It’s that a handful of people virtue signaling about how bad X game/company is on niche social media communities don’t matter if their opinions aren’t aligned with your average person.
Most people just enjoy games as a hobby and treat it the same way they treat picking something to watch on Netflix.
On the plus side, the virtue signalers saved $ and can spend it on something that’ll bring them more joy and is hopefully more aligned with their views. And gives them practice and a mindset of “I’m the kind of person willing to boycott” for any other boycotts that might have a real effect someday.
…I have thought about it and it is interesting that “virtue signal” is such a dirty word now. When I say “please” and “thank you” I’m essentially just virtue signaling that I’m willing to play nice, but nobody calls me the bad word for that. Although I understand that the current use of “virtue signal” is more about people you find to be sanctimonious and obnoxious online who you personally don’t think actually bother with real activism, just online keyboard warrior-ing, and not about any type of “hi, I am not horrible to interact with” social signaling ever.
I have thought about it and it is interesting that “virtue signal” is such a dirty word now. When I say “please” and “thank you” I’m essentially just virtue signaling that I’m willing to play nice
“Virtue signalling” implies a level of hypocrisy. Like, you don’t really care about the underlying issue, and only cares in reality to look like you do.
When you say “please” and “thank you” you are being polite. You may be “virtue signalling” politeness when in truth you are an asshole, but I would be unable to tell, so I give the benefit of doubt.
By the way, I dislike the term “virtue signalling” as I think it was overused to the point of meaninglessness, and I have an issue with that. On top of that, sometimes performative actions do matter to call attention to a given cause. Things are more nuanced sometimes.
On the plus side, the virtue signalers saved $ and can spend it on something that’ll bring them more joy and is hopefully more aligned with their views. And gives them practice and a mindset of “I’m the kind of person willing to boycott” for any other boycotts that might have a real effect someday.
It’s not really a boycott if you never really planned on buying the product. Otherwise, I’m technically boycotting Apple and Ford. Because I don’t buy Apply products and I don’t buy Ford cars.
When I say “please” and “thank you” I’m essentially just virtue signaling that I’m willing to play nice…
Those are specific actions you are taking in being kind and nice towards another person in reality. However, if you were to make a comment on Lemmy about how kind of a person you are because you claim you say “please” and “thank you” all the time, then that would be virtue signaling, because making claims about what you do or care about on social media is relatively meaningless without the specific actions being taken outside of that context.
So, in this case, talking about how evil Nintendo is for pricing a game at $80, what does that do exactly? Why should anyone else listen or care about someone expressing that opinion? Are you joining activist groups and spending time or money pushing for laws/politicians/etc to enact change to fight back against these actions? If so, then that’s not virtue signaling. But I’m unconvinced most people expressing these opinions and upvoting/downvoting posts and comments are doing anything beyond exactly that.
It’s not really about boycotts not working.
It’s that a handful of people virtue signaling about how bad X game/company is on niche social media communities don’t matter if their opinions aren’t aligned with your average person.
Most people just enjoy games as a hobby and treat it the same way they treat picking something to watch on Netflix.
On the plus side, the virtue signalers saved $ and can spend it on something that’ll bring them more joy and is hopefully more aligned with their views. And gives them practice and a mindset of “I’m the kind of person willing to boycott” for any other boycotts that might have a real effect someday.
…I have thought about it and it is interesting that “virtue signal” is such a dirty word now. When I say “please” and “thank you” I’m essentially just virtue signaling that I’m willing to play nice, but nobody calls me the bad word for that. Although I understand that the current use of “virtue signal” is more about people you find to be sanctimonious and obnoxious online who you personally don’t think actually bother with real activism, just online keyboard warrior-ing, and not about any type of “hi, I am not horrible to interact with” social signaling ever.
“Virtue signalling” implies a level of hypocrisy. Like, you don’t really care about the underlying issue, and only cares in reality to look like you do.
When you say “please” and “thank you” you are being polite. You may be “virtue signalling” politeness when in truth you are an asshole, but I would be unable to tell, so I give the benefit of doubt.
By the way, I dislike the term “virtue signalling” as I think it was overused to the point of meaninglessness, and I have an issue with that. On top of that, sometimes performative actions do matter to call attention to a given cause. Things are more nuanced sometimes.
It’s not really a boycott if you never really planned on buying the product. Otherwise, I’m technically boycotting Apple and Ford. Because I don’t buy Apply products and I don’t buy Ford cars.
Those are specific actions you are taking in being kind and nice towards another person in reality. However, if you were to make a comment on Lemmy about how kind of a person you are because you claim you say “please” and “thank you” all the time, then that would be virtue signaling, because making claims about what you do or care about on social media is relatively meaningless without the specific actions being taken outside of that context.
So, in this case, talking about how evil Nintendo is for pricing a game at $80, what does that do exactly? Why should anyone else listen or care about someone expressing that opinion? Are you joining activist groups and spending time or money pushing for laws/politicians/etc to enact change to fight back against these actions? If so, then that’s not virtue signaling. But I’m unconvinced most people expressing these opinions and upvoting/downvoting posts and comments are doing anything beyond exactly that.