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I'm a game design consultant and trainer, both helping out companies with their design issues and bringing junior designers up to speed. I also teach at a large number of universities and write books and columns on the subject. You'll find much more about me here:

http://www.designersnotebook.com/

"FUN"? Shutup! Fun isn't important!

Actually, I used to write the play-by-play and color commentary for the Madden NFL series at EA, so I know the John Madden voice pretty well. No shit, check it out.

"Now, ya see what he did here? 1nc1nerator thought M0nstrMan was gonna come through this gap, but M0nstrMan just gave him a little twitch-fake, and BOOM, suddenly he's eatin' raw plasma."

For the last 20 years we've been asking, "Can a computer game make you cry?" and for the most part, our answer has been "well, yes, probably, but why in God's name would you want to?" That's a typically classical, male, English, sort of a response. And the comebacks are:

1. Because this is a medium, not just a business, and until we can make you cry we haven't fully exploited its potential, and

2. Because there's money in making people cry. What the hell do you think the chick-flick and the chick-lit phenomena are about?

Women like to cry. It's good for them. It joggles their hormones around and makes them happy. And they'll pay money for that.

"Ernest was most recently employed as a lead designer at Bullfrog Productions, and for several years before that he was the audio/video producer on the Madden NFL Football product line. " ... Hmmmm I'll leave on that note. You can decide yourself on his opinions validity, oh and that's ALL the specific industry experience he gives.

It's all the industry experience he gives?

That aside I fully agree with putting more control in the hands of content creators. It just doesn't seem right that the middle-man -- the publisher -- has almost all the control (in games, music, etc.). The creators are far more important than the distributors, and should be respected as such.