17.12.09 flamewars are the fountainhead of human creativity
Note: This is a post highly similar to this one, but since our audience is completely different and I’d rather post it here than have people not follow the link, I hope Darius will forgive me. So…
Darius over at TinySubversions has a much more entertaining and detailed account of this little gaming fracas (go read it!), but in short: Gamasutra, a leading game website, publishes an article about Spelunky, an indie game garnering much critical praise.
Adam Coate, himself an indie developer, leaves a comment complaining that his game deserves more attention than Spelunky, and isn’t getting any.
Debate ensues, with commenters suggesting Adam should improve his attitude to improve his coverage.
Notably, a writer from indiegames.com tells Adam that he received Adam’s original e-mail about his game. However, the e-mail contained no helpful information (like links) to help him find, play and eventually cover the game. The writer came up with nothing even after searching exhaustively for it. He helpfully counsels Adam to learn a few things about marketing (and even eventually proceeds to write a guide to indie game marketing).
Adam keeps whining, eventually submitting the gem: “Miyamoto never had to work for press like this”.
(This is Shigeru Miyamoto, of Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong and Zelda fame).
Commenters in Darius’ account of this have a field day, and someone brilliantly comes up with an idea for a t-shirt.
I know I’m going to see this at gaming conventions and laugh my ass off.
