Rating scale for new(er) carts

Snider-man said:

I'm just concerned that someone's going to want to form the "Atari Homebrew Seal of Quality" and no game gets released without a council vote on whether it lives up to these "high standards" everyone talks about. That is NOT what this hobby is about. It's about the programmers enjoying what they're doing. Once you've got a horde of nay-sayers telling you your game is crap because you didn't include A, B, C, and D, that's the last game that person will provide to the unthankful masses.

So, if Johnny Homebrew throws together his first Pong clone with bad flicker and no sound, congratulate him for doing more programming than 98% of us that post here. If no one buys his game, he'll be more encouraged to improve on it so it sells rather than having folks lined up to tell him "you shouldn't have even tried."

Of course you are right here. Everybody who is able to programm "something" for the 2600 should do that. And he (or she?) should be allowed to release whatever he wants to.

There will always be quality differences between the games, so some maybe technically quite simple but offer a great gameplay and new ideas and others may look brilliant and are just boring.

My only concern is, that releasing to many (be)low standard (gameplay/technic) games may "spoil" the market. If a more talented programmer sees that *any* game gets about the same applause and sales (incl. limited releases etc.) this may disencourage him and in the future we wont see many really good games any more.

Just my 0.02€.

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My only concern is, that releasing to many (be)low standard (gameplay/technic) games may "spoil" the market. If a more talented programmer sees that *any* game gets about the same applause and sales (incl. limited releases etc.) this may disencourage him and in the future we wont see many really good games any more.

And you're correct in that regards. Case-in-point: How many times has this board erupted because a "hack" was given the same kind of credit that a from-scratch homebrew did? (Ahem...)

I would hope that a programmer would wish to do his best regardless of how other previously released games sell. God knows, no one does this for the money. But if a programmer decides to cobble something together crappy for the sake of making a few bucks, the buying public will balk at buying this new release - except for those that "gotta have everything."

I don't think we'll ever see a homebrew glut of quickly tossed together games. Too much effort for too little profit. I think the game-players/collectors will let the programmer know of their displeasure using the almighty-dollar (or currency of your choice).