Ian,

Thanks for the mention. Appreciate the exposure to your readers.

I've been a very vocal evangalist for the potential of the Internet as an alternative channel for small developers since the early 90's. (The Doonesbury game was actually developed to be updated and modified by online files, but my publisher decided to drop not support that feature after the game's release.)

Aside from the marketing potential - and the very real survival opportunity for us small developers - the dynamic relationship between developer and player is an amazing benefit. I'm as proud of the sense of community surrounding SpiritWars (my first online-only game) as I am of the game itself.

Having done my first two political sims for publishers, I never really had any contact with the folks who have been playing them for the last twelve years. We'll be opening the Power Politics chat community in the next few days, and I'm really looking forward to getting to know some of the folks who have been sending me emails for years.

Randy