computer game capitalist
on neopets
Bonjour!! Let’s see how this goes!! Thanks for joining me for the ✨first official edition✨ of dilly dally. I’m excited to share the thoughts, snacks, and good reads below. Today’s little essay is on a topic I think about when I allow my brain to wander; it’s about making meaning and thinking critically about something that might seem a bit frivolous. I hope you like it!
So let’s do it, my silly sallys!! it’s time to dilly dally:
one big idea: computer game capitalism
I was so rich in Neopets. I’m talking dynastic wealth that would make a NYC finance bro’s eyes water. My entire goal—aside from running my guild, Salad Sisters (name is inexplicable. I did not associate with vegetables in 2005)—was to rake in as many Neopoints as possible. I never fed my pets because I knew they could not die and I saw no reason to spend money on immortal digital creatures. My literally sticky fingers, weighed down by plastic mood rings and dial-up internet, constantly Asked Jeeves for cheat codes to various games to max out the money I could make from them. I relished each trip to the bank, where I would collect the ever-increasing daily interest on my savings. I longed to someday be old enough to participate in the Neopia stock market.
Neopets—which had more than 25 million active users in the mid-aughts—may have been my favorite computer game, but it was not the only one that conflated work and play, childhood and adulthood. In Rollercoaster Tycoon, I ran a business and ruthlessly charged guests $20 to use the bathroom when I started running low on cash (I had unusually low customer service ratings). In Cooking Mama, I learned to spin up dinner very quickly. Many computer games of the early aughts were the digital extension of a game of House or Monopoly, which also gave kids the chance to act like the adults they aspired to be.
It strikes me that the millennials for whom Neopets, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and Sims were largely designed have a reputation for caring a little too much about work. Millennials are the try-hard, hopey-changey Americans who were taught to be the first ones in and last ones out of the office. I’m not saying computer games influenced an entire generation’s workplace ethos, but they did make pulling the levers of capitalism fun and perhaps subconsciously communicated that the system itself was worth investing in. Not every game of the 2000s was explicitly about making money, but many of them (Madden, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater) gave players the chance to execute someone else’s job. Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.
Meanwhile, more modern games like Minecraft, which debuted in 2011 and is the best selling game on Earth, is all about world building. It’s an escapist refuge from and not a mirror to the real world. And the rise of multiplayer games and Twitch allow people to be simultaneously together and alone. Talk about echoes of gen z stereotypes! Computer and video games are just one set of artifacts that shape and reflect culture. In the last 25 years, they centered and subsequently de-centered work and wealth accumulation in a way that coincided with growing awareness of inequality and increasing skepticism around our economic system. It’s just a game until it’s not!
Anyway, I could also still crush a game of Meerca Chase if asked.
two things to eat/drink
Spigarello broccoli dip: I’m not shy about how much I loveeeee Yellow Rose. It’s my ideal restaurant—festive but homey, excellent food without much of a wait, reasonable prices, strong affinity for cake. On my most recent visit, they had a new special dip on the menu called spigarello broccoli. I’d never heard of such a thing! It was kind of a cross between spinach/artichoke dip and queso, with a layer of broiled bubbly cheese and some chopped broccoli confetti on top. Lots of chip breakage ensued, but it was well worth the hassle.
Homemade gazpacho: Add an entire jalapeño (seeds, too, if you’re spicy!!) and however many whole garlic cloves you want. I never make the salsa fresca so you’re on your own with that, kid
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three things to read
Aaron Judge and the Pride of the Yankees (h/t my dad for this one!)
How JB Pritzker’s Faith and Holocaust Work are Powering his Dire Warnings About Trump (h/t matt!)
It Must be Nice to be a West Village Girl (if any of you haven’t read this yet, now is the time)
whew!! that was a lot of words!! thanks for reading all the way to the bottom. I hope you have a really amazing weekend and you finally check that thing off the to-do list that’s been on your mind. byeeee <3