That's what Raven was for. They are the crew that always took the latest id engine and made a real game out of it (Hexen, etc).

I agree. The recent hentai games from Illusion are also far easier than before. Previously, there was the challenge of trying to follow the target without them knowing it, so you can reach the rape scene. Now-a-days, all you have to do is choose the location and equipment! What is up with that?!

Wow, sounds similar to Nintendo's stance when Sony came out with the Playstation. Nintendo has a very tough hoop to jump through to get a game on their systems, while Sony has a pretty cheap license. Nintendo was first, and had a tight grip on the market until Sony's loose market PS came into town and dominated. The iPhone is like Nintendo in this sense; first of the new breed, and widely accepted. However, Android is quickly becoming a real threat to the market dominance that iPhone has.

I am not going to argue if college makes you a better coder or not, but I can say, from experience working in multiple states, companies and countries, that I can always tell the difference between a college educated programmer/person and not. Just as many people understand, college exposes you to everything, or at least it should. It is the wise ones that understand how to take that knowledge and apply it to their lives and jobs. Sure you can learn from reading a book, but you can learn a lot more adding in a classroom of fellow peers and a teacher to talk about and explore the topics.

Not sure where you got that information from. Their income statements show increase gross profit for the last years. Did you see something that broke down the income somehow to prove it was in franchise leasing that makes a majority of their profit? One of McDonald's key success points is they don't require trained highly-educated staff.

What about an interactive story type game like Urban Legions or KoL?

What's worse is Champions online. Not only is there a monthly fee (pre-order discount is $10/m, so I am guessing normal is $12-$15), BUT they will ALSO charge microtransaction money for gear and stuff like asian games. Talk about trying to hit you in both ends. I don't mind micro-transactions or subscription, but please, only one.

First 'Guitar Hero' ripped off 'Guitar Freaks', and now 'DJ Hero' is ripping off another Konami game, 'Beatmania'. I bet Konami is just kicking themselves once again for not successfully bringing those game to a console.

As one who has spent many MANY hours, mostly wasted, playing text adventures (also mostly on the TRS80), I have to say I am happy of the evolution text adventures have taken. Sierra did their thing, but there are now really huge browser based games now like UrbanLegions.net and KoL. I just wonder if any chronological documentaries will mention these or not.

I always thought it sounded like 'apple'.

How close is it to being an actual game? Just having an engine that runs simulation code (fighting, harvesting, etc) is actually just one of the many pieces. There still needs to be all the setup menus and tools for networking, map designs, and everything in between.

My problem with MW4 was that you couldn't create your own mech like you could in MW3. If the mercenaries game allowed that, I missed out. I only hope they still allow full customization, at least in online play with a ton limit. It's really fun going up against others to see who can build the best mech, just like in the p&p game.

Hate to sound rash, but when are people in the game industry going to understand they are contract workers getting paid salary? Meaning: when the project is done, your job is done. There is very little tech re-use between game projects, so there is usually no reason to keep staff. This is different than most major corporations that build upon the same product with new releases, and very rarely re-tool. But really, there isn't job security anywhere. However, for the game industry, and the nature of its projects, it should just be a given you will be let go when your game is done.

In Japan, around the 6th or 8th grade, I forgot, based on your average, you go to different classes. This is where the 'idiots' get grouped up. My point is, that separation happens pretty early over there, and those in the 'lower' class almost always end up in the lower households. I would be curious to see some actual statistics though.