Came across an well written article on the BBC about the difficulties experienced by colour (color for us Yanks) blindness and how some developers are responding. Being (not to my knowledge) color-blind, my own opinion lies somewhere as a mix between Treyarch's philosophy and Nintendo's. It's in the best interest not to alienate any demographic when it can be avoided, but you're not going to be able to please everyone. Anyways, I thought this would be of interest to some of those in this community. Have a read through and post a comment here if you'd like.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13054691

Today I've discovered something that was nostalgic, and something that points to the days of morrow. While reading one of my favorite online comics centered around gaming, there was mention of a title "Spreng- und Abriss" with a link to a You-tube video. This seemingly sandbox game actually lets you play in the sandbox, though in a more grown-up way. Nothing gets to the hearts of young-at-heart boys (and some girls) like destroying something and then putting the remnants into neat little piles.

Noting the German title, I did a quick Bing (yes, yes, But Its Not Google) search to discover that the top three links were to serial cracked versions of the game with the fourth being a German site to actually buy the game. Switching over to Google was only slightly better with the top site linking to piratebay.org for a torrent download with the following links featuring a demo download and the same German sim marketplace. Heading over to the German Google website was much more encouraging as the top three links had the demo and two virtual stores, one being Amazon.de. For a kind of benchmark, I tried both the Hong Kong and Korean versions of Google Search and with a mix of legit and most likely underhanded sites. (Note the Chinese site was not available to me)

A couple things came to mind. First was outrage that the first English links were dominated by these counterfeiting sites. The next was pity for those had put some effort into this title. Then came awe at the pittance of available advertisement for the game which then led to more dispersed outrage. Then I had a little maniacal little chuckle on behalf of all U.S. developers who think they have it bad.

Now admittedly, I probably won't be buying this title in the near future. But how sad that a title that is exclusively in another language could warrant all of this thievery. This may however just be a sign of subconscious patriotism thinking and planning to support the local boys at the expense of any other national, a kind of spit in the face of the global economy. But watch out if this comes back to shore in the form of friendly fire. And I'm not naïve enough to believe we don't already get our virtual five fingered (or is it ten?) discounts from domestic developers. Publishers seem to have noticed enough to reach those all the way to the thrones. While I don't support DRM and other "non-negotiable ownership options", the nuclear option will always be pursued when threatened.

My hope is that I'm just crying wolf here and have it all wrong. That maybe the fact that these are English sites can be attributed to the pervasiveness of the language in technology. That maybe small German companies don't feel their pockets being pinched because of all the profit they see because, by God, Germans do love their "sims". Or that maybe you've finished reading this traipsing ramble and either are now on this side of line, or have been waiting here all along wondering what took so long.

A little over a month ago, I received a biannual report on a science and technology fund I hold shares in. While there was no explicit mention or category devoted to gaming hardware and software companies, one can make some neat inferences. The growth of the gaming sector has led to it becoming a strong economic force in the overall technology sector and promises to continue to grow.

I usually don't take notice of the report, but it was a slow day so I decided to read the fund's manager letter to its shareholders. In it, he outlined the funds largest gainers, losers and other main contributors. These of coarse included Apple, Microsoft and Google. However the interesting part was the largest contributor of the half, Nintendo, and the mention of the companies "ability to innovate" and its upcoming release of the 3DS as reason to project further growth. The largest detractor surprisingly was NVIDIA, which was a new fund acquisition. Still the outlook for NVIDIA looked favorable (wishful thinking maybe? I'm willing to help).

Shortly after the introductory letter, the report includes the top 25 in fund contribution. Again NVIDIA and Nintendo were part of the list. Though the highest contributor of the fund was Microsoft at 8%, these 25 holdings accounted for 75% of the fund. Sitting right in the middle of the list was Electronic Arts (EA). The only other gaming specific reference I found perusing the report was a small stake in Ubisoft Entertainment. These three gaming specific companies of EA, Ubisoft and the big N comprise a little over 5 percent of the overall fund. And to that part, a large part of NVIDIA and a little part of Microsoft and it might reach 8 or 9 percent.

This might not seem like a whole lot, and this is only one technology centered fund, but over time I believe this factor will increase. Additionally with Spector's keynote speech at PAX alluding to the reach of gaming growing within the overall public, the economic prospect of gaming appears strong. Certainly things can go awryand companies will still come and go, but it indeed looks like a strong future.

Your turn. If you could invest in one game specific stock for the future (doesn't even have to be publicly traded), what would it be? For argument sake, I'm inclined to remove the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Intel since gaming is still a fraction of the their overall business model, but it's your case.