RNG as an acronym generally stands for Random Number Generator. But in the art of Alex Mackin Dolan, the letters stand for Really New God, the title of an installation work on exhibition at the David Lewis gallery in New York City. When you walk in the gallery you see custom built video games units. Here’s more from Galleries Now:
The custom built machines in this exhibition made from wood and simple computer parts fall into the category of “Medal Games”, a subset of Amusement Machines that involve an exchange of real money for Tokens, which can be won, but not able to exchange back to money and only ever used to play more. These games are more popular in Japan but have their American equivalents like Coin Pushers. Medal games often simulate a no stakes for fun version of Machine Gambling. Gambling Machines are designed to bleed a user’s funds out over the longest possible time frame. They maximize addiction while simultaneously extracting total profit, and result in the complete extinction of a user’s funds. This is the core metaphor of addictive media which now saturate our world. Many techniques used in app user retention were perfected on the casino floor. Value used to be extracted out of your productive power, your physical labor. Now it is extracted out of your consumptive power and your attention.
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