It is easier to create a game today than ever before. There are free tools you can use to quickly prototype and release a cool new game idea within a matter of weeks. Because of this, there are a ton of shitty games out there that no one will play.

However, sometimes a small team will come along with an interesting gameplay mechanic that is simple and addictive, and people still don't play it (ie. Triple Town, Farm Town, any pre-Zyngafied game).

Then a studio comes along that has been profitable in the space for years, takes the gameplay mechanic, gives it a +1 and distributes it to millions of people. And they are douchebags for it? No, they aren't. They took a good idea and made it better and more appealing to more people.

I understand the distaste you have for his cynicism, but faced with the bitter reality of making a successful game or having to fire everyone that works for you, its hard not to take a cynical attitude about what gets you paid and what doesn't.

Take a good idea, give a +1. Give it +5 if you have the skill and time, but give it something to make the game, and you, successful.

TLDR: Tim Rogers is still a huge troll.
I doubt it, BF3 was rushed because they are in a shooting match with MW3 (apologies for pun).

ME3 does not suffer the same crowded market. Basically ME3 *is* the market.

Remain optimistic my friend- cautiously so.
Broken record time, I'm sure: I left Kotaku (and Gawker network proper) once the current layout was implemented. I only came back today due to some content I had already been trolling over: [kotaku.com]

Lessons learned:
1. The new layout definitely affected retention rate among long-time users
2. Content remains king.

As you were, ravenous Kotaku swarm.
Unreal is all poly- with an amazing set of tools to make those poly's shine.

Perhaps they have made a working Voxel world that supports dynamic animation/lighting/etc. But until I see it, I will remain cautiously pessimistic.
Just print the damn thing!
Notice how nothing moves? Static objects instanced with Voxels works for demos on a fractal-like scene, but try having dynamic lighting or animated objects with weighting. That would require all of those "atoms" to update their colour/position/state constantly rather than just their visibility checked based on camera position. Updating collision, dynamic lighting, characters, or having unique objects in memory would kill it.

Nice idea, but it's been around for a while (with no concrete applications) /end buzzkill :p
@Qwer7yfreak: Upload that to memebase.com. Now.
@TheTonyShow: Some games may reinforce antisocial behaviour, such as the cases you present. However those particular users had to have psychological problems before playing the game. No normal person is going to starve someone or themselves because of a game.

And its nothing like heroin. Heroin and other drugs creates physiological dependancies on the drug- the body actually needs the drug to operate correctly. Games can only create psychological addictions- and is about as dangerous as being addicted to gum or watching too much TV.

Maybe we should get gum addiction clinics and tv addiction clinics too. Huge problem bro!
@CharmeleonWithAttitude: Games are not like crack, its not really addictive. Yes, some games reinforce addictive behaviour, but these reinforcements can be easily overcome because its only psychological

And this whole notion of kids killing people because of games is just stupid. Replace games with "rock and roll" and you have the same argument conservatives had 30 years ago.

Anti/less social children are going to use games to escape more than "normal" kids, because they less social. Saying that games are making them less social is confusing correlation with causation.
On CS:S if I was tked I would punish every time. Even if I knew it was an accident or lost us the game, I punished.

As the rules evolved, so did the trolls ability to prove magnets own a horse.

u jelly?
@Noyse: The problem is that Gamestop goes the extra mile to make sure users are buying used copies of the game. For every person that buys the game used, thats one less dollar the people who actually made the game.

As a game developer I've felt the effects of this first hand, watching as friends and mentors, some of the most talented and hard working people I've ever met, lose their jobs because the money just didnt come in. Part of this is directly attributed to Gamestop's aggressive pimping of used games.

Gamestop is hurting the very people they depend on to stock their shelves. This is the reason why studios are switching to digital distribution as the preferred platform. Gamestop is killing the video game store.
Gamestop is cannibalizing the games industry with their used game sales.

I hate them.
@robvsmith: Wrong site, this is a consumer webblog, not an industry dev site. Gamasutra, Gamesauce, Appdata, these are better sites for actual developers.
@Darth_penguin: Either way, its not fair to game developers, who don't earn any money from used game sales. A week after launch Gamestop will be selling the game for $10 less, as a used game. The game developers/studios/publisher make NO money from the used game sale.

Gamestop is cannibalizing the game industry with used games sales.
@Noyse: Gamestop is cannibalizing the game industry with used games sales. Game studios and/or publishers make NO money from used games sold by Gamestop. Thats millions of dollars and years of personal sacrifice to make a game, only to have the studio go bankrupt because the amount of "New" game sales are undercut by used game sales.

So you want me to elaborate? I want the used game sales business strategy to die in a fire. But if they scuttle that, the entire company goes bankrupt. Which means you die in the fire too.

So who should be with out a job? The guy making the game or the guy selling the used copy of the game?
@Koinu: Are you going to pay the unemployment of the game developers that don't get any cut from the used games Gamestop sells? Devs break their back and sacrifice personal well-being to get these AAA games out, and the studio doenst make its money back because of the used games sales.

Gamestop is cannibalizing the game industry with used games sales.
Fuck Gamestop. I hope they die in a fire.
@PaleGoat: Perhaps "Best Before xx/xx/xxxx"
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