Hypnospace is a Geocities-style hosting platform for walled garden communities. Not only have they just finished a hiring spree -- they've bought some expensive TV ads, too. Now that they're...
Exemplary
Hypnospace is a Geocities-style hosting platform for walled garden communities. Not only have they just finished a hiring spree -- they've bought some expensive TV ads, too. Now that they're running at a loss, they're entering a Revenue Extraction phase.
Most of the users are nerds -- a few punks and hackers, but mostly civilized gamers and sci-fi fans. The developers are all active users, except Adrian, a nonprogrammer who really only handles the business end of business.
There's a monetization model: an in-app currency, HypnoCoin, that can be purchased in real dollars. Still, the HypnoCoin economy doesn't seem profitable, and the main revenue source seems to be advertising via partner brands.
There's new spaces for teenagers and elderly people, but they're pretty rowdy. Not only do they need moderation, but the existing users don't seem to get along with the newcomers.
There's promise in those demographics: kids will buy everything you put in front of them, right? Maybe there's more promise in the new users than in the old ones.
In the real world, where Hypnospace is the subject of a video game by Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson and ThatWhichIs Media, we're seeing a run of platform implosions. It feels destined to happen because all tech companies are valued based on the idea that there's a nonzero chance they will make a billion dollars out of nowhere in the future, and if they don't make their monetization more aggressive over time, then that becomes impossible.
Most social platforms are in silent competition with other platforms: users who have connected already can balk at the paywall for whatever they're doing on your website and switch to a new website that is running at a loss doing the same thing you were doing a year ago.
How do you keep people on a platform? You lie to them a lot.
Does that feel good? No. But if you treat your users like cattle (or call them "whales") it feels less like you're hurting a person. You need to see them this way to do your job.
But modeling humans as livestock means excluding concepts like "user trust" from mind. When you imagine what your users are thinking, you no longer ask yourself what they're going to think of you after you do what you've decided to do. Frankly, you don't even want to think about what you think of you.
As a salesperson, seeing them this way may help with your moral conscience, but believing in it descriptively actually hurts your ability to do your job.
But as an executive, your job is something else: you still need a 1% chance of making a billion dollars. The real territory available to you is limited by structural factors: you can't build a house on a cloud, and you can't run a business without a product someone will buy.
The mental model of humans as livestock creates new territories in your mind where you can seek to do business. These territories, such as the Metaverse, are necessary for you to do your job. If you want funding, you must perceive them and you must take the business there.
Does that get you a viable product?
Well, I'm not sitting on a cloud, and I'm not writing this post from Horizon Worlds right now.
I'm recommending Hypnospace specifically because I think it captures the mindset I'm describing very well. It's doing a lot of stuff, but one of the things I like the most about it is that it's about people who have decided to drive the school bus off a cliff.
Honestly a really great perspective on the themes Hypnospace tries to go for. It’s an absolutely incredible ride, and one thing constantly nagging at me even from the very beginning was the...
Honestly a really great perspective on the themes Hypnospace tries to go for. It’s an absolutely incredible ride, and one thing constantly nagging at me even from the very beginning was the relationship between the Merchantsoft brothers (not a spoiler as this info is gleamed from the very first few screens of the game), and how their differing treatment of HypnOS really captured the feeling of knowing the dot-com era was well and truly underway.
I've started and stopped this game 3 times now, for a grand total of about 15-hours played. As soon as I get passed the first virus/reboot/3 month time jump, I get lost and a little bored and stop...
I've started and stopped this game 3 times now, for a grand total of about 15-hours played. As soon as I get passed the first virus/reboot/3 month time jump, I get lost and a little bored and stop playing. I really would love to finish it, but I think at this point, I might be done, given how many times I've tried to get further in the game and just failed.
Neat game, neat aesthetic and takes me back to being a teenager in the late 90's, but I'm not sure I can go any futher.
Hypnospace is a Geocities-style hosting platform for walled garden communities. Not only have they just finished a hiring spree -- they've bought some expensive TV ads, too. Now that they're running at a loss, they're entering a Revenue Extraction phase.
Most of the users are nerds -- a few punks and hackers, but mostly civilized gamers and sci-fi fans. The developers are all active users, except Adrian, a nonprogrammer who really only handles the business end of business.
There's a monetization model: an in-app currency, HypnoCoin, that can be purchased in real dollars. Still, the HypnoCoin economy doesn't seem profitable, and the main revenue source seems to be advertising via partner brands.
There's new spaces for teenagers and elderly people, but they're pretty rowdy. Not only do they need moderation, but the existing users don't seem to get along with the newcomers.
There's promise in those demographics: kids will buy everything you put in front of them, right? Maybe there's more promise in the new users than in the old ones.
In the real world, where Hypnospace is the subject of a video game by Jay Tholen, Mike Lasch, Xalavier Nelson and ThatWhichIs Media, we're seeing a run of platform implosions. It feels destined to happen because all tech companies are valued based on the idea that there's a nonzero chance they will make a billion dollars out of nowhere in the future, and if they don't make their monetization more aggressive over time, then that becomes impossible.
Most social platforms are in silent competition with other platforms: users who have connected already can balk at the paywall for whatever they're doing on your website and switch to a new website that is running at a loss doing the same thing you were doing a year ago.
How do you keep people on a platform? You lie to them a lot.
Does that feel good? No. But if you treat your users like cattle (or call them "whales") it feels less like you're hurting a person. You need to see them this way to do your job.
But modeling humans as livestock means excluding concepts like "user trust" from mind. When you imagine what your users are thinking, you no longer ask yourself what they're going to think of you after you do what you've decided to do. Frankly, you don't even want to think about what you think of you.
As a salesperson, seeing them this way may help with your moral conscience, but believing in it descriptively actually hurts your ability to do your job.
But as an executive, your job is something else: you still need a 1% chance of making a billion dollars. The real territory available to you is limited by structural factors: you can't build a house on a cloud, and you can't run a business without a product someone will buy.
The mental model of humans as livestock creates new territories in your mind where you can seek to do business. These territories, such as the Metaverse, are necessary for you to do your job. If you want funding, you must perceive them and you must take the business there.
Does that get you a viable product?
Well, I'm not sitting on a cloud, and I'm not writing this post from Horizon Worlds right now.
I'm recommending Hypnospace specifically because I think it captures the mindset I'm describing very well. It's doing a lot of stuff, but one of the things I like the most about it is that it's about people who have decided to drive the school bus off a cliff.
Honestly a really great perspective on the themes Hypnospace tries to go for. It’s an absolutely incredible ride, and one thing constantly nagging at me even from the very beginning was the relationship between the Merchantsoft brothers (not a spoiler as this info is gleamed from the very first few screens of the game), and how their differing treatment of HypnOS really captured the feeling of knowing the dot-com era was well and truly underway.
I've started and stopped this game 3 times now, for a grand total of about 15-hours played. As soon as I get passed the first virus/reboot/3 month time jump, I get lost and a little bored and stop playing. I really would love to finish it, but I think at this point, I might be done, given how many times I've tried to get further in the game and just failed.
Neat game, neat aesthetic and takes me back to being a teenager in the late 90's, but I'm not sure I can go any futher.
I recommend just consulting a guide for where you get stuck.