RE: Participation versus Interactivity

["Brandon J. Van Every" <vanevery@3DProgrammer.com>]

> Meaningful interactivity implies asymmetrical transaction between the
> parties. The best chance of successful medical diagnosis comes
> from a doctor
> talking to a patient. Two patients talking to each other won't do
> very well.
> Is that because the patients are "incompetent?" Well, two
> "competent" doctors
> talking to each other and ignoring the patient won't do very well either!
> Competent vs. incompetent is a red herring. What's important are the
> contrasting roles in the process. I'm an elitist, but elitism has
> its limits beyond which it becomes counterproductive.

But why can't these production / consumption relationships be essentially
hermaphroditic?  I agree that these asymmetries may have been causing
problems in my freeform PBEM RPG, but I don't see the necessity of it.  What
about musicians?  Not all bands revolve around a dominant lead, even if most
do.  However, egalitarianism does take more skill and more energy on the
part of the authors.  I always thought of my GM job as being "the last line
of defense."  When nobody is producing content, I make sure I am.  Without
my leadership and swift kick in the butt, the project dies.  Now, if I had 2
other authors who were equally vested in the project, who had the same level
of ideological committment...?


Cheers,                         www.3DProgrammer.com
Brandon Van Every               Seattle, WA

20% of the world is real.
80% is gobbledygook we make up inside our own heads.