[firebones]

I wonder if there will be a "Finlandization" of software development (concept courtesy of Chris Crawford's classic "Balance of Power" game) where small devs and dev shops align with larger, protective entities that provide defensive protection in exchange for association with the aura of small, indy developers.

Think (evilly): Myrhvold's IV Labs or Apple or Microsoft or IBM offers a "Friends of IV/Apple/MSFT/IBM" program where for $495 annually (like a Apple Developer Connection subscription) you're guaranteed protection, get a t-shirt, give up some PR, etc.

Eh...

[dredmorbius]

You mean ... like IBM's endorsement of Linux, and in partnership with Intel and others, forming the Linux Foundation?

Having the free guilds be sworn to some liege for protection while providing useful arts is hardly a new concept.

[shmulkey18]

Just to set the record straight: a game developer didn't come up with the concept of Finlandization. The term was long used by scholars in geopolitics to refer to the situation of Finland, which although internally free, had aspects of its foreign policy more or less dictated by the Soviet Union.

[firebones]

You are correct...I should have said "my introduction to the concept" was courtesy of the game Balance of Power. Which is interesting, but perhaps not HN comment-worthy.

[Gorilla801]

Sorry, firebones, "Balance of Power" Chris Crawford != "Patent 5771354" Chris Crawford. (Fwiw, I made the same assumption while I was listening to "This American Life" too.) I spent far too much time digging to get to the bottom of this identity question....the disambiguation is in the middle name/initial. On the patent filing, the inventor is Christopher M. Crawford. In video-game-Chris-Crawford's preface to his new self-published ebook on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Computer-Game-Design-ebook/dp/B005...

he refers to himself as Christoper Charles Crawford. QED.