That said, the anticompetitive behavior of large tech companies and small game companies and startups is really saddening to watch.

They want us bound to desks with golden chains, doomed forever to toil on their pet products.

The key to growing as an engineer and the development of a new technology in general is being able to "play"--being able to talk to other older, wiser, and/or crazier folks without fear of repercussion or reprisal, of being able to develop something which may or may not go anywhere.

You know, the sort of innovation that patents were supposed to protect.