http://www.the-underdogs.org/scratch.php
Scratchware Manifesto wrote: When millions are at stake, the publishers become terrified. Each executive knows that greenlighting something offbeat that fails will lose him his job. So they greenlight the same old crap, imitations of what's on the list this month, simply to cover their own quivering asses. No one will fire them for going with the tried and true.
An industry that was once the most innovative and exciting artistic field on the planet has become a morass of drudgery and imitation.
Scratchware Manifesto wrote: Certainly, none can survive the clueless demands of marketing weasels and clueless executives drawn from packaged-goods industries and inexperienced external producers who think demanding unnecessary and counter-productive changes will prove their merit to their bosses.
We say: Basta! Enough! It doesn't have to be like that.
Scratchware Manifesto wrote: You need to imitate existing products to reduce the risk of publishing? Sheer and utter lunacy, a theory in complete defiance of the facts of the history of our field. The products that have become huge hits have almost always been startlingly innovative, amazing departures from what has gone before: The Sims, SimCity, Doom, Command & Conquer, Populous, Civilization, and on and on. The real risk is in developing the me-too product, the poor imitation, the incremental change from something else. The real wins come with creative vision.
Scratchware Manifesto wrote: The narrow retail channel forces millions in promotional expense? Then kill it. There is no shelf space on the Internet.
You need hundreds of thousands in sales to recoup your costs? Yes, under the dysfunctional business model that rules today. But if you develop games the right way, the fearless way, the independent way, your costs are drastically smaller. A few thousand unit sales will pay the bills.
Death to Software, Etc.! Almost every PC in America is connected to a pipe that can carry bits. Why are we copying bits to a plastic-and-metal platter, sticking it in box full of air, and shipping it cross-country, when it is far easier, cheaper, and environmentally sensible to ship those bits down that pipe?
Scratchware Manifesto wrote: Death to the gaming industry! Long live games.
Scratchware Manifesto wrote: What are the characteristics of vampires? Well, they?re immortal. Strangely enough, a corporation can live forever, too. Morgan Bank, Ford Motors, and General Electric - they can go on and on and on. Another characteristic of vampires? They live by sucking blood. You know the feeling you get when you boot up a new game and it crashes five times in the first 15 minutes? That?s your blood being sucked. The corporation exists for one reason only (and don?t let them tell you otherwise) - to make as much money as it possibly can. It?s like we?re cattle, kept alive for the greedy bloodsuckers to get as much profit as they can out of us.
Scratchware Manifesto wrote: While they?re crafty, they?re also stupid. You?d think immortals would have a longer outlook, but the rules of their nest - sorry, Wall Street - have caused them to focus more and more on quarterly returns. Ever wonder why some buggy game got rushed out for a Christmas release? Fourth-quarter profits, friend!
Thoughts?
