In the 90s, if I wanted to release a game through the mail or whatever means, I was on equal grounds as everyone else. Remember that Doom was just a shareware game passed around through the mail primarily.

Today, if you want to write a game for a major platform (ie: iOS), you basically have to get the permission from Apple. Put a confederate flag in a civil war game?

Grounds for termination.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/25/technology/apple-pulls-civil...

Feel like writing a Bitcoin wallet for iOS?

Grounds for termination. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2095060/apple-removes-blockch...

You can only write applications today if the platform holder agrees with your purpose. How the heck is this better than the 90s, when you were allowed to write whatever you wanted and anyone was allowed to install?

You may think things are improving, but if things keep going in this direction of the "walled garden", I really don't think they're better.

At least the Windows Win32 platform is still relatively open for games / applications. But everything else is basically run by an integrated store now: iOS, Android (Google Play).