@shingui5 @nocoolnamejim Why should it be curbed? Consider this: if I trade in enough hardware and games to buy a new game, and GameStop owes me cash back, who does that money come from? Certainly not the publishers. I don't see any of them queuing up to help pay out for what I sell back. So why should they get a cut of why I pay for a used game? They really shouldn't because they already got their money for that game when they sold it to a distributor at launch.

Publishers and developers want to double dip for more money.

@experience_fade Read it, and you're wrong in most instances. No alternate cash flow? Game guides, comic books, films, soundtracks, toys, collectibles, apparel, and novels.

Fucking. Novels.

And, having worked for Hastings, I can tell you you're dead wrong about used music and DVD/Blu-ray not being "as prevalent" as used games. If anything, it's quite the opposite since the markets for film and music are ten times that of video games.

Your argument that DLC, Season Passes, and Online Passes hurting developers is nonexistent, given that publishers have reported record profits using these methods.

By EA's own admission, Origin was supposed to be like Steam. And look what happened there. They don't even bother trying to compete with Steam because you are buying EA games and EA games only. The PSN only has such deep cuts if you are willing to pay $50 every year for the unforeseeable future. Your point about XBLA vs Steam might have some weight if games on XBLA actually deflated with their physical counterparts.

And no, going 100% digital would not lower prices. The only reason Steam is lower is because they have honest to god competition from sites like GoG. The PSN and XBLA have no such competition, therefore they have no reason to lower their prices.

All retailers are middle men because that's how retail actually works. Publishers - and this goes for films, music, and books - sell their products to a distributor, who then sells it to the retailer. Publishers get their money well before a product launches. What you give to a retailer is their meager profit margin. Which for new games is two dollars a unit. Publishers get their money. They only want to take more than they deserve because they suffer from the failed logic and misunderstanding of where ownership of IP ends and the ownership of product begins.

@Lhomity @nocoolnamejim It's actually not. In home releases for music and films, if the studio lowers the price, they give a rebate to the retailers. Also, unlike the games industry, they will accept returns of unsold product, which gets the retailer back some of the money they lost.

@St0Ne4Ge Then publishers should chip in when when I sell my used games to GameStop.

Looks like GS ate my comment.

Once again, that's not how retail works. Publishers sell the new product to distributors, who in turn sell it to retailers. Publishers and developers get their cut weeks before the game even launches. Remember when NPD used to announce two figures for when a game launches? It was shipped and sold. Shipped is where the publisher/developers made their money, sold was how many copies retailers sent out their doors.

But why are you shopping for games at GameStop, Mr. Developer? Why is it you find yourself in the halls of the Great Satan? Your own self-describe mortal enemy? Why did your studio and publisher work out presell deals with GameStop?

Because you are a Starscream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZ7v_8tMcsU

@Wolfkcing @spoonybard-hahs @Wolfkcing @spoonybard-hahs http://www.themarysue.com/why-games-with-female-protagonists-dont-sell-and-what-it-says-about-the-industry/

Yeah, the 90s. And how many AAA titles recently have featured a main female protagonist?

Remember Me, Resident Evil on a Boat, the Tomb Raider reboot, and Metroid: Other M. Tomb Raider failed to meet SE's projections. Remember Me almost never saw they light of day because every publisher told DONTNOD that a game with a female protagonist doesn't sell.

The most bizarre thing about Other M is that men critically pan the hell out of it for portraying Samus as something other than an ideal feminist totem.

@Shanks_D_Chop @spoonybard-hahs And you haven't really done anything to refute me other than claim I'm sexist for pointing out sexism.

Which is a great argument, by the way.

But if you want validation, here: I'm a game design major.

@Wolfkcing @spoonybard-hahs I believe you're thinking of Naughty Dog and no, they didn't fire the firm they'd hired and already paid money for. They just refused to listen to their bull shit.

And I hate to break it to you, but Naughty Dog is actually in the minority. You have to remember that this is an industry that believes that a game featuring a woman protagonist won't make any money. And it's really only because they let their bias paint their expectations.

It's an open secret that this industry - despite wanting to achieve maximum penetration of all demographics - prefers to cater to the mens.

You're right, people should come to this industry with the passion to make good games. And gender and race shouldn't make a difference. However, when people (men) say it shouldn't matter in defiance of a woman saying that it should everyone, we have a problem.

Between the false platitudes the rampant harassment online (and in the work place), and just general stubbornness of men in gaming, why would any woman want to be a part of that?

@khankalili @spoonybard-hahs You're making an assumption. She isn't calling for less men in the industry or for men to be fired to make way for women.

@Shanks_D_Chop @spoonybard-hahs Erroneous? Yeah, if we're in Bizzaro World where erroneous means factually accurate. Do you have that short of a memory that you don't remember that Insomniac admitted they tested Overstrike with twelve year old boys? Or that Irrational focus tested Bioshock Infinite on frat boys?

And both of those are an industry standard?

No, you're right. Having more women in the industry wouldn't change a thing. Except make developers and publishers more honest when they spout that, "border appear" nonsense.