During episode 30 of the excellent Exponent podcast, Ben Thompson and James Allworth spin off into a fantastic bit about patents, copyright, and innovation. Allworth’s polarizing take should whet your appetite:

Copying each other doesn’t blunt innovation; It spurs innovation.

During a chance encounter at the 2002 Warped Tour, Geoff Rickly of Thursday offered me a single piece of advice: Never be afraid to steal. It certainly runs in-line with quotes such as “Good artists copy; Great artists steal,” and “That great poets imitate and improve, whereas small ones steal and spoil.” At the time, Rickly was an idol of mine. His words struck deep.

As previously mentioned, Zero Counts was inspired from episode 105 of The Talk Show with John Gruber, I completely redesigned Zero Counts with my first practical foray into HTML, CSS, and PHP. (Archive.org capture from 12/18/14.) In less than one years time, my writing, design, and coding skills have vastly improved, all thanks to copying Daring Fireball.

Dan Stapleton, IGN:

When Microsoft announced the Xbox One in 2013, it was going to require an always-on internet connection to function. After backlash from gamers and Sony’s gloating proclamation that the PlayStation 4 would play games just fine without the help of the internet, Microsoft backed down and dropped the requirement (except for a one-time console activation). As it turns out, Microsoft’s initial approach was more realistic about the modern reality of how games are made, and what’s effectively required in order to have a reasonably stable experience with a physical copy of a game you buy off the shelf today. Your console will indeed run without a connection, but your disc-based games may not give it much to work with.

This piece started and ended exactly how I wanted it to; picking up with Microsoft’s original (and much maligned) “always-on” strategy, and ending with today’s “always-on” gaming reality.

Ben Kuchera recently spoke with former AAA developer Keith Fuller for this tragicomic piece on the instability of recent AAA titles. In short:

This sort of thing is more common than you think, and it leads to muddled, unfinished and often buggy releases. It’s not a matter of including the kitchen sink; developers are sometimes tasked with adding a hot tub at the last second as the project develops.

Stapleton touches on the fact that patches are blessing, but I seem to remember a time when there weren’t even a reality. Maybe I’m showing nostalgic naivety, but I’m having a very difficult time recalling game-breaking bugs from the pre-PS3/Xbox 360 era. But can today’s AAA, reality-verging games truly exist in a non-patchable world?

Games are more complex than they have ever been. The benefits of more powerful hardware are simply enablers. In 30+ years, we have moved from simple sketches of fantasy to unparalleled productions that now challenge reality. Global resources are required to make today’s video games. That doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of the time and resources it takes to generate cutting-edge animations and textures in highly detailed main characters, let alone randomly generated NPCs. I imagine it’s easier to create windblown hair now than five years ago, but nothing compared to the two frames it took in 1988. Just because a console “can” doesn’t make it any easier create.

As an aside, allow this 2011 piece from Gamesradar entertain you: how I wish Microsoft would have stuck with their original strategy.

Ben Kuchera, Polygon:

What I want this story to do is to put into perspective how much money it costs to get to that point. There is no huge flood of cash here, this is four people working very hard to make a very decent livable wage in content. That $408,000 a year is a workable budget for a four-person media company, but it’s far from obscene. It’s a realistic budget for the work they’re going to be doing.

It’s also very possible that in terms of hours worked and money cleared on a per-person basis they’re making less than they made at IGN. What they’re earning is the possibility of greater success, and that success will be owned by them free and clear. That’s an amazing feeling.

A colleague of mine and I discussed many of these points moments after the news broke, of which I posted here:

As an employee of a large tech firm, I deeply understand the desire to freely speak about the industry you are a part of and the prohibitions instated. The benefit Kinda Funny Games has over other would-be media personalities is an established fanbase; however, that makes it no easier to cast aside benefits, workplace friendships, and security.

It’s scary that Kuchera felt the need to write this piece. Hard to believe that most didn’t run these numbers themselves, if just to flirt with the idea of starting their own Patreon. (Then again, Kuchera is more privy to the zeitgeist of games media than myself.)

Without a doubt, Kinda Funny will be a challenging venture; however, the opportunity to break-even creating and owning what you love is a challenge worth taking.

Griffin McElroy on the The Besties finale, time stamp 3:32:54:

Maybe music is the closest comparison but there is no other industry, there is no other media where genres are these huge barriers between… There are people who play fighting games who are categorically different than people who play RPGs. I don’t think there are as many genres an any other medium and I certainly don’t think that there’s as big a divide between those genres.

Not only that, but games by their very nature are interactive, meaning… your experience playing the game is going to be different. So by their very nature, there’s no guarantee that two critics played the same thing. I feel like those divides and those experiential differences that you have with a game are only getting bigger and bigger and bigger. That means that calling something your game of the year is completely… Of course it is because you’re the type of person who likes that type of game and you had that very specific experience playing that very specific type of thing. It just seems kind of meaningless.

Jim Guthrie has composed incredible soundtracks for the iOS classic Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP and documentary Indie Game: The Movie. For One of These Days I’ll Get It Right, Guthrie teamed up with producer Solid Mas to release a throwback hip-hop remix record of his work from both soundtracks. It is chock-full of themed movie quotes, turn-table scratches, and an insidious vibe. The most notable record in recent history I can compare it to is RJD2’s Deadringer.

One of These Days I’ll Get It Right is a brilliant album that is much more than just a collection of simple remixes. Like LEGOs, Guthrie and Solid Mas have torn down completed sets and reimagined them as something wholly original. A worthy purchase if you are a fan of Guthrie, hip-hop, film, or a sound from yesteryear.

iTunes | Bandcamp