The Games Industry thread.

[child of Thor]

yeah i was thinking of suggesting knee-capping for the most guilty out right shooting is probably too harsh

[Vince278]

Originally posted by DrSpike
Maybe light torture would be more appropriate than shooting.

Fly them to Europe?

[child of Thor]

cheeky!

going back to the article - i've seen many guys(mostly from indie set ups) talk about these kind of issues, protecting the developer; who 90% of the time is the creator+originator of a game(the publishers just fronts some salary money and off course has the strangle hold on the high street chains). So its nice to see someone fromwithin the mainstream start to openly address the concerns of pretty much all devs i would suspect(atleast at one time or another).

But it all goes back to the point i was making ealrier - talk and writting down a 'bill of rights' is great, you just have to plan how you go about getting the publisher side of the equation to play ball.
I would suggest that with the growing pressures on development for the next gen consoles in particular, the developers have a good opportunity to be brave and flex their collective muscles('collective' being the key point) more than they are used to.

So the challange is still there for the developer - what are you prepared to do to ensure a better deal in your mostly nessecary relationship with the publishers. and no i dont really think shooting, or torture is the answer

But there are a number of things i think you could do, such as the move to self publish via the internet etc like Urban Ranger mentioned. I can think of much more militant options as well, but i doubt many devs would enjoy the stress of boycotts of using publishers etc. Still there is something in the air - and it smells good for gaming imho

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Vince278


Fly them to Europe?

I was thinking more to make them watch virtually any speech by your democratically elected leader.

[Vince278]

Originally posted by DrSpike
I was thinking more to make them watch virtually any speech by your democratically elected leader.

Bush still did better than I did in the Apolyton 2004 election poll. I wonder how I'd do today.

[Felch]

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=398

It's a list of the top 5 independent strategy games of the year.

http://www.gametunnel.com/ is sharing it's top independent games of 2005 over the course of the month. It looks pretty cool.

[child of Thor]

Cheers Felch i did not know of this site before.

I nearly bought Darwinia last weekend - i happened across it in HMV while xmas shopping and it looked interesting(and i'd heard good things about it). Still it was £20 and my current gaming specs werent quite up to its requirements, so i didn't pick it up, which i'm regretting already.

Oasis i've heard of before and is another game on my to get list, although i suspect i'll be left feeling the game plays to quickly(85 turns)

Some of the other games sound interesting to. Its good to see independants making great quality titles, long may it continue.

[DrSpike]

Those games look dreadful. Civ in 3 minutes? No thanks.

[child of Thor]

For Oasis think RoN in 2D, thats about the equivelant i suspect good for 'lite' gaming momments i'm sure.
And go read some reviews on Darwinia - sure it does look odd, even i'm thinking that, but the people that have played it say its something special. http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/...ia/review.html

to start you of - its not always about the graphics. and keep an open mind - or we will force you to play Sim2....again

[child of Thor]

inspired by felch to look around for some other indie awards i've found this as gamedev:

http://www.igf.com/

some interesting games in the selection there

and a direct link to darwinia web site here:

http://www.darwinia.co.uk/index.html i just like the sound of this game....and the reviews its been getting. I wish i had picked it up last weekend

[DrSpike]

Well it's not like the game appears for purchase once every full moon or anything.

[child of Thor]

well sadly with indie produced titles something like that happens i'm sure

For example I did eventualy pick up GalCiv in a local store(and Starships unlimited now i think of it) and neither are to be seen on store shelves now. The smaller publishers loose their shelf space pretty quick compared to the big guys, even if the game may be pretty good. And its a rare smaller publisher that gets any high street store exposure at all.

Your just bateing me to do justice to my new avatar pic thingie aren't you?

Anyway i suspect now we've had a fullish moon i wont be able to find Darwinia in that same store again - or maybe even in any store. darn and blast

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by child of Thor
But there are a number of things i think you could do, such as the move to self publish via the internet etc like Urban Ranger mentioned.

I think that's the best solution for now. For starters, which gamer isn't connected to the Net? The developers can make more $$$ while selling the games at a lower price at the same time, just because the middleman is removed from the picture.

Then hosting a Web site is dirt cheap compared to running ad campaigns in game rags. There are a bunch of things the publishers can do to attract players, with Stardock being a very good example. They just need to be friendly to the big gaming sites such as Poly...

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Felch

http://www.gametunnel.com/articles.php?id=398

It's a list of the top 5 independent strategy games of the year.

http://www.gametunnel.com/ is sharing it's top independent games of 2005 over the course of the month. It looks pretty cool.

Excellent. Most of them look quite well made.

[child of Thor]

Latest developments in the saga of "GTA vs God/or something" :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4554988.stm

So Arnies law in California is kicked out of the high court? Law making sounds difficult in the usa?
I accept the worries over freedom of speech - but from my peronal opinion i think the game makers need to take some responsibiltiy over there game content. I guess this one will keep going back and forth?