My company is very focused on bringing high-quality, yet smaller-scale (indie) games to the market via the Mac platform. Yes, we may be old-school in thought, but still feel that there is an inherent magic to games released only for one platform.
In addition, you can count on us to bastardize games in all the indie-level glory. We plan on slapping the censorship critics in the face. Please check out http://www.elballo.com and look at the star of the game on the front page to see what I mean.
Thanks for your time.
-Casey Gatti
To the Editor: Games need a revolution and I celebrate the article published from Mr. Costikyan. When I heard his views on the industry at the last GDC, I felt for the first time the need to do something about it, for real.
We need to start spreading the idea that Games are, above all things, Culture. A genuine form of expression in the digital era. And not just toys for kids or superficial entertainment.
Let me compare our young industry with movies: Today, it is common for us to think of movies as the Seventh Art. But back in the ages of pioneering film makers, in the same sense that today happens with videogames, movies were considered just a mere entertainment. It took a couple of decades for the movie industry to get its technology mature enough so to become a major form of expression, and so, to be seriously considered as Art.
Developers must try to change the rules of this industry like independent filmmakers did back in the 20's when after years of fighting, the Supreme Court of the US declared that films were a cultural expression that needed to be protected by the first amendment. When that happened, big studios that controlled all the movie-theatres suddenly found that they no longer had that control.
I would like to invite all readers of The Escapist, the staff of your magazine and anyone who really cares about games, to a site specially made to work as a Think Tank and place to express our views on the industry, share development experience and games made, and change the industry for good: GamesAreArt.com
-Santiago Siri
To the Editor: The problem with RMT in MMOGs is not that people are trading in virtual items. It's that the outside world encroaches on the fantasy. It's the inevitable sense of inequality that this creates for the "simple people" in the game. People who can afford to buy their way to greatness in the game are the Old Money of the game world, and they create a sinking feeling for the rest of us that they got there unfairly, not through hard work in the game-world, but by having money in RL.
So yes, you have the entrepreneurs that managed to use their skills and gain fame and property through in-game channels, but for the "middle-class" of the game world, the "Old Money" players are a constant reminder of the realities outside the game world, of their own disadvantage as players who cannot afford a $150 suit of armor or a $500 ass-whooping sword.
