Hmm. Creativity and freedom go hand in hand. I don't have a cure-all solution, but you need to make sure you don't hold back the homebrew artists when you attempt to eliminate the pirates. And don't you dare ask where all the programming talent has gone - they are either stuffed away at some terrible corporate programming job or they transferred to the business school a LONG, long time ago.
Nice comments, CkRtech. I was thinking that there's certainly potential for a small time programmer to get big with a "viral" hit, much the way certain images, urban legends, or YouTube videos explode across the internet simply by word of mouth. Take, for instance, the Jedi kid, the Montgomery Flea Market, and so on. What could happen is that a really bold and innovative game could be released, probably as a web or mobile app, and hopefully get picked up as a "viral" and emailed/linked/posted all across the net. For that to happen, it'd need to have truly massive appeal. Imagine something like Tetris being released today, for free, and virally spread across the net. I suppose the key would be controlling the website where the game was hosted, so you could benefit from ad revenue.
I know there are plenty of web-based gaming sites out there that fit this model, but to my knowledge none have really had the kind of impact that something like the the iTunes store has had for iPhone development. The model I'm seeing is more of a de-centralized, word of mouth model, but still not sure how a developer could reap great profits from it. Maybe the old "basic" game for free, enhanced version for $10 or something like that.
Hmm. Creativity and freedom go hand in hand. I don't have a cure-all solution, but you need to make sure you don't hold back the homebrew artists when you attempt to eliminate the pirates. And don't you dare ask where all the programming talent has gone - they are either stuffed away at some terrible corporate programming job or they transferred to the business school a LONG, long time ago.
Nice comments, CkRtech. I was thinking that there's certainly potential for a small time programmer to get big with a "viral" hit, much the way certain images, urban legends, or YouTube videos explode across the internet simply by word of mouth. Take, for instance, the Jedi kid, the Montgomery Flea Market, and so on. What could happen is that a really bold and innovative game could be released, probably as a web or mobile app, and hopefully get picked up as a "viral" and emailed/linked/posted all across the net. For that to happen, it'd need to have truly massive appeal. Imagine something like Tetris being released today, for free, and virally spread across the net. I suppose the key would be controlling the website where the game was hosted, so you could benefit from ad revenue.
I know there are plenty of web-based gaming sites out there that fit this model, but to my knowledge none have really had the kind of impact that something like the the iTunes store has had for iPhone development. The model I'm seeing is more of a de-centralized, word of mouth model, but still not sure how a developer could reap great profits from it. Maybe the old "basic" game for free, enhanced version for $10 or something like that.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com