It's not a joke. Confirmed by many GG employee's. Still, my opinion is that 3DGS is a better tool, though TGEA has very good support for shaders. I was in BETA and own TGEA. I just find the lack of documentation and the fact the engine is very FPS centric troublesome. I do like the fact that the engine is cross plaform.

I hope that 3DGS supports shaders, soft shadows etc soon as part of the base package.