GAMERS UN!TE: free creativity

[FrostyBoy]

Death to Games Industry Presentation


I have for as long as I can remember, disliked publisher management and thought of them as useless.

So.. I created something to make an impact; my hope is that it reaches to the far ends of the Internet and stirs up the gaming industry enough to make changes for the future.

So, put this on your site or wherever you can.

[Blake]

I like

[Az]

Make a square one, I'll make it my avatar.

[FrostyBoy]

Good idea Az, mind you, the avatar does not need to be square, you just have to shrink it.

[child of Thor]

well this is a test to see how my 80x60 shrink went [its not as clear as sn00pys] up the revolution!
Down with bloodsucking publishers

EDIT: cool! a fitting time+subject to become an emperor

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by child of Thor
well this is a test to see how my 80x60 shrink went [its not as clear as sn00pys] up the revolution!
Down with bloodsucking publishers

EDIT: cool! a fitting time+subject to become an emperor

congrats and welcome to the ranks.

obligatory ontopic stuff: Im not sure publishers are all bad. They provide financing, and help provide channels to retailers.

looking at the PPT.

1. Most of the problems are created by the consumers, who WANT the graphics - which leads to higher costs, which leads to risk averse strategies by publishers
2. This is particularly a console problem, though obviously also for PCs to some extent
3. Im not sure going around the bricks and mortar retailer is the solution. It can help get more games out, certainly. But will new people be drawn to the hobby via online sales only? Hobbyists have been buying historical wargames on line for a while (mainly for mail delivery, not download) the problem is that unless you are ALREADY interested in historical wargames, youre not going to go looking for them. So not many new people are coming to the genre. I think bricks and mortar retailers will be important for years to come.

[child of Thor]

True, but they also hold the developer over a barrel with their proverbial trousers down in around 80% of cases. And the channels to the retailer is more of a strangle hold than a charity event
Maybe if the real money behind the publishing giants went straight to the developer they would make more money?! shock!

Viva the developer revolution!(which with online distribution is getting closer)

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by child of Thor
True, but they also hold the developer over a barrel with their proverbial trousers down in around 80% of cases. And the channels to the retailer is more of a strangle hold than a charity event
Maybe if the real money behind the publishing giants went straight to the developer they would make more money?! shock!

Viva the developer revolution!(which with online distribution is getting closer)

sorry for the DanSing.

Well if an investor can make more money investing in developers than in pubs, that would imply the pubs DONT have a stranglehold. Pubs take big risks, and lose a lot of the time. Thats why theres no rush to start new publishers, that i know of.

[child of Thor]

Its a complicated chicken and egg scenario for sure. Still from the gripes that you often here from developers, it seems in the whole production stakes the pubs hold all the cards, which just doesnt seem fair. Sure they take the risks, but if they made an effort to work for the benefit of games rather than shareholders/investors wallets i'm sure a happy medium could be reached.

Still from a certain point of view, the general ground rumble of dissatisifed gamers, having to search all corners of the globe for a decent game; can be a good sign. Maybe the mega-pub structure we have, with all its costs(look at how many suits they employ ontop of the coders etc) will open up a nice channel for the smaller developer that wants to self publish? the internet certainly helps this. So i'm just waiting for the good times to return

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by child of Thor
Its a complicated chicken and egg scenario for sure. Still from the gripes that you often here from developers, it seems in the whole production stakes the pubs hold all the cards, which just doesnt seem fair. Sure they take the risks, but if they made an effort to work for the benefit of games rather than shareholders/investors wallets i'm sure a happy medium could be reached.

Still from a certain point of view, the general ground rumble of dissatisifed gamers, having to search all corners of the globe for a decent game; can be a good sign. Maybe the mega-pub structure we have, with all its costs(look at how many suits they employ ontop of the coders etc) will open up a nice channel for the smaller developer that wants to self publish? the internet certainly helps this. So i'm just waiting for the good times to return

Well first, Costikyan isnt a developer, IIUC. he developed some BOARD games, but nothing electronic. And of course developers will gripe about publishers - that doesnt mean their gripes are justified. As for publsihers profit maximizing for their shareholders, i suspect thats the BEST way to keep the industry responsive to consumer demands. And you can hardly fault them - its the investors money theyre playing with after all. So some developer with a game that can only bring in say 5 million of revenue, wants the publisher to put up 10 million of shareholder money cause its good for gaming?? Hell if I was a shareholder, Id sue.

As for the suits, Im sure the pubs have tried to operate leaner - its in their economic interests to do so. But games DONT manage themselves, or market themselves or evaluate the marketability of their ideas themselves. Theres a reason other cultural industries have publishers/producers as well - they actually serve a purpose.


And im not sure about the rumble - some time ago I asked here what constrains your gaming - is it really the shortage of titles - for most people it wasnt, IIRC. Yeah people want more good titles, but they ALSO want graphics. Look at the salivating over next gen consoles in the OT - Asher keeps posting pics of something called project gotham racing 3. Note, its a "3" - a sequel. And racing games are hardly a new idea. But its got really flashy graphics. And those guys are relatively sophisticated consumers.

Im sure digital delivery will help, as online ordering already does. I dont think it will change the experience of most consumers though.

[:) Smiley]

Good graphics are not necessarily high resolution or 3D.

While FPS and racing benefits from photorealism, games such as strategy or those with an anime influence look better when sprite based.

[Kataphraktoi]

sn00py

but i want my current avatar,so i dunno where ill put it. i can put on pembrook.net at least

my down with games page

i could put the files on our FTP but dont have the access atm

[Kataphraktoi]

its a little big when i load it up-using openoffice(opensource ) but still good

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by lord of the mark
edit..
I dont think it will change the experience of most consumers though.

and here is a telling sign, even if its just in the use of language. Games are made for consumers these days, not so much(or at a shrinking rate) for gamers in the traditional sense. For me it seems to be turning out to be a bad thing, but i'm sure for other people this is a good thing.

IMHO publishers have their place for sure, i just dont like them calling all the shots, especialy in situations where a developers creative effort over many years gets stolen from them effectively(CM vs FM2005 is one of the happier examples- there are hundreds more much less so - all at the expense of the developer), when they approach a publisher to reach as man people as possible. Still as long as developers agree to work under these terms the problem wont get better for these devs.

Still as people like Stardock+Shrapnelgames are proving there is a discerning gaming market out there that the online and middle sized dev can reach and make money from, I predict this market will get bigger as the 'consumer' gaming market grows.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by child of Thor


and here is a telling sign, even if its just in the use of language..

actually its only a sign im trained in economics. I use the words consumer and producer alot.