not be deep but its there.
Do you think that something like XNA might help resolve, or at least mitigate these issues you bring up?
I think you’ve hit upon the reason, Raph, why people don’t jam and why they don’t make games. Our music/games these days are highly polished and very pretty. Music is goes through heavy post-production so that every marginally-talented (but not too demanding) singer sounds great. Similarly, there’s a lot of work that goes into a game to make it look “next-gen”. Professionals have already been lamenting the fact that this cost keeps going higher and higher.
The major difference between music and games is this: I might spend an hour at a jam embarrassing myself with my untrained voice. Maybe a whole night if I get a little drunk. But, an untrained game developer could spend weeks making a little game that looks like crap next to all the big, glittery “next-gen” titles.
The issue isn’t just an easy-to-use programming language, as you mention, Raph. Programming/coding/scripting is hard and making it “easier” just means taking away options from the developer. It’s the classic tradeoff between easy-of-use and power. As a designer with not-really-passable art skills, I’d love to see “easy-to-make art” to help me a long with my games. But, game art is hard and making it easier isn’t really a viable solution, either.
But, I think there’s some hope here. The beauty of a jam session or folk concert is that it’s not heavily post-produced and soulless. The drunk banging on the drum badly could allow you to think, “I could fit in there!” That’s some of the beauty of smaller games, like Flash games you find on different gaming portals. But, learning Flash isn’t exactly easy.
So, in the end, I believe that making games is always going to be a hard thing to do. There’s no easy answer, no easy programming language, no easy art creation tools, no easy path to innovation. Well, not unless you only want to create derivative games, and the professionals already have a head start on that! We just have to appreciate the gems in the rough that the indies make, just as some of us can appreciate a jam session even if we aren’t brave enough to belt out a few tunes ourselves.
[…] Michael (raccaldin36) wrote,@ 2006-12-11 13:56:00 Small is the new Big That’s the title of Seth Godin’s latest book, I believe, yet… I’m not talking about Godin.I’m merely linking you to something that doesn’t even mention him:https://www.raphkoster.com/2006/12/11/virtuality-jams-versus-concerts/Do have fun.(Post a new comment) […]
First, to take your comment literally, I think the live music scene in SL does provide a bit of this flavour, although of course only the musicians in RL shoutcasting into SL can be said to be jamming. But the socializing and more intimate groups
Second, your take on SL is always so superficial and dismissive because you can’t really justify investing the time in it. Perhaps someday you will. The idea that only money is a common thread in SL is silly — money couldn’t *become* the common thread of sorts that it is if it weren’t for other things there.
To be sure, a major activity — and a group jam-sessioning sort of activity — is sex. That doesn’t sit well with even a lot of modern, progressive people who get prudish about it either for religious reasons or for secular humanist tekkie reasons that they don’t find avatars convincing erotic (so, like a porn page in the next click on your screen is any better lol?) The huge variety of activity in this sector is of course staggering, when you think of the products with all their positions and kinks and lifestyles. Most of it is in twosomes, but just study the SL map some night and see how many of those green dots are clustered and stacking up on top of each other lol.
Another activity is building and rezzing stuff. This is probably the common thread that does run through a certain sector at least of the older FIC type community — build something, invite people to the build, discuss the build, have a party in the build, dismantle the build, rebuild it, have somebody else add something. The group build tools are very sucky, but the collective effort of looking at and working with other people on builds is probably the common thread you seek — except, it’s just not interesting to you personally.
Still another is group discussions on the issues of the day. The kind of rousing drawing room discussions you read about in Russian novels or American novels from the turn of the century are replayed in SL as people either get in group IMs to chat or sit in their homes in groups and chat. Sometimes movie-watching is part of this, as an entertainment, or a theme to discuss.
But…I think that this stuff is still early, has a lot of rough edges, doesn’t work so well so that the niching and good-vibes hippy stuff or sci-fi geek stuff you’ve written about here before hasn’t quite gotten there yet. I mean, it’s hard to keep a group going when you know that you schedule something, but the game might not even work or will be patching then or whatever. Still, you get things like the charity concert in ElvenGlen last night with Frogg Marlowe & Jaycatt Nico because the people who come and participate are kind of on a music or charity or elf circuit and they do have a common thread.
To revisit Raph’s original comparison, in the computer music world you have loop-based packages like Ableton or Acid, which let the budding musician create something that sounds great in next to no time, injecting some of their own creativity in the process. True, they’re constrained a little by the loops they use and the nature of the software, but they still come out with an arrangement that is uniquely theirs, and which can sound almost as good as a professional piece. Later, they may well outgrow that and want more control, whereupon purchasing better software or even real instruments comes in.
I don’t see why game development couldn’t be a bit more like that. There could be more tools to allow you to quickly create a simple game, to dip into the craft, and to provide a stepping stone to using the more complex but more versatile tools. Presence of the entry-level tools doesn’t take away any options from the advanced developer. But it might still bring out the best in prospective game designers, despite the limitations. After all, a lot of innovative things were done with the very restrictive online building tools available in most MUDs.
Perhaps things like Darkbasic or Game Maker are already there? And perhaps the attitude of “you won’t get anywhere without C++” is holding people back?
Ben Sizer wrote:
After all, a lot of innovative things were done with the very restrictive online building tools available in most MUDs.
You should go read Raph talk about Stock MUD Syndrome. The brief version is that DIKU was easy to set up but relatively difficult to customize. The result was that you had a ton of very similar MUDs with some abortive attempts to customize them. The text MUDs I enjoyed most were the LP-MUDs, but that had a C-like scripting language that you used to customize the game: not for timid game developers. Less restrictive than DIKU, but much harder to “get right” for the average person. Programmers like me loved it, though.
Really, I think this example more proves my point.
Plus, I’d really hate to think that the last decade of my work improving my ability to develop games would go to waste overnight if someone could make a computer program that could do the same thing I do on a daily basis. 😉
Have fun.