For the record I meant from this point on.

Nope, I'd rather not give them up.

I could. I could also live on freeware games alone. If you've got neither a high-end computer nor a lot of money to spend, you really learn to appreciate the creativity and skill of "amateur" developers and hobbyists. There's lots of great and addicting stuff among the games that many ignore or belittle just because they're free and low budget.

But I don't see any reason to give up AAA games on principle, just because I could. I don't really care about the budget behind it, I only care about whether a game is good or not, and whether I'd enjoy playing it.

Well, ok, also whether I can run it on my rig or not. And how much I'm willing to spend on it. And whether I'm okay with the terms under which it is sold. But I'd judge that on a case-by-case-basis that has nothing do with the seller being indie or a big publisher.

Very well stated.

This echoes my opinion.

I've never played any AAA game on release (I tend to play them at least a year later) so much of the hype that surrounds a game at release time tend to be lost on me.

Overall, I'm more interested in original games at this point, AAA or Indie.

I just think Indie games have the leg up there, because they are less risk adverse.

Franchises just don't hold much sway for me anymore either.

I loved the original Fallout games, but I haven't played the Vegas one.

I loved Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, but I haven't played the game that preceded it or those that followed it. The only other Grand Theft Auto I played is the second one (which is worth playing for the radio alone, it's hilarious).

Hell no, I still get enjoyment from certain studios that use a big publisher.

With that said, if I disagree with a DRM, DLC or game design choice, then the game simply gets bought at a deep discount instead of near full price.

Nope, I dont play indie games, the last 3 games I bought were BL2, Darksiders 2 and Dishonored, no indie game can produce that quality of output.

As regards kickstarter, my own opinion is that there is no financial control, these guys can just feck off with your money, I have enough games that I have yet to play, that I dont see the need to fund KS games.

I was reading an interview with the bloke from double fine, he got more backing than he expected and now he's fucked, he doesn't know what to do with it all. (magazine was called Games).

I pretty much have given up big publishers.

Not as a conscious decision, simply by my consuming habits of desiring good content.

It depends on how we define "big publishers".

If we're talking Ubisoft, EA, or even Bethesda level? Sure. I'm pretty sure I could easily give that up. Aside from a few games here or there (Skyrim, Saints Row 3rd, X-Com) I don't usually buy their games at release. I don't have much interest in AAA level titles. I'd miss out on the more lower end titles they publish but I'd live.

But if we're taking the list down to say...Paradox level, then there's no way. I'm a huge supporter of Paradox products and their funding of smaller developmental studios to produce games. I couldn't get away from the EU3, CK2, Mount & Blade, etc, etc style of games.

That was my thought, I'm really looking forward to playing Batman; AC and the AC games after AC:B. And yeah, as much as people hate the move to 3D, FO:NV was incredible.

No because I enjoy quite a bit of games that get put out with the help of big publishers. I am really looking forward to getting Dishonored and Assassin's Creed 3 (the publisher is also the developer in that case).

As annoying as they can be with killing great development studios like Westwood and others, not really supporting sequels to great games like Beyond Good and Evil (I'm looking at you Ubisoft), selling bad DLC, and being EA, I can't give them up. Despite their problems they still publish great games. Ubisoft has Assassins Creed, EA has Dead Space and Mass Effect, and so forth; these games wouldn't exist without them. Yeah, they make bad choices, but they also make some good choices and they also help developers to make their own choices and to create something wonderful. I can't just give up on these great franchises and games even if it means dealing with the big publishers. In my opinion, they're a necessary evil.

Really depends on how you define "big publisher". I wouldn't miss EA or Ubisoft, but I'd be sad to see Larian gone.

I'd be still gaming happily with nothing but indie devs, though.

Yeah, he was actually thinking in terms of VA and translations, other than that, it was like he was alone in a room, chucking a ball at the wall, waiting for inspiration.

I pretty much gave up buying games altogether, so that includes big publishers. :) In the last three months I bought the Winter Wolves bundle, Broken Sword for Android and that's it (apart from Kickstarters).

Not really that simple, though. Most of the games on my wish list are from big publishers, so if I do decide to buy some games they'll probably be those from big publishers. Only reason I don't is that I'm playing games very rarely, so it's rather pointless to add to my backlog. Also some of the games I plan to play are F2P MMO's from big publishers, such as SWTOR.