Countdown 2016, 11: Community’s End

Welcome to the Electron Dance Advent calendar. Each day will bring another post from the archives.

Have you read A Weaponized Machine posted on 11 September 2012?

We’d been deluding ourselves that a unified “indie community” existed, where everyone was happy and no one disagreed. For me, it was the $100 Greenlight fee issue that blew away that delusion. When you see that people like Michael Brough and Adam Saltsman are practically tweeting blows at each other, you know things are not the same any more. I just wanted Mummy and Daddy to stop fighting.

Developer Jonas Kyratzes seemed to be attracting a lot of flak for opposing the fee. In response, I created A Weaponized Machine which meshed a review of his wonderful point-and-click Flash piece The Infinite Ocean with some of the hard words flying around the internet.

Go read it!

From the comments:

• Switchbreak: “Fantastic post. It does feel like it addresses something big.”
• Fede: “I really really didn’t expect such a division to bring out so much hate. It was painful to see from the outside.”
• StephenM3: “If any struggling-financially artist depends on a Steam release to find success, then we are all failing.”
• Jordan: “@EVERYONE– This is a good discussion. I wish the topic had been handled with as much civility everywhere.”
• James Patton: “I’m sorry, but I like Jonathan Blow. There, I’ve said it. Burn me as a fascist.”