Why is it that everytime I read something about independant developers, it's always about shareware, freeware, or selling stuff online? Why does everybody think that just because somebody is independant they can't make a video game of great quality that can sell on a large scale?

In general most Indie games aren't of a quality that can sell on a large scale. Some are but most aren't.

When people talk about Indie games they refer to the majority rather than the minority. They are generalising. Generalising is something people do quite a lot...

Quote: Original post by I_Smell_Tuna
Why is it that everytime I read something about independant developers, it's always about shareware, freeware, or selling stuff online? Why does everybody think that just because somebody is independant they can't make a video game of great quality that can sell on a large scale?

See? Your doing it. Not every one thinks Indie games are poor quality and not every article says they are but in general people think that and say that because, in general, its true.

Hello,

couldn't help replying to your post since much of what I'm doing at the moment is connected to your views. As Obscure said it's question of generalisation, but not solely.

Indie Games can almost certainly sell a lot, shareware games can also sell a lot. But reaching heights of commercial games by publishers like EA, Activision and so on is a lot harder. There are few media for independent developers to showcase their products and even if you have a great game the publishers might think it's too narrow in focus (sometimes they're right and sometimes not).

In my mind shareware and freeware games isn't games with less quality than commercial ones. Sure some of them shouldn't have been released in any form, but there are a number of shareware/freeware games that are just as good as commercial ones.

Shareware is simply a form of distribution, back in the days Doom was distributed as Shareware.