Image retrieved on February 7, 2009 from www.lumaxart.com
1) What does Jenkins mean “Survivor spoiling is collective intelligence in practice”?
Collective intelligence is based on the idea that it’s impossible for one person to know everything, but a group of people can. Survivor was designed to peak people’s curiosity and make them wonder what was going to happen next. The shows unpredictable nature caused people to ban together, share information and form their own conclusions. This required intense investigative skills, and each team member faced the challenge to gain the communities trust. Spoiling is the pursuit to be the first to figure out the puzzle.
2) How is “spoiling” like gaming?
Gaming requires players to immerse themselves into a character and overcome challenges to reach a goal. Spoiling is like gaming because one person holds the key (or information) and controls how it’s shared. Spoilers have to take that power away from the producers by figuring out the story and sharing it with the community. Consumers are no longer passively taking in what producers dish out, but have formed communities that increase the demand for good programming. Gaming is all about a challenge, and spoiling is about destroying the metal concept of Reality TV being real-time. In the end the spoiler wins if they can work with the right community and have impeccable analytical skills.
Gaming also uses cues to motivate gamers each time they achieve new levels of skill. Spoilers recieve the same positive reinforcement by being the feedback of his community and adding to the knowledge pool.
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