COMM406: Cult Branding and Technology.

Gaming has always been a beneficiary of cult branding. From the days of Atari vs Intellivison, to the days where you couldn't pick up a gaming magazine without hearing about how SEGA does what Nintendon't. In the modern day, this is often taken to an extreme in the console war, with the joke that goes as follows:

"Why do they call it an Xbox 360?"
"Why?"
"Because when you see it, you do a 360 degree turn and walk away."
"360 degrees means you would be walking towards it still."
"Shut up."

However, despite the vicious cult-like attitudes of console gamers, PC gamers are even more devoted. A quick peek into the /r/pcmasterrace subreddit shows a world where PC gamers are the "master race" and console gamers are "peasants". To a degree, this is done in jest, but the reaction that many PC gamers have to a Steam sale (i.e. compulsively spending money until they go broke) is reason enough to suspect something a little more extreme than simple brand devotion that goes even further into the Linux vs Windows (and never Mac) , AMD vs Nvidia, and Steam vs GOG vs Origin vs Uplay divides.

But PC gaming is still only a minor blip in the cult-branded market compared to the glory that is cryptocurrency.

Official Logo of Dogecoin

Bitcoin is, by nature, a political movement. It attracts libertarian politics and people interested in fiscal anarchy. Bitcoin is the spokesrebel of a generation of unenthused Batman villains.  More dangerous is the advertising methodology of Dogecoin. Dogecoin creator Jackson Palmer left the community this summer after deciding that dogecoin was "cult-like". How is Dogecoin a cult?

- Dogecoin is spread via two methods: Giving away free money and relying on a well established cultural icon (the doge meme).
- Dogecoin's subreddit disallows negative statements about the coin, thereby keeping those who get into the culture from hearing things that would make them want to leave.
- Dogecoin's developers actively discourage suggestions that would improve the quality/value of the coin (such as limiting supply).

This has worked exceedingly well for Dogecoin. The official dogecoin subreddit has gone from 84 users in December of last year to 87,000 users today. If ever user had an equal amount of the 100 billion dogecoins that will exist at the end of September, it would amount to 187 dollars each.Of course, this is not the way things are. There are, as in any economy, the haves and the have-nots. But even those who only hold a couple hundred doge (the 467 doge I still hold is worth about 6 cents) are happy just to be a part of the group, a group that is ultimately a money-making brand.