Arcade games originally sold direct experiences rather than monetized attention

Evidence

But there were big differences between the new games and other things we have discussed that get us to pay attention, whether it be listening to Amos ’n’ Andy, watching a sitcom, or reading email. For one, the business model: it was cash for an experience, rather like seeing a play or reading a book. The attention merchant model would not be contemplated until much later. Second, playing a game like Space Invaders was, as we’ve said, challenging—to the point of utter frustration. Most couldn’t last longer than a minute. The games, at this stage at least, aimed for something completely different. The early players of Space Invaders were captured not by the dazzling graphics and sounds of today’s narrative-based games, but by the urge to match their skills against the machine in the hope of finding, if only for a moment, that perfect balance between their abilities and the ghosts or space monsters chasing them. In this way, you might say they effected another form of operant conditioning. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 683

Categorization

• XREF: The cash-for-experience model contrasts directly with the attention-merchant model that dominates the rest of this book — Wu’s core thesis. — connects to: Platform monetization replaced artistic gatekeepers with view-maximizing incentives — W. David Marx, Blank Space: A Cultural History of the…, 289; Platform profits come from harvesting user attention and selling it back to advertisers — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 43; Platform profit comes from commodifying user data by-products rather than selling ads — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 40
• DEFINE: Distinguishes the direct-purchase business model from the attention-merchant model.

Broader Connections

• Platform profits come from harvesting user attention and selling it back to advertisers #complicates (0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 43
• Platform monetization replaced artistic gatekeepers with view-maximizing incentives #complicates (0.75) — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 289
• Platform profit comes from commodifying user data by-products rather than selling ads #complicates (0.75) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 40