This was mentioned in another thread, but I thought it deserved it's own.

A contest that pits a J2ME game versus a J2SE game seems unreasonable.  Especially since the 5 judges are "associate with the game industry" probably meaning they are all pc folks.  Also, what good is a GameSpy license going to do for a J2ME game?

Having developed J2ME games for 4 years now, I don't think us J2ME folks have a prayer of creating an experience comperable with a PC game.  Although I might still try...

The Moto contest last year had two or three categories. Too bad this one didn't separate the two platforms.

No J2ME game stands a chance against a J2SE game. We'd all have to make some exceedingly crappy J2SE games for that to be the case.

you're preaching to the converted - that's exactly what Cas did with Alien Flux.  No massive 3d worlds - just a fun 2D game (using OpenGL for speed).

Will.

just in case anyone is reading this thread thinking *waa?*, the flame post is now gone.

Will.

The judges will certainly take into consideration platform as they judge. A J2ME game won't look as visually rich as a J2SE game, but nobody expects it to. If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on at least one J2ME game winning one of the prizes--especially those Tapwave PDAs. To win the grand prize, it'd probably have to be a pretty good game, but I'm someone who believes a good game comes from a great idea, not lush graphics. That being said, I think Sun probably wants to see developers using Java for "real" games not just mobile toys so they can say, "See! Take Java seriously." (Which I do, anway, but mainstream developers probably don't. Yet.)

And I think Gamespy could potentially be useful to a J2ME game, if it's played on a mobile phone or PDA with wireless Internet. (My second bet would be that the grand prize winning game is a multiplayer game that could benefit from Gamespy.)