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Scary shit...

 

While MMO games are heralded as complex, the reality is that most RTS games have as many or more possible commands that need to be issued (in most cases at high speeds, in excess of 60-90 actions per minute).

 

That does not equal complexity, that equals clickfest. Whatever the user interface, the need for so many actions is NOT good.

 

Also, I wouldn't describe any of the Total War titles as RTS. They have a real-time battle system but the strategy in them is turn based.

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An interesting read - a developer's view on ultra-cheap games.

 

Then Steam came (and to a lesser extent, Big Fish Games).

 

Things changed fast. So fast that in other industries it would have been seen as a cataclymically disruptive event. The upshot of it is, within 5 short years, the value of an independent game plummeted from about $20 to approximately $1, with very few exceptions. Steam is great! You can sell loads of games! But only if they’re less than $10. Technically Valve don’t actually dictate the prices we charge. Actually, they do. Utterly. It’s just not talked about. In fact technically, I don’t think anyone’s allowed to talk about it.

 

Then came the Humble Bundle and all its little imitators.

 

It was another cataclysmically disruptive event, so soon on the heels of the last. Suddenly you’ve got a massive problem on your hands. You’ve sold 40,000 games! But you’ve only made enough money to survive full-time for two weeks because you’re selling them for 10 cents each. And several hundred new customers suddenly want their computers fixing for free. And when the dust from all the bundles has settled you’re left with a market expectation of games now that means you can only sell them for a dollar. That’s how much we sell our games for. One dollar. They’re meant to be $10, but nobody buys them at $10. They buy them when a 90% discount coupon lands in their Steam inventory. We survive only by the grace of 90% coupon drops, which are of course entirely under Valve’s control. It doesn’t matter how much marketing we do now, because Valve control our drip feed.

Where does this lead us to?

 

You are worthless to us.

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In many ways, Mountain King was my first bedtime story. And like any child with a favourite bedtime story, I wanted my father to tell it to me again and again. Only, my father told it to me with quick, dexterous bends of the 2600’s joystick, with a cartridge and a television set. He was in his late 20s then.

 

Anyway, I think this is how I fell in love with video games.

 

::

 

At The Guardian, Jenn Frank writes about why she loves video games.

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