Small amounts of knowledge are dangerous.
Without understanding the full breadth of a subject, it's easy to exaggerate the importance of what you know, or extrapolate it into areas you know nothing about.
I hope this will not be my fate in this article.
For the past 12 months, I've been doing my best as a non-Chinese-based journalist to follow the fascinating and fast-growing Chinese mobile game market.
Indeed, much of that time has been spent throwing away assumptions as I talk to more people about the trends that are defining it.
Bipolar views
To that extent, it's easy to fall into the conclusion either that the Chinese games industry is going to take over the world, sweeping and buying all before it.
On the other hand, there's a temptation to dismiss it as a very unstable ecosystem that could - and perhaps will - endure the sort of shake up that will revolutionise current circumstances.
Personally, while I think there is some truth in the latter statement, what is much more likely is that over time, the Chinese game industry will just become much like any other country - say Japan, Korea or the US.
Because of its particular history, structure and massive userbase, it will be different, but not that much different.
Yet, talking to the small Chinese indie developers, it's seems clear to me that they are suffering from a particular structural problem: one that if it isn't solved has the potential to derail some of the Chinese mobile game market's future growth and more of its future innovation.
And it all starts with the ways that indies have to use if they want to release their games in the highly fragmented Chinese Android ecosystem.
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