The Future of Game Dev (Except in St. Louis)

ksquire writes "Ben Sawyer, of Digitalmill, has published an interesting article at Avault.com about the past, present, and future of game development. Sawyer argues that the game industry is going more and more toward 3rd party development tools and '4th party' publishing -- meaning that game developers are essentially tool developers for game enthusiasts to create mods (also using tools like Alienbrain or Discreet's GMAX). I'm really curious as to whether the Slashdot community thinks we'll see a future era of standardized game tools and developers courting modders, or if we'll continue to see more specialized game engines. Maybe a greater PC / Console split?" Meanwhile, over in St. Louis, the Free Expression Policy Project has filed an amici curiae brief by 33 media scholars saying that "Most studies and experiments on video games containing violent content have not found adverse effects." They're trying to stop the county from banning violent games -- Wired has the story. ksquire points out that "Sawyer also wrote an article, Serious Games: Improving Public Policy through Game-Based Learning and Simulation, which was discussed on slashdot."

netphilter and TCPALaw get credit for the Wired link. Previous Slashdot stories on violent gaming include this one and this one.

TCPALaw's full comment was (minus a dangling modifier): "Wired has a nice story on the St. Louis ban on violent video games. If the ban sticks (it was upheld by Judge Limbaugh against a constitutional challenge... Rush Limbaugh's uncle ... the same judge who struck down the federal ban on junk faxes as an abridgment of free speech - go figure) it could be extended to MP games available to play over the Internet."

Comments

standardized game tools??? where??????

[mustangdavis]

I'm really curious as to whether the Slashdot community thinks we'll see a future era of standardized game tools and developers courting modders, or if we'll continue to see more specialized game engines. Maybe a greater PC / Console split?"

Uhhh ... standardize? That would make game programming like .... WORK!

Re:I live in St. Louis...

[toomz]

What you're saying that the staggering popularity of Dance Dance Revolution is not enough to singlehandedly keep arcades open?

This is news to me.

Just like Dungeon and Dragons

[Herkum01]

This is just like Dungeon and Dragons, they said it contributed to murders, suicide, and increased violence.

Funny how an increase in violent videos managed to contribute to decreased violent crimes throughout the 90's. Oh, that does not count that was the improved economy, with a weak economy there is increase in crime. So what they need to do is outlaw the economy taking a downturn, because THAT will prevent violence...

Re:2k3???

[Anonymous Coward]

Is the saved keystoke worth sounding like a manager?

Really! And if he wanted to be cool he would have typed: 2k+3, showing that not only was he willing to obfuscate a simple piece of information, he was willing to do it with no economic (keystroke) advantage.

Game violence in 1972?

[Fig, formerly A.C.]

From the article, referring to Donahue:

In 1972, he invited Long Island mother Ronnie Lamb to bring her message to his show and launch her campaign to ban video games.

WTF was the violent video game in 1972? Death pong?

Did her Little Tommy kill somebody with a ping pong paddle? This is just silly.

Pornography and sexual perversion

[sjonke]

On a related note, my research has shown that even years of daily pornography viewing does not result in abberant sexual behavior. I mean with others.

Re:I live in St. Louis...

[fermion]

What spoiled children we have now. Twenty years ago there was only one arcade game. It involved moving a dot on a screen to run away from something, block something or blow something up.

How many games do you need as an excuse to get out your parents house and hang with your friends.