FMinus

I'm with you, I don't see where the problem is, account like any other. Every damn site requires a login nowdays so where's the big problem. I have a google+ account and I haven't used it yet except for where google asks me for, like on my Nexus 5. I haven't even touched it yet, besides maybe the photo backup feature and gmail (which I had way before google+ existed).

As for the merger, we'll see how it turns out. As for the connection problems, I'm from Europe and never had any problems what so ever streaming 5 streams at once at "source" option, so can't really speak for that, no buffering, no breaks no nothing, works just fine 99% of the time. The chat however is broken at least 5 times in an hour :D

Don't underestimate fear of something, and while it's not something me and you consider worth mentioning there are people who would want to know if a game has scare elements and such.

You forgot to ask the USK (Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle), considering they are the only ones who actually put games on index for Germany and Austria or in other words have harsher ratings, i.e. blood must be green and no swastikas and similar stuff. Would like to hear from them on that matter, however I would imagine it's pretty much the same as PEGI.

You're confusing them with Apple.

Whatever you do, make sure there's some Detroit ghettotech playing in the back, it will subliminally get into her head and you will win.

Threes is not really original to begin with, there were plenty of puzzle games that had similar mechanics, where instead of numbers you combine colors, Clickr being the latest I can think from the top of my head.

And no I don't feel any more sad or sorry for a team of three as for a team of hundred people, when their games get copied. It happens, like you and me both agree, daily. The mobile platform is just young, easy to develop for (relatively) and doesn't require much investment regarding finances, so of course there's going to be a massive influx of clones, considering you can make quite a lot of money on the said mobile platforms.

EDIT: I agree that carbon 1:1 copies are distasteful to the original authors and should be filtered, but if you're so sure in your product and that you were the first to bring it out, why not take legal action? But insist on whining over the internet instead.

How many clones and variations of Tetris is there? Tons, same here, don't know what the drama is really. Every game was once first, and then there's clones. Recently we've been through the World War II era in FPS games, where every 2nd game was set in that setting, cloning each other, now we're in the zombies are & same story. Apply this to every genre of games and you get the big picture.

And how is this different from any game in existence? Would there be an Unreal Tournament without Quake, possibly, possibly not. Just look at all the games and genres, for example, there was DOTA, and now we have like 20+ moba games around, which are all different, but the core is pretty much the same in all of them. Same for every single genre.

Basically the facade changes but the games are still the same under the hood. That is more noticed on shoddy mobile games, because there's only so much you can change, before you hit the limits on the device.

Alas nothing new.

What has Carmack to do with anything, he's not the CEO or founder of Oculus, he's just the lead technical person and he joined them 2 years later when they already delivered the first development kit.

About his work, judging from his past work on games his intentions are genuine to better the experience for the user. Latency is a big factor, weather or not the final product will be used for games or social crap is however not up to him, but to the bosses of which Facebook is now one.

@r3dt1d3 said:

There's plenty of creative people around, I guess there also a bunch in the irrational. It's just that sometimes this super designers get a bit over their head of what they are, to name a few, Peter Molyneux, John Romero, Cliff Bleszinski, David Jaffe. Don't get me wrong their games were good, but they all get the: "it's all about me, my imagination, my story, my direction syndrome" - until they realize their latest product was in works for way too long and it turned out mediocre, and they don't want to deal with that any more, they are burned out, and want to do small things and not deal with AAA games that require millions over millions of dollars do make. And that basically happened to all of the above mentioned people.

Egomaniacs who think that the studio can't work without their input, when in fact they are just dragging it down. Some notice that sooner some later, but at the end they all leave and focus their life on something else, some are just decent enough not to drag 200 other people with them, weather or not it's directly their fault or not.

@tourgen said:

the IT business in general is, especially in the US. nobody expects pool tables, free food, tennis courts, beach volley, smoking lounges, pools, arcade machines, flexible working hours, etc. etc. and a $5000 check at the end of the month over here in Europe. People do their stuff for a normal wage in a normal office, but over in the US being a game developer is considered being special.