I couldn't agree more with this statement, Jeff. I would merely suggest that the problem isn't so a matter of people bowing to the marketplace (which was meant by flunkies, I presume); after all, we all do this. Corners are cut everywhere, from the best hospitals to the sleaziest retail, in an effort to keep econonically viable while still maintaining a reasonable level of quality. The only magazine I've worked for in 16 years that allowed me to open up and really review products at whatever length was required, was Windows Magazine; and they just announced that they're folding. (Parenthetically, I requested my editor at Daily Radar to accept a review of KoDP for 1800 words, or 3 pages. I was allowed to do 1 page, at 600 words. That stinks, but DR has to sell ads to justify page count.)
The problem for games like KoDP is a lack of breadth, of imagination, in the reviewers who are hired for most netzines. They see and play only the mainstream computer games, and they live in our culture's eternal *now,* with no sense of the history of computing gaming (much less anything else). If a game doesn't have 3D, 80 animated film sequences and the ability to shoot lasers at anything that moves (including sheep), it just isn't a game. They believe this wholeheartedly.
Of course, that's ridiculous. We don't really need another two dozen RTS games, or another dozen action/shooters, or a dozen arcades, including The Mario Brothers face off against the Lemmings. An intelligent, deep, delightful, wholy unique product like KoDP should be a show-in, but it's drowned out editorially by the greater marketing punch of the big companies, and doesn't appeal to the reviewers because it's not the kind of thing they've played while they grew up. If, in a few cases, growing up is an appropriate expression.
I've personally tried to push indie games and applications since the late 80's, with varying degrees of success. Daily Radar was getting into a thing of running an indie review of mine each month for a while, but then their budget dried up. I'm hoping that'll turn around, because there are some other excellent indie games out there waiting to be reviewed, as well.
IMO, KoDP belongs on the retail shelf right alongside BG2, or HOMM3, or any number of other relatively hot products. But to get there, you have to sell to a powerful producer who can cut deals with tthe retail store chains, and David couldn't get one lined up for KoDP. This wasn't the case back in the 80's and early 90's, when stores were only too glad to accept all the product they could find. Somewhere along the line, the moguls moved in, the enthusiasts moved out, and people like David Durham got marginalized.
Fortunately, the Internet may turn that around. I know of other great developers who have simply refused to deal with the chains, and are trying to make a go of it on the Web. More power to 'em. But the word of their product needs to get out; and while I don't condone any group, anywhere, being labeled as "flunkies" (except, just maybe, telemarketers), I do agree wholeheartedly with those like the previous posters who are increasingly frustrated at economic and intellectual walls.
I would like to spin this thread directly back to David--what would it take financially to justify your making a successor to KoDP?
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