How to improve?

[biffpow]

This might sound totally naive, but why isn't everybody basically open about everything?

Part of it is instinctive, part of it is because just about everyone else does it, and part of it is because you can't copyright your game mechanics, and even patents for certain aspects can be granted but still lead to long, expensive lawsuits. There is vicious competition that, while often carried out politely, is still savage.

OBollocks is right, and the competition is not limited to game ideas, it also encompasses the game talent--the devs want to retain the people they have working for them without having to treat them like human beings or up their salary. So the less info anyone shares about anything anyone is doing, the more of a culture of fear and suspicion is created, leading most humans to feel like they're safer staying where they are. Despite regular all-nighters, utterly insane/spoiled management, and zero public recognition for their abilities.

I know this not from personal experience (thankfully), but from the anecdotal evidence told by friends and acquaintances who work for some of the bigger devs in this area.

[OBollocks]

It happens a lot more along the margins (mobile gaming), but look at what happened with Threes. For that matter, look at Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th: The Game for a recent example. There are individual ideas and concepts that have been lifted whole.

[Alex Connolly]

This is a good and needed thread. If there's anything you think I can do to pull the socks up, including the kind of articles you'd like to see, it'd be welcome - critique, ideas, what have you.

As Kelsey did say, there's little we can do about the site design beyond pass on thoughts.

My own personal feeling on WG is that, as much as I try to keep on top of the true grognardy fare, it's a genre of game that needs more contributors who solely cover that type of game. I don't mind them, but in keeping the site updated with all sorts of strategy and sim-related articles, I fear I've alienated readership who come solely for the chits and hexes. Would like feedback in this instance, particularly. I guess I'm also in a holding pattern until SG comes online...or until we can clone Jim Cobb.

Got a number of interviews in the pipe, too. Are people interested in those?

[rinelk]

Got a number of interviews in the pipe, too. Are people interested in those?

I may not be the ideal target for the question, but I often love them. Some of my favorites are the ones which get into design philosophy with creators--those are the cases where I feel like I'm really stretching my understanding of games, and come back to those ideas again and again when I'm thinking about other games.

[geigerm]

I'm a big fan of interviews as well--the more the merrier.

[biffpow]

Got a number of interviews in the pipe, too. Are people interested in those?

I enjoy interview features too, especially those that feel more like conversations/discussions rather than Q and A sessions about how great a game/dev is.

Though I don't read WG (just PT), so I don't know whether my opinion matters...