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[Hanslanda]

I get somewhat confused when people use 'Indie' like it always means good. There are a lot of indie games out there that are awesome. But there are some that are... You know. Not good. I understand that many game companies produce the same game over and over again with minor changes (Call of Duty, Killzone, Gears of War, etc.) but some of them like... Innovate. And stuff. Like Total War games. Same game over and over again, if you come down to brass tacks. But not.

What I am saying is that there is good and bad of both, and that it confuses me that there is this hipster-ish urge to use 'Indie' to mean something other than 'independantly produced game'. Or am I reading too much into this whole argument?

[Max White]

I feel like all Steam does for "indie" games is replace the old-school publisher with a promoter/hoster than serves the exact same role from a business perspective. In my - obviously controversial - opinion, indie devs who sell their stuff via Steam aren't really independent anymore.

Except steam doesn't fill the same role that older style distribution publishers did.
A lot of publishers are picky about what they will accept because they don't want to take a gamble and loose. So, they either only accept a certain range of games that follow a proven formula, or influence the construction process so that more fringe games better fit these formulas.

Steam just lets people go for it, do what ever they like, and then has the community vote for what they want.

The heart of indie gaming is innovation, and the sole is over emotional retro style games (Looking at you Cave Story!) both things that publishers are shy of, but Steam don't give a damn.

[Aerie]

I get somewhat confused when people use 'Indie' like it always means good. There are a lot of indie games out there that are awesome. But there are some that are... You know. Not good.

Indie games are cool because they're not made by big, evil megacorporations that only care about how many dollars they can squeeze out of your bank account.

_{Sent from my iPhone 5 at Starbucks}

[Hanslanda]

I get somewhat confused when people use 'Indie' like it always means good. There are a lot of indie games out there that are awesome. But there are some that are... You know. Not good.

Indie games are cool because they're not made by big, evil megacorporations that only care about how many dollars they can squeeze out of your bank account.

_{Sent from my iPhone 5 at Starbucks}

I'm not wearing a scarf and my glasses have both normal frames AND are prescription. Could you run that by this plebian one more time, because I've definitely never heard of that band ever before.

[Max White]

I would wear a scarf, except that it is the southern hemisphere here and the temperature is approaching levels where the atmosphere starts to ionize.
Any other time, fuck yea!

[Criptfeind]

I feel like all Steam does for "indie" games is replace the old-school publisher with a promoter/hoster than serves the exact same role from a business perspective.

I really don't understand what you mean here. Since Valve does not act as publishers at all for games on steam. Like. At all. You do realize that publishers actually do things other then just taking a percentage of the sales correct? That's not the only thing they do.

[Aerie]

I would wear a scarf, except that it is the southern hemisphere here and the temperature is approaching levels where the atmosphere starts to ionize.
Any other time, fuck yea!

¿ɐıןɐɹʇsnɐ uı ǝʌıן noʎ os

[penguinofhonor]

Indie can often be more unique, though. Having a lower budget means that you can experiment more because the loss won't be as big if it's unpopular.

[SealyStar]

What, no love for Left 4 Dead or the sequel?

Portal? Portal 2?

Portal was basically a two-hour demo. Portal 2 I forgot, but honestly it was disappointingly short for its price.

Left 4 Dead (and its sequels) is my selection for "most overrated Valve game", beating even TF2. I understand everyone has a different opinion, but that is mine.

[Max White]

¿ɐıןɐɹʇsnɐ uı ǝʌıן noʎ os

¡ǝƃɐnƃuɐl ǝʌıʇɐu ʎɯ sʞɐǝds oɥʍ ʎpoqǝɯos ʎllɐuıɟ ¡sǝʎ

[Scelly9]

What, no love for Left 4 Dead or the sequel?

Portal? Portal 2?

Portal was basically a two-hour demo.

What do you mean?

[Sirus]

What, no love for Left 4 Dead or the sequel?

Portal? Portal 2?

Portal was basically a two-hour demo.

What do you mean?

He means that Portal was pretty short and in many ways a sort of tech demo. Then they took everything they learned and made Portal 2 with it.

I think that's what he meant.

[Aerie]

Indie can often be more unique, though. Having a lower budget means that you can experiment more because the loss won't be as big if it's unpopular.

Uniqueness and quality have no causal relationship. Look at Black Ops 2: the exact same gameplay as the eight or nine games before it (with a couple innovations) but it's still a good game.

[Scelly9]

Indie can often be more unique, though. Having a lower budget means that you can experiment more because the loss won't be as big if it's unpopular.

Uniqueness and quality have no causal relationship. Look at Black Ops 2: the exact same gameplay as the eight or nine games before it (with a couple innovations) but it's still a good game.

That's VERY debatable.

[Criptfeind]

Actually. Unless you want to debate the definition of game I really don't think it is.

I have not played any of those shooter games for years, because back when I was a kid I played one and got pretty much all that I want from them forever. But that does not mean that technically speaking it is a good game, and even if you disagree with some of the implementation, that is more a personal preference thing.