The minute Wall Street gets involved, it’s done. Obsession with short term gains means you kill your golden egg laying goose to get that egg.
I don't know why Cory lumped Steam in with the rest. I found Steam to be awesome at the launch of HL2 -- they seemed to have covered all the concerns that I had about a digital game delivery service -- and I don't perceive they have deviated from that mission since.
Does anyone know where Enshittification as a word came from? Or who created it? It seems to have entered more common use online in the last year or so. Google trends shows some use in 2004.
Enshittification existed well before online platforms. Have a new/valuable service -> Build a brand -> Cut costs/quality and cash in on that brand equity
Enshittification is coterminous with commodification.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/debord/society.ht...
> The first phase of the domination of the economy over social life brought into the definition of all human realization the obvious degradation of being into having. The present phase of total occupation of social life by the accumulated results of the economy leads to a generalized sliding of having into appearing, from which all actual “having” must draw its immediate prestige and its ultimate function. At the same time all individual reality has become social reality directly dependent on social power and shaped by it. It is allowed to appear only to the extent that it is not.
The problem is that we're trying to have a public square online that's being controlled by a private company for money.