Slashdot Mirror

I'd bet it's hard to break-even once you've done the work of converting them. First, almost nobody is going to pay $60 for them, like people did decades ago. The bar for computer games has been raised, and the market is full of people trying to sell games. (It's also possible that the developers of those old games created them because they liked making games, even if the pay was bad. For someone wanting to make a decent living-wage, this type of game might not be the way to go - i.e. only create them if you've got lots of interest, a day-job, and lots of free time.) Second, it's hard to find your target audience. A few years back, I had written a strategy-wargame ( http://www.empiresofsteel.com/ ) which was inspired in many ways by an old computer game called "Empire" ( http://www.classicempire.com/ ). My revenue was nowhere near paying my development costs -- I recouped about 20%.

My publisher told me that strategy games are tough to make money on (unless you're Sid Meier, I assume). They published quite a few strategy games. They had a hard time figuring out a good way to market them that actually had a good ROI. At one point, I tried Google AdWords (because targeted advertising would work, wouldn't it?) I didn't make back the money I spent. My publisher had invested a bunch of money (a lot more than I did) promoting their games with Google AdWords, as well, because they wanted to test the targeted-advertising market. They eventually decided that they couldn't get a net-positive ROI from AdWords.

It's just a hard market out there. I suspect the only way to really make it as an indie developer is to make something super innovative and addictive (and get really lucky on top of it).

What about:
- inability of current computer vision and AI technology to make sufficiently informed decisions about threats
- massive moral issue of allowing an autonomous device to kill humans without specific targeting by a human operator
- probable violations of laws of war and humanitarian laws as a result of the above

These are all the same issues that you have with landmines. Since it would be deployed facing the DMZ, we're talking about aiming into an area that is already heavily mined, fenced-in, and well known to be a "no go" zone for soldiers and civilians. One advantage that it has over landmines is that it's easier to remove it from an area when it's time to pack-up and go. Landmines, on the other hand, stick around for decades after the war has ended because no one is quite sure where all of them are, and there's not enough impetus for governments to do the large amounts of work to clear mined areas (tedious work that requires throughness) when there are so many other governmental problems begging for money (like healthcare, sanitation, refuge problems, that typically occur during and after a war).

On a side note, I've linked to the video from my own site and included a video of a similar system made by the Australian military.
http://www.empiresofsteel.com/devdiary/?p=56

I used to have a subscription to PC Gamer. I remember reading some reviews of games where they trashed the game. I even remember one game getting an 8% rating. They said something like, "avoid this game at all costs".

Looking at the PC Gamer database of reviews, I looked up a review summaries. Here's what they look like:

20th Century Trivia Challenge - Rating: 23% Highs: Some good questions; pretty interface. Lows: British-related questions and humor will be lost on American audiences; questions and too-short video clips repeat quickly. Bottom Line: Not worth your time or mony, even if you are British. It's just plain bad.

3-D Ultra Mini-Golf Deluxe - Rating: 43% Highs: Great-looking graphics, cool animations and effects; True Putt mouse swing Lows: Can't change views; once you win, there's no reason to play again. Bottom Line: Even if you are desperate for some mini-golf, you can find something better.

3D Ultra Radio Control Racers - Rating: 25% Highs: Inexpensive; some potential appeal to the young-uns. Lows: Monotonous gameplay; terrible grinding noise instead of soundtrack. Bottom Line: Shovelware best suited for a last-minute stocking stuffer gift for the kiddies.

And a list of ratings for the first 30 games in the PC Gamer database of reviews: 80%, 68%, 76%, 78%, 57%, 80%, 56%, 23%, 43%, 86%, 91%, 47%, 85%, 45%, 25%, 60%, 52%, 78%, 85%, 85%, 72%, 66%, 52%, 30%, 34%, 68%, 34%, 61%, 88%, 82%

So, they do give some bad reviews. Although, it may be true that game ratings are overinflated, or that game ratings have begun to be overinflated lately.

http://www.empiresofsteel.com/

Well, clearly what we need to do is support indie developers rather than buying a copy of the latest big game company offering!

Um, on a completely different note, did I mention that I'm in indie game developer? http://www.empiresofsteel.com/

> Australia is full of racist bastards. Basically, white people.

No kidding. I hate how those racist Australians and white people are always generalizing entire groups of people.

www.EmpiresOfSteel.com

What about liability issues? When it was discovered that asbestos caused cancer, the company who manufactured it was liable. Who's liable if something goes wrong with open-source GM crops?

www.empiresofsteel.com

(1) Pause for a moment before going into "complain about big corporation" mode.
(2) Monsanto and the farmer had signed an agreement.

I think the bigger issue here, however, is the question of whether Monsanto should be doing this. Looking at this situaion from Monsanto's point of view, imagine spending hundreds of millions creating genetically modified plants. You sell them to one farmer. He turns around the every year and replants them. This means you make only one sale to each farmer. Now, it seems to me that Monsanto should probably have a two-tier system: buy the seeds for one season (cheap, but you have to buy them each year), or buy seed which you can replant, but you are limited to a specific number of acres each year. There are additional issues of "what happens to the licence when/if the farm is bought by someone else" (which is why a licence should be limited to a certain number of acres per year). And, Monsanto would probably like to prevent resale of the seeds (otherwise the farmers would become competitors with Monsanto, but with no development costs). It makes sense that Monsanto would opt for the "one year only, no replanting" clause because many farmers wouldn't be able to afford an ongoing licence. While you could argue that the one-year-only agreement is meant to suck as much money out of the farmer as possible, there are two things to note: (1) The farmer doesn't need to buy Monsanto, and (2) the fee is $6.50 per acre per year for soy. For a 500-acre farm (which seems like a reasonable family-sized farm) this works out to a little over $3000 per year. This doesn't seem excessive.

http://www.empiresofsteel.com/

(Just logged in) I'm a lone coder. As I said, I also do the artwork for the game software I'm writing (fortunately, I'm capable of doing a good job). Patents aren't really a concern for me since I'm doing a variation on a wargame theme. If I were doing something very new, innovative, and lucrative, however, I would be more concerned. It's possible to make decent money as a lone coder and still stay off the radar screens of the corporate lawyers.

Someone else mentioned that lone coders don't have enough money to do marketing. I suppose that may be true in many cases, although it is possible to get a publisher and still be considered a "lone coder" (although publishers bring their own source of headaches).

There is also the issue of getting the software to market without it looking dated. I don't think this is a huge problem unless you are trying to create a very cutting-edge game which competes with the likes of Doom3. The longer time-to-market that a lone coder (sometimes) requires is mostly a problem from the perspective of competition getting there first. So, lone coders can benefit a great deal by finding new variations on a theme. If you have an idea that is obvious (like 3d massively-multiplayer games were before the advent of Everquest), then the lone coder is going to get to market too slowly to compete.

To underscore the point that lone coders can bring a good product to market, take a look at my software: http://www.empiresofsteel.com/

I'm a lone coder, too. Not only that, but I do all the artwork for my software. You have to be pretty agile to come up with some good, original ideas. Check it out:

http://www.empiresofsteel.com/