1) we don't announce games - that's not our business. Whenever someone wants to announce a game using our news system, he should be redirected to the IOTD and the "Your Announcement" forum. In particular, the IOTD provides a very good exposure for game projects.
--- of course, sometimes a particular pice of technology makes the news important (ex: id Software announced id Tech 5 and their upcomming game Rage (--> generalized virtual textures); Torpex Games announced Schyzoid (the first XNA game to be released on XBLA); ...)
2) we don't announce the creation of new game or game development related web sites. We also don't advertise game related forums. Of course, there are a few exception (for example, we announced the creation of the GreatGameExperiment web site by GarageGames).
3) we sometimes get individuals that tries to advertise their own game-development related articles. We usually don't feature these on our front page, but there are a few notable exception:
--- The gametunnel indy round-up (because it comes roughly once per month, and focuses on independent games).
--- Sometimes, Alex J. Champandard wants us to announce a new feature on his website. He has been a long time partner of gdnet, and he's probably one of the most proeminent AI junky out there, so I (we) usually approve his announcements.
--- When the article is more business related (an interesting interview with some major developer, a well-written and very informative article about a particular game technology, ...), we can also approve it.
4) We recently had a discussion about alpha/beta softwares.
--- The release of alpha and beta softwares is usually not featured as news.
--- If a particular software partner (NVIDIA, Intel, ...) wants us to feature the release of a public beta, we accept. The same goes if the software is of importance (new development tools, ...), as long as noone has to pay to get the software.
--- We can also approve news about alpha/beta software, providing that they satisfy these conditions:
------ they are free software.
------ the source code is of interest to the gdnet community.
------ the product is not outdated.
------ the product is actively developped, and a real release is on the way.
This is a significant change in the way I handled news a few month ago. Once we'll get the news policy right, we shall definitely post it as a news (and in the "news discussion" FAQ). I know a hdnfull of open-source projects that could benefit from that (Horde3D, SlimDX, SFML, ...)
5) press releases:
--- "company XXX has bought a licence of middleware YYY from ZZZ". Well, good for you dudes. At least, you are trendy.
--- "guy XXX left company YYY to take the role ZZZ in company CCC". Unless XXX, YYY are really well known (ex: Peter Moore who left MS to go to EA), no interest.
--- "guy XXX joined company YYY". Unless XXX is well known (ex: Richard Garfield (inventor of 'Magic: the Gathering') who joined Torpex Games)
Approved
1) new product release, including: development tools, libraries, game engines, ... whatever the conditions of availability are (in particular the price).
2) business news, in the form of a press release:
--- "company XXX, who made the games YYY shuts down"
--- "company XXX bought company YYY"
--- "company XXX faces NASDAQ delisting" (Here, XXX should mean either Atari or Infogrammes... :-) ).
--- and so on.
3) conference announcement: GDC (and the other GDC: Austin, Paris, ...); Develop Conference, FMX, GCDC (Leipzig), Nordic, XNA Gamefest, ...
4) small conference-like events: game-development related talk in some random university, technical evangelism talk (for example, the XNA tour by Microsoft), ...
5) of course, important gdnet news
6) "call for papers' for conferences, programming books, ... as long as the content is related to game development.
7) any information that looks valuable to our audience would make a good news.
N) and to finish: weird news, game-development or game-related.
Ideas
1) a weekly edito on a hot subject (related to the industry or to game development). I know we already have a "weekend reading", a daily gamedev.net, and I'd want to see something a bit different, that focus on a single issue and discuss it. This can be an important news that was unveiled during the week or any other subject. They can be written by guest writers (I think to guys like Eric Haines).
2) book announcement: John Hattan already do that from time to time. I'd like to get more if possible (we should have to synchronize with him).
A quick "here are my sources" section:
* GameIndustry.biz, developmag.com, gamasutra.com, and other industry related sites.
* various game-related sites (they sometimes deals with technology)
* google news (yup)
