Sorry to hear about Avast -- they have indeed really been on a roll lately with mucking with other programs for some reason. :/
As a question, do you guys entertaining thoughts for games? Like something for a new property? I do like space games and am a graphic artist with a degree in Game Design. Sadly it took me no where (stay at home father), but that does not stop me from thinking.
Generally speaking not, although often people bring up things and we discuss them (typically in the Game Design or Off Topic forums). We do take suggestions on additions for our existing games _quite_ frequently, though. A lot of the expansion ideas for AI War ships and features and whatnot came from players, who were credited for them in the release notes. And a lot of the features and whatnot in the games themselves, once we get to at least beta status.
But in terms of overall core entire ideas for games outright, the only time one of those has come from someone other than myself (with key assistance from other staff) is Tidalis, and that was from my good friend Lars Bull, another game designer. That was a fun experience, but generally speaking I have to be really passionate about a project before I start investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into making it -- each one is a big risk, and even our cheapest games took tens of thousands to make.
I keep a document of game ideas that are possibilities for future titles, and there are several dozen on there right now, with more being added each year than we take off of it, heh. So really, core game concepts are not in short supply, it's a matter of picking the ones that I can visualize the clearest and that I'm most interested in and that seem like they would have the most market potential.
But once a game is in motion and has found an identity, then I am all about collaboration in terms of helping to refine that and make it far better than I could have just by myself.
