Zynga Called Out by Indie Developer - IGN

Zynga Called Out by Indie Developer - IGN:

I was prompted to view this by my course leader this morning, and I'm glad I was! This article shows how vulnerable small development companies are to larger corporations effectively creaming off the top of their original ideas. The points raised about 'we wouldn't have some games today if it weren't for IP being stolen' and 'what if this is the start of a new genre' really made me think hard about my thoughts on IP. Drew Castalia made it very clear that once you publish or submit your idea to the wider world you have to be prepared that it may get copied or stolen - but that that is part of the risk you take to succeed in the creative industry.

That said, what I found the most interesting on this page were the comments from users; amongst the usual 'support for the underdog' and 'down with Zynga' there were also several strong comments lamenting the lack of plot and depth to indie game releases and the effect this is having on the gaming market as a whole.

Some people were citing that you 'cannot be a real gamer' if you enjoy iOS and app games. I now feel very naive, but I was under the impression that as a whole the gaming community had welcomed this new surge of indie games as a 'free-man's world' concept where anyone can set up and publish a game from their bedroom. I knew that 'hard-core' gamers were likely to look down on such trivial ideas as catapulting pigeons, but I did not realize that some did not even considers these as games in their own right.

Earlier on the course I looked into how mobile gaming platforms have transformed the way we game, and how that has widened and strengthened the gaming community - but now I feel I may have to look again at my research and pose the same question from a different stance.