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Monkey Island Creator Slams Corporate Control Over Game Publishing
An anonymous reader writes "Ron Gilbert, co-creator of classic games Maniac Mansion, Monkey Island 1 and 2, and many more, has spoken out against corporate censorship — the way of large companies getting a say on what does or does not get published on the distribution channels they control. Although his insightful rant applies to a number of corporations (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo and Comcast are mentioned), most of the direct examples single out Apple. Quoting: 'Apple has maintained an almost North Koreanish dictatorial control over the devices, becoming the arbitrator over what is good and bad, what is allowed and not allowed. They don't have this control over the Mac because it is a real computer and an open device, but they can do this with the iPhone because we (as consumers) were convinced by the cell phone carriers that they needed this control to protect their networks (in the same way they wouldn't let us own our own telephones in the '70s) and Apple was happy to jump on that ship because they could finally control everything that went on the device and we bought it into it. Apple apologists say that Apple needs this control to maintain the "specialness" of the device. I say that's a load of crap.'" He also mentions Adidas dropping out of iAds because they couldn't accept Apple's excessive creative control, and a photography app that was rejected because it used the volume buttons as trigger."
I have a frogPad, it helps.
No one is denying that the user experience can be a pleasant one. What Ron Gilbert is trying to say is...
Eff it, you know what?
Obligatory
For example, in the camera app, there would be no need to have music playing, if you want to change the volume of your phone you could just use the silent/loud switch included.
There are two issues here. First, Apple requires that apps use the published APIs according to their guidelines so things don't break as hardware changes. Apps that won't work on the new version because the switches have changed are a no-no. Second, if I'm playing music through my phone and also doing something else, no I don't want the second app to prevent me from adjusting the device volume when a louder song comes on, that's just freaking annoying. I'm not a big iPhone fan (don't own one, probably never will) but complaining about Apple requiring developers to use the APIs as published is just dumb.
Being "hard to get in" only benefits Apple.
This is handily demonstrated by Apple's other platform: MacOS.
You simply don't need to castrate a platform in order to make it "safe".
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Sure, tree hugging developers might get upset, but they can play with the mess that is becoming the android app space, you can publish any crap/greatness (including malicious) you like. When lazy & evil people abound, freedom to publish does not create utopia.
Anymore FUD you got there Steve?
Considering someone snuck a tethering app into the app store as a flashlight, the apple app store security is clearly worthless.
DS - Subset of functionality.
Archos - Shit.
Books - Subset of functionality.
Would you like to offer up more alternatives that also don't provide the same functionality? Because that's *really* constructive...