I suppose it's a bit biased that the publisher for one of the band sims says he doesn't know of anyone who plays his competition in his neighbourhood, but oh well. The rest of his comments are interesting, though.

Offtopic:"Rocket Man"? Really?

Gamasutra cuts anonymous commenting, and this is what we get? I'd rather have random trolls post as Anon then remind me of No More Heroes bosses.

I just realized that the Anon option was gone?!?

Anyways, I thought Rocket Man was a reference to the Japanese version of Mega Man.. Or was that Rock Man.. I don't recall now.

Just a reminder to our commenters:

We no longer allow anonymous commenting, which effectively means we do not allow pseudonymous commenting either -- in spirit, they are identical.

Thanks!

Yarr, now I look like a fool...

Couldn't agree more with this article.

Intrinsically some things which maximize revenue come with adverse consequences on game quality. (For example, Guitar Hero's last generation push toward in-game advertising.)

It's a careful balance act lest ye burn your bridges with the fanbase.

Hmm, I'm not sure I completely agree with the removal of Anon =(. I understand that it's the easiest way to avoid trolls and haters but you are not likely to receive meaningful comments on the hard hitting topics that could get someone fired. I can think of several meaningful conversations that took place in the comment fields on EA Spouse, or labor laws, or topics on discrimination in the workplace that would have never happened without Anon as a tool for people to speak their mind without "unrelated" retaliation from their employers.

That kind of bothers me a little... There certainly could have been a better solution to this.

"I do think it would be amazing for someone to apply for a job with a newspaper who doesn’t read papers, or work at a Hollywood studio and not watch movies. I suppose it’s possible, but it is a little odd."

I agree completely! Hello marketing departments!

@Jason: Personally, I don't know how the in-game advertising affected anything. I didn't know any of the brands, but I was amused that they were there. Can you remark how in any way in game advertising adversely affected gameplay?

@Benjamin: I agree with you there. I'm not sure how we could discuss a solution without polluting comments for new articles, though.

@brandon: I don't think I agree with your remark. To get a job in marketing, you'd need to go through an interview, which is effectively marketing yourself for the position. That, in and of itself, is a test related to your position, and doing it well shows you can probably market well too (though like in anything, tests only show so much).

Sean - you can not agree if you want, but most marketing folk I've met don't know a casual game from an mmo from an fps, let alone any kind of detail about any game ever, aside from possibly Tetris. I do not agree that marketing games is the same skill as marketing yourself. You know what your qualities are, so you can sell that to people. If you don't know what games' good qualities are, how can you market that?

The ultimate winner of the rhythm games battle will come down to who democratizes note-charting for any song. This is both dependent on note-charting tools and distribution, as well as having a kind of iTunes for tracks. Whoever makes it further down this path will do the best I think.

lorenzo - the problem there is the game company would effectively have to purchase the license for "all songs," because since the game would be based on the song, it would be considered part of the game. This would be possible via itunes perhaps because of the user agreement apple has. On consoles, maybe on the 360, because of Microsoft's song-switching agreement?

@Lorenzo: Not likely to happen, mostly due to the fact that it involves the game developing/game publishing companies losing their stranglehold on the creation of tracks. This is further exacerbated by music publishers who would demand the songs taken down for not paying royalties. This is why Guitar Hero: World Tour's music creation tools are not very robust, and why Activision says they will pull copyrighted music off their servers when people post them.

@Brandon: "most marketing folk I've met" is anecdotal evidence, and as such isn't a very good point of reference. I can easily say the opposite, does that counter your argument?

If the majority of marketing people you've met know about games, you're in a good spot. My anecdotal evidence is supported by the anecdotal evidence of a whooooole lot of developers!

I'd say the recent influx of Anon trolls is a side effect of games journalism blogs such as Kotaku posting more and more links to industry-side articles, many of which come from Gamasutra, as opposed to sticking to their usual comsumer-side coverage.

The commenters from those sites aren't used to the kind of discussion that normally goes on in these comments, and think that it's okay to flame, bicker and troll, all anonymously. I've seen several commenters express confusion and disappointment that they had to sign up with this "IGDA thing" in order to post their thoughts.

I suppose it's just the double-edged sword of capturing the attention of a different, much broader audience. In the end it can't be such a bad thing that the industry's journalists are finally trying to get their audience interested in the craft and ethics of their entertainment.