[IronicDeadBird]

I would agree with the title in the context of this year.
The little to no defense this year worked great for the game this year and provided a distinctive style of play.
I think game traits like defense and offense cannot be generalized into a good or bad category. It is how said traits are applied to a game that really adds or subtracts from said game. It is weird for me coming from a video game background which includes a lot of squad base games, and real time strats, and hearing all this "defense makes games exciting!" It actually conflicts with my past experiences where generally defense heavy is the worst thing next to water levels (which also makes it weird when people ask for a water game). Poorly implemented defense mechanics result in horribly slow game play, and absolutely no audience appeal. In the future I would like to games like Recycle Rush make a comeback, but instead of the conventional bumper to bumper defense a lot of people want I would instead want to see resource defense implemented. Safety zones are something I feel the GDC needs to fully utilize in the future. The games they present are really well done and only by taking risks (like the ones they took this year) will they continue to grow.
Then again that is just my 2cents...