Simple question. With all the indie games, mods, classics and kickstarter stuff coming out today and in the future could you give up publishers cold turkey?

I could not. Despite all the other amazing stuff coming out Dishonored is still the game I most want to play when I get home in 2 months. Despite my excitement for Shadowrun Returns and Project: Eternity the next Mass Effect or Fallout will probably excite me twice as much.

You?

No.

As much as I like indies, the "big games" are just the better games for me. I want games like Sleeping Dogs, New Vegas, Batman (oh, god, batman. I love you) and Mass Effect.

They don't have to be that big in budget, but more what indie can provide.

In AAA (or AA) publishing, 80% of the games that are in my interest group in the first place are fun. With indies, it is more like 30%, due to the recent flood of medicore games.

Of course not. Some games require large budgets. Perhaps not quite as large as they've gotten lately, but there are some experiences you simply can't provide for cheap.

Giving up anything at all is giving up choice, and that would be stupid.

Me either, most of the games I've enjoyed the most this year have had big publishers like Batman Arkham City, and Mass Effect 3. Sure, indie games like Bastion and the Blackwell series are great too but it would get bored of just playing indie games.

If it's fun and at some point affordable, I'll probably end up getting it.

I did want to get in on the Borderlands 2 action since I loved the first one, but it was either that or Guild Wars 2.

Either way, fun stuff.

I'm not sure. I've bought so many games on sale that I have an enormous backlog so I'm not hurting for games to play (Of course, much of my backlog is big publisher games, so that may not count as 'giving them up'.) I'm also really enjoying the indie games, the old games from GOG that I've missed over the years, and the whole kickstarter phenomenon, although it remains to be seen if the lustre will still be there once the games that have been funded are actually released.

But assuming the kickstarter projects will be released and that they'll also be close to as good as they look (games like Wasteland 2, Dead State, Project Eternity), and assuming there will be others, it's a tough call. I could certainly give up big publishers as day-one or full price purchases, yes. Altogether though? I don't know. There are still some kickass games being released through big publishers that I'd be interested in playing.

If I could just echo this, and also add "when my PC wasn't powerful enough to run those games".

When you don't have £30 laying around to spend on a game, when you don't have the hardware to play any of the big budget 'must play' games, you'd be surprised just how well you can get along. And when those games come down to an affordable price, or when your hardware finally catches up, you might just find there was more fun in little £2 'Cthulhu Saves The World' than there was in £30 'Borderlands 2'.

Plus, again to somewhat echo Coelocanth, assuming nothing terrible happens I've got six games coming from kickstarters over the next few years, 'Grim Dawn' and 'Project Eternity' in particular promising to scratch a couple of rather deep gaming itches.

So... yeah, I could. But I do understand those that simply like the shine you (hopefully) get on a big budget publisher release.

Nope. Most of the indie/Kickstarter stuff doesn't interest me. Of course, a lot of the big publisher games don't interest me either.

So maybe I should change my answer to: it doesn't matter. If a good game comes out, to me it doesn't matter who makes it. I wouldn't intentionally "give up" on any of them, but if they don't put out anything good, I just won't bother with them.

Probably not. Big budgets allow tech pushing that really adds to the atmosphere of certain titles. I bought a PS3 recently and also picked up Red Dead Redemption, and the attention to detail within that game simply blows me away. Just watching the NPCs go about their business (sharpening axes, playing cards, talking to each other, drinking at the bar, robbing each other, standing idle, etc.) is enjoyable because the animations are so detailed. The weather changes and day/night cycle, along with the hours and hours of professional quality voice acting, really add a lot to selling the western motif of that game. Indies simply don't have the budget to reach those kind of accomplishments.

But I love indie games. Bastion is one of the greatest games I've ever played, as is Frozen Synapse.

I just love games. As long as they are good, I don't care who makes them.

I think I could. Then again, gaming is more of a time killing thing for me and it doesn't take that much to get me entertained, so I never really need to play the latest games or the most famous. I've got new vegas installed and haven't even started the first quests, waiting to finish other things.

Starcraft 2 and Borderlands 2 are the only big studio games that got me excited recently. Starcraft 2 got bought right after release, while I'm waiting Borderlands 2 to drop in price. I've never played Dragon Age, Mass effect, Fallout (pre new vegas), neither of the batmans, and most big studio games I buy after they've been discounted. By a lot.

Can you define AA game for me please?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcoholics_Anonymous :P

Nah. On average, I enjoy AAA titles much more than indie ones. Will be interesting to see how the kickstarter stuff turns out, though.

Already did. I can't buy a computer that can run AAA games anyway, I don't have anywhere to plug it in. The last AAA game I bought was Heroes 6. It looks like shit on minimum settings, runs like shit on decent settings, and is, ahem, not especially good. It cost me five times as much as Deponia (which is awesome, you should buy it), and I had infinity times less fun. Screw AAA games, I'm learning German to play Daedalic adventures in original. If Carsten Fichtelmann is ever considered for the International Cultural Awesomeness Award or whatever it's called, you can quote me on that.