BigKid.com.au

I think the fairest move publishers could make is to force game devs to take up a musical instrument (if they haven’t doneso already) and busk to make some extra money.

I think there is an alternative Firstborn Child Clause that gets around the busking option (which as far as the publisher is concerned is time wasted that the developer could have spent further working on the game).

Monty, what’s your beef with the Max Payne article?

In a nutshell, Max Payne was designed from the ground up to fit a marketing tactic. It was conceived, designed, and made not because it would be a cool game, but because it would make money and fit a perceived hole in the market. No point getting into a discussion on why that is distasteful, enough to say that for me, that’s a pretty horrible way to do anything creative (and it showed in the game IMO, though it was well executed and there are details in Max Payne that made it fun; the film noire gumshoe cop theme is hardly original territory though, as Scott tries to claim). If you read the comments under his piece, I made a pretty long post outlining my position and why I think that sort of game-making is hurting the industry.

I’d have to agree with Monty there.