@Killer2401 Absolutely. I agree 100%. The great things about Indie games are that people are making these games and creating these worlds for the love of the game. It's not about the bottom line, or meeting a deadline, or going over-budget and having to compromise some aspect of the game that really matters to the creator. Indie game creators do it because they love it, because it's what they want to do; With too many big name titles, you get the feeling that the guys making the game were doing it because they had to. As you said, it is all about heart

"You won’t see an Xbox 720 or a PlayStation 4 in this lifetime," he says. Wanna bet? Sorry Mr. St. John, but I can virtually guarantee that we will see a new machine from Microsoft and Sony eventually. Maybe not this year, but I think by E3 2011, something will be announced as to next gen machines. As for the question of will social games change the future of the industry? No and yes. Social Games are great for introducing non-gamers to a form of gaming because its quick, its easy, there is not much of a time or emotional investment. But, once those casual gamers become more hardcore, they will quickly realize how unsatisfying a social game can be. Farmville is fun in short spurts, kind of like games on my iPhone. But, you can't compare a game like Farmville to something as immersive as Fallout 3 or Elder Scrolls, nor can it offer anywhere near the same sort of social experience as a game like WoW, or Horde mode on Gears of War. In the next 5 years, I think you will see a greater transition to more socially based online games, but they won't look anything like Mafia Wars or Farmville, that's for sure.

I went to all of Blizzcon '09, from the opening ceremony until they kicked us out at 10 pm Saturday night, our ears still ringing from Ozzy Osbourne. I need to do a real blog post about it, but it was a great event, on all fronts and it really shows why, like them or not, Blizzard is a key player in this industry we all love. I played all 3 demos at least twice and they were all excellent. I would have to say the Diablo III demo was the best one, with Starcraft II taking the Silver and WoW:Cataclysm taking the Bronze (but Cataclysm was still a lot of fun and the demo cannot hope to do the full expansion justice).The lines weren't even that bad really, especially when you consider there were 26,000 people there for, basically, 3 games. I would highly recommend Blizzcon '10 to anyone who can get there. Its not as good as E3, but it is getting better every year.