Greg Costikyan's report from the Game Designer's Conference is a stirring and vicious indictment of the shortsightedness of the much-vaunted videogame industry, with dire predictions for the future.
Or look it at the crowds around the Independent Game Festival finalists. That's a bunch of machines on the showroom floor, with representatives of the finalists demoing their titles. The IGF is basically open to any game that doesn't have a publishing contract, and hundreds of hopefuls submit titles every year (every year of the five it's been running) hoping for a little glory–and a shot at a publishing contract with one of the majors. Never mind that no IGF title has ever gone on to major publication and success. It's one of the few ways a garage operation can hope for a shot at glory…
They're this desperate–this desperate for the hope of a little innovation, a little chance to do something real, a little chance to reach an audience. These 10,000 geeks (that's what CMP Game Media claims was the attendance), most of them professionals, would just love to do what the IGF guys are doing–do a game for chrissakes, work on something you believe in, not churn out the next big-budget piece of crap.
(via Robot Wisdom)
