It's not because they suck, it's because they don't own the code. If you know you have to maintain a piece of software, you will spend extra time ensuring that it's maintainable and coded well. We have a large team in India and they are very successful, because they are part of the company and are building a career, not being a code monkey.

Eye of the Beholder had nothing on Lands of Lore. It was the little stuff like auto mapping and a real story that made it that much better.

Everyone thinks they can earn double as a contractor, until they realize they have to pay taxes, benefits, 401K. Add to this the fact that you don't have work guaranteed, and suddenly you're about even with a salary worker. Yeh, there are benefits to working for yourself, and sometimes you make more, but I know that we outsource the really shitty projects to contractors and keep the 'good' ones for ourselves.

While it's true the AI in Empire was totally broken, I really think the last patch fixed it. The enemy doesn't declare war on you randomly and now invades properly over oceans.

8 Years without a final product?? Sounds like Vaporware to me.

I completely disagree. The prices are often cheaper - new releases often have specials (10-20% off), and they have specials all the time - specials I wouldn't normally see since I don't go to a gamestop/best buy every week. Add to that the ability to preinstall games and be available from any computer (you log into), I think it's brilliant.

If I could mod you up further I would. Funniest comment of the week. :)

He doesn't get it. The hardcore gamers aren't gone, Nintendo has just tapped into a new market - parents, girlfriends, grandparents, young, old and everything in between.

From what I've seen about my friends and family that play wii (and have never played Playstation or XBOX), they get bored of wii sports/guitar hero/wii fit/etc. after 2 or 3 months and then never pick up their wii again. If anything, the hardcore gamers are the ones that are going to stick around and continue to buy new games

"Microsoft blamed the proposal on a newly FIRED, "lower-level business person" who did not understand the company's obligations under the antitrust settlement.""