The Great Online Game (2021)
Packy says the internet’s a game—fans cheer, skeptics shout
TLDR: Packy McCormick says to treat the internet like a game where your posts and connections unlock real-world opportunities. Commenters split between empowerment, privilege worries, and skepticism over the Rows plug, arguing the “game” rewards those with time, safety nets, and algorithm luck.
Packy McCormick’s “Great Online Game” says the internet is basically a big playground: post smart stuff, meet people, grab opportunities, level up. He even nods to privilege—this works best if you’ve got time, food, and Wi‑Fi—and drops a sponsor for Rows, a souped-up spreadsheet that connects to other apps (APIs = the pipes that make apps talk) and turns sheets into little websites. The crowd went loud. Team Level‑Up cheered the message: share, DM, build, repeat. Team Burnout shot back: the game is rigged by algorithms, and it smells like hustle culture in a fresh coat of paint. Team Privilege Check asked who can afford to “play” while juggling bills and caretaking.
Then the jokes flew. Memes about “NPCs” (background characters) versus “main character energy,” XP bars rising with likes, and “side quests” like joining DAOs (online groups that run on shared rules). Excel versus Rows became a mini‑war: “Excel is the final boss,” one quipped, while another called Rows “spreadsheet baby with superpowers.” Some accused the post of being an ad in motivational clothing; others said it’s the most practical pep talk of 2021. The vibe: Is the internet your game board, or are you just playing theirs?
Key Points
- •The newsletter features a sponsored section introducing Rows, an API-powered spreadsheet platform with integrated data sources.
- •Rows enables users to enrich data (e.g., mailing lists, company tech stacks, Crunchbase data) directly within spreadsheets.
- •Users can share and transform spreadsheets into interactive web apps, building forms, models, and internal tools without code; the product is in beta.
- •The author frames the main essay, “The Great Online Game,” as a shorter, interactive concept piece based on personal experience.
- •The essay encourages readers to recognize they are participating in the online economy and to approach it strategically, while acknowledging not everyone has equal access to do so.