Store Wars: Imperfect views of imperfect markets

Economics has something of an edge when it comes to respectability among the social sciences, but it is often squandered by talking heads acting like everyone else is an idiot on TV. The benefit of taking an introductory economics class is not prestige or a set of talking points but rather a set of tools …

The maturity trap

Insecurity Tabletop role-playing games have sense of insecurity hiding just beneath the surface. They haven't become the cultural phenomena video games are and certainly don't bring in the same kind of revenue. When they did have a cultural moment, part of it was being the subject of a moral panic. The outside perception of the …

Thoughts on a game engine from someone who doesn’t know about game engines

Epic released a demo for the latest iteration of their game engine, Unreal Engine 5 (UE5). The demo looks magnificent and has a bit where the roof opens up and lights a room with 500 detailed statues. Once I looked at Twitter I was informed that the demo, apparently, wasn't all that good. The objections …

Criticizing Marvel

Martin Scorsese really wants you to know what movies he isn't watching. The response to Scorsese's original comments about Marvel movies not being cinema focused on whether or not he could say such things rather than whatever merits the claim had. This is an odd response, since there is nothing more Hollywood than famous people …

Response: Data science will not save you

This article is a critical response to the Gamasutra blog "Steam has a lack of data scientists." While it is an opinion piece, the article was widely shared and contains a number of contestable statements with regards to Steam's role, Valve's capabilities, and the ability of data science to solve structural issues for game developers. …

Epic’s Tactics Are The System Working As Intended

The most perplexing feature of the commentary surrounding the Epic Games Store (EGS) is that the loudest voices assign criticism to Epic that is more appropriately targeted at Valve. The criticism that has gotten the most attention is the one that says Epic is using its timed exclusives in order to take over digital distribution, …

When Exclusives Are Consumer Friendly

There's an old business punchline where the owner of a firm says "I'll sell at a loss but make it up on volume." I've heard the punchline in three slightly different variations but have never heard the joke that was once attached to it. A business owner maximizing their losses is the kind of galaxy …

Share and Share Dislike

The takes industry works overtime during earnings season and between EA reporting sales for Battlefield V and Activision Blizzard announcing layoffs, there was no shortage of material. Earnings should not generate the kind of hyperventilation they do, since they are a standard measure intended to provide everyone access to the same information at the same …

Diversity for the Amoral

The new year started off with a fresh set of outrages to scourge Real Gamers™: Kick McKeand wrote a good article about diversity in games, Emily Grace Buck (who's started a new program for story games) reminded us that old gaming quip about story and pornos isn't all that clever, and it turns out Soldier …

Studio Closure

News of Telltale Games’ closure highlighted the fact that quite a few game studios have closed this year. There has been a lot of reflection on everything from the precarious nature of work in games, to the viability of certain types of games, as well as an outpouring of support for at least some of the …