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

Violence and games

[distributed.karma]

Studies show that, studies showing that video games cause violence in children, are what actually causes violence in children.

Dear jamie

[poot_rootbeer]

These two articles had nothing to do with each other, save for the fact that they both can be filed under the 'games' topic.

They should have been posted as separate stories. By trying to nail the two together as a single story, you're not doing anything except fragmenting the discussion.

Re:Dear jamie

[Elbereth]

By complaining, you just encourage them to do this sort of thing more often in the future. The slasdot editors are merely trolls now. When was the last time you saw a story that was truly insightful or interesting? Sure, they still slip in occasionally, but just about everything posted on the main page is flamebait. Think about it. Which of the following front page headlines would you expect to see on Slashdot today:

New Study Says P2P Networks Encourage Drug Use In Teens
Intel, Microsoft, and MPAA Try To Squash Our Rights Again
RMS Announces Linus Torvalds' Name Is Now GNU/Linus GNU/Torvalds
I Constantly Reboot Into Windows XP, Watch MPAA Movies At The Cinema, And Donate To Senator Hollingworth's Re-Election Campaign, Yet I Am A Slashdot Editor
Scientist Claims To Have Invented FTL Engine. Space Colonization Now Possible?
Microsoft Has New Virus HAHAHAHA
New Pre-Patch Of The Beta Kernel Available
Google Patents Web Searching!!!!
LNUX Stock At New Low; Threatened To Be De-Listed
FreeBSD 5.0 Released
New UltraSPARC V information released

If you said all of 'em, then you're wrong! Slashdot would never comment on LNUX's stock tanking so badly. And the release of FreeBSD 5.0 would never get mentioned on the main page. And if you think Slashdot would actually mention technical, like the UltraSPARC architecture, you're fucking crazy.

Why do you think they have so many spelling, grammar, and factual errors in every story? It's because they know that you'll take the bait. How else are they going to prove to their advertisers that thousands of people are seeing their ads?

Let me tell you a story. One day, I was listening to a satellite radio station (broadcast in several states, including TX and NY). One of the New York callers happened to insult Texas, igniting a big call-in flamewar. The DJ almost creamed his pants he was so excited. Do you know why? Because every time they got a caller, that was another person they could list as a mindless zombie for the advertisers to indoctrinate. I turned off the radio in disgust, and I haven't turned it back on in almost ten years.

Stand up and tell the slashdot editors that you're not just another demographic! Participate in the next Great Slashdot Blackout! Moderate everything as "overrated"! Post goatse.cx links!

Or you could just waste all your karma trolling, like me.

p.s. Almost forgot the "I know I'll get modded down for this" disclaimer.

Re:Dear jamie

[wdr1]

Stand up and tell the slashdot editors that you're not just another demographic! Participate in the next Great Slashdot Blackout! Moderate everything as "overrated"! Post goatse.cx links!

Err, I don't agree with the last two, but I do think the first Great Slashdot Blackout was a Good Thing. Are there any plans for the second?

I know this is all off-topic, but I do think it's a shame this is really the only way people who care about Slashdot can express their voice in a non-troll manner. :-/

-Bill

Re:Just like Dungeon and Dragons

[Angry White Guy]

"Are there any girls there? Cuz if there are, I want to do them!!!"