You're absolutely right, I didn't read the entire thread. My apologies. But at least it helped me to figure out Slashdot's interface a bit better.

No, in a game against terran, 'toss can mind control an SCV to build terran buildings and units. It's possible to have both buildings. =)

I'm a staunch supporter of the wii/ds strategy, and not because I particularly care about Nintendo's horribly marketed non-gamers motif or because I prefer cartoony, simplistic games to the latest breathtaking first person world. For me, behind the curve is the point.

I must extrapolate on what he means by artistic games, and it's hard not to take liberties with such a loaded phrase. But that we still attach such significance to names like Kojima and Wright is quite valuable for the artistically inclined gamer. It suggests game development isn't completely dictated by the whims of corporate boards and target sampling. If anything, the biggest threat to "artistic" gaming is the rapid increase in development costs. When every game takes 10s a millions of dollars to produce, every company must incorporate as much risk negation as possible into every product. They'd be fools not to. So what's that leave us with? The continuation of the trend to put out sequels and rehashes.

The ds is so interesting precisely because it's allowed brilliant young developers to put out incredibly compelling niche games. If the wii continues it's early success, undoubtedly we'll see more of this risk taking in the console space than we would in another sony dominated generation. That's not to say big 360/ps3 games are bad, it's just to say the wii offers a development space with unique attributes that would not be served by a more technologically advanced console.

That he's attaching value to how the company talks about art is pedantic and asinine. I don't even know where to begin arguing the point accept to say it means nothing. Tell me what you want when you say artistic. What fundamental attributes make Spore more artistic then Twilight Princess or Hotel Dusk or fing Halo 3? Do you really think Sony and Microsoft (and Nintendo) give a damn just because they put it in a list? As an "artistically" inclined gamer, I'd love to believe it true.