10 by 10 room

Greg Costikyan: “I Hate E3“. He’s out there to find support for Manifesto Games, his project to create a new means of distribution for indie / small-press video games. He found bone-crushing disappointment with the same-old-shit at E3; yet in the midst of such sorrow, he glimpsed a beautiful vision…

Here’s my E3 fantasy for a Manifesto Games booth: bare concrete floor. Metal folding chairs. Bare tables with computers on them running games. Signs saying things like: “Gameplay Over Glitz” and “Pardon Our Appearance, We Spend Our Money on Games, Not Bullshit” and “No Booth Babes Here, Move Along.” And our shwag: Manifesto Games branded earplugs, so you can screen out all the pounding music from all the other booths.

I’m excited.

Kotaku asks: are these new video game systems the next generation? Seeming answer: no. “Tthe direction that the games’ market has gone (the rising costs of development) it makes risk-taking in game design far too financially taxing and forces developers who want to, and have the creative desire to do more, to work on sequels.” It seems like the video game industry is continuing to fulfill Costikyan’s “Death to the Game Industry” Manifesto (I & II).