Jolly Joker

The next logical step is that Steam produces games (developed by developer studios they hire) and then offer those games to play exclusively (for no additional cost) when you subscribe to them. So for a fee of, say, 10 bucks per month, you could play anything you want (that they'd offer) - but only in that month, of course. It's what Ubisoft (with Uplay) could do as well, it's what Microsoft could do, but I guess it's not what Stardock could do. It's something that is alreedy done by Fa

Subscription is a logical development. Although, not to a single game, but to a service like Steam. MOO CTS - is really anyone surprised about that game's comparatively low sales? Didn't they completely miss the point, what MOO and MOO2 have been all about? I have no problem discussing that in detail, but at this point I'm inclined to just say that MOO CTS is a game that nobody really needs, because it doesn't deliver "the goods". I mean, this hasn't been the first 4x space game, and

The original article also lists (Oliver's) reasons WHY the games are unpolished, and GAME DESIGN is the biggest isue, with actually 4 separate "problems", starting with games being too blown up for no good reason other than "why not?"

It's been ported for iPad in 2012.

Yep. I mean, if you look at Spaceward Ho!, there are only 2 resources, Metal and Money. You need Metal to build ships, and the Total Metal in the Universe is limited (if a planet is empty of it - that's it, except when there is a battle at a planet, then part of the metal of the destroyed ships falls down and can be mined again (mining is one thing you need money for). Money on the other hand, is EARNED by population and SPENT on a) Research (all 6 research fields are for ships ONLY a

I agree with the gist of Oliver's article, and I think, frogboy, if you as a game designer think that 1) Polish; 2) low price and 3) Sophisticated gameplay were the 3 "components", then, with all due respect, I think that is somewhat beside the main points. To illustrate my point - and catering to the fact that Oliver is speaking a lot about 4X SPACE games (since there have been so many in the last 5 years) - I point to an old game by New World Computing called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.o