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Desktop Pets
Apr. 28th, 2020 12:06 pmAbout desktop pets & virtual companions: discussing the inhabitants that fill the void of our digital spaces
http://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/about-desktop-pets-virtual-companions-discussing-the-inhabitants-that-fill-the-void-of-our-digital-spaces
I see a strange irony in how people used to say “Don’t download Bonzi Buddy! It’s adware!” when (today) our web and desktop environments are so much worst of a privacy nightmare. Some of our current, completely normalized, practices of user tracking would legitimately qualify as extreme “spyware” back then.
Between the push and pull from platform holders slowly turning the desktop into an environment that only they own, that only things licensed from them can run on, that only things that adhere to their quality guidelines can exist on, that only allows licensed software from certified developers rich enough to pay for that… contrasted against shareware creators making the space interesting with things like desktop pets, experimental software, digital pranks, or parody software… I kind of view creating a desktop pet to inhabit this polarized space as an act of rebellion against that ever impending content monopoly.
The idea of making something that is meant to just simulate an inhabitant in a polarized virtual void is special for how it keeps the dream alive.
I think I might be too young to have any actual memories of desktop pets, but this sounds like a neat subculture from the 1990s. This isn't what the article is about, but the author mentions how Neopets launched the careers of a lot of young artists and programmers. I thought the culture surrounding Neopets was kind of creepy and ended up on LiveJournal instead (which was totally not creepy, definitely not), and I wonder how much generational overlap there was between the two platforms.
http://www.nathalielawhead.com/candybox/about-desktop-pets-virtual-companions-discussing-the-inhabitants-that-fill-the-void-of-our-digital-spaces
I see a strange irony in how people used to say “Don’t download Bonzi Buddy! It’s adware!” when (today) our web and desktop environments are so much worst of a privacy nightmare. Some of our current, completely normalized, practices of user tracking would legitimately qualify as extreme “spyware” back then.
Between the push and pull from platform holders slowly turning the desktop into an environment that only they own, that only things licensed from them can run on, that only things that adhere to their quality guidelines can exist on, that only allows licensed software from certified developers rich enough to pay for that… contrasted against shareware creators making the space interesting with things like desktop pets, experimental software, digital pranks, or parody software… I kind of view creating a desktop pet to inhabit this polarized space as an act of rebellion against that ever impending content monopoly.
The idea of making something that is meant to just simulate an inhabitant in a polarized virtual void is special for how it keeps the dream alive.
I think I might be too young to have any actual memories of desktop pets, but this sounds like a neat subculture from the 1990s. This isn't what the article is about, but the author mentions how Neopets launched the careers of a lot of young artists and programmers. I thought the culture surrounding Neopets was kind of creepy and ended up on LiveJournal instead (which was totally not creepy, definitely not), and I wonder how much generational overlap there was between the two platforms.
