I mean, I won't ever believe that the casual vibe is going to corrupt the entire world, but the microtransactions that involve large pieces of content scare me.
I don't think either will matter in the long run. There are too many people making games and too many people JUST getting into making games and many of them don't work off of those types of pay structures. In fact, I'd say some of my favorite games and ones I've spent most on have been Pay What You Want or sub-$20, having been worked on by small, small teams. The game I'm most psyched for in the near future, Hawken, only has about 9 people working on it and will be free to play.
My point is that, as afraid as I am that shitty free to play games and DLC is going to ruin many games, there's still going to be a ton of games out there and the market will welcome that. I don't like what EA's been doing with their games, so I've made the conscious decision not to give a fuck about any of their games. Guess what? I don't care about Mass Effect and Dead Space and Star Wars and Need For Speed anymore. They've poisoned them for me and it's easy not to go back to them.
Ambitious games that work with a few new ideas, then refine them well get me these days, like Amnesia, Legend of Grimrock, and STALKER.
If Angry Birds wants to make money off of rubes, then that's fine with me. Doesn't affect my sphere too much. They have a right to make tons of money and rubes have a right to be rubes.
(sorry because words
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